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Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?

Clean Supper 18 Jan 04 - 08:01 AM
freda underhill 18 Jan 04 - 08:30 AM
dick greenhaus 18 Jan 04 - 09:23 AM
Little Robyn 18 Jan 04 - 01:46 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 18 Jan 04 - 06:15 PM
Bob Bolton 18 Jan 04 - 06:38 PM
open mike 18 Jan 04 - 06:44 PM
Joybell 18 Jan 04 - 07:05 PM
Joybell 18 Jan 04 - 07:32 PM
Stewie 18 Jan 04 - 07:40 PM
Bob Bolton 18 Jan 04 - 07:45 PM
Joybell 18 Jan 04 - 07:47 PM
The Fooles Troupe 19 Jan 04 - 01:16 AM
GUEST,Mr. Jhone 19 Jan 04 - 02:05 AM
The Fooles Troupe 19 Jan 04 - 02:10 AM
Dave Bryant 19 Jan 04 - 12:25 PM
Joybell 19 Jan 04 - 05:51 PM
Bob Bolton 19 Jan 04 - 08:43 PM
dick greenhaus 20 Jan 04 - 01:43 AM
Dave Bryant 20 Jan 04 - 04:55 AM
GUEST,JTT 20 Jan 04 - 05:05 AM
Clean Supper 20 Jan 04 - 11:42 AM
Dave the Gnome 20 Jan 04 - 11:58 AM
Q (Frank Staplin) 20 Jan 04 - 12:26 PM
The Fooles Troupe 20 Jan 04 - 06:19 PM
Bob Bolton 20 Jan 04 - 11:34 PM
The Fooles Troupe 21 Jan 04 - 01:29 AM
Jeri 21 Jan 04 - 10:16 AM
Joybell 21 Jan 04 - 04:54 PM
Gareth 21 Jan 04 - 07:08 PM
The Fooles Troupe 21 Jan 04 - 08:50 PM
Jeri 21 Jan 04 - 10:35 PM
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Subject: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Clean Supper
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 08:01 AM

Does anyone know who wrote the song "The F 1-11". I know the words and can add them if needed but the chorus, to remind you, is:

Oh the F one double one it is a lovely plane,
It flies at twice the speed of sound and scatters bombs like rain,
Its wings go back and forward, it´s the latest thing around,
It´s a pity that it isn´t safe to take it off the ground.

I´ve written a different song to this tune and I want to know the author of the tune, really. As far as I know, this song above is the original to the tune.
Ta


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: freda underhill
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 08:30 AM

have you mentioned those defective submarines, and the proposed missile defence system?

fred


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 09:23 AM

PLease post the words. and note possible similarity (in theme, if not in structure) to "Make Me Operations"


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 01:46 PM

Phil Garland used to sing it in NZ over 30 years ago.
I always thought it was an Aussie song.
The tune was 'Johnny Lad' so feel free!
Robyn


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 06:15 PM

The General Dynamics F-111 (1964) was an American plane. Cost-cutting led to a fiasco, several of the models (F-111A to F-111G) not performing to expected capability.

The Australian Airforce adopted the F-111C for a while. http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-111.htm

Doesn't help with the song; just background.


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 06:38 PM

... Arghh ... !

Melbourne (Australia) songwriter, Vietnam War era ... and I can't bring my Monday Morning brain to remember which of several! I can't visualise him singing it ... but the name end of my brain is still not replying.

I'll post again from home ... if nobody else picks it up first.

Regard(les)s,

Bob


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: open mike
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 06:44 PM

eric bogle?


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Joybell
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 07:05 PM

Lyell Sayer wrote it. He said he used "Johnny Lad" as the tune. He wrote several songs but this song was the best known. I'll post the words as a separate thread. Joy


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Subject: Lyr Add: The F-111 by Lyell Sayer
From: Joybell
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 07:32 PM

Taken form the publication by the Victorian Folk Music Club:
"The Joy Durst Memorial Australian Song Collection" collection no. 4 page 85.

The F-111 words by Lyell Sayer, Melbourne; tune from "Johnny Lad".

Now, Robert Menzies was walking down the street,
And thinking of our airforce which was mostly obsolete;
"Our Canberra bombers are getting old as hell,
I'd better call up Uncle Sam and see what he can sell."

Chorus:
Oh, the F-one-double one it is a lovely plane,
It flies at twice the speed of sound and scatters bombs like rain,
It's wings go back and forward, it's the latest thing around,
It's a pity that it isn't safe to take it off the ground.

He said to Uncle Sammy, "We want to buy a plane
To save our lovely country from going down the drain;
We want to scare some Asians, so see what you can do."
The answer was, "Bob, buddy, we've got just the thing for you."

Bob said, "We'll take two dozen." The plane they had to make,
And soon they had one ready, its first flight for to take,
It whistled down the runway with a dreadful roaring sound,
And then broke up in little bits and fell back on the ground.

They sent six off to Vietnam, the country to defend,
To wipe out all the Viet Cong and cause the war to end,
But Ho Chi Min said, "Comrades, don't waste our precious shells,
These brand-new planes the Yankees have all fall down by themselves."

