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Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend...
DigiTrad:
BE KIND TO YOUR WEB-FOOTED FRIENDS
Related threads:
Lyr Req: Fine Feathered Friends (34)
Lyr Req: Midnight on the Ocean / Crazy Mixed Up... (32)
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST,Lisa Date: 11 Aug 14 - 06:20 PM I have heard the Mitch Miller version. We always loved John Phillip Sousa-he used to lead the Marine Corp band as they performed in Willow Grove Park, PA back in the late 1800's. We were from Jenkintown (just down the road from Willow Grove), and the Jenkintown High School Mascot is the Drake (picture Donald Duck on Steroids). Our school is very small, and still is. When I attended, there were only 430 students K-12. There are even fewer now. We were the "Baby Boomers". My father graduated from Jenkintown in 1941. His graduating class had about 40 students. They had their own lyrics to this song for the football team. Of course, it is to "Stars and Stripe Forever". I wish my father were still alive so that I could get the lyrics right, but this is what I remember. Beware of your web-footed foe For down the field he will go He never shirks his rush And he passes all with a brush So, be kind to your web-footed foe For a duck may somebody's mother But never, ever forget THAT A DRAKE IS ALWAYS YOUR BROTHER!!!! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: John MacKenzie Date: 09 Feb 13 - 04:26 PM Alternative ending, as per Diz Dizley. Well you may think that this is the end Well it is, and to prove that I'm a liar We'll sing it all through once again Only this time we'll sing it just a little bit higher. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST Date: 09 Feb 13 - 03:59 PM Sue Prout. My uncle taught me this song back in the early 40's. He was an air force pilot during WW II. His versions was: Be kind to your web footed friends for one may be your aerial gunner . Who sits in the tail of a plane and never does complain. Well you may think he is afraid. Well he is !!!! (abrupt ending) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: MGM·Lion Date: 11 Feb 11 - 11:40 PM Those queuing all day behind the Royal Albert Hall for the Last Night Of The Proms in the late 1940s, I recall, used to sing this song interminably. ~Michael~ |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 11 Feb 11 - 05:38 PM I saw the prog too, John. I remember (from the early fifties) the fourth line as "Where it's awfully cold and DOMP" It finished "And if you think that this is the end, well it is!" These old childhood songs bring the past back very poignantly I find, don't you? In the playground we thought this song the height of wit! I remember my mother telling me that the King had died. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST Date: 11 Feb 11 - 05:27 PM I remember from my schooldays in the mid-1940s a record that ran:
For a duck may be somebody's mother She lives all alone in the swamp And she never gets the cramp Oh you may think that this is the end Well it is" sung to Sousa's Stars and Stripes On British TV last night (Feb 10 2011) it was reported that King George VI sung something like this in 1936, although only the last two lines were transmitted John |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: Art Thieme Date: 05 Jul 09 - 01:28 PM Jon Bartlett, I couldn't find this song anywhere in The American Songbag. But it certainly is a great old book that I've not gone through in over a decade. If not for time, we'd have to do everything all at once. Art |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: Art Thieme Date: 05 Jul 09 - 12:51 PM We have had so much rain this year that Natural Selection just took over. There have beein 13 kids born with webbed feet at our local hospital here. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST,Uly Date: 04 Jul 09 - 10:19 PM I learned it the following way: Be kind to your webfooted friends For that duck may be somebody's mother Be kind to your friends in the swamp Where the weather is always damp! You may think that this is the end And it is, but to prove that we're all liars We'll sing it again and again And each time a little bit higher! That "we're all liars" bit is the part that makes me crack up whenever I hear it playing in the background on patriotic holidays. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: CapriUni Date: 04 Jul 09 - 07:19 PM Here's the version that's in the DT, where it's credited to Fred Allen. As you can see, it has two additional verses -- each of which, for some reason, seem to be missing a final line. Anybody care to guess what the missing words are, or why they're not there? My guess is that the last line in the second verse probably ends in "leather." Be kind to your web-footed friends, For the duck may be somebody's mother: Be kind to the denizens of the swamp. Where the weather is cool and damp Be kind to your old umbrella, For some day it may be under the weather, Be kind to your old pair of shoes. Be kind to your fur-bearing friends, For a skunk may be somebody's brother-; Be kind to your friends with the stripe. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: Jon Bartlett Date: 04 Jan 09 - 03:38 AM I'm away from my library, but I think (can someone confirm?) that's it's in Sandburg's Songbag (or is that Songburg's Sandbag?), which is if I remember correctly 1927. Jon Bartlett |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:34 PM My mother who was born in 1936 remembers the same version that Joe Offer posted. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST,JUGL11 Date: 28 Apr 08 - 10:26 PM Here's how I learned it in 1957: Be kind to your web-footed friends For a duck may be somebody's mother They live in the marsh & the swamp And wherever it may be damp You may think that this is the end Well, it is..... You can't imagine what an impact this had on me at age 5. I always credit (blame?) this song for introducing me to absurdist humor, a trait I have passed on to my daughter. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: Reiver 2 Date: 18 Mar 08 - 03:55 PM Ah, at last someone else remembers the first part about Grandpa's wooden leg. We didn't always sing it, but it can be used to extend the song a bit (giving it another leg to stand on, so to speak). It's unfortunate that some versions say incorrectly, "...for a duck may be somebody's mother. He lives..." etc. A mother, he lives?? Come on, now. I always heard and sang, "a duck may be somebody's brother. He lives..." Technically, that is also incorrect graqmmatically since a brother would be a drake, not a duck. The REALLY correct line would be to sing "mother" and "she." Though I doubt if anyone cares About worrying over split hairs Reiver 2 |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST,Ripper Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:17 AM I was in elementary school, and we sang a song, could have been a medley, I don't quite remember, but there were a couple different parts to it...Here's what I remember Looking through the knothole In Grampa's wooden leg Why do they build the shore So near the ocean A snake's belt slips Because he has no hips And a boy's best friend is his mother Oh be kind to your web footed friends For a duck may be somebody's mother Be kind to your friends in the swamp Where the weather is very very damp Well you may think that this is the end... Well it is!!! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: Flash Company Date: 11 Jan 05 - 11:12 AM Used to feature regularly on The Billy Cotton Bandshow om BBC radio in the '50s, along with 'Sweet Violets' and 'The Woodpecker Song' FC |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: Kaleea Date: 11 Jan 05 - 03:28 AM Since I have only heard it sung to the last section of The Stars & Stripes by Sousa, would it be only that old? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: NH Dave Date: 11 Jan 05 - 01:17 AM Well, if Mudcat is going to quote Dick and Beth Best, it has to be from the 30's, for their book, Songfest, originally came out before WWII, as evidenced by its earlier copyright dates. I remember learning it in either YMCA or Scout Camp in the late 40's, so it had to be older than that. Dave |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: LadyJean Date: 11 Jan 05 - 12:19 AM I have a feeling that the song predates Mitch Miller. I learned it from my mother, who came of age in the 1930s. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 10 Jan 05 - 09:38 PM Dear GUEST
Thank you for posting to an appropriate thread - and thank you for the new material of your posting.
However, while there is a time and date stamp - in the interests - of musicologists 200 years from now....
WHERE - SOURCE, location, (Country - City) media (Television - Radio - Web - School Auditorium)
HOW did you acquire such a novel addition? It is grand.
Sincerely, (and I mean sincerely)
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Be Kind to My Web-Footed Friend... From: GUEST Date: 10 Jan 05 - 06:23 PM What I heard today: "be kind to your web footed friends for a duck might be somebodys mother she lives in the swamp all alone where its cold and damp (doesnt rhyme but thats what i heard be kind to you web footed friends for one duck is merely like another and to the one that she loves she is the one, she is the one and only mother!" |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: GUEST,Chris Murray Date: 30 Jul 04 - 03:55 AM This is my dad's version. He learned it in the RAF during the war. He was a pilot. I used to sing it to my daugher when she was a baby.
For a duck may be somebody's mother He lives all his life in a swamp Where it's very cold and damp (pronounced domp!) Now you may think that this is the end If you do you'll be saying I'm a liar I'm going to sing it again Only this time I'm going to sing it higher. And then you sing it again, higher. Then again, higher. And as many times as you can manage, higher each time. The last time you sing, from line 5.
Well, it is. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: Billy the Bus Date: 30 Jul 04 - 12:56 AM Barrie - the classic 'reincarnation song' is Ilkla Moor Baht Hat - most cyclic.....;) Cheers - Sam |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: GUEST,Barrie Roberts Date: 29 Jul 04 - 06:43 PM I learned what seems to be a later variant:
For a duck may be somebody's mother. They live in the mud and the swamp Where it's always cold and damp. You may think that this is the end, But it it isn't because here comes the chorus --- Da, da-da-da, da-da-da, Da-da-da-da, da-da-da, da=da=da=da. Be kind to you webfooted friends, For a duck may be somebody's mother. They live in the mud and the swamp Where it's always cold and damp. You may think that this is the end Well it is. I had always thought it to be an English translation of an oriental poem about reincarnation, but perhaps not! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: PoppaGator Date: 29 Jul 04 - 06:20 PM "Denizen" of the swamp, heh? We always sang, "Be kind to the *residents* of the swamp." Not that it makes much difference...
