The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #111708 Message #4178082
Posted By: Jack Horntip
30-Jul-23 - 08:54 PM
Thread Name: ADD: Dirty Lil folk song
Subject: RE: ADD: Dirty Lil folk song
RALPH McGILL They Were Singing, And at 6 A.M., Too
UNIVERISTY OF MIAMI-(By Mail)-- Later on I learned it was 6 o'clock. At the time I knew only that it was dark and that a terrific burst of singing by several hundred voices was coming up beneath my window.
I sat up, listening. The voices rang clearly:
"Oh, Dirty Lil, Dirty Lil, From up on Garbage Hill, Never took a bath and she never will. Tra, la-tra, la la, There never was a girl like Dirty Lil."
They finished the song and sergeant's voice (all sergeants' voices sound alike) began shouting the cadence:
"Hup, tup, thrup, foah! "Hup, up, thrup, foah!"
By this time another company was well in sound of hearing and down the road I could hear still another.
They gave me "Roll Out the Barrel," but the ext one was more Versatile:
"Oh, there are Rotterdam Dutch And the Amsterdam Dutch . . . .........................!!! Oh, the Lord made the Irish, He didn't make much, But they're a whole lot better Than the blank blank Dutch."
There were many ore songs: "Tipperary," "Smiles," "Underneath the Bamboo Tree," "Lulu," One Keg of Beer for the Four of Us," "Put a Nickel on the Drum," and so on.
Only once did I hear one of the war songs of this war. That was the marching song of the Royal Air Force, "I've Got Sixpence to Spend and Sixpence to Lend."
So far, I judge, no one has written a song the men like to sing except some of their own coposers. I have not yet had time to do any research on "Dirty Lil From Garbage Hill." Whether she be new or has long been celebrated in song I do not know. They like Dirty Lil.
April 13, 1944. "They Were Singing, And at 6 A.M., Too", Atlanta Constitution. Expurgation in the original.