Lyr Req: You're a Sap, Mister Jap

Subject: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: GUEST,Cookie
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 07:48 AM

Does anyone have the lyrics to "YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP"
(James Cavanaugh / John Redmond / Nat Simon) - 1941 by THE ANDREW SISTERS? Also heard Spike Jones did it, but not sure it is the same
song.

Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 09:38 AM

I have no clue why anyone would want these, but I looked. Lots of references to it, but no lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 11:39 AM

THIS site has sheet music for a band arrangement, but no lyrics. It also has a sound file - not sure what's on it, as I have no card in this PC

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 11:41 AM

Sorry, tha's direct ot the dound file. The music is HERE

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: GUEST,Maritn Ryan
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 11:48 AM

Doh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Giac
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 11:49 AM

The sound file has the "Murphy Sisters" belting out the words. This site is great and has a lot of sound files from WWII, including some by Leadbelly, Sonny Boy Williamson, Carson Robison, etc.

Good hunting!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Giac
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 11:52 AM

This link should take you to the main page:

Voices

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Steve-o
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 11:55 AM

I actually have this in my small collection of 78 records. Sorry to say that I don't currently have the ability to play it, or I would transcribe it for you. It's certainly a page from a very different time in the U.S.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: X
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 12:45 PM

I have it on a 78 too but I have nothing to play it on. I remember a line from it...

"You're a sap mister Jap, Uncle Sam is going to spanky..."

You have to remember that Japan just bombed Pearl.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 01:16 PM

I'm having a hard time imagining the circumstances under which it will make sense to present this song. Can you help me out?

~Susan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 01:26 PM

Susan, I think strictly in the historical context it makes sense. Not in a perormance of songs in general, but to show the attitudes of war and it's effects, racism, bigotry, or a few other things. Like you, I can't see throwing it into a set "just for fun" but look at the rampant patrotism going on now. even today there are some who would still be happy to have a song about "raghead sand niggers".....and they probably do. It just hasn't made the airwaves thankfully. And that is due to the progress we've made, though far from perfect in our attitudes toward those who are different from ourselves.

Not everyone has taken the steps needed and I'm sure there are obnoxious ditties like I mentioned being sung, but overall, it's got to be better than it was. The song here is not far removed from the earlier times of WWI when we sang gleefully about recent immigrants to this country who are now fighting for the US in WWI. I think specifically of one although there are others, but "When Tony Goes Over The Top (Keep your eyes on that fighting WOP), has a strange attitude about it! .....Hey...He's a WOP, but at least he's OUR WOP.....bizarre.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: MMario
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 01:32 PM

historical presentation - or in play set at the time

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 02:53 PM

While we're at it, we oughta resurrect some of those great Nazi songs too, like the one about Horst Wessel (equally florid lyrics, and marvelously evocative of the excesses of patriotism).

Those "saps" had a big problem in '41. They lacked any domestic sources of iron ore and oil. FDR knew it, and cut off their overseas supply. Hence...they went to war with the USA. It was as inevitable as getting sprayed when you kick a skunk.

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: artbrooks
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 03:02 PM

Actually, they could get all the iron ore they wanted from Sweden, and there was more available in Spain if they could ever come to terms with Franco. You're right about the oil, though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 03:27 PM

That is a Grand Site GIAC!!!

I like this one:
"We're Gonna Have To Slap The Dirty Little Jap (And Uncle Sam's The Guy Who Can Do It)"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: MMario
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 03:35 PM

correct or not - they (as with plantation songs and Minstreshow songs) are part of the heritage and musical history. Ignoring them or pretending they never existed is not a wise move. Performing them gratis would not be wise either - but having a record of them or using them in correct historical context is not necessarily bad.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 03:40 PM

Yeah. The USA and Japan were planning that war ever since the 1920's, actually. The revolutionary Japanese use of aircraft carriers (inspired by the British raid on Taranto, Italy) kind of threw an unexpected spanner in the works. All the pre-war planning in both countries had focused on a theoretical huge battleship duel somewhere off the Phillippines.

The Japanese were hoping to hit the American carriers at Pearl, but they weren't there on the day of the strike. The old, slow battleships were a secondary target (and a fairly meaningless one strategically speaking, as it turned out in the next 3 years of naval warfare).

