Songs about World War I

Subject: Songs about World War I
From: Matt_R
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 01:19 PM

I've been recently looking for songs about World War I, as I am obsessed with the horror of the trench fighting, millions dead and shattered peace of the early 1900s. I'm not really looking for period songs, but latter-day looks back, either folk or rock genres. I know most of the big ones:

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Christmas in the Trenches

No Man's Land

England 1914

The Writing of Tipperary

Sgt. MacKenzie

Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)

Does anyone have any others?

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: MMario
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 01:50 PM

Dancing at Whitsun

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 01:54 PM

Mariella Frostrup's Open Book on BBC Radio 4 this afternoon (repeat from Sunday) featured "Private Peaceful" - a collaboration between Michael Morpurgo and Coope, Boyes and Simpson. Les Sullivan has written several songs about WW1, including the Roses of No Man's Land and Menin Gate. Also Robb Johnson's Cold in the Trenches Tonight. and his double "Gentle Men" CD.

Kitty

Subject: Lyr Add: MARGARITA (Harvey Andrews)
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 02:04 PM

MARGARITA
By Harvey Andrews

They're playing our song, Margarita.
Dance it this last time with me.
It won't be long, Margarita.
Soon I’ll be overseas.
Let me know that you'll care,
When I’ve gone over there.
They're playing our song, Margarita.
Dance it this last time with me.

Kiss me again, Margarita.
Give me a memory of you.
They say in France, Margarita,
One more push, we'll be through.
Yes, I’ll write, but where from?
All they'll say is 'the Somme'.
So kiss me again, Margarita.
Give me a memory of you.

It's a new world, Margarita.
We'll build when it's through.
In that new world, Margarita,
We'll be wed, me and you.

My old great aunt, Margarita,
She'd been blind thirty years,
Would tell me of young Margarita,
Of her man and her tears.
She would say, "He was tall.
There's his picture on the wall."
My old great aunt, Margarita,
She'd been blind thirty years.

She would ask, "Is he smiling?"
I would stare at the frame,
But the sun was there, shining
Through her window again.
Where that sun always shone,
He had faded and gone,
But she would ask, "Is he smiling?"
I would say, "He's the same."

It's a new world, Margarita.
We'll build when it's through.
In that new world, Margarita,
We'll be wed, me and you.

They're playing our song, Margarita.
Dance it this last time with me.
It won't be long, Margarita.
Soon I’ll be overseas.
Let me know that you'll care,
When I’ve gone over there.
They're playing our song, Margarita.
Dance it this last time with me.

Subject: Lyr Add: VALLEY OF THE SHADOW (Paul Clark)
From: CeltArctic
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 02:19 PM

I got this off of a John Roberts and Tony Barrand album:

VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
By Paul Clark (for a play called 'Days of Pride' produced in 1981)

Our great attack had failed
We'd nothing left to give.
The wounded hanging on the wire
Had little time to live.
The German shells came screaming down
To shred them as they lay
Abandoned in the Valley of the Shadow.

The battle ground that night
Would look as bright as day,
As fairy flares turned blackness
Into bitter lifeless gray.
The twisted shapes that once were men
In senseless patterns lay--
The tenants of the Valley of the Shadow.

The torn and shattered fields,
The bits of wire and steel;
No blade of grass, nor leaf, nor tree
To make the place seem real.
An Ancient traveler passing by
Just couldn't help but say,
"This surely is the Valley of the Shadow."

Let pictures of this scene
Be hung on every wall
In rooms where Governments decide
When men should stand or fall.
We'd never go to war again
If leaders had their say,
While looking at the Valley of the Shadow.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Les from Hull
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 02:31 PM

You really don't have to look any further than Mudcat.

Thiepval, words by Micca, Music by Linda Kelly

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: andyval
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 02:43 PM

Maginot Waltz - Ralph McTell

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 02:45 PM

You also might check out the poetry anthologies of the day such as WAR VERSE, edited by Frank Foxcroft; the 7th edition is most complete. Cicely Fox Smith also composed dozens of poems relating to World War 1, some of which have been recorded. Check out her page on the Oldpoetry website: Click here for website

She wrote a number of poems focused on the merchant sailors encountering the German submarines, commerce raiders, and mines, and a few others dealing with Gailipoli, the battle on the Western Front, and convalesing.

Most of her poems are readily adapted for singing, and the notes to the poems reference any recording that I and the other editor are aware of.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 04:36 PM

Keith Marsden's Normandy Orchards has me in tears.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Snuffy
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 04:43 PM

But that's World War II, as is The D-Day Dodgers, another capable of moistening the eyes.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 04:45 PM

Oh, yes, you're absolute right. I didn't read the name of the thread properly. Plenty around.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: bobad
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 04:57 PM

Oh! Frenchy was written in 1918, it is an English music hall type song that is light hearted and patriotic. It has been transcribed from a wax cylinder recording by the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project of the University of Southern california at Santa Barbara, a great source for music of this era.

If you have an interest in reading about WWI, I would like to recommend a book titled "Three Day Road" by Joseph Boyden, a historical novel that is largely set in the trenches of France.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 04:58 PM

Or you could read the Lynne McDonald books. They consist of accounts from the poor sods in the trenches.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Greg B
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 05:04 PM

A couple of aviation ones:

A handsome young airman lay dying
And as on the airdrome he lay
To mechanics who 'round him came sighing
These last parting words he did say:
"Take the cylinders out of my kidneys,
The connecting rods out of my brain;
The crankshaft out of my backbone
And assemble the engine again.
(On the DT... a parody of Streets of Laredo)

And of course:

The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me
For me the angels sing-a-ling-a-ling
Death holds no fear for me
Oh death where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling
Where is they victory?
The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me
-- In the DT but slightly different

(I've actually sung the latter when feeling a bit 'puckered'
up in the cockpit of an airplane, and find that it does really
help. Best done alone, though...passengers just don't quite
understand.)

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 05:08 PM

If you enter WWI in the search box for Digitrad, you'll come up with about 40 or so.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 05:43 PM

http://www.melodylane.net/ww1.htm

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Abby Sale
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:01 PM

But Matt R, why overlook the period ones. The Great War was a great shock to those involved. The songs sung often had deep meaning, not just a theme to get your song printed/recorded.

I think one of the best 'most certainly relates the battle of the Somme
and is on the same Roberts/Barrand CD cited above AND is a Song of the Week this week since the battle of the Somme was July 1, 1916: "Hanging From the The Old Barbed Wire."

You could sing it with a guitar or an electric glockenspiel if you wanted.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: captainbirdseye
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:04 PM

Tommy's Lot, written by Dominic williams, recorded by Dick Miles, is a very moving song

Dick miles

Subject: Lyr Add: FAREWELL TO ANZAC (Cicely Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:05 PM

Here's an example of one of the C. Fox Smith poems:

FAREWELL TO ANZAC by Cicely Fox Smith

Oh, hump your swag and leave, lads, the ships are in the bay —
We've got our marching orders now, it's time to come away —
And a long good-bye to Anzac Beach — where blood has flowed in vain
for we're leaving it, leaving it, game to fight again!
But some there are will never quit this bleak and bloody shore —
and some that marched and fought with us will fight and march no more;
their blood has bought til Judgment Day the slopes they stormed so well,
and we're leaving them, leaving them, sleeping where they fell.

Leaving them, leaving them — the bravest and the best —
leaving them, leaving them, and maybe glad to rest!

We did our best with yesterday, tomorrow's still our own —
But we're leaving them, leaving them, sleeping all alone.
Ay, they are gone beyond it all, the praising and the blame
and many a man may win renown, but none more fair a fame;
They showed the world Australia's lads knew well the way to die;
and we're leaving them, leaving them, quiet where they lie.

Leaving them, leaving them sleeping where they lie —
Leaving them, leaving them, in their glory and their pride.
Round the sea and barren land, over them the sky —
Oh! We're leaving them, leaving them, so quiet where they lie.

Notes:

From a book of World War 1 poetry called WAR VERSE, edited by Frank Foxcroft, published by Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, US, © 1918, pp. 153-154, and originally printed in the magazine "The Spectator."

This poem focuses on the abandonment of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in 1916. Thousands of Australian troops were mowed down by the Turks, and their were bitter recriminations resulting from this failed invasion.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: stallion
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:06 PM

Kipling / Bellamy

Cholera Camp
Danny Deever
Follow Me 'Ome

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:13 PM

Staying with Peter Bellamy: Tommy

Kipling's own son died in the war and it was a loss he never got over.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:28 PM

Just thought of another one: The brilliant "1917" (subtitle/refrain "Tonight The War Is Over") written by David Olney and sung by Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt on their duo CD "Western Wall".

The central narrator is a world-wise but compassionate French streetwalker who is about to go upstairs with yet another scared young soldier on a night's leave, and she knows she can only give him a few hours' comfort before he has to back again, probably to die. It's a GREAT song, not well enough known.

He speaks to me in schoolboy French
Of a soldier's life inside a trench
Of the look of death and the ghastly stench
I do my best to please him

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: CeltArctic
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:39 PM

Speaking of war poetry, my favourite is from "Rhymes of a Red Cross Man" by Robert Service. Many of his poems were obviously written with contemporary tunes in mind; you can almost hear the tunes in the background when you read them.

Moira

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:44 PM

I'm sure you already know this one, but since I don't see it mentioned anywhere in this thread: Willie McBride [No Man's Land] (also known as The Green Fields Of France).

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Declan
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 07:57 PM

"No Man's Land" was the original title of Eric Bogle's song and it is mentioned in the opening thread.

Niamh Parsons & Graham Dunne's latest CD "The Old Simplicity" features two songs about WW1. John Connolly [John Condon] is the story of an Irish Boy of 14 who lied about his age to join the British army and was killed shortly after arriving on the battlefields. 1917 is the story of a French prostitute and the soldiers who visited her.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 08:28 PM

Why Old Men Cry, by Dick Gaughan. Lyrics [also] here.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 10:04 PM

Graham O'Callaghan has recorded a fantastic arrangement of 'From Severn by the Somme' which was written by Martin Graebe. He is accompanied by Rob Harbron a fantastic concertina player ex-Dr Faustus and now with English Acoustic Collective. It really is a haunting, lump in the throat song .... and he sings it much better than Martyn Wyndham-Read before anyone starts ....Apparently Graham was given the song by Martin himself and asked if he would learn it and sing it. It takes an unusual angle from the point of view of a man who has to stay at home as he is unfit to join up because of a heart condition but then watches his loved one go to war as a nurse and who eventually gets killed in action herself!

