WWII songs

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: mg
Date: 20 Oct 03 - 10:47 PM

I did find it and search around this web site and you will find it too..just type in keep the home-fires burning john mccormack and it is one of the first..

but here is a recording of Christmas sounds in the German trenches in WWI....someone probably was playing a record...

http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/germanxmas.htm

this is an amazing site...lots of old WWI songs..

mg

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: mg
Date: 20 Oct 03 - 10:31 PM

I suspect he or she meant

keep the home-fires burning
while your hearts are yearning,
though the lads are far away they dream of home
there's a silver lining
through each dark cloud shining
turn the dark cloud inside out till the boys come home.

I used to have a clip of John McCormack playing that..don't think I still do but search around the internet and you might find it . It is an absolutely great song/singer combination. mg

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Oct 03 - 08:10 PM

Just to note someone wrote keep the campfires burning. Maybe you are singing a different song but I wonder if you should be singing keep the home-fires burning!

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 20 Apr 03 - 10:47 PM

Interesting essay and songs. "Songs of the Air Force in the Vietnam War." Lydia Fish. Vietnam Songs

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 19 Apr 03 - 08:49 PM

Who was Fred Godfrey? Could he have been the popular composer? A Fred Godfrey was composer, with A. J. Mills and Bennett Scott of the 1916 hit song, "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty." Published by Chappell Music, London.
From a useful list of WW1 songs at: WW1 Songs
He is listed as composer of "Come Lads and Lasses," (Arr.?) of "Lucy Long," Arr. for piano 1925 "Patience," and arr. works by Grieg for piano. "Meet Me, Jenny, When the Sun Goes Down" (with Murphy and Castling, attrib. ?), "Have You Got Another Girl At Home Like Mary?" by A. J. Lawrence and Fred Godfrey (1908). Billy Williams (Australian) collaborated with Fred Godfrey for a time on popular tunes.

Words to "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" at Blighty

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 19 Apr 03 - 08:08 PM

I once heard a full British Military Band play "Bless 'Em All," with strong emphasis on drums as they marched along. I could believe a band music origin as well.
I agree, it is a song that sticks to your guts and brain and odd that we haven't a clue as to a starting point.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: toadfrog
Date: 19 Apr 03 - 07:06 PM

Well, it is a mysterious song, because the tune is a remarkably good one, and sounds like it has to come from an older dance tune, to which someone then wrote a military parody. It is just too good a tune to have been invented by an anonymous soldier at some anonymous time. People who invent tunes that good, in recent times, have not normally remained anonymous. And I respectfully suggest that if someone can locate the sheet music for that tune, so that we know when the tune was popular, we have the key to when the song itself originated.

Someone once told me there was a Spanish song, transl. "I Like them All." Is that a concept for anyone?

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 19 Apr 03 - 03:39 PM

Agreed, there are lots of songs which supposedly have long white beards, but documentation is lacking. I quoted Cray and Hopkins, but there is nothing beyond their anecdotal, unsupported evidence.
We have just about lost all WW1 soldiers, the only hope for verification is in their notes and letters, which upon their deaths their descendants consign to trash.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,lighter
Date: 19 Apr 03 - 02:32 PM

Q: When Cray, Hopkins and others ascribe "Bless 'em All" to Fred Godfrey, 1916, they merely repeat an assertion made by Ward-Jackson in 1945 (see above). There seems to be no available evidence for this claim beyond hearsay. It may well be true, but what is the real basis of the claim? All we know is that Hughes and Lake copyrighted their British version in 1940, making the song an immediate hit, and that other, quite insipid, pop versions followed. The burden of proof, which may still be met by someone, rests upon those who simply ASSERT the song's existence before that date. (Use of the melody may indicate that it, at least, really was in the public domain, but we still need evidence.)

"Bless 'em All" was one of the best-known melodies of the 20th century. It would be nice to know more about the song's history.

Subject: Lyr Add: FUCK 'EM ALL
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 08:37 PM

"Bless 'Em All" (Fuck 'em All) is listed in the Traditional Ballad Index cufresno. It is dated 1916 and credited to F. Godfrey?