Now years have come and years have gone, and we all still depend
On our nice old Canberra bombers our country to defend;
The plane's prices double every time one takes a spill,
And if Sir Robert was still here, we'd make him pay the bill.

And when they are all ready, and we have paid the fee,
Our Generous Uncle Sammy will make delivery,
But I doubt if it will be much good to him or you or I,
At the present rate of accidents we've got a week's supply.

                                              Cheers Joy


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 07:40 PM

Thanks, Joybell. For some reason, I had it associated in my mind with Don Henderson. It was very popular among folkies this end of Oz too. I was probably misinformed by Ted from Australia who used to sing it with a group called Bludger O'Toole. I'll blame him anyway. Where are you Ted?

--Stewie.


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 07:45 PM

G'day Joybell,

Thanks for that ... I just could not remember which of several names was the right one! I see that the Joy Durst Songbook had the sense to spell out "F - one, double one" - earlier printing (Tradition ... ?) gave F-111 - and several people I have run into sing it "F one - eleven" ... having only seen that in print!

BTW: Joe Offer has scolded me for starting a separate thread to post the lyrics ... he reckons it will be "harvested" if you put the lyrics into the mother thread, but change your subject heading to "Lyric Add: ...". I'm not sure I have seen enough evidence that either will ever get the song into the DT (old, sore, point!).

Regards,

Bob Bolton


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Joybell
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 07:47 PM

Hello Stewie, Don Henderson was one of the best and this could well have been one of his songs. A friend of mine met Henderson's mother in a bus stop once and he told the story for years. You'd have thought he'd met Elvis's mum. Anyway Don Henderson was good. I don't know Ted or Bludger O'Toole but I wish I did. Cheers Joy.


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 01:16 AM

BB "I'm not sure I have seen enough evidence that either will ever get the song into the DT (old, sore, point!)."

..or that any particular song posted will ever be harvested into the DT Bob...

I was told that none of my original ones submitted, even those noted in the "Songs you posted" threads would be, because no-one was singing them! Allegedly only "currently well known orignal ones" would be... I was told that they had been referred to the Mudcat Songbook, but my attempts to contact the "owner email address" of that site have led to no replies... makes you wonder why bother - although they can be found by searching the threads in the forum, but who would know that they were even there?!!!!

This is not meant ot be a nasty criticism of a volunteer organisation - I have put much time into such things in the past, and

1) no one ever thanks you
2) no one remembers if you did anything right
3) everyone remembers if you did anything wrong...
(there used to be a poster like that on my desk!)

Robin


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: GUEST,Mr. Jhone
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 02:05 AM

i donot know


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 02:10 AM

Yes Joybell,
I have it in my copy of "The Joy Durst Memorial Australian Song Collection"

so we don't need any mpore posts surely claiming that someone else wrote it - unless you have real proof... or that you don't know...


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 12:25 PM

The original swing-wing design for the F111 came from Barnes Wallis who designed the Dam Busters' bouncing bomb and also the WW2 Wellington Bomber among other things.


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Joybell
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 05:51 PM

I humbly apologised for starting a new thread. I didn't know you could change a thread to "Lyrics Add", but then I was too impatient to read all the info on being a new Mudcatter so again sorry all. Joy


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 08:43 PM

G'day Joybell,

I was just mentioning it ... having been very prone to post the song lyrics/tune to a new thread myself.

Joe suggested it not only did not help in ensuring "harvesting", but it just added an unnecessary thread that would have to be pursued by anyone looking in the original thread for the response to the song request.

Regards,

Bob Bolton


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 01:43 AM

Mea Culpa! At least minima culpa.

DigiTrad hasn't been updated for a couple of years, due to an astounding number of distractions (like earning a living and trying to get CAMSCO Music operating properly), a couple of major computer crashes and a fierce headache.
The new version (9500 odd songs) is now undergoing conversion to the various versioms that have become necessary--DOS, Windows (several editions), Mac (several editions) and the awkward (but fast) HTML version here on the Internet. Since the convertor is also burdened with other things (He's the co-editor of the wonderful Loomis House edition of Child), I can't promise just when it will be released.
One advantage of the Mudcat is that songs posted on threads are available, even if not as conveniently as those in DigiTrad. We'll incorporate your contributions as soon as we can, but please try to be patient.


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 04:55 AM

Dick - the next thing we'll be pushing you for is a version of the DT to run on Pocket PC - and perhaps even one for PALM OS.


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 05:05 AM

Hmmm. I saw that as "E1-11" and wondered: "What? There's a song about the trans-EU medical insurance form???"


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Clean Supper
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 11:42 AM

Thanks Joybell for song info and everyone else for titbits and diversions. I can complete my notation of sources now. Ta muchly


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 11:58 AM

Does anyone remember the rock album dedicated to the catastophic German Air Force variation of the Lockheed Starfighter?

I think the band were made up of people from other bands, including Hawkwinds Bob Calvert(?) but named themselves 'Captain Lockeheed and the Starfighters' for the purposes of this one album.