Brilliant .... one not to be missed

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Matt_R
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 02:18 AM

Thanks peoples

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Paul Burke
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 03:27 AM

Leon Rosselson's Remembrance Day... mind you, that's a period piece in itself, with its mention of Biafra.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 03:50 AM

If you are interested in songs of the opposite side:

Author: Olt, Reinhard.
Title: Krieg und Sprache : Untersuchungen zu deutschen Soldatenliedern                        
       des Ersten Weltkriegs / von Reinhard Olt.
Published:    Giessen : W. Schmitz, 1980-1981.
LC Call No.:   PT553.O44 1980

In the second volume of his thesis the author gives the entire collection of soldiers' songs as preserved in the German Folksong Archive (Deutsches Volkslied-Archiv)

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 04:17 AM

As Abby says, why ignore the period songs?

When This Lousy War Is Over.

Never Mind.

Cicely Fox-Smith poems have been mentioned. Home Lads Home makes a fine and moving song.

Also Kipling. His Gethsemane is an emotional little piece which can be sung. I do it to Derwent Water Farewell.

Keith.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Matt_R
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 04:50 AM

"As Abby says, why ignore the period songs"


BECAUSE I WANT TO, GODDAMMIT.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 05:02 AM

Sorry, I thought you had a historical interest.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 05:05 AM

Jon Heslop's 'Poor Murdered Men'

Lucy Burrow has written several, including 'All is Quiet on the Western Front' and 'The Tree On the Battlefield' [Battlefield Tree]

on a more general war theme, Mick Ryan's 'The Man that I did Kill' (not sure if that's the correct title, but based on a poem by Thomas Hardy [The Man He Killed])

Eric Bogle (again) 'All the Fine Young Men'

Subject: Lyr Add: DEATH OF A SOLDIER (Ron Trueman-Border)
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 05:22 AM

Ron Trueman-Border's "Death Of A Soldier"

DEATH OF A SOLDIER

He was court-martialled one morning in May
There on the battlefield they dragged him away
The charge was desertion. He was sentenced next day
In the year of our Lord, Nineteen Fifteen

His name was McMichaels. His age, 20 years
A ragged foot soldier in the bold Grenadiers
Like a million before him, just a boy volunteer
Sent to fight for his king and his country

The church bells will ring and the ravens will sing
And the rifles will sound in the square-o
And by the old barracks wall a soldier will fall
Far from the green fields of old England

With the big guns a-roaring, the smoke in his eyes
He kept the late watch - midnight to sunrise
And while death danced around him and screams rent the skies
Like a statue he stood there 'til morning

The dawn brought the nightmare on home to him then
Shell-shocked, he wandered past the wounded and slain
And on to Jerusalem he walked in the rain
Leaving all, but the madness, behind him

The church bells will ring and the ravens will sing
And the rifles will sound in the square-o
And by the old barracks wall a soldier will fall
Far from the green fields of old England

The sergeant-at-arms took his rifle away
When they found him days later in a ditch-water grave
He had his arms round a dead man, a German they say
And he was singing "The Rose Of Trelawney"

His Mother is weeping, his sweetheart the same
For death and dishonour, a grave with no name
Just the Lily-Of-The-Valley for all England's shame
And who'll mourn the death of this soldier

The church bells will ring and the ravens will sing
And the rifles will sound in the square-o
And by the old barracks wall a soldier will fall
Far from the green fields of old England

On the albums "Trust" by Ron Trueman-Border and "Angels" by George Wilson

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SEEDS OF MORE (Roger Gall)
From: The Shambles
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 05:38 AM

The Seeds Of More

All around the tears were falling
As they waved young men goodbye
For brave, they hear their country calling
For the cause prepared to die

Soon, they'll return home to 'Blighty'
For they're sure to turn the tide
With the help of God almighty
Who they're told is on their side

No place for the faint hearted
Off to the war to end all wars
But nothing's solved, when wars are started
They only sow the seeds of more

Back to a home that's fit for heroes
Never to go to war again
But for the ruling families, in their death throes
The world will never be the same

For the Empire and it's dominions
For it's the whole world they're to save
But was it worth the lives of millions
To ensure Britannia, rules the waves?

No place for the faint hearted
Off to the war to end all wars
But nothing's solved, when wars are started
They only sow the seeds of more

Those that kept the home fires burning
Watch as dreams all fall to dust
But the lesson's there for learning
Take care where, you place your trust

A trigger pulled in Sarajevo
Loaded at the treaty of Versailles
Now fires another salvo
Do another fifty million die?

No place for the faint hearted
Off to the war to end all wars
But nothing's solved, when wars are started
They only sow the seeds of more

Roger Gall 1994

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Hovering Bob
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 06:02 AM

As Kitty has said Les Sullivan has written a number of excellent songs about WW1 and several of these will be included in "The Flanders Experience" a show I've written, with the help of several others, about WW1 in Flanders.
"The Flanders Experience" is actually the name of the folk festival that I run each year in early November taking folk enthusiasts over to the WW1 battlefields , museums and memorials in the Ypres Salient.
I hire 'Talbot House' in Poperinghe, the original 'Everyman's Club' started by the Rev. Tubby Clayton, which is still there and maintained as it was 90 years ago.
From the interest generated by the festival several of the participants have written songs; Les Sullivan, as already mentioned, Mike Sparks, Pete Chapman and myself just for starters.
If you would like more information on these songs or "The Flanders Experience" itself, PM me and I'll be pleased to supply what I have.

All the best,

Bob H.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 06:04 AM

Bob is being modest. He wrote one of the best songs about WW1 around.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 06:09 AM

Agree Rhiannon. I know he prefers "Kestrel", from which he takes his Mudcat name, but "Don't let the music die" is MY favourite one. A song of hope in the midst of the carnage of WW1.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Cats at Work
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 06:22 AM

Cornwall Songwriters production of Unsung Heroes is all about WW1 and the gardeners fron heligan who went off to fight and didn't come back. It has 14 songs each of which cover a different aspect of the war. If you are at Dartmoor Festival you can catch it there, or in Torrington before the very last performance on 27th August in the Lost gardens of Heligan. All songs are on the Cd and dots are in the book which are available from any of the Songwriters [Jon Heslop, Lucy Burrow, Mike O'Connor, Roger Bryant, Ron Openshaw] or via the internet from Mike O'Connor at Lyngham House Music. The songs are definitley worth checking out.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 06:28 AM

Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon is good, but for a British audience there are a few anachronisms and Americanisms that can be altered.
(Hope I don't get shouted at again. Do you have anger problems?)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE REAPER (Bill Caddick)
From: Mr Fox
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 07:27 AM

Seek out the Home Service's live album 'Wild Life' - I think it's still available. It's on Fledg'ling records FLED 3001. The medley The Reaper/Scarecrow/Battle of The Somme is devastating:

THE REAPER
(Bill Caddick)

So now it's done once more the shining field
Has gone to feed the Reaper's blade
All silent now, the stubble it lies still
With blood red poppies overlaid
"Where are my sons" the mother cries
Just hardly grown yet gone away
"Away, away" the Reaper sighs
Cut down like corn on an autumn day
So once more the seed of life is sown
And in the loving earth is laid
But it's never done once more the young men all
Have gone to feed the Reaper's blade

Scarecrow
(John Tams)

I see the barley moving as the mowers find their pace
I see the line advancing with a steady timeless grace
And there's passion in their eyes and there's honour in each face
As they scythe down the castles and the courts

Blame it on the fathers, blame it on the sons
Blame it on the poppies and the pain
Blame it on the generals, blame it on their guns
Blame it on the scarecrow in the rain

I smell the smoke of stubble as the harvest is brought down
I see a fire burning as it purges all around
I see a field turned to ashes and the only living sound
Is the skylarks as they try to reach the sun

I see the barbed wire growing like a bramble on the land
I see a farm turned to a fortress and a future turn to sand
I see a meadow turn to mud and from it grows a hand
Like a scarecrow that is fallen in the rain

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 07:36 AM

Al Stewart's Manuscript looks at the runup to war:

Oh the lights of Saint Petersburg come on as usual
Although the air seems charged with a strangeness of late,
Yet there's nothing to touch
And the Tsar in his great Winter Palace has called for the foreign news
An archduke was shot down in Bosnia, but nothing much

And my grandmother sits before the mirror in the days before the war
Smiling a secret smile as she goes to the door
And the young man rides off in his carriage, homeward once more
And the sun sets gently on England.

And his Fields of France is about the air war:

A single biplane in a clear blue sky
1917, no enemy was seen
High above the fields of France

Oh she looks
But there's nothing to see
Still she looks
Saying come back to me

Subject: Lyr Add: WHERE THERE'S REST FOR HORSE AND MAN
From: skipy
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 08:40 AM

WHERE THERE'S REST FOR HORSE AND MAN or HOME LADS HOME

Overseas in India the sun was setting low
With tramp of feet and jingle as I heard the gun-teams go
But something seemed to set me a dreaming as I lay
Of my old Hampshire village at the quiet end of day

And it's home, lads home, all among the corn and clover
Home lads home, when the working day is over
Where there's rest for horse and man when the longest day is done
And we'll all go home together at the setting of the sun

Proud thatch with gardens blooming with lily and with rose
The river flowing past them, so quiet as it goes
White fields of oats and barley and the elderflower like home
And the sky a gold at sunset and the horses going home

Captain Cox and Traveler, I see them all so plain
With tasseled ear-flaps nodding all along the leafy lane
Somewhere a bird is calling and the swallow flying low
And the lads all sitting sideways and singing as they go

Gone is many a lad now and many a horse gone too
All those lads and horses from green fields that I knew
For Dick fell at Givenchy and Prince beside the gun
On that red road to glory a mile or two from Munn

Gray lads and shadowy horses, I see them all so plain
I see them and I know them and I call them each by name
While riding down from Swanmore with all the West a-glow
And the lads all sitting sideways and singing as they go

And it's home, lads, home, with the sunset on their faces
Home lads, home to those quiet happy places
Where there's rest for horse and man when the longest day is done
And we'll all go home together at the setting of the sun

sung by David Jones about World War I
The original words to "Home Lands Home" were written by a Hampshire
Soldier during the First World War. Sarah [Morgan] found them in a
magazine, edited them, and wrote a tune. The places mentioned are in
Hampshire, just north-west of Portsmouth --- From the sleeve notes for
the first Bread and Roses album (DRGN 881).

On the sleeve notes for Mick Ryan's musical drama "A Day's Work" the song
is credited as being written by Fox-Smith with music my Sarah Morgan.
Skipy

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 08:45 AM

I got shouted at for suggesting that Skipy.
It is too old apparently.