Much more discussion, and several versions, are given by Ed Cray in his "Erotic Muse." Ewan MacColl noted that this song has "been the anthem of British Fighting Men since World War 1. Anthony Hopkins, 1979, "Songs From the Front and Rear," p. 105, credits the song to F. Godfrey, 1916, and linked with the Royal Naval Air Service.
The song was not copyrighted until 1940, by Hughes and Lake, as noted in posts above.

Of the several versions, Cray gives pride of place to the British Army version. The first verse is essentially the same as the WW2 British version in the DT, but with the "Fuck 'Em All" chorus.

FUCK 'EM ALL

They say there's a troopship just leaving Bombay,
Bound for old Blighty's shore,
Heavily laden with time-expired men
Bound for the land they adore.
There's many a soldier has finished his time;
There's many a twerp signin' on,
But they'll get no promotion this side of the ocean,
So cheer up, my lads, fuck 'em all.

Chorus;
Fuck 'em all, fuck 'em all,
The long and the short and the tall.
Fuck all the corporals and W. O. Ones,
'Cause we're sayin' good-by to them all,
As back to the billet we crawl.
They'll get no promotion this side of the ocean,
So cheer up, my lads, fuck 'em all.

Alternate chorus:
Fuck 'em all, fuck 'em all,
The long and the short and the tall.
Fuck all the sergeants and their bleedin' sons,
Fuck all the corp'rals and W.O. ones,
'Cause we're sayin' good-by to them all,
As back to the billet we crawl.
They'll get no promotion this side of the ocean,
So cheer up, my lads, fuck 'em all.

Cray also prints a variation on the Lancaster version of WW2 (in the DT):

They say there's a Lancaster leaving the Ruhr,
Bound for old Blighty's shores,
Heavily laden with terrified men,
Shit-scared and prone on the floor.
There's many a flak gun shooting them down,
There's many a night fighter, too,
But there'll be no promotions,
This side of the ocean,
So, cheer up my lads, fuck 'em all.

Chorus:
Fuck 'em all, fuck 'em all,
The long and the short and the tall.
Fuck all the sergeants and WO-1s,
Fuck all the corporals and their bastard sons,
For we are saying good-by to them all,
The long and the short and the tall,
There'll be no promotions this side of the ocean,
So, cheer up my lads, fuck 'em all.

Subject: Lyr Add: COOK 'EM ALL
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 08:16 PM

Here's a version of Bless 'em all I cooked up a couple of moths ago, when there were stories about how cooks in the British Army were having to provide instruction on fighting, because of shortages of trained instructors.

Cook 'em all, cook 'em all,
Now the cookies have answered the call.
Cook all the sergeants and the officers too,
And cook all their privates to serve in a stew.
They say that we're headed away to the East
Though we'd much sooner go down the pub,
There's some bugger called Bush says it's time for a push,
Though we'd rather be dishing up grub.

Here we go, cheerio,
You might think we are marching too slow,
But the British divisions need ample provisions,
To be fit for to fight with the foe,
I hear that the tanks that we got from the Yanks
Are inclined to get stuck in the sand,
But with bangers and mash we will cut quite a dash,
So they need us to give them a hand.

Cook em all, cook em all,
The long and the short and the tall,
They're cooking up something and it seems it's a war,
So it's time to get stuck in, like always before.
But are we downhearted or are we distressed?
Why no, we'll be having a ball,
For cookie is always at home in a mess.
So cheer up me lads, cook 'em all.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Compton
Date: 18 Apr 03 - 07:49 PM

Just a thought !...I heard a record some while ago called "Come On Boys"...which had a fair number of Bawdy(ish) songs on..I think Dave Townsend (and the Sods Chorus??)had some thing to do with it. Cant remember all the tracks but a new version of Bloody Orkney was on it!

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Peggles
Date: 16 Apr 03 - 03:12 AM

Steve'
Last line to "Washing" "Here's a song that we all sing and it will make you laugh".