Wasn't the Starfighter a forerunner of the the 1-11. 1-06? 1-05?
Something like that. From what I am reading here about the 1-11 it sounds like the aircraft industry ain't leared much:-(

No help. perhaps more background:-)

Cheers

DtG


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 12:26 PM

The Germans in WW2 had a medium bomber, the Heinkel He111.
Canadian Air Force men had a song called "I Was Chasing One-Elevens" (up at Angels 23- term for 23000 feet). In Hopkins, "Songs From the Front and Rear" (Canadian).
The song probably was from the RAF, but it is not in "The Airman's Song Book," C. H. Ward-Jackson and Leighton Lewis, Blackwood & Sons.


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 06:19 PM

I can not remember the F 111 ever being referred to as the 1-11, it was always mentioned in Australia as the "one hunderd & eleven" and always written "111".

Whlie there are a few technical problems with the Swing Wing, Barnes Wallce was correctly brilliant in that it does allow an enormous flexibility in capability - are there any other current Swing Wing planes?

Aussie airmen refer to the plane as "the pig" - I know a few guys who used to work on them. The plane fits the Aussies requirements of range (particularly well!) and flexibility of platform capabilities - with the now genuine offical talk of the beasts being retired, the replacements will now mostly not be able to reach Indonesa and leave a "package" there... :-)

The flyover and "dump and burn" (at night), with the subsequent "climb and vanish" has become a faily common part of Aussie public events, and the beast thus holds a place in the hearts of many of us, especially the little kids... :-)

So perhaps we need a new song about this part of Ausie heritage.

The plane many years ago became notorious for doing a secret and quick photographic run over Canberra and returning with a highly detailed picture of a particular politicans desk, allegedly the papers on it could be read. The fact that if this guy's office could be photographed that precisely, that it could also be targetted with something much more noisy was not lost at the time... :-) Can't remember the exact year, someone else may...

Robin


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 11:34 PM

G'day Foolestroupe,

They must talk slower up your way ... I can't remember the F 111 (always written in one group) being called anything other than "eff one eleven" around Sydney ... so Lyell Sayer's "eff one - double one" struck me as an oddity - maybe a Melbournisn ... or just the way it had to be to scan!

Then ... maybe we all called it something different in each state!

Regards,

Bob Bolton


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Subject: Song Challenge: 'F 111 is gone'
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 01:29 AM

Bob, it was never called "one hundred and eleven" just wanted to spell it out in words.


So how about that new Song Challenge - and in order to comply with the requests to limit the number of threads I have placed it in here - but I suppose that nobody will ever see more than this message with that title...

Robin


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 10:16 AM

Robin, I think the 'requests to limit the number of threads' are really 'requests not to start a thread to make one post'. Additionally, in a thread titled 'lyr add', every single message will come up on a search, not just the one with the lyrics. And what gets added to the DT is songs that people want the words for, not ones we want them to want the words for. I have bunches of songs that aren't in the DT.

Anyway, on topic -
I was in the (US) Air Force and stationed at bases that had these suckers. We WROTE it as F-111 (sometimes drawing a little roof over the '111'...or maybe that was just me) but SAID it Eff-one-eleven. The ones with photo equipment were FB-111s. They were called a few other things as well, and I'm sure 'pig' was one of them. They had a problem with wind shear, and with the right conditions, they did not fly so much as they did plummet.

At one base, a couple of co-workers got pulled to go dig pieces of an airplane out of a hillside. Most of the crew had been recovered, but I do recall one of them said they'd found boots...with feet in them. The ejection mechanism didn't always eject the entire crewmember. Another time, another base, another ejection, and the guy hit the button a bit late and was forcefully shot out of the top of the aircraft...sideways, into a tree. The 'chute was in the medical refrigerator for a couple of weeks, until the investigators figured out what to do with it.


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Joybell
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:54 PM

Thanks for the Song challenge posting Robin. I can see how it works now. Also thanks Joe for the example on "The Cat Came Back" thread. Joy


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Gareth
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 07:08 PM

Foolestroupe -

Ever heard of the BAC "Tornado" ?

Gareth


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 08:50 PM

Gareth - not really sure...

Jeri - the F-111 Australia has came (as far as I can remember) with the complete cockpit tub as an ejection pod (an emminently clever idea, I always thought!) - you were probably thinking of other planes. My dad was a W/O in WWII at Bundaberg - there was ONE duty he hated the most - there were always crashes, especially in training, especially when fully laden multi-engined bombers had an engine die on takeoff...

Joybell, couldn't think if anything sensible to say, so filled the post with drivel - not unusual for me, eh? ;-)

It was always pronounced 1-11 - one-eleven, bu always writtn "one undred and eleven" - 111.

Robin


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Subject: RE: Who wrote the 'F 1-11' song?
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 10:35 PM

My mistake Robin. I'd heard horror stories about ejection modules, and 20-some years after the accident, they got mixed in. Those guys hadn't tried to eject. It was in the UK, and I think it was 1980. (Could have been '79-'81) I remember there was another 111 that crashed in the North Sea around the same time.


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