Origins: Bless 'Em All

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: cnd
Date: 19 Sep 23 - 09:30 AM

Jonathan, sorry for the dumb comment, but the meaning of "BEM" eludes me -- could you elaborate? Bless Em All?

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 19 Sep 23 - 11:18 AM

Right, Carter. I meant to type "BEA."

"BEM, of course," is sf lingo for "Bug-Eyed Monster."

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: cnd
Date: 19 Sep 23 - 06:02 PM

Aha, clear as mud! ;)

Thanks

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 20 Sep 23 - 07:37 AM

He got the BEM for singing BEA:-)
(That's British Empire Medal)

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Aug 23 - 05:08 PM

"The Sun" (Sydney) (June 14, 1942):

"The only song widely sung by British soldiers on the march this war is 'Bless 'Em All,' to the tune of the football song of the nineties, 'On the Ball.'"

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Aug 23 - 08:52 AM

"The Era" (London) (Nov. 10, 1894):

"'On the Ball.' Stirring Football Song for Principal Boy, by Louis B.
Tisdale and E. Ousely Gilbert."

I haven't found any other references, much less the music.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Aug 23 - 09:14 AM

There's this, from Paul Simpson, "The Rough Guide to Cult Football" (2003):

"The oldest known football song still used today is Norwich City's 'On the Ball, City,' written by Albert T. Smith, a City director, around 1890 as a music hall song."

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Aug 23 - 04:12 PM

That leaves Tisdale and Gilbert's song as the only remaining suspect.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 10:17 AM

Interesting that the ranks deplored in the familiar version of the song - sergeants, WO1s, and corporals - are all army ranks. Likewise the reference to "swaddies."

It's unlikely that Godfrey would have sung about army ranks in the RNAS in 1917.

RAF versions mention "airmen." I'm unaware of any version that mentions RNAS or RN ranks.

The point is that very little of Godfrey's original could have remained in the 1940 version - possibly no more than the tune and "[whatever] 'em all!"

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 01:14 PM

Thanks, Carter!

Unfortunately, it takes a good deal of tweaking to make the words scan to "Bless 'em All!"

Another false trail.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 01:49 PM

The words to two commercial American rewrites are here:


https://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/b/blessemall.html

Cringeworthy by any standard.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 05:15 PM

Presumably Jimmy Hughes and/or Frank Lake had heard a descendant of Godfrey's song and either tinkered with or completely revised it.

It would be interesting to know where they got it, what it was really like, and how well known it was before the end of 1940.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Sep 23 - 01:46 PM

Quentin Reynolds, "A London Diary" (1941):

"The [RAF] boys who fly the Lockheed Hudson bombers and dive bombers over Norway [in 1940] have a grand song almost one fifth of which can be printed. It is sung to the tune of an old English classic, ‘There’s a troop ship just leaving Bombay….’ It goes (allowing for changes):

        They say there’s a Hudson just leaving Norway
        Bound for old Scotland’s shore
        Heavily laden with terrified airmen
        Bound for the land they adore.
        There’s many a Heinkel around in the Skagerrak
       And many a Messerschmitt too
        You’ll get no promotion that side of the ocean,
        So cheer up, my lad, bless ‘em all.

        Bless ‘em all, bless ‘em all—the long and the short and the tall.
        Bless all the sergeants and W.O. 1s—their blessed daughters and their blessed sons - etc.

"Low and I can’t sing as well as Beattie, but we can sing louder."

Reynold's dates this journal passage "Oct. 1," which would be weeks earlier than the earliest newspaper mention of the pop song (Dec. 12, 1940) that I've found.

FWIW.

(Google Bard insisted that "BEM" was released on March 15, 1940, citing several websites, but when challenged confessed it had no idea of the precise date.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Sep 23 - 05:25 PM

Two weeks earlier: "Bedfordshire Times and Independent" (Nov. 29, 1940), (George Formsby's?) recording advertised as: “Bless ‘em All: The Service Song.”

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Lighter
Date: 19 Sep 23 - 11:18 AM

Right, Carter. I meant to type "BEA."

"BEM, of course," is sf lingo for "Bug-Eyed Monster."

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Paul Burke
Date: 29 Aug 23 - 09:05 AM

"The corporals and their sons - being older than the private soldiers, corporals were more likely to have married and have a young family."

According to my Dad, it was a reference to favouritism.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Paul Burke
Date: 19 Sep 23 - 06:04 AM

According to my father (British army c1941-47), the "sons" referred to favouritism by corporals- perhaps the lowest rank to have any real power.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 29 Aug 23 - 02:45 PM

On the Ball text and recording is on the Norwich City website and neither bear any resemblance to 'Bless em all'.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 20 Sep 23 - 07:37 AM

He got the BEM for singing BEA:-)
(That's British Empire Medal)

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: cnd
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 11:45 AM

Here's the lyrics (no dots, unfortunately) to On The Ball, A Football Song -- By Louis B. Tisdale, via The Boys Own Paper, Vol. XX No. 992 (Jan. 15, 1898), p. 253

ON THE BALL
(Louis B. Tisdale)

In the days of old, with spirits bold,
Have Britons fought like men;
On tented field, they'd never yield,
No foes could 'fright them then.
And so, to-day, in sport and play,
Our race is still the same:
With valiant hearts they play their parts,
When Football is the game.

On the ball, on the ball,
Play up, let her go:
That's the plan, take the man,
Shoot for all you know.
Away with her, well shot, my boys,
Make the leather roll—
Now then, altogether lads,
Hurrah! another goal!

In frost and snow our faces glow,
Our anxious hearts heat high;
We struggle still, but win we will,
At least we'll bravely try.
We know no fear, for with a cheer
Across the field we fly,
Then back once more, as with a roar
We shout the battle cry—

On the ball, on the ball,
Play up, let her go:
That's the plan, take the man,
Shoot for all you know.
Away with her, well shot, my boys,
Make the leather roll—
Now then, altogether lads,
Hurrah! another goal!

Theee cheers, my boys, for all the joys
Of Football, prince of games:
No sport so fair, none can compare,
No matter what their names.
Then join with me in three times three,
For our beloved game,
For Football will, through good and ill,
But add to England's fame.

On the ball, on the ball,
Play up, let her go:
That's the plan, take the man,
Shoot for all you know.
Away with her, well shot, my boys,
Make the leather roll—
Now then, altogether lads,
Hurrah! another goal!

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: cnd
Date: 19 Sep 23 - 09:30 AM

Jonathan, sorry for the dumb comment, but the meaning of "BEM" eludes me -- could you elaborate? Bless Em All?

Subject: RE: Origins: Bless 'Em All
From: cnd
Date: 19 Sep 23 - 06:02 PM

Aha, clear as mud! ;)

Thanks