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,lighter
Date: 15 Apr 03 - 04:50 PM

TOADFROG: Yes, the Indian army subject matter of "Bless 'em All" in its widely known WWII version does suggest a pre-war origin, and, further, that Hughes & Lake may have just tidied up a saltier original and added new stanzas of their own.(The Indian army references appear only in stanza 1 and, presumably, in the chorus : "no promotion this side of the ocean." My point is simply that the Fred Godfrey/WW I origin has been repeated for decades (at least since C. H. Ward-Jackson's "The Airman's Songbook" (1945), but no one has provided the slightest evidence that it is true; nor is there a text of any sort collected or sung before 1940. I may well have missed something, but I've never come across even a first-person recollection of singing or hearing the song in any form before WW II.

The word "airman" alone in the 1940 version hardly guarantees an RFC/RAF origin. Hughes & Lake might have changed it from "swaddy" or "soldier" or, if the RN is invoked, "sailor" or "matlow." (Just speculating here, of course.)

Now for a positive turn. Harry Morgan's "More Rugby Songs" contains a short lyric, seemingly of British cavalry origin, called "F*** 'Em All." It doesn't scan well to the Hughes & Lake tune, but is perhaps relevant for two reasons. First, Ward-Jackson's WW II text contains a stanza about the British cavalry. Second, Legman somewhere observes that Morgan included some texts (he doesn't say which ones) from a mimeographed collection of bawdy Indian army cavalry songs compiled 1939 - 1940. Further info not at hand. IF the Morgan song is pre-WWII, it could be the progenitor of the well-known "Bless 'em All" in its infinite permutations. In that case, though, Hughes & Lake would seem to have rewritten and reset the old song till it was essentially a new creation.

If anyone wants to investigate further (and they should), I wish them luck.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: toadfrog
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 10:38 PM

GUEST: When I asked about that earlier, on THIS THREAD, the response seemed to be that Godfrey's version was not printed because it was not considered printable in its day. And also, that Godfrey only wrote down a song already long in circulation. There has sure been an enormous change in my lifetime, which is getting to seem long but is but nothing to the geologist, in attitudes about what is printable be printed and what isn't.

Of course all this does not prove the song is old. But the songs words are not about World War II, so it seems implausible it was written then.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 04:13 PM

Fred Godfrey may well have written "Bless 'em All" in 1916 as Roy Palmer (and others) have maintained, but no one seems to have published this putative "ur-text." Nor have I come across a contemporary reference to anybody singing the song during World War I.
If Palmer's is pukka gen, a Great War version is out there. But is it? As for Winstock's pensioners (more than one or two?) they were thinking back sixty years or more and may simply have been mistaken. It is significant that Winstock provides no early text in "Songs and Music of the Redcoats," his well-researched book on pre-1914 British military music.

At any rate, part of the melody of "Bless 'em All" strongly resembles that of the popular World War I song, "I Want to Go Home," credited to Canadian Lieutenant Gitz Rice.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Santa
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 06:53 AM

Bloody Orkneys

"...no bloody girls, no bloody beer..." and so on for several verses.

It doubtless had many versions with other placenames!

The Fleet Air Arm Museum sells a songbook of FAA, mainly WW2, songs. There are others (including the A25 song) in Cyril Tawney's The Grey Funnel Line.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Genie
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 02:23 AM

Merci, Laurent, pour l'histoire de la chanson "Aupr쳌s De Ma Blonde." V™tre Anglais est mieux que ma Fran쳌ais, bien sžr. J'ai cru que cette chanson etait plus vieux que le vingtieme Ciecle, mais je n'ai pas su quand les Fran쳌ais ont fait la guerre avec les Hollandais.

Genie (Jeanene)

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 08:57 PM

I have 'The Airmens Songbook' lots of RFC and RAF songs , One I DO like is Heinkel Come Back to Me,a parody of Lover come Back to Me.
Words availablle on request.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Laurent
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 05:38 PM

One last (?) word about the song "Auprès de ma blonde".

The song goes back to the early 18thcentury. It seems to have been known since 1704 as "Le prisonnier de Hollande". "Auprès de ma blonde" was the French foot soldiers' marching song at the battle of Denain (July 1712), during the war of the Spanish Succession.

(Being French, I apologize for my poor English).

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: The Walrus
Date: 23 Oct 02 - 07:48 PM

Genie,

Re: "Bless 'Em All"
Lewis Winstock was told by some Chelsea Pensioners that the song "was current" in the army during the last decade of the 19th Century.
According to Roy Palmer, it was written (or just first written down) by one Fred Godfrey of the RNAS, and the popular arrangement was written in about 1940 by Jimmy Hughes and Frank Lake.

(all culled from Roy Palmer's "What a Lovely War")

Regards

Walrus

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Genie
Date: 23 Oct 02 - 12:22 AM

So, Joe F,

"Bless 'Em All" (or, more properly, "Fuck 'Em All"), ... is a good deal older... .

How old is it?   And what were the earlier lyrics. (Did they include,
"You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean...?")

Genie

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Nov 01 - 11:55 AM

Masato Sakurai: Thanks very much for the additional information. MacColl seems to have been quite the slyboots: "...is said to be..." (but not, of course, by me!). %^)

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: masato sakurai
Date: 05 Nov 01 - 06:51 PM

The name "Ewan McColl" [sic] is given also at the end of the lyrics of "The Second Front Song" in Martin Page, Kiss Me Goodnight, Sergeant Major (Panther, 1973, p. 146)[MartinRyan's original], but MacColl says in notes to Bundook Ballads: Ewan MacColl (Topic 12T 130):

THE SECOND FRONT SONG By 1944 a good deal of hostility had arisen between British troops and American soldiers based in the British Isles. A good deal of this was the result of the difference in spending power between the troops of the two nations. Although the tune is well known in Scotland under the title of Musselborough Fair, the song is said to be the work of a group of English soldiers serving in a regiment of The Black Watch. By 1945 the song had become a signal for a free fight and it was consequently outlawed in all pubs patronised by troops. On V.E. night, a riot was narrowly averted in Leeds, Yorkshire, when troops numbering more than a thousand defied the authorities by singing it in the civic centre.

And, according to Ewan MacColl: songmaker (Introduction to The Essential Ewan MacColl by Peggy Seeger),

"He was a contortionist in some cases and, for reasons best known to himself, often did not claim authorship of certain songs which family and friends know are unarguably his." Ivor", "The Second Front Song", "Browned Off' are three that spring immediately to mind. Of course, it is possible that he wrote them with other people. But when he sang them onstage, he would never say whose songs they were or where he had learned them (a sure sign with Ewan, for he would always credit the maker if he knew who it was. And his memory was infallible). He would rarely say, onstage, 'This is a song I wrote' or 'This is one of my songs'. "

~Masato

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 Nov 01 - 11:50 AM

MartinRyan: Thanks very much for looking that up. Further light on what MacColl did during the war!

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,wildlone
Date: 04 Nov 01 - 01:44 PM

For Soldiers songs you can try Click here
This page has

D day Dodgers with a verse that I have not heard sung before. {found on this site Click here
dave

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 Nov 01 - 07:32 AM

Joe F.

Regarding "The Second Front Song". Martin Pages book "The (bawdy) Songs and Ballads of World War ii" (originally published as "Kiss me Goodnight, Sergeant Major..") gives Ewan McColl as the author.

Regards

p.s. Its striking, incidentally, how many of the songs were fitted to "The Mountains of Mourne" air.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Tweed
Date: 02 Nov 01 - 08:37 PM

Here's a couple you can listen to if you got some time on your hands. They're from the Library of Congress' Fort Valley State College Folk festival recordings in 1943. This is Mr. Buz Ezell doin' "Roosevelt and Hitler" parts one and two. They're rough as cobs but good recordings of his songs just the same. You just gotta listen a little closer to make 'em out. Windows Media plays 'em pretty good.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Genie
Date: 02 Nov 01 - 03:53 PM

refresh for folks looking for Veterans' Day song lists

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Oct 01 - 07:04 PM

"Bless 'Em All" (or, more properly, "Fuck 'Em All"), tho popular during W.W. II (especially, IIRC, in the U.S. Air Force), is a good deal older & is British in origin.

Does anyone know who wrote "The Second Front Song"? To me, it is one of the most impressive songs to come out of the war. I don't mean to say that I heard it during the war -- I was a little boy in California then. I heard it at the Ballads & Blues Society in London in 1959, and then in Ewan MacColl's collection.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Oct 01 - 01:10 AM

refresh for guest looking for songs for her classes' tribute

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,Jeanene
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 04:46 PM

Would "Dona, Dona" be considered a WWII song?

I did get a book from the library that had a lot of Jewish songs -- mostly in Yiddish -- about the Holocaust and WWII. Naturally, most of these are not happy songs, but some, like "Dona, Dona" and the German "Die Gedanken Sind Frei," are defiant and/or a tribute to the strength of the desire for freedom and the struggle to overcome oppression.

Jeanene

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 03:28 PM

Dear Mr "Walrus"

Thank you for your observations re: "Who do you Think.You Are Kidding Mr. Hitler?".which was - as you pointed out performed solo by Bud Flanagan.

I didn't know that it was written as late as 1960!.

I have been racking my brains trying to think of other WW11 songs that were sung in those far off days.

Maybe the "doodlebug that was dropped at the end of our street and which blew all the windows and doors out of our house.(and we were sheltering under the stairs, right next to the gas meter!!)

That could have affected my memory!

Anyway thanks for putting me straight.

Remember me to the "Carpenter" when next you see him!!

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 01:29 AM

Hey---thanx for the Hutsut song! ---I can remember singing that one in '47!

Have the "D-day Dodgers" had a mention?

Some of the gems brought home by the Desert Rats have stayed in my memory over the years--- "Bury me out in the Desert" 'Bury me out in the desert Under a Libyan sun Bury me out in the desert-- My duty for Blighty is done And when you get back to old Glasgow [Newcastle-Cardiff-belfast---etc......] Back to old Blighty once more, Remember the boys in the desert, Who'll never see Blighty no more."

A pawky parody of the Egyptian National anthem of the time was well known and sung by the "Rats". It begins 'Up yer pipe, King Farouk, Hang yer bollocks from a hook"---and gets quickly more impertinent from then on! Boab

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,Alta Rigo
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 11:11 PM

Most of the songs mentioned above are in English, but there is a great folk song that I think was popular in that era, "Die Gedanken Sind Frei." I think the Weavers may have sung it, and it it is in Rise Up Singing.

It has great lyrics both in German and in English.

Also, the Weavers' "Wasn't That A Time" (although Pete Seeger said on PBS today that the song was considered by many to be too "red" to be played on the radio a lot).

I'm also wondering about the Johnny Horton song, "Sink the Bismarck." When was it written and was it popular before the Horton version? (It's tune is pretty much the same as Woody Guthrie's "The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done."

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,genie
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 11:04 PM

A couple of folks mentioned "Aupres De Ma Blonde." This song does go back to before 1900 and its setting is, per the lyrics, some war between Holland and France. But it was a standard marching song for the Doughboys in World War I.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,genie
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 10:55 PM

"I'll Walk Alone" was also an immensely popular hit for Frank Sinatra as a teenage idol.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Gareth
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 07:00 PM

I fear there is a whole load of folk song lost, or misparked in the memories of veterans. As a kid in the 50's I can recall sheltering with my mother, and other mums and kids in the clubhouse kitchen of a certain Kentish Rugby Club, on Saturday Night whilst the singing went on. Yes I learnt some songs that got me a clip round the ear, when I repeated them.

They weren't just the bawdy, the A25 Song was one of them.

I was pleased to find that in the in Mudcat,

Mother's attitude, and that of the other wives was simple (This being in the mid 50's) They survived, they are entitled to sing.

The man we all called Uncle Tony, who taught me a cleaned up version of the A 25 Song, survived 3 years of flying Swordfish (String bags) including the sorties on the "Bismarck" from HMS "Victorious".

It was only later that I realised what that meant.

Some months ago I started this thread Click Here Now this may sound funny but I think we all have a duty to record and collect these songs before, and I quote Ralph McTell, " Memories fade, like the Medal ribbons that he wore "

Gareth

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: The Walrus
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 05:35 PM

Skipper,

> Do you remember Bud Flanagan & Chesney Allen and their > song "Who Do You Think You are Kidding Mister Hitler?" > >It was of course the theme music to "Dad's Army."

I think that you'll find that song is Bud Flanagan only (Chesney Allen was dead by the time it was recorded IIRC) IIRC "Who Do You Think...." Was actually written for "Dad's Army" in the 1960s.

Regards

Walrus

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 04:11 PM

I don't what happened to my last thread?? It seems that a chunk of it didn't print out.

Back to the Errol Flynn film where he won the war single handed!!

The song started with the line: "From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli."

As a war orphan in London during the blitz, The US army threw a party for a whole gang of kids like me. We were warned not to sing, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" It was considered politically incorrect - not that I knew what that meant at the time!

Has any one mentioned "Bless 'Em All"?

Do you remember Bud Flanagan & Chesney Allen and their song "Who Do You Think You are Kidding Mister Hitler?"

It was of course the theme music to "Dad's Army."

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 03:58 PM

I remember one of those "Errol Flynn" type war films where the rest of his platoon was surplus to requirements!!

One of the songs started with the line: From the Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli.."

I, as a war orphan in London during the blitz was invited along with many others to a party thrown by the US Army stationed there.

We were warned not to sing, "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy.." as it was considered politically incorrect. Not that I knew what that at the time!

So that's another WW11 Song.

Has anyone mentioned, "Bless 'Em All"?

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,genie
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 06:38 AM

Woody Guthrie, of course, made several contributions to WWII songs, although they weren't as popular as many of the ones mentioned above.

His main contribution, of course, was his answer to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" -- This Land Is Your Land. He also had a song about Fascists not being welcome. Something like, "We Don't Need No Fascists." (That's not it, but it's something like that.) "The Sinking Of the Reuben James," and "Round and Round Hitler's Grave" have already been mentioned.

But he, apparently, added WWII related verses to some of his existing songs while Hitler was in power. For instance, in the song, "The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done (The Great Historical Bum)," he sang this verse:

"There's a man across the ocean, I think ya know him well, His name is Adolf Hitler, we'll blow his soul to Hell, We'll kick him in the panzers and put him on the run, And that'll be the biggest thing that man has ever done."

He also wrote a song called "Miss Pavilchenko," about a Russian spy in WWII.

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,argenine
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 06:02 AM

I know this is a very old thread, but I looked into it because I do several Veterans' Day programs each year, and I am always looking to expand my playlist. While I have the thread open, I might as well add to it.

Some WWII and WWII era popular songs that haven't been mentioned are:

God Bless America --- Irving Berlin wrote it it WWI but did not publish or release it until 1938, when Kate Smith sang it on Armistice Day. It was so popular in WWII that there was a movement to make it the national anthem -- until Berlin nixed the idea of replacing the one we already had.

Sentimental Journey -- it launched Doris Day's career in 1945

Now Is The Hour - a Maori song from New Zealand. The Allied troops learned it, took it to Hawaii, where the English-lyric version became popular.

This Is the Army, Mister Jones - Irving Berlin
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Marie
In Apple Blossom Time
Red Sails In The Sunset
Harbor Lights
Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree
(Right In) Der Fuehrer's Face
There's A Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere
They're Either Too Young Or Too Old

Oh, How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning! -- Berlin wrote it in WWI --right after he got drafted!-- but he also sang it in a review for the troops in WWII.

Don't Get Around Much Anymore

Theses have been mentioned before but deserve a second mention:

Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition
Comin' In On A Wing And A Prayer
Beer Barrel Polka
Lili Marlene
Amapola
We'll Meet Again
When The Lights Go On Again (All Over The World)
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (recorded a few years after WWII, but related)

String of Pearls

P.S., My record of Dietrich singing "Lili Marlene," