Origins: Hangin' on the Old Barbed Wire

Subject: RE: Origins: Hangin' on the Old Barbed Wire
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 16 Mar 17 - 09:30 AM

[ Is there a poem or song which goes through "week before" "day before" "hour before" "moment before" , ending with the death of the soldier ? ]

Subject: RE: Origins: Hangin' on the Old Barbed Wire
From: GUEST, Paul Slade
Date: 16 Mar 17 - 01:06 PM

I had a go at writing some updated civilian lyrics for this a few year ago. Here's what I came up with.

Subject: LYR ADD - Hangin' on the Old Barbed Wire (Aus)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 11:17 PM

version sung by Chloe & Jason Roweth from the liner notes to The Riderless Horse An Australian Impression of the First World War. Over 30 songs and poems from the trenches and the home front 1914-1918.
The riderless horse was led through the streets of Australian towns to the beat of a military drum... "The Empire needs you! Who will fill the saddle?
This unique combination of over 30 songs and poems from the time, arranged and performed by Chloe & Jason, provides a rare insight into a young nation's experience of the First World War, both in the trenches and on the home front. After all, no-one knows better than those who were there.


'Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire'

   If you want to find the lance-jack, I know where he is
    I know where he is, I know where he is
    If you want to find the lance-jack, I know where he is
    He's scrounging round the cookhouse door.
    I've seen him, I've seen him
    Scrounging round the cookhouse door, I've seen him,
         Scrounging round the cookhouse door.

 

    The company sergeant...He's laying on the latrine floor

    The quarter master...Miles and miles behind the lines.

         The sergeant-major...Thieving all the squaddies' rum.

         The buckshee private...Buried in a deep shell hole.

         The C.O....Down in a deep dugout.

         The brasshats...Drinking claret at Brigade HQ.

         The politicians....Drinking brandy at the House of Commons bar.

         The whole battalion...Hanging on the old barbed wire.

A song sung on the march, where the repetitions kept the rhythm and helped to take the soldiers' minds off the distances they had to travel. The lyrics give a fairly typical view of the war as it is presented today: highlighting the incompetence of the commanding officers, and emphasizing the cannon-fodder attitude to the troops.

Subject: RE: Origins: Hangin' on the Old Barbed Wire
From: Teribus
Date: 21 Mar 17 - 05:11 AM

"A song sung on the march, where the repetitions kept the rhythm and helped to take the soldiers' minds off the distances they had to travel. The lyrics give a fairly typical view of the war as it is presented today: highlighting the incompetence of the commanding officers, and emphasizing the cannon-fodder attitude to the troops.

Complete and utter nonsense!

Subject: RE: Soldiers songs calling officers
From: Will Fly - PM
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 11:53 AM

I dislike the religiously serious singing of "Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire" in places like folk clubs because - as Teribus rightly says - it's essentially a cynical, take-the-piss-out-of-everybody song to be sung in situ, i.e. mainly on the march.

If you've ever done a 20-mile route march, perhaps carrying a .303 or a Bren gun, or an FN, at the trail, then you'll know that one of the ways to relieve the boredom and the tiredness is to sing - preferably bawdy, sarcastic songs that give a verbal kick up the bum to those around you and mainly superior to you. But these songs weren't sung in the hushed, "isn't it awful?" tones that you hear in folk clubs - they were belted out, tongue in cheek, to keep spirits up.

Cynical, sarcastic, and piss-taking though they may have been, they were sung with comradeship and affection - everyone was in it together. To present it as a serious "us-against-them", anti-other ranks song, is a serious misapprehension of the context of the song.

Just my two pennyworth, as someone who's been on many of these marches many years ago.

Subject: RE: Origins: Hangin' on the Old Barbed Wire
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 21 Mar 17 - 11:04 AM

Spot on Teribus. You had to serve to understand the mens contempt for the NCOs and officers actions in times of war.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Origins: Hangin' on the Old Barbed Wire
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Mar 17 - 03:49 AM

the song, and the jokes were the way of distracting themselves from the futility of war.

You can analyse all you want and massage your own egos by discrediting this hypothosis or that. But it was written and became widespread because it gave an outlet that in other circumstances would have been insubordination.

And it is well documented that it irritated the higher echelons to the point of being more than frowned upon, and even banned.

And it chimes today in the myriad versions, plus modernising parodies.
That is powerful Folk!