Subject: Lyr Add: ADMIRAL DUGOUT (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 09:26 AM

It does get noisy around here sometimes. But we might as well bait this thread with another World War 1 sample from C. Fox Smith:

ADMIRAL DUGOUT

He had done with fleets and squadrons, with the restless, roaming seas,
He had found the quiet haven he desired,
And he lay there to his moorings with the dignity and ease
Most becoming to Rear-Admirals (retired).
He was reared 'mid "Spit and Polish," he was bred to "stick and string" —
All the things the ultra-moderns never name:
But a wind blew up to seaward, and it meant the Real Thing,
And he had to slip his cable when it came.

So he hied him up to London, for to hang about Whitehall,
And he sat upon the steps there soon and late:
He importuned night and morning, he bombarded great and small,
From messengers to Ministers of State.
He was like a guilty conscience, he was like a ghost unlaid,
He was like a debt of which you can't get rid,
Till the Powers that Be, despairing, in a fit of temper said,
"For the Lord's sake give him something" — and they did!

They commissioned him a trawler with a high and raking bow,
Black and workmanlike as any pirate craft,
With a crew of steady seamen very handy in a row,
And a brace of little barkers fore and aft.
And he blessed the Lord his Maker when he faced the North Sea sprays,
And exceedingly extolled his lucky star,
That had given his youth renewal in the evening of his days
(With the rank of Captain Dugout, R.N.R.).

He is jolly as a sandboy, he is happier than a king,
And his trawler is the darling of his heart,
(With her cuddy like a cupboard where a kitten couldn't swing,
And a scent of fish that simply won't depart).
He has found upon occasion sundry targets for his guns,
He could tell you tales of mine and submarine,
Oh the holes he's in and out of, and the glorious risks he runs
Turn his son (who's in a Super-Dreadnought) green.

He is fit as any fiddle, he is hearty, hale and tanned;
He is proof against the coldest gales that blow.
He has never felt so lively since he got his first command,
(Which is rather more than forty years ago).
And of all the joyful picnics of his wild and wandering youth,
Little dust-ups 'tween Taku and Zanzibar,
There was none to match the picnic, he declares in sober sooth,
That he has as Captain Dugout, R.N.R.

Notes:

From SEA SONGS AND BALLADS 1917-22, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, US, © 1924, p. 125-127.
First appeared in the magazine PUNCH on April 4, 1917. Also printed in SMALL CRAFT, © 1917.

Here we have tribute to an old retired admiral, who during World War 1 has successfully persuaded the Admiralty to let him do his part in the war, even if it's to be the captain of a modest armed trawler.

Gordon Morris (UK) has adapted this poem for singing, and has recorded it with Peter Massey on FULL SAIL: Inside the Lid, © 2002. In my opinion Morris has done a good job with his adaptation. Be warned, though, that the recording is not uniformly up to this caliber. "The Convalescent" is another World War 1 poem from C. Fox Smith that Morris has successfully adapted.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Fiolar
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 09:55 AM

Don't forget "Salonika".
Extract from:
"Me husband's in Salonika;
I wonder if he's dead.
I wonder if he know's,
He's got a kid with a foxy head."

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Shambles
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 10:16 AM

I did not until today that prior to the USA entering the conflict, WW German agents (amongst many other dirty tricks) were responsible for introducing Anthrax into the horses exported from the US for the allied forces.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 10:27 AM

Dick Gaughan's Why Old Men Cry isn't so much about WW1 but about the futility of seemingly wasted lives through the ages. True, the song opens with an account of how the author's grandfather died from the effects of gas but it is recalled as the grandson walks Flanders fields himself. It continues in anger at his father's bitterly hard life as an exploited Scottish miner yet ends with a beacon of hope on the breathtaking walk from Garve to Ullapool:

I looked into the future
Saw a people proud and free
As I looked along Loch Broom
Out to the sea

In this it differs from Ian Campbell's The Old Man's Song (in the Digitrad) which is sometimes (though hasn't yet been here) described as a WW1 song by being a little more positive than I don't know how to change it but by christ we've got to try. DG has the vision. Comes of being an outlaw and a dreamer.

Re: Remembrance Day At The Cenotaph, Leon Rosselson no longer does the 'Remember Biafra' verse in case no-one does.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Matt_R
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 12:12 PM

I forgot "Snoopy versus the Red Baron"!

Subject: Lyr Add: GETHSEMANE (Rudyard Kipling)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 12:15 PM

This was written after the war so perhaps is allowed.
As mentioned, Kipling's only son was lost in the war. He spent the rest of his life searching for the grave.
This is from memory, i.e. as i do it.

GETHSEMANE
(Rudyard Kipling)

The garden of Gethsemane,
In Picardy it was,
And there the people came to see,
The English soldiers pass.

We used to pass, we used to pass,
Or halt as it might be,
With gas masks stashed, in case of gas,
Beyond Gethsemane.


To the garden of Gethsemane,
There came a lovely lass,
And all the while I talked to her,
I prayed my cup might pass.

As the officer sat on the bench,
And the men sprawled on the grass,
And all the while we halted there,
I prayed my cup might pass.

It did not pass, it did not pass,
It did not pass from me,
I drank it in the cloud of gas,
Beyond Gethsemane.

Especially poignant at Easter for those who know their New Testament

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Shambles
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 01:57 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Dilger

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Puck
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 02:01 PM

What a thoroughly rewarding and interesting thread. thanks to all contributors

P

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 05:17 PM

Tanglefoot's "Vimy"

-- Gary

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 06:25 PM

Gary-

Good choice for a contemporary song about World War 1.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Dave Earl
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 05:04 AM

As mentioned Les Sullivan has written several songs relating to WW1.

I particularly like his "Jutland".

Dave Earl

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Shambles
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 06:39 AM

Over 20,000 British troops were killed during the Battle of the Somme on this one terrible day in 1916..

To put that statistic into some context, that was as many US troops killed in the whole of the Vietnam war.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Dave Earl
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 06:47 AM

Among them was my Great Uncle on my mothers side and a second cousin on my fathers side.

Another cousin of my mothers was killed at Scapa Flow on HMS Hampshire (with Lord Kitchener)

Dave

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,NicP
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 07:31 AM

There is a song called "Lest we Forget" that I picked up in Barnsley FC many moons ago but naturally I have forgotten who wrote it.
The start is
If I just close my eyes I remember the day
Lord Kitchener called us to go
And at seventeen years I joined brave volunteers
What else was a young man to do.

Whoever it was did rather a good song about a greyhound as well - Rob somebody?
I'll do some trawling in the addled recesses of my memory and see if I can come up with it, 'cos it's well worth tracking down.


BTW has anyone mentioned (Don't Despise) The Deserter (Fairport Convention, Old New Borrowed Blue)

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,ifor
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 07:39 AM

Listen out for 'Down upon the Dugout Floor' by Coope, Boyes and Simpson. It is very moving. I also heard them do a WWI song cycle back in about 1996 at Sidmouth which was fantastic. They had some Belgian musicians on stage with them and it was a wonderfully moving concert at the Ham and my very first introduction to the festival.
Ifor

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 07:43 AM

The Deserter (Fairport Convention first on Liege & Lief) is scarcely WWI. It's a C18 broadside usually called Ratcliff/Radcliffe (or some variant thereof Highway. The bit about the Queen's Barracks and Prince Albert is a Victorian update.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 08:12 AM

. . . or I suppose you might have meant Boris Vian's Le Déserteur (did Fairport ever do that? They did have a thing about doing stuff in French for some reason) but that was about the colonial war in Algeria . . .

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Micca
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 09:08 AM

Then the Somme came along on a fine summer day
And he's nicked by a bullet quite early
And a nose full of gas kept him out of the way
As his unit was mown like the barley

for My Grandfather, on this (and every) anniversary of the Ist day of the Somme, He died 40 years later of complications caused by Gas and a piece of shrapnel they found in his chest at the post-mortem

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 06 - 06:01 PM

Standing in Line by Lester Simpson, The Rose of York by Ken Thompson & Leslie Hale, and Tunes of Glory (aka When Margaret Was Eleven) by Pete St John haven't been mentioned, I think. Susanne (skw), probably cookieless.

Subject: Lyr Add: HERE WE ARE AGAIN (C Knight, K Lyle)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 08:53 PM

This is on an album called "Glory of the Music Hall, Vol. 1," where it is called HERE WE ARE AGAIN.

From the sheet music at National Library of Australia:

Hit of the "Cinderella" pantomime.
HERE WE ARE! HERE WE ARE!! HERE WE ARE AGAIN!!!
(THE BRITISH ARMY'S BATTLE CRY.)
Written and composed by Charles Knight and Kenneth Lyle.
Sung by Mark Sheridan.
Melbourne: Allan & Co., c1914.
"By special arrangement with Francis, Day & Hunter, London and New York"

1. The poets, since the War began, have written lots of things
About our gallant soldier lads, which no one ever sings.
Although their words are very good, the lilt they seem to miss;
For Tommy likes a tricky song, the song that goes like this:

CHORUS: Here we are! here we are!! here we are again!!!
There's Pat and Mac and Tommy and Jack and Joe.
When there's trouble brewing, when there's something doing,
Are we downhearted? No! Let 'em all come!
Here we are! here we are!! here we are again!!!
We're fit and well, and feeling as right as rain.
Never mind the weather. Now then, altogether:
Hullo! Hullo! Here we are again!

2. When Tommy went across the sea to bear the battle's brunt,
Of course he sang this little song while marching to the front,
And when he's walking through Berlin, he'll sing the anthem still.
He'll shove a "Woodbine" on and say, "How are you, Uncle Bill? CHORUS

3. And when the boys have finished up with Hermann and with Max,
And when the enemy's got it where the chicken got the axe,
The girls will all be waiting, 'midst the cheering and the din,
To hear their sweethearts singing, as the ship comes sailing in: CHORUS

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Beer
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 11:00 PM

Mothers, Daughters, Wives.
Missing in Action
A Single Maple Leaf
Letter From The Trenches
Not sure about this one: Banks of Sicily

Beer (adrien)

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU'RE A GOOD MAN ALBERT BROWN
From: Nerd
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 12:26 AM

"Banks of Sicily" is about the Second World War, I believe.

How about this, by XTC:

"YOU'RE A GOOD MAN ALBERT BROWN (Curse You Red Barrel)"

Well you're a good man Albert Brown
And you was wounded in the war
And though you shot some people down
You're still a good man Albert Brown
Well you're a good man Albert Brown
Though you are drunk upon the floor
And if you're buying the next round
Then you're a good man Albert...

Brown was the colour of the mud across the Somme
Red was the blood you spilled upon it
Pink were the fingers of the nurse who dressed your wound
White was the starch upon her bonnet
And you married that nurse
And her name was Else
And then along came dad

...I'll have another pint of...