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 04:42 PM

Catchy tune, sung by the Murphy Sisters on Okeh. Listen Here: You're a Sap Mister Jap

The Popeye-Olive Oil cartoon of 1942, "You're a Sap, Mister Jap," can be ordered. Also a big hit for Spike Jones, still available.
An important war song catching the immediate Pearl Harbor mood.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 07:33 PM

Spaw, thanks for not only answering my question, but for treating it as the question it was. I am no fan of censorship or PC for the sake of PC. I do, however, have a hard time seeing sense in this kind of thing without a little help, maybe because the only Japanese person I know is Masato Sakurai, and with Masato all the giving has been from his end, so I worry that we cause hurt gratuitously to someone who in no way deserves it.

~S~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 09:04 PM

Apologies to Giac for skipping right over her posting of the University of Missouri (KC) website on WW2, and unnecessarily re-doing it. Duh! Doh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Giac
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 10:10 PM

Well, actually, GUEST, Martin Ryan posted it first, I just gave a link to the main site, which has some really good stuff about WWII. Love the sound files.

~;o) Mary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: masato sakurai
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 03:11 AM

At the beginning of the war, the future did not look bright for the music publishing business. Following Pearl Harbor, sheet music sales went into a slump, but then staged a sharp comeback in the weeks after December 7, 1941. Especially profitable were sheet music sales of "The White Cliffs of Dover," "Elmer's Tune," and "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." The only war song with any noticeable sales listing in late January 1942 was "You're a Sap Mr. Jap"--advertised in Variety as "America's Greatest Novelty."
                --Katheleen E.R. Smith, God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War (University Press of Kerntucky, 2003, p. 145)

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: GUEST,Cookie
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 08:23 AM

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with this post but it is a song from our musical history and I had a request for the lyrics. I found the Spike Jones version and transcribed to the best of my ability. Any corrections would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone for replying to this request. Cookie

YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP

You're a sap, Mister Jap
To make a Yankee cranky
You're a sap, Mister Jap
Uncle Sam is going to spanky
Wait and see before we're done
The ABC&D will sink your rising sun
You're a sap, Mister Jap
You don't know Uncle Sammy
When he fights for his rights
You'll take it on the lammy
For he'll wipe the axis right off the map
You're a sap, sap, sap, Mister Jap.

You're a sap, Mister Jap
To make a Yankee cranky
You're a sap, Mister Jap
Uncle Sam is going to spanky
Wait and see before we're done
The ABC&D will sink your rising sun
You're a sap Mister Jap
Oh what a load to carry
Don't you know, don't you know
You're committing harrycarry.
For we'll wipe the axis right off the map
You're a sap, sap, sap.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Little Hawk
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 08:29 PM

And now....the "answer" song, recorded by "Cactus" Kato, the Singin' Okinawa Cowboy, released on Rising Sun Records in 1942.

You'll Get Sank, Mr. Yank!

You'll get sank, Mr. Yank!
You should not have blocked our oil
You'll get sank, Mr. Yank!
Our anger's on the boil
Wait and see before we're done
The IJN will sink your guns
You'll get sank, Mr. Yank!
You don't know our Yamamoto
When he fights for his rights
You'll get hammered in the toto
You're a greedy, ugly bignose, running on an empty tank
You'll get sank, you'll get sank, Mr. Yank!

You'll get sank, Mr. Yank!
Asia for the Asiatics
You'll get sank, Mr. Yank!
Down with bignose Yank fanatics
Wait and see before we're done
The IJN will sink your guns
You'll get sank, Mr. Yank!
You don't know our raging eagles
You'll get sank, Mr. Yank!
When we pounce upon your beagles
You'll get hammered in the toto
By Sakai and Hashimoto
You're a greedy, ugly bignose, running on an empty tank
You'll get sank, you'll get sank, Mr. Yank!

The song was enormously popular in the heady days of early '42, and remained on the Japan hit parade well into '44, but vanished into obscurity following the end of the war. "Cactus" Kato managed a modest career for himself in the postwar Japanese movie industry and played as an extra in numerous Godzilla movies in the 50's and 60's.

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 08:56 PM

Hahaha!! LOL, LH!!


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 11:40 PM

Only at Mudcat...

Surreal. Was that actually Little Hawk????