For a duck maybe somebody's mother Be kind to the cop on the beat 'Cuz he may be Dick Tracy's brother Be kind to the residents of the swamp Where the weather is co-old and dah-ahmp You may think that this is the end Because it is I can hardly claim that my family's version (wherever it came from) is definitive, and certainly can't argue with Fred Allen, but I find that this version "fills out" the tune better than the others I've seen here. That is, "You may / think that this / is the end" comes on a rising crescendo in the penultimate line, and "Because it is" is quite emphatic and gets you *almost* to the end of the actual tune. In fact, if you repeat "because it is" three times, you *do* sing the entire Souza melody. (Only one of us siblings was that anal-retentive.) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: GUEST,roving cowboy Date: 29 Jul 04 - 11:48 AM what you all seem to not say is that this is a song for kids to get them to learn the tune of stars and stripes forever. and this little kids tune is able to use any lyrics you can fit in to the music, which the kids will do and they dont always make sense other then they are the same tone of words as the notes to the song. i remember the name of this kids version as " be kind to your fine feathered friends " and the line i remember is not for a duck maybe somebodys mother? but i remember the word Brother said there, but as kids we make up our own to fit then we remember ours :D |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: Steve Benbows protege Date: 21 Jul 04 - 08:49 AM sorry I should have said that the above link is a video of steve singing "Goodnight to Your web footed friends." |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: Steve Benbows protege Date: 21 Jul 04 - 08:46 AM try here http://www.stevebenbow.btinternet.co.uk/ it is the last item at the bottom! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: Mark Cohen Date: 21 Jul 04 - 04:11 AM I think we once had a Mitch Miller record on which it went this way:
For a duck may be somebody's mother Be kind to your friends in the swamp Where it's very very cold and very damp Be kind to your flat-footed friends For a cop may be somebody's brother Be kind to your friends on the beat... Now you may think that this is the end, Well, it is! But I could be wrong. Aloha, Mark |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: Kevin Sheils Date: 21 Jul 04 - 03:48 AM Guest Sheila's version with the sudden stop is how I recall Diz Disley always used to finish his act. Although he probably added "bugger off" after the - well it is! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: GUEST,Ingrid the Crafty Date: 20 Jul 04 - 11:52 PM I remember the song as my father used to play and sing it:
For a duck may be somebody's mother Be kind to your friends in the swamp Where the weather is very very damp Now you may think that this is the end... Well it is! I think he had it on a Mitch Miller record. Ingrid |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: GUEST,SHANNON LEDFORD Date: 20 Jul 04 - 03:41 PM tanks so much everyone!!!!! shannon |
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Subject: ADD Version: Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Freinds From: Joe Offer Date: 20 Jul 04 - 02:36 AM Songfile.com is the licensing Website of the Harry Fox Agency. It lists the songwriters for "Be Kind to Your Webfooted Friends" as Sousa/Glazer. If it is a Glazer, it must be Tom - who is also credited with "On Top of Spaghetti." The version in the Digital Tradition appears without attribution in the 1948 edition of Song Fest. Tom Glazer is certainly worthy of adulation - but could it really be that he's the author of these songs I've known since my youth? I think I'll stick with "anonymous," tune by Sousa. In this thread (click) the estimable Dick Greenhaus claims that "Web-Footed Friends" "appeared first... on a Fred Allen radio show, sung, with feeling, by Portland Hoffa" (Hoffa was Allen's wife. Allen hosted network radio programs 1932-49). In addition to the one that ended Mitch Miller's Sing Along with Mitch, I remember a slightly different version:
For a duck may be somebody's mother Oh be kind to the denison of the swamp He's a dilly, through and through You may think that this is the end Well it isn't 'cause there is another chorus -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: johnross Date: 20 Jul 04 - 12:32 AM I've been trying to find out where those lyrics came from, for many years. Nobody seems to know. They certainly go back to the early part of the 20th Century, long before Mitch Miller's TV show. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: Rabbi-Sol Date: 20 Jul 04 - 12:28 AM Mitch Miller always ended his show with this song. SOL ZELLER |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: GUEST,Sheila Date: 19 Jul 04 - 08:21 PM In camp, we sang:
For a duck may be somebody's mother, She lives all alone in the swamp, Where it's always cool and dahmp, You may think that this is the end, Well it is!!!! (with a sudden, surprise stop). |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: dick greenhaus Date: 19 Jul 04 - 07:16 PM Trivia- The week after Portland Hoffa sang "Be Kind to your Web-Footed Friends" on the Fred Allen show, she introduced one with the immortal line: "Be king to the donkey and the jackass and the mule, Remember Brooklyn is also a burro..." |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: Billy the Bus Date: 19 Jul 04 - 05:37 AM G'day Shannon, You'll find yiur Web-footed Friends right here on DigTrad - along with hundreds of other songs. There's a search box at the top of each screen. Make sure you have DT checked. Try typing in mockimgbird Cheers - Sam |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: masato sakurai Date: 19 Jul 04 - 05:33 AM BE KIND TO YOUR WEB-FOOTED FRIENDS; HUSH, L'IL BABY; and HUSH LITTLE BABY (2) are in the DT. See also these threads: Lyr Req: Hush little baby, don't say a word; lyrics for Mockingbird lullaby; and Lyr Req: MockingBird. |
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Subject: Lyr Req: BE KIND TO MY WEB FOOTED FRIEND... From: GUEST,SHANNON LEDFORD Date: 19 Jul 04 - 05:12 AM I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND OUT THE LYRICS TO THIS SONG (BE KIND TO YOUR WEB FOOTED FRIEND.) FOR YRS. AND ALSO THE LULLABY SONG. THE ONE THAT GOES.... HUSH MY BABY DONT SAY A WORD, MAMAS GONNA BUY YOU A MOCKING BIRD...... PLEASE HELP!!!! THANKS, SHANNON SHOLET(AT)MSN.COM |
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