Brown is the colour of your old walking boots
Green is the cash you'd love to squander
Gold is the colour of your wife's faithful heart
So get yourself home, no more to wander
And you married that nurse
And her name's still Else
And another child was had
You're a good man Albert Brown

Subject: Lyr Add: ON THE WIRE (Robert W. Service)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 09:18 AM

Robert W. Service also served in World War 1 in an ambulance unit and composed a book of poems based on his experience. Here's one that I find particularly haunting:

By Robert W. Service, in RHYMES OF A RED CROSS MAN, published by Barse & Hopkins, New York, US, © 1916, pp. 74-77.

ON THE WIRE

O God, take the sun from the sky!
It's burning me, scorching me up.
God, can't You hear my cry?
Water! A poor, little cup!
It's laughing, the cursed sun!
See how it swells and swells
Fierce as a hundred hells!
God, will it never have done?
It's searing the flesh on my bones;
It's beating with hammers red
My eyeballs into my head;
It's parching my very moans.
See! It's the size of the sky,
And the sky is a torrent of fire,
Foaming on me as I lie
Here on the wire . . . the wire. . . .

Of the thousands that wheeze and hum
Heedlessly over my head,
Why can't a bullet come,
Pierce to my brain instead,
Blacken forever my brain,
Finish forever my pain?
Here in the hellish glare
Why must I suffer so?
Is it God doesn't care?
Is it God doesn't know?
Oh, to be killed outright,
Clean in the clash of the fight!
That is a golden death,
That is a boon; but this . . .
Drawing an anguished breath
Under a hot abyss,
Under a stooping sky
Of seething, sulphurous fire,
Scorching me up as I lie
Here on the wire . . . the wire. . . .

Hasten, O God, Thy night!
Hide from my eyes the sight
Of the body I stare and see
Shattered so hideously.
I can't believe that it's mine.
My body was white and sweet,
Flawless and fair and fine,
Shapely from head to feet;
Oh no, I can never be
The thing of horror I see
Under the rifle fire,
Trussed on the wire . . . the wire. . . .

Of night and of death I dream;
Night that will bring me peace,
Coolness and starry gleam,
Stillness and death's release:
Ages and ages have passed, --
Lo! it is night at last.
Night! but the guns roar out.
Night! but the hosts attack.
Red and yellow and black
Geysers of doom upspout.
Silver and green and red
Star-shells hover and spread.
Yonder off to the right
Fiercely kindles the fight;
Roaring near and more near,
Thundering now in my ear;
Close to me, close . . . Oh, hark!
Someone moans in the dark.
I hear, but I cannot see,
I hear as the rest retire,
Someone is caught like me,
Caught on the wire . . . the wire. . . .

Again the shuddering dawn,
Weird and wicked and wan;
Again, and I've not yet gone.
The man whom I heard is dead.
Now I can understand:
A bullet hole in his head,
A pistol gripped in his hand.
Well, he knew what to do, --
Yes, and now I know too. . . .
   
Hark the resentful guns!
Oh, how thankful am I
To think my beloved ones
Will never know how I die!
I've suffered more than my share;
I'm shattered beyond repair;
I've fought like a man the fight,
And now I demand the right
(God! how his fingers cling!)
To do without shame this thing.
Good! there's a bullet still;
Now I'm ready to fire;
Blame me, God, if You will,
Here on the wire . . . the wire. . . .

When I posted this poem on the Oldpoetry website, I was able to include a photo of a Russian soldier "on the wire." Here's a link to that photo and a whole lot more poems by Service: Click here for website!

I haven't dared try to set this poem to music but maybe someone else will find a way to do it. If Eric Bogle can succeed with "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" there may be hope for this poem and its message.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: topical tom
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 10:16 AM

An unusual anti-war song of world war 1

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: topical tom
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 10:20 AM

Sorry! I goofed again.Another try.I Didn't Raise My Son To Be A Soldier An interesting anti-war song and an interesting site.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 10:35 AM

There is a song called "Sestra" (Nurse) by the Russian band Lyube. The words are from WWI, but the music is theirs. It's about a dying soldier in the hospital asking the nurse to write a letter to his wife saying that he is ok.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 01:19 PM

From a Yank's perspective, a lot of the music associated with WWI was not connected as much to battle as to the romantic notions too many still had of warfare. Songs like "Over There" were meant to "jack up" the public and the troops. "Lili Marlene" was said to have been sung on both sides.

I have been reading a book about the last day of the war. Generals, sitting on their well-padded arses well back of the action, were still sending "cannon fodder" into the trenches even after they knew that the armistice had been signed ending the war. The Kirk Douglas speech to the uncaring general in "Paths of Glory" pretty well characterizes the leadership - elitist generals who had no empathy or care for the individual soldier. The absolute futility of the back and forth stalemate in the trench warfare consumed much of a generation of young men on both sides.

Therein lies the real stuff of song and story. You can tell, from the tone and depth of the songs from England and from the continent the depth of their loss.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 03:27 PM

As seen from the other side - Jon Harvison's "Sibylle's song" - "The Kaiser said, we'd be home before the leaves had fallen from the trees"...

Kitty

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 03:33 PM

Another reference book would have to be WHAT A LOVELY WAR!, edited by Roy Palmer, which includes songs from the Boer War to 1990. The songs included are generally songs composed by the military personnel, rather than the armchair poets of the day, or by more contemporary singer-songwriters.

Cheerly,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,machree01
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 03:39 PM

Jerry Lynch singing A Silent Night, Christmas 1915, written by Cormac MacConnell. the truce on the Front Line, World War One.


http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=JT0ysO58KXE

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Beer
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 04:09 PM

Thanks for sharing this song machree01. It's the first time I've heard it. Very much appreciated.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 05:11 PM

Roy Brown and Wop May

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: trevek
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 02:27 PM

The Fureys have a song called "Gallipoli".

Also seem to recall Mike Harding singing a song called "The Accrington Pals" about the smallest regiment in the British Army (which was wiped out at the Somme).

Also, maybe "(Right Away) Salonika"

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 08 Jun 08 - 02:43 PM

Gethsemane has been mentioned several times, but I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Peter Bellamy's setting of it.
Also, didn't Iron Maiden write one about WWI? [Paschendale]

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 11:55 AM

I have found among my mother's things sheet music. Its titled "I'm Off for a Place Somewhere in France (But I'm Coming Back from Berlin)." If anyone would like to have it please email me at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Apr 11 - 04:10 PM

You can hear a recording of Here We Are! Here We Are!! Here We Are Again!!!, sung by Fredrick Wheeler, at YouTube. It was taken from an Edison Wax Cylinder. The lyrics are exactly as given above, at 01 Apr 08 - 08:53 PM.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 10:47 AM

My mother used to sing a version of this song that said there stands a man with a big pop gun
ready to a shoot you if you start to run.

What about a slavery song?

Joyce Gettleman

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 11:28 AM

Possibly tangential, but I just got around to seeing the move "Oh What a Lovely War", and it flatly blew me away. If anyone has access to Netflix or something like, I'd strongly recommend it.THe musical background consists of songs that had currency in 1914-1918, and the acting, directing and cinematography are superb.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 12:53 PM

Dick, I had the same impression when I saw it on the big screen in 1969.

American critics didn't "get" it and still don't. My English professor (who specialized in film) said, "It's obviously about Vietnam. But a Vietnam movie should be set in Vietnam."

Subject: Lyr Add: MARCHING INTO FLANDERS
From: Paul Davenport
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 02:34 PM

I once wrote a backwards song (no tune) about the Angels of Mons…backwards because its from an odd perspective. Maybe this'll explain?

MARCHING INTO FLANDERS

We were marching into Flanders
Through a sea of mud and mire
And the chill wet breath of fear blew through our ranks
We had our brave commanders
And we'd even got a choir
Till we came to where the Somme had burst its banks.

                O rise up, the tide it is turning
                Rise up to defend our cause
                For this is the lesson worth learning
                And this is the war to end wars

We were naught but youths a-trembling
In that cold uncertain dawn
As we listened for our orders and commands
But amidst our brave dissembling
On that bleak October morn
We all prayed our lives were safe and in God's hands

At the clouds that gathered then
In that scarlet autumn sky
Someone pointed, and our shivering turned to awe
In the clouds, a mighty host
Ten thousand men, we watched them die
And we shuddered at the bravery we saw

Rank on rank the spectres came
Through a sea of mud and blood
Dun jacketed with helmets like our own
Broken pieces in a game
Most were buried where they stood
And they fell in waves like corn when it is mown

We beheld the earth to rise
And embrace each falling lad
But we saw the gleam of courage in each face
And those hopeful, bright young eyes
Warmed what spirit we still had
Then we onward marched with faster, lighter pace

So we crossed the Somme and turned
Moving north to meet our fate
Where and whence that vision came, no man here knows
We passed through towns that burned
But now, consumed with hope not hate
At Agincourt we stood and drew our bows.

Paul Davenport © April 2008

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: goatfell
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 02:39 PM

An Australian song called SULVA BAY [Suvla Bay]

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: goatfell
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 02:40 PM

and they sang this song durning the second world war as well but called it SUDA BAY

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 03:12 PM

I have heard some great ones about horses.

I sing Gethsemane to Auld Lang Sine.

Of course they sang Keep the Home-Fires Burning and There's a Long, Long, Trail a-winding..beautiful songs to this day.

And one that is so awesome, undoubtedly sung by Germans in WWI, but of an earlier war, is Ich hatt' einen Kameraden..now translated into many languages and sung even today for fallen in Afghanistan etc. mg

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Azoic
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 03:54 PM

"Happed in Mist" as sung by June Tabor.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Bill
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 02:17 PM

If it's songs about WW1 you want you must check out Joe Solo. He is a local singer/songwriter who does many songs about WW1 as well as more contemporary fare. Go on his website here ...
http://www.joesolo.co.uk/
and check out Potter's Field.
His FB page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe-Solo/29210823558

And no, I'm not Joe. Just a local chap who appreciates his work.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 07:04 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrP0JqiRFe4

Calling Doon the Line (The Piper's Call) by Scocha

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 09:52 PM

Nobody seems to have mentioned "(The ladies go) Dancing at Whitsun"

Tom

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Walrus
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 09:55 PM

Sorry, the last post was my, not logged in.

Tom

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 09:58 AM

Then of course there's Kipling's "My Boy Jack" as sung by Peter Bellamy. Whilst there's scores of songs about the army in France, there seems to be very little about the Great War at sea, there's Les Sullivan's superb "Jutland", one or two by C Fox Smith, going back to Kipling there's his "The Mine-Sweepers", does anyone know of any other 'naval' & in particular Merchant Navy songs?

Subject: Lyr Add: AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA
From: GUEST,GUEST - Montreal
Date: 16 Jan 12 - 11:39 AM

Did anyone mention "AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RsKhOk7NxI

When I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in 1915 my country said: Son,
It's time to stop rambling, there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
When the ship pulled away from the quay
And amid all the tears, flag waving and cheers
We sailed off for Gallipoli

It well I remember that terrible day
When our blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk, he was ready, he primed himself well
He rained us with bullets, and he showered us with shell
And in five minutes flat, we were all blown to hell
He nearly blew us back home to Australia

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
When we stopped to bury our slain
Well we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then it started all over again

Oh those that were living just tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
While around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
And when I awoke in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
I never knew there was worse things than dying

Oh no more I'll go Waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind and the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda
When they carried us down the gangway
Oh nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

Now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams of past glories
I see the old men all tired, stiff and worn
Those weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question

And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But year after year, their numbers get fewer
Someday, no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong
So who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: KHNic
Date: 15 May 12 - 05:07 PM

Nic P mentions "There is a song called "Lest we Forget" that I picked up in Barnsley FC many moons ago but naturally I have forgotton who wrote it."
The start is
If I just close my eyes I remember the day
Lord Kitchener called us to go
And at seventeen years I joined brave volunteers
What else was a young man to do.

It was written by Alun Rhys Jones, and recorded by Phil Hare on his "Living on Credit"

I recently sung the song at a memorial for Harry Patch. A truly magnificent song.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Flash Company
Date: 16 May 12 - 07:46 AM

If you want to see the Colonel, I know where he is,
I know where he is, I know where he is
If you want to see the Colonel, I know where he is,
He's pinning another medal on his chest.

I saw him, I saw him, pinning another medal on his chest,
Pinning another medal on his chest.

Then the same on down through the ranks, viz,

The Captain.... Shacked up with a French Countess
The Quarter-bloke..... Selling all the Company's Rum
The Sergeant..... Knocking off an old French whore
The Corporal...... Drunk upon the dugout floor
Until:-

But if you want to see the Private, I know where he is
I know where he is, I know where he is
If you want to see the Private, I know where he is
He's dying on the old barbed wire

I saw him, I saw him, dying on the old barbed wire,
(I saw him) Dying on the old barbed wire

The 'I saw him' in the last line spoken, not sung.
Used to sing this one as part of a group of songs around
Armistice Day, the others being 'Join the British Army', 'Any Complaints?' and 'I Don't Want to Join the Army'

FC

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Claymore
Date: 16 May 12 - 09:16 PM

At Frank Buckles funeral (the last known American survivor of WWI) we played both Over There and a song not mentioned above, Keep the Home-Fires Burning. I do not have the words, but as I recall they were as pure and plaintive as any of the so-called anti war songs. If someone could look them up, it would be worth it

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 May 12 - 07:13 AM

The songs written about WW1 long after the event are really about the time when they were written - Bogle's "Willie McBride" [No Man's Land] and "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" are songs about the Vietnam War.

Usually people do that when they don't have the imagination or courage to take on issues from their own time in their own terms. The godawful legacy of Jacobite cliche songs about 1745 is another example of the same process.

WW1 songs that actually date from WW1 are a lot more interesting.

Subject: Lyr Add: PASCHENDALE (Iron Maiden)
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 12 - 08:02 AM

Try to guess the band (not folk) that wrote/plays this haunting song. Answer after the text. May not be everyones cup o' tea, but hats off to the guys for recalling history in their songs.

In a foreign field he lay
lonely soldier unknown grave
on his dying words he prays
tell the world of Paschendale

Relive all that he's been through
last communion of his soul
rust your bullets with his tears
let me tell you 'bout his years

Laying low in a blood filled trench
killing time 'til my very own death
on my face I can feel the fallin' rain
never see my friends again
in the smoke in the mud and lead
the smell of fear and the feeling of dread
soon be time to go over the wall
rapid fire and the end of us all

Whistles, shouts and more gun-fire
lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire
battlefield nothing but a bloody tomb
be reunited with my dead friends soon
many soldiers eighteen years
drowned in mud, no more tears
surely a war no one can win
killing time about to begin

Home, far away. From the war, a chance to live again
Home, far away. But the war, no chance to live again

The bodies of ours and our foes
the sea of death it overflows
in no-man's land God only knows
into jaws of death we go...

Crucified as if on a cross
allied troops, they mourn their loss
German war propaganda machine
such before has never been seen
swear I heard the angels cry
pray to God no more may die
so that people know the truth
tell the tale of Paschendale

Cruelty has a human heart
every man does play his part
terror of the men we kill
the human heart is hungry still

I stand my ground for the very last time
gun is ready as I stand in line
nervous wait for the whistle to blow
rush of blood and over we go...

Blood is falling like the rain
its crimson cloak unveils again
the sound of guns can't hide their shame
and so we die in Paschendale

Dodging shrapnel and barbed wire
running straight at canon fire
running blind as I hold my breath
say a prayer symphony of death
as we charge the enemy lines
a burst of fire and we go down
I choke I cry but no one hears
feel the blood go down my throat

Home, far away. From the war, a chance to live again
Home, far away. But the war, no chance to live again
Home, far away. From the war, a chance to live again
Home, far away. But the war, no chance to live again

See my spirit on the wind
across the lines beyond the hill
friend and foe will meet again
those who died at Paschendale

Paschendale

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 17 May 12 - 09:02 PM

Then there's "Passchendaele," the love story (2008):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092082/reviews?filter=hate

Subject: Lyr Add: OH FRENCHY (Erlich/Conrad)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Dec 13 - 08:06 AM

The following song was mentioned by bobad back on 29 Jun 06 – 04:57 PM:

From the sheet music at Indiana University:

OH! FRENCHY
Words, Sam Ehrlich; music, Con Conrad
New York: Broadway Music Corporation, ©1918

1. Rosie Green was a village queen, who enlisted as a nurse.
She waited for a chance,
And left for France with an ambulance.
Rosie Green met a chap named Jean,* a soldier from Paree.
When he said, "Parlez-vous, my pet?"
She said, "I will, but not just yet."
When he'd speak in French to her, she'd answer lovingly:

CHORUS: "Oh, Frenchy, oh, Frenchy, Frenchy,
Although your language is so new to me,
When you say, 'Oui, oui,' la-la,
'We' means 'you and me,' la-la.
Oh, Frenchy, oh, Frenchy, Frenchy,
You've won my love with your bravery.
March on! March on! With any girl you see,
But when you la-la-la-la-la,
Oh, Frenchy, save your la-la-la's for me.

2. Rosie Green married Soldier Jean. When his furlough time arrived,
She said, "Go pack your grip.
We'll take a trip on a big steam ship."
Rosie Green took her Soldier Jean down home somewhere in Maine.
They say her rural Pa and Ma,
Refused to do that oo-la-la,
But when she's alone with him, you'll hear this same refrain: CHORUS

[* In the recording, "Jean" is pronounced to rhyme with "bean," that is, not in the French way.]

[The following extra chorus is not in the sheet music, but can be heard on the cylinder recording by Arthur Fields (my incomplete transcription):]

"Oh, Frenchy, I'll nurse you, Frenchy.
I'll fight the germs while you fight Germany.
... [unintelligible line]
You can tell them, 'Oui, oui, oui!'
Oh, Frenchy, in Berlin, Frenchy,
We will spoon 'neath the linden tree.
March on! March on! March on through Germany!
Shield(?) all your bourgeois in Berlin,
But you can save your la-la-la's for me."

Subject: Lyr Add: WHY OLD MEN CRY (Dick Gaughan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Dec 13 - 12:42 PM

Guest Gerry mentioned this song back at 29 Jun 06 – 08:28 PM. I copied the lyrics from Dick Gaughan's web site (and tweaked the line breaks to emphasize the rhyme). See the link above.

WHY OLD MEN CRY
Words & Music : Dick Gaughan
©Grian Music 1998

I walked from Ypres to Passchendaele in the first grey days of spring,
Through flatland fields where life goes on and carefree children sing,
Round rows of ancient tombstones where a generation lies,
And at last I understood why old men cry.

My mother's father walked these fields some eighty years ago.
He was half the age that I am now; no way that he could know
That his unborn grandchild someday would cross his path this way
And stand here where his fallen comrades lay.

He'd been dead a quarter century by the time that I was born.
The mustard gas which swept the trenches ripped apart his lungs—
Another name and number among millions there who died,
And at last I understood why old men cry.

I walked from Leith to Newtongrange at the turning of the year,
Through desolate communities and faces gaunt with fear,
Past bleak, abandoned pitheads where rich seams of coal still lie,
And at last I understood why old men cry.

My father helped to win the coal that lay neath Lothian's soil,
A life of bitter hardship the reward for years of toil,
But he tried to teach his children there was more to life than this:
Working all your life to make some fat cat rich.

I walked from Garve to Ullapool as the dawn light kissed the earth,
And breathed the awesome beauty of this land that gave me birth.
I looked into the future, saw a people proud and free
As I looked along Loch Broom out to the sea.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 06:18 AM

Perhaps it's time to start to pass the ball: I made a small contribution to the film of Oh! What A Lovely War! back in 1969, by finding the original uniforms they copied. The only time I ever took a salute, from Gielgud and Olivier, the Richardsons and all, on the morning they drove down to Brighton to film it, all on an original charabanc in the London-Brighton vintage car run. Memories...
My real point, though, is that with the centenary coming up, perhaps it's time to restart the bus. The dulce et decorum crowd seem to have gotten away with it once again, hijacking the very real heroism of our troops in the greater glory of politics. The Cenotaph still reads "Our glorious dead" - when the reality of death in war is far from glorious. The MOD still dissemble and deceive, failing to support the wounded as they should. For example, in 1925 the mining community in Clydach in the Swansea Valley clubbed together to build their own hospital, possibly one of the first steps towards the NHS. Named the Memorial Hospital in memory of their dead in WWI, it was run entirely by subscription geared to affordability throughout the community until the NHS took it over, as far as I know for nothing. Far overshadowed by Morriston Hospital a couple of miles away, it has languished unloved by the NHS but still supported by the neighbourhood, standing unused for the last ten years despite the investment of a couple of million just before. That hospital is now being sold off, and after protests from the community, part of it is being converted into a care centre for the quarter million veterans in South Wales - but as a private profit-making hospital. The rest is to become yet more money-making housing, in the teeth of local opposition. At the same time, George Osborne is saying the NHS is unaffordable.
It was behaviour like this which got the Theatre Royal Stratford shifting in Oh! What a Lovely War! The problem, though, remains: the same kind of jokers who sent the troops to the front are blissfully allowing the same profiteering to occur in peacetime, refusing to address the power companies freezing thousands to death, the list of iniquities is long. Perhaps it's time for Bellowhead and The Folk Roots Cooperative to justify their existence by creating a similar workshop, Oh! What a Lovely Peace!, bringing together the heritage of social movement since.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: cetmst
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 08:29 AM

I have a cassette of The Tartan Lads, "Scotland Yet", Lisnor Recordings 1976, singing "Dark Neuve Chapels (sic)", a corruption of Dark Neuve-Chapelle, a WWI battle which was meant to be a British breakthrough but resulted only in the destruction of a Belgian village and thousands of deaths. See Wikipedia. I'm having trouble transcribing the lyrics. The chorus goes:
It's the swing of the kilts, the fine colored tartans,
The brave Scottish soldiers who marched (through/to) that hell,
(But now where's the rest who wear their own tartans?)
They are fast asleep in that dark Neuve Chapelle.
The song is attributed to McFarlane - Srerlini Music
Does anyone have the lyrics and more information on the song.

Subject: Lyr Add: BUTCHER'S TALE (WESTERN FRONT 1914)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 10:43 PM

Matt R mentioned this way back at the beginning of this thread. I guess The Zombies were never on my radar before, but I'm glad I listened to this on Spotify:


BUTCHER'S TALE (WESTERN FRONT 1914)
Written by Chris White
As recorded by The Zombies on "Odyssey and Oracle" (1968)

1. The butcher, yes, that was my trade,
But the King's shilling is now my fee.
A butcher I may as well have stayed,
For the slaughter that I see;
And the preacher in his pulpit
Sermoned "Go and fight; do what is right,"
But he don't have to hear these guns,
And I bet he sleeps at night.

CHORUS: And I,
And I can't stop shaking.
My hands won't stop shaking.
My arms won't stop shaking.
My mind won't stop shaking.
I want to go home.
Please let me go home,
Go home.

2. And I have seen a friend of mine
Hang on the wire like some rag toy,
Then in the heat the flies come down
And cover up the boy;
And the flies come down in Gommecourt, Thiepval,
Mametz Wood, and French Verdun.
If the preacher he could see those flies,
Wouldn't preach for the sound of guns. CHORUS

[Covered by Chrysanthemums, They Might Be Giants, John Wilkes Booze, and The Immediate.]

Subject: Lyr Add: DOWN UPON THE DUGOUT FLOOR (Coope, etc.)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Dec 13 - 05:48 PM

Guest,ifor mentioned this song back on 01 Jul 06 – 07:39 AM

Here's my transcription from the recording on YouTube:


DOWN UPON THE DUGOUT FLOOR
As sung by Coope, Boyes & Simpson

Battered down to the ground
    Down upon the dugout floor
Hear the whine crease the spine
    Take me to that other shore
    For I'm here in no man's land
    And the world is turned to sand
    Down upon the dugout floor

Young in years, old in fears
    Down upon the dugout floor
Trapped in time between the lines
    Take me to that other shore
    For I'm here in no man's land
    And the world is turned to sand
    Down upon the dugout floor

Oh can't you hear the mournful cry
We cannot do but only die
And here we sit and wonder why
You and I

Battered down to the ground
    Down upon the dugout floor
Hear the whine crease the spine
    Take me to that other shore
    For I'm here in no man's land
    And the world is turned to sand
    Down upon the dugout floor

My soul can never return home
On air or land or sea or foam
Condemned forever to roam
Lost and alone

Please don't go; I need to know
    Down upon the dugout floor
If part of me has set you free
    Take me to that other shore
    For I'm here in no man's land
    And the world is turned to sand
    Down upon the dugout floor
    Down upon the dugout floor

Subject: Lyr Add: HAPPED IN MIST (Michael Marra)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Dec 13 - 12:39 AM

Guest,Azoic mentioned this song on 26 Aug 11 – 03:54 PM:

I found these lyrics in Voicing Scotland: Folk, Culture, Nation by Gary West (Edinburgh : Luath Press Ltd, 2012), page 138:

HAPPED IN MIST
Written by Michael Marra

Happed in mist, these twenty-five eventful years, seem to me now.
And in all but one, a friendly haze, a ghost of gladness by my side.
With a horse and plough I marched with pride of the purest kind;
Then a blink of light and it's Flanders field and the end of time.

And through the flash and cannons' roar, I saw my Christine's smiling eyes.
With no more thought of blood or shell, I made my way to hold her near.
But Truth and Honour's henchmen found me leaving here—
A madman's rave and a coward's grave for the volunteer.

And in his eyes flew snipe and curlew; and in his nose blew moistened air;
And in his mind the wood the king stole, that robbed the land, and laid it bare.
And in his heart, his lover's memory, singing on their wedding night,
Where once the parks flowed thick with corn; that sullen tune was with him now.

Happed in mist, the King's Own Rifles: 'Ready, aim!'
The Flooers o the Forest are a' wede awa.

[Recorded by Michael Marra on "Gaels Blue" (1996), June Tabor on "Angel Tiger" (2001), and by Shine on "Sugarcane" (2001).]

Subject: Lyr Add: CALLING DOON THE LINE (THE PIPER'S CALL)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Dec 13 - 11:32 AM

This is my transcription from the recording at YouTube. Thanks to Allan Conn, above, for the suggestion and the link. It is also on Spotify:

CALLING DOON THE LINE (THE PIPER'S CALL)
Words and music by Alan G. Brydon
As recorded by Scocha on "Gie'd Sum Wellie" (2008)

1. Boys stood on the platform, 1917,
Waitin' for a train to Salisbury Plain, but only in their dreams.
A lad to his mother said in a fret: "We'll be home by Christmas day,"
And the piper played "Scotland the Brave" as he waved the boys away.

CHORUS: Callin' doon the line, callin' doon the line,
And they rallied roond to the piper's tune; it was callin' doon the line.

2. The sergeant major pushed them hard; they were trained in only days,
But to bear the brunt o' the western front would soon be on their way.
So off they marched, rifles shoulder high, and all at once they sang:
"For we're no awa tae bide awa" tae the pipers in the band.

3. The thunder echoed through the trench as the shells aboon(?) them rained,
And the gen'rals spent a thousand men for ev'ry inch they gained,
And the brave young men faced their battle dawn so proud to do their job,
And the piper stood in the line of fire and played them ower the top.

4. When No Man's Land fell silent, and they counted all the dead,
The vict'ry claimed would disguise the shame, and nothin' more was said,
And the fallen brave on a foreign field they gave their very best,
And the piper played a sad lament as they laid the boys to rest.

Subject: Lyr Add: DARK NEUVE-CHAPELLE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Dec 13 - 06:57 PM

In response to cetmst's request 2 days ago: I listened to the song on Spotify. This is how I hear it. Note there is a gap in verse 1 line 1 where I couldn't decipher the words.

I must say it sounds very strange to me to match these words to bouncy dance music.

DARK NEUVE-CHAPELLE

As sung by The Tartan Lads on "Scotland Yet" (1987)

CHORUS: It's the swing o the kilts, the fine coloured tartan,
The brave band of soldiers who marched through that hell;
But proud were the lads to wear their own tartans.
They are fast asleep in that dark Neuve-Chapelle.

1. Far from their mountains ... are sleeping.
They died for their country, those brave gallant men.
The women and children at home they are weeping
For husbands and fathers they'll ne'er see again. CHORUS

2. The fighting is over; the few are returning
To look for their loved ones, a story to tell
Of brave Scottish soldiers who fought in the battle
And died for their country in dark Neuve-Chapelle. CHORUS


[I used the spelling Neuve-Chapelle because that's how Wikipedia spells the name of the town. The battle, however is called Neuve Chapelle (without the hyphen). Spotify says the song title is DARK NEUVE CHAPEL; AllMusic.com doesn't list this recording but it says The Garioch Blend recorded DARK NEUVE CHAPELLE on "Relaxing" (no date given).]

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Dec 13 - 12:01 PM

there is a version of the Old Barbed Wire a sung by Rpbert Graves, the war poet n my website. click here

Subject: Lyr Add: APRES LA GUERRE
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Dec 13 - 04:45 PM

Lyr. Add: APRÈS LA GUERRE

Après la guerre fini,
Oh, we'll all go home to Blighty;
But won't we be sorry to leave chère Germaine,
Après la guerre fini.

Après la guerre fini,
English soldiers parti,
Mam'selle français beaucoup picaninnies,
Après la guerre fini.

Many verses. Anyone?

Original tune, "Sous les Ponts de Paris."

With musical score, p. 30, F. T. Nettlingham, 1917, "Tommy's Tunes," Erskine, Macdonald, Ltd., London.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Dec 13 - 04:54 PM

Another verse:

Après la guerre fini,
Soldat Anglais partée,
M'selle Frongsay boko pleury,
Après la guerre fini.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Dec 13 - 12:44 PM

Lyr. Add: TIPPERARY parody

That's the wrong way to tickle Marie,
That's the wrong way to kiss;
Don't you know that over here, lad,
They like it better like this.
Hooray pour la France!
Farewell, Angleterre!
We didn't know the way to tickle Marie,
But now we've learnt how.

F. T. Nettleingham, "Tommy's Tunes," 1917, p. 23.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Dec 13 - 01:03 PM

Lyr. Add: THE LITTLE BIT OF FLUFF

Tune: "Tipperary"

It took a long time to get it hairy,
'Twas a long time to grow;
Took a long time to get it hairy,
For the toothbrush hairs to show.
Good-bye, Charlie Chaplin,
Farewell, tufts of hair;
'Twas a long, long time to get it hairy,
But now my lip's quite bare.

Popular about the time the War Office (GB) rescinded the decision re moustaches.

F. T. Nettleingham, "Tommy's Tunes, 1917, p. 23.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Dec 13 - 01:32 PM

Lyr. Add: SING ME TO SLEEP (Trench Version)
Tune: see thread 24768, "Sing Me to Sleep")

Sing me to sleep where Very lights fall,
Let me forget the war and all.
I've got the wind up, that's what they say,
God strafe 'em like hell- till break of day,
I feel so weary, warworn and sad,
I don't like this war- it makes me feel bad.
Dark is my dugout- *cold are my feet-
Waiting for the Boches to put me to sleep.

Far, far from *Wipers I long to be.
Take me to Egypt of Salonika,
Where I can hear of the Boche from afar.

Sing me to sleep where bullets fall,
Let me forget the war and all;
Damp is my dug-out, cold are my feet,
Nothing but bully and biscuits to eat.
Sing me to sleep where bombs explode
And shrapnel shells are àla mode;
Over the sandbags, helmets you'll find;
Corpses in front of you, corpses behind.

Far from the starlights I'd love to be,
Lights of old London I'd rather see;
Think of me crouching where worms creep,
Waiting for someone to put me to sleep.

*cold of my feet- both literal and-
*Wipres - Ypres

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Dec 13 - 01:41 PM

Sung to "Yankee Doodle."

NO QUARTER

Kaiser Bill, he went to war
Athirst for blood and slaughter;
He lost his crown- and he feels sore;
And so he bally well oughter.

A number of verses were sung to old or current GB and American songs.

F, T. Nettleingham, 1917, "Tommy's Tunes," p. 81.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Dec 13 - 11:56 AM

As far as NeuveChapelle's concerned, the Belgians often ran the names together - our family chateau at BlancheOreille was destroyed by the Germans about that time. It's because for all they bang on at each other over linguistic differences, none the less the Walloons are even more thankful they're not French and the Flemish feel much the same about the Dutch. These minor typogrsphic differences are often used to mark the the difference by adding touches of the other side. One might compare it with an elderly gay couple.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Dec 13 - 01:26 PM

Lyr. Add: WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN? (R.F.C.)

Who killed Cock Robin?
"I" said the Hun,
"With my *Lewis gun.
I killed Cock Robin."

All the planes in the air
Went a-dipping and a-throbbing,
When they heard of the death of poor Cock Robin,
When they heard of the death of poor Cock Robin.

Who saw him hit?
"I" said old Fritz,
"And I have a bit,
I saw him hit."

And all of the planes in the air
Went a-swaying and a-bobbing,
When they heard of the death of poor Cock Robin.
When they heard of the death of poor Cock Robin.

Who saw him die?
"I" said the spy,
"with my telepathic eye,
I saw him die."

And all the planes in the air
Went a-strafing and a-bombing,
When they heard of the death of poor Cock Robin.
When they heard of the death of poor Cock Robin.

(The *Lewis gun, fitted to aeroplanes, fired 600 rounds a minute.)

F. T, Nettleingham, 1917, "Tommy's Tunes," p. 61

Subject: Lyr Add: GIVE A LITTLE CREDIT TO THE NAVY
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Dec 13 - 03:52 PM

Lyr. Add: GIVE A LITTLE CREDIT TO THE NAVY
Lyric, Bud De Silva & Gus Kahn, Music, Albert Gumble

Billy Taylor was a sailor on a Yankee boat
He lov'd all patriotic songs, yes every single note
But they were all about soldiers and the things they do
And Billy said they ought to write one for the sailors too
He said I'm not a poet as you know-
But here's the way I think it ought to go-

Chorus-
Give a little credit to the Navy
We took the boys across
Without a single loss
Ev'ry soldier is a fighting bear
But don't forget it- give us credit
We took them over there.
Mothers of soldiers, sweethearts and wives
We'll take care of your boys
Though it cost us our lives
So give a little credit to the Navy
The Navy will do its share.

When our Pershing took his first Crusaders over seas
The sailors of our Navy trick'd the submarines with ease
The only one that didn't run but tried to stay and fight
Was quickly riddle'd by our guns and disappear'd from sight
And as the U-boat sank into the sea-
The soldiers cheered and sang out joyfully-

Chorus-

!918. Jerome & Remick, NYC.
Sheet music at Levy Sheet Music.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Dec 13 - 10:35 PM

I.

The leathernecks, the leathernecks, with dirt behind their ears,
Can lick their weight in wildcats and drink their weight in beers!
Oh, the infantry, the cavalry, the goddamned engineers,
They couldn't lick a leatherneck in a hundred thousand years!

As we go maaaaarching,
And the band begins to plaaaay,
You can hear the people shouting,
"The raggedy-assed Marines are on parade!"

II.

Bonjour, mademoiselle, comment allez vous?
Bonjour, mademoiselle, je vous aime bookoo!
Avez-vous fiance? Cela ne fait rien!
Voulez-vous couchez 'vec moi?
Oui! Combien?

III.

Come all you soldiers if you want to hear
I'll tell you the story of a brave grenadier;
Casey Jones was the grenadier's name:
With a 32 Mills grenade he won his fame.
The sergeant called Casey at half-past four.
He said good-bye to his buddy at the dugout door.
He mounted to the parapet, grenades in his hand,
And he tried to bomb his way out into No Man's Land.

Casey Jones! Mounted to the parapet!
Casey Jones! Grenades in his hand!
Casey Jones! Tried to stop a whizzbang!
Now he's pushin' daisies out in No Man's Land!

IV.
                FUNERAL MARCH

Ten thousand dollars for the folks back home.
Ten thousand dollars for the folks back home.
Ten thousand dollars for the home folks.
Ten thousand dollars for the fam'ly.


V.

Home, boys, home! It's home we oughta be!
Home, boys, home! In the land of libertee!
We'll hoist Old Glory to the top of the pole,
And we'll all re-enlist!
In a pig's a-- h--- !

VI.

Away, away with sword and drum!
Here we come, full of rum!
Looking for women to pat on the bum,
In the Armored Cruiser Squadron!

Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T CRY, FRENCHY, DON'T CRY
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Dec 13 - 07:19 PM

Lyr. Add: DON'T CRY, FRENCHY, DON'T CRY
Words Joe Young & Sam M. Lewis, Music Walter Donaldson. 1919

They met while clouds were hanging over Flanders,
A soldier's glance; a war romance;
But now he's leaving her alone in Flanders
And he softly whispers to his maid of France:

Chorus-
Don't cry, Frenchy, don't cry,
When you kiss me good-bye,
I will always keep the Fleur-de-lis, dear,
You gave to me dear,
So dry your eye.
Sometime, Frenchy, sometime,
We'll hear wedding bells chime,
Oh please don't cry, Frenchy, don't cry, don't cry;
Until we meet again, good-bye, good-bye!

The peaceful stars will heal the scars of Flanders,
One tiny spark; will light the dark;
For it will bring a message back to Flanders,
Just a word of love to you, my Joan of Arc:

Chorus-

www.militarysheetmusic.com

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Lighter
Date: 10 Dec 13 - 07:20 PM

I shoulda sent those to the "Trench Songs" thread.

Subject: Lyr Add: OO-LA-LA WEE-WEE (Ruby/Jessell)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Dec 13 - 12:59 PM

Lyr. Add: OO-LA-LA WEE-WEE
Words and music, Harry Ruby and George Jessell, 1918-1919

1
Willie Earl met a sweet young girl one day in France,
Her naughty little glance, put Willie in a trance;
Willie Earl couldn't understand her talk you see,
He only knew two words in French
That he learned in the trench,
They were "oo-la-la" and "wee-wee."
They would spoon beneath the moon above;
It was fun to hear them making love.

Chorus-
She'd say, "com-pro-nay voo, papa?"
And he'd say "oo-la-la! wee wee."
She'd smile and whisper "mercy ba-coo,
He'd andwer "I don't mind if I do."
She'd say, "If you'll be my papa,
Then I will be your ma Cherie."
She'd pinch his cheek and say, you Kes-ka-say,"
He'd say "not now, dear, but later I may;"
Then she'd say "com-prom-ay voo, papa!"
And he'd say "oo-la-la wee wee."

2
Ev'ry day some thousand soldiers sail across the sea
To fight for you and me. To save "Democracy"
The men who can't go over can do something never fear,
They all can volunteer today to *lick the Germans here.
Oro Germans are a danger, they are lurking at your door,
So wake up! Now America we've got to win this war.

Chorus-
You've got to go in or go under,
You've got to be going all day.
We know you're not in khaki or blue
But you're as big a man and you've got a job to do.
In Flanders they're calling for Soldiers.
They're calling for you and for me.
If you can't cross the pond
Buy a Liberty Bond
And we'll drive them back to Germany.

* In some places, businesses of peaceful Americans of German ancestry were wrecked, and these unfortunate citizens attacked.

www.militarysheetmusic.com/oo-la-la-wee-wee.htm

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Dec 13 - 06:05 PM

I have seen a sheet music cover for "Oh! What a time for the girlies."
Does anyone know the lyrics?

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Dec 13 - 06:10 PM

Found it at Levy Sheet Music. I will o post it shortly. Popular in 1918.

Subject: Lyr Add: OH! WHAT A TIME FOR THE GIRLIES
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Dec 13 - 06:35 PM

Lyr. Add: OH! WHAT A TIME FOR THE GIRLIES
       (When the Boys Come Marching Home)
Words by Sam M. Lewis & Joe Young, Music by Harry Ruby

1
Why are all the girlies feeling great?
Something's in the air;
They don't even want to make a date,
With a poor old millionaire;
They're fixing up the morris chair,
And pulling down the blind;
Soon there'll be somebody there,
And here's what's on their minds:

Chorus-
Oh what a time, what a time,
for the girlies when the boys come marching home,
They'll get the kissing that they've been missing,
While they were over the foam;
Mary and Jane will explain to her soldier
How she spent her nights alone;

Think of all the loving they will get,
Two long years they've been without a pet;
Every "Cutie" waiting at the pier,
Wants to do her duty over here;
When a soldier squeezes you too hard,
Raise your hand and holler "Kamerad;"
Oh what a time for the girlies
when the boys come marching home

2
Have you noticed any girlie, who,
Has a boy in France?
She was always feeling sad and blue,
You could tell it at a glance;
But now upon her face you'll see,
A look of joy and pride;
It's because she knows that he,
Will soon be by her side:

Chorus-

Levy Sheet Music Collection.

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU'LL FIND OLD DIXIELAND IN FRANCE
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Dec 13 - 07:26 PM

Lyr. Add: YOU'LL FIND OLD DIXIELAND IN FRANCE

Words by Grant Clarke, Music by George W. Meyer
(A French text by Louis Delamarre)

1
No more darkies on the Swanee shore,
No more singin' round the cabin door,
Dixie ain't Dixie now, I vow,
In the village all the streets are bare,
Doesn't seem to be a soul down there,
It made me blue somehow.
I asked Old Mammy Gray
And then I heard her say:

Chorus-
You remember Dancin' Mose?
Folks all called him "Tickle Toes,"
You'll find him "Over There" in France,
Alexander's Band, left old Dixieland,
They used to play the "lovin' Blues" for ev'ryone,
Now they're playin' blues upon a Gatling Gun;
Don't forget "Old Shimmie Sam,"
Famous boy from Alabam,
He marched away in khaki pants,
Instead of pickin' melons off the vine,
They're pickin' Germans off the Rhine,
You'll find old Dixieland in France.