~Susan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 09:40 AM

For sure, Susan! I love writing doggerel like that, and studying the Pacific conflict in WWII is a hobby of mine. :-) I also have a parody of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" called "Strange Girls Keep Landing In My Bed". It's got about 12 verses filled with completely untrue anecdotes about my legendary success with women.

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Amos
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 10:58 AM

..before you grew too old to disappoint them?

I think we could do a few more, LH. For example, "You're A Shmuck, Mister Canuck", and "You're a Shit, Mister Brit....". Yeah, there's a whole market out there for your stuff, LH, if you play your cards right! :>)


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 11:39 AM

Yer a Beast, Mr. Priest

You're Some Fun, Little Nun

You're So Sinister, Mr. Minister

~S~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 06:43 PM

"You're a Schmuck, Mr. Canuck" has real possibilities! Hmmmm... Maybe I'll get some time for that tonight. Cool, eh?

- LH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: YOU'RE A SAP, MISTER JAP
From: Giac
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 06:51 PM

Have a few issues, WYSI, or have we just been into the altar wine? ~;o)

Subject: Lyr Add: SLAP THE DIRTY LITTLE JAP (C Robison)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Feb 18 - 12:56 AM

You can hear this song at YouTube.

SLAP THE DIRTY LITTLE JAP
Written by Bob Miller
As recorded by Carson Robison, on Bluebird 11414B, 1941.

We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap,
And Uncle Sam's the guy who can do it.
We'll skin that streak of yella from the sneaky little fella,
And he'll think a cyclone struck him when we're through it.
We'll take that double-crosser to the old woodshed.
We'll start right on his bottom and we'll go to his head.
When we get done with him, he'll wish that he was dead.
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap.

Uncle Sam's a man who's given a helpin' hand
To many a foreign land; don't forget it;
But when somebody goes to trompin' on his toes,
They'd better guard their nose or they'll regret it.

We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap,
And Uncle Sam's the guy who can do it.
The Japs and all their hooey will be changed into chop suey,
And the rising sun will set when we get through it.
Their alibi for fighting is to save their face
For ancestors waiting in celestial space.
We'll kick their precious face down to the other place.
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap.

We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap,
And Uncle Sam's the guy who can do it.
I wouldn't fool ya, mister; he can raise an awful blister
And somebody's pants will burn before we're through it.
We'll reach across the ocean and grab that yella Jap
And turn him upside down right on democracy's lap.
We'll blister his axis and do it with a snap.
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap.

Uncle Sam is mild, as peaceful as a child,
But never get him riled or you will rue it.
So now they want to fight? Well, they bit off quite a bite,
And Uncle Sam is gonna make 'em chew it.

We're gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap,
And Uncle Sam's the guy who can do it,
'Cause it really is a feature when he starts to be a teacher.
We can show you sev'ral pupils who've been through it.
Uncle Sam believes in the golden rule,
But when he's double-crossed he's gotta kick like a mule.
We're warnin' Hitler's tool that Sam's a fightin' fool.
We gotta slap the dirty little Jap.

Subject: Lyr Add: WE'LL SLAP THE JAPS (RIGHT INTO THE LAPS
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Feb 18 - 11:37 AM

You can view this Soundie at YouTube:


WE'LL SLAP THE JAPS (RIGHT INTO THE LAPS OF THE NAZIS)
As performed by the Four Sportsmen in a "Soundie" (early music video), 1942.

[a] Oh, we didn't want to do it, but they're asking for it now,
So we'll slap the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.
When they hop on Honolulu, that's a thing we won't allow,
So we'll slap the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.
Thumbs up, England; we're proud of you.
We'll show them there's no yellow in the red white and blue.
I'd hate to be in Yokohama when our bombers make their bow,
For we'll slap the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.

[b] It's here at last; the die is cast, America.
The flag flies high, so do or die, America.
Let's stand together today
In that old American way.
Get in this fight with all your might
And make those cowards pay.

[repeat a]

[c] Oh, we're gonna go to Tokyo and start a little row,
And we'll slap the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.
So let ev'ry brave American stand up and make a vow
That they'll slap the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.
...(?) Yankees, let's see it through,
And show them there's no yellow in the red white and blue.
Oh, there'll be a celebration and it's gonna be a wow
When we slap the Japs right into the laps of the Nazis.

[repeat last 4 lines of a]