2
Ev'ry ev'ning when the starshells gleam,
You're in Alabama it would seem,
You'll hear the same old coons play tunes,
Billy Johnson with his pet banjo,
Doesn't mind it when the shells hit low
He simply sits and croons.
The strains of "Over There" come floating on the air:

Repeat Chorus-

Introduced by the African-American vaudevillian Bert Williams, in Ziegfield Midnight Frolic, 1918.

www.militarysheetmusic.com

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,C J Martin
Date: 08 Jan 14 - 10:53 AM

I've just written and recorded a song called 'Wrong place wrong time'. It is an imaginary conversation with a fallen soldier from the First World War. I've used real archive footage from World War 1 to make a video for You Tube. Wrong place wrong time

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Lighter
Date: 08 Jan 14 - 11:54 AM

Boston Globe, 1923: "American soldiers sang little of home and mother, less of thirst for German blood, and scarcely at all of glory and victory. ...

"The work of American song writers, foisted upon the public, ...failed, for the most part, to take hold with the men who did the fighting."

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Sarah Wood
Date: 08 Jan 14 - 12:45 PM

I learned this one from George Gibson:

The Old German War

Come all of you good people, wherever you may be.
I hope you'll pay attention, and listen unto me.
My name is nothing extra; the truth to you I'll tell.
I am a brave volunteer, and I'm sure I wish you well.

At the age of sixteen, I joined that army grand.
I left old east Kentucky, and I sailed to a far-off land.
Our captain he informed us, and I'm sure he thought it right,
"Before the morning comes boys, I'm sure we'll have to fight."

We saw them Germans coming. Lord, we heard them give their yell.
Our feelings at that moment, no human tongue can tell.
We saw their shining rifles, and their bullets around us flew.
Now all my strength had left me, and all my courage too.

I've been across that great ocean, I've road down streets of hell.
I've been in the midst of battle, I know its trials well.
I've lived a life of misery, and been where death it roamed.
I'll tell you from experience boys, you had better stay at home.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Lighter
Date: 08 Jan 14 - 04:29 PM

Interesting!

It's "Texas Rangers" with no changes but "Kentucky" and "Germans."

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Jan 14 - 08:12 AM

Tommys lot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ5xZQVkhak

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Jan 14 - 09:14 PM

The Lowlands of Flanders
                      by Bruce Scott (1998)
                (melody: "The Streams of Buclody")


On the Lowlands of Flanders there's a place they call Messines,
Where the Peace Tower of Ireland stands proud and serene
To commemorate her soldiers who bravely fought and died:
Now their sons and their daughters can all honour them with pride.

They sailed from old Erin, their green isle across the sea,
From the land of the Shamrock to set small nations free;
From their own divided island, where so many were oppressed,
To the Lowlands of Flanders, where so many lie at rest.

They came from every country, every corner of the world;
on the Lowlands of Flanders into battle they were hurled,
where they did their soldiers duty, as they fought beside the French
in the chaos, and the carnage, and the nightmare of the trench.

They came from every county in their troubled native land:
From the banks of the Liffey and the wide Shannon grand;
From the banks of the Lee and the Lagan they did come,
Where they died in their thousands on the banks of the Somme.

There were men of all religions there who perished in that war
Both Catholic and Protestant from Mother Ireland's shore:
And some, when on returning to their troubled native land,
They were shunned and forsaken, just a poor forgotten band.

Many years have now passed over since the ending of that war
The Great War to end all conflict and win peace for evermore.
Can all Irishmen from North and South agree to live in peace
In the memory of their forefathers, who died that war might cease?

On the lowlands of Flanders stands the Irish tower of peace,
To the memory of those soldiers who died that war might cease;
And their graves are there in thousands where the red poppies bloom,
Where the flower of Irish manhood all went marching to their doom.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 14 Jan 14 - 02:57 AM

See and read about Irish Peace Tower.
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/ypres-salient/memorial-island-of-ireland-peace-park.htm

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Feb 14 - 04:21 PM

Mike Harding - Christmas 1914 absolute classic.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Larry The Radio Guy
Date: 20 Feb 14 - 04:29 PM

For a Modern World War 1 song:

Leiber and Stoller wrote a great satirical piece (recorded by Joan Morris and William Bolcom) called "Let's Bring Back World War 1").

Can't find lyrics....but here's a link.


Let's Bring Back World War 1

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Orange Injun
Date: 25 Jun 14 - 01:28 PM

Anybody know the lyrics to a Scottish soldier's song from the Great War, entitled "Fuckin the Colonel's Wife"?

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Mark Ross
Date: 25 Jun 14 - 02:46 PM

And in memory of those who refused to fight, a poem by e.e. cummings;



i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or

his wellbelovéd colonel(trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but--though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments--
Olaf(being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds,without getting annoyed
"I will not kiss your fucking flag"

straightway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)

but--though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation's blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skilfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat--
Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
"there is some shit I will not eat"

our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died

Christ(of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too

preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you.


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: LadyJean
Date: 25 Jun 14 - 11:45 PM

My mother, who was born the year the Doughboys sailed for France, sang; "Good by Ma
"Good bye Pa.
Good bye mule with your old hee haw.
And fare you well my sweetheart dear,
Ill bring you a king for a souvenir.
I'll bring you a king and a Kaiser too,
And that's about all one feller can do."

She also sang a verse she learned from her uncle who served as an army doctor in both world wars.
"If you want to find the privates I know where they are. I know where they are. I know where they are. If you want to find the privates, I know where they are. They are up to their eyes in mud. I saw them! I saw them, up to their eyes in mud. They were up to their eyes in mud!"

She always knew she'd gotten a bowdlerized versiong. Happily she died before I got the Roberta and Barrand recording where the privates are "hanging on the old barbed wire."

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jun 14 - 06:00 AM

Perhaps in the spirit of revising history, as The UK government are embarking on with their pet "historians," we can ask Keith A of Hertford to rewrite some of the songs?

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Jun 14 - 07:03 AM

too short for a song but in my opinion the best thing hardy ever wrote.
Christmas: 1924

'Peace upon earth!' was said. We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We've got as far as poison-gas.

Subject: Lyr Add: WOULD YOU RATHER BE A COLONEL WITH AN...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Dec 16 - 12:09 PM

John Kirkpatrick recorded this on his album "Tunes from the Trenches" (2015). He medleys it with "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers." The sheet music can be seen at Indiana University:


WOULD YOU RATHER BE A COLONEL WITH AN EAGLE ON YOUR SHOULDER
OR A PRIVATE WITH A CHICKEN ON YOUR KNEE?
Words, Sidney D. Mitchell; music Archie Gottler, ©1918.
"Successfully sung by Eddie Cantor in Ziegfields Follies"

1. Once I heard a father ask his soldier son,
"Why can't you advance like other boys have done?
You've been a private mighty long.
Won't you tell me what is wrong?"
And then the soldier lad
Said, "Listen to me, Dad."

CHORUS 1: I'd rather be a private than a colonel in the army,
A private has more fun
When his day's work is done,
And when he goes on hikes
In ev'ry town he strikes,
Girls discover him, and just smother him with things he likes,
But girlies act so shy when colonel passes by,
He holds his head so high with dignity.
So would you rather be a colonel with an eagle on your shoulder
Or a private with a chicken on your knee?

2. "Ev'ry night you find some private in the park,
Spooning on a bench where it is nice and dark.
He's just as happy as can be,
With his girlie on his knee,
But the colonel never dares
To mix in such affairs."

CHORUS 2: I'd rather be a private than a colonel in the army,
A colonel out in France
Can never take a chance,
For though his job is great,
He dare not make a date.
All that he can do is just "Parley Voo" then hesitate;
But privates meet the Ma and then they treat the Pa,
And then they "Oo-la-la" with "Wee Marie."
So would you rather be a colonel with an eagle on your shoulder
Or a private with a chicken on your knee?

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Dec 16 - 04:41 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ZreQkoUBc

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 07:37 AM

Some places had a longer WW1 than others. For Anatolia, it went on till 1922 and included the Armenian genocide - which must have been sung about after the event, though I can't name a song off the top of my head.

I've posted Turkish songs of the period here before, and songs from all three sides about the Battle of Gorizia (at its height, deadlier than the first day of the Battle of the Somme).

The nation that suffered the worst casualties in WW1 (by an enormous margin) was Russia. Maybe someone can suggest some Russian songs? Or Bosnian and Serbian ones, given that the war started there?

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Eric
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 03:29 PM

I do not think anyone has mentioned Mick Ryan's Flanders Tommy. I got it from one of Carolyn Robson's albums. I believe it is from a play he wrote about WW1.

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,Felipa
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 12:00 PM

several lyrics about ww1 nurse Edith Cavell are given on a recent Mudcat discussion thread

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: Pamela R
Date: 01 Oct 17 - 11:51 AM

A while ago, around USA's Memorial Day in 2015, I gave a lecture/concert of ballads About WWI and what I learned about the Great War through them. I did not have a videographer present, only my iPad propped up side stage, which was unfortunately close to some humming fan. But I recently learned how to edit video and audio, so I was able to overlay my slide visuals and dampen the hum somewhat, to reconstruct most of the show, which is now posted here:

    The War to End War

Before I started the lecture/concert I played gramophone recordings of popular songs of the era (It's a Long Way from Tipperary, Keep the Home Fires Burning, etc.) with a slide show of recruitment posters. But somehow despite the materials being 100 years old, there was some copyright issue preventing me from posting that section of the program on YouTube. The songwriters of the ballads I performed, on the other hand, have all generously consented to my performing and posting their songs for this program. (If any of the songwriters are Mudcatters, thank you again for allowing me to use your work!)

I'm still hoping to perform this program once or twice before the centennial period is out - I've added two additional songs, readings of trench poetry and letters from soldiers. If I get a better video I'll post it and update here.

Pamela

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: GUEST,J
Date: 12 Jun 24 - 09:36 PM

Years ago on the radio I think it was on folk like us I heard a song sang by Lyn Percival but have never heard it since and can't find all the words, the chorus went sign up don't lose your chance there's plenty of room on the boat bound for france sign up for your king you'll advance flags never fly in the still. It tells of the reasons that young men joined up like unemployment and how little they knew about what they were facing. Does anybody know the lyrics to this song?

Subject: RE: Songs about World War I
From: sciencegeek
Date: 19 Jun 24 - 11:20 AM

As Charly Noble mentioned, C Fox Smith wrote a number of poems about WWI, the worst family feud ever, but not the first world wide conflict.. that was the Napoleonic Wars

his buddy and my late husband was Mike Kennedy who shared his love of C F Smith and put a few of her poems to music: Farewell to ANZAC, Jolly Bargeman, The Derelict, and Resurrection Packet

Charley has set up a website where Mike's music can be found and we are slowly adding songs to the site

https://www.mikekennedysongs.com/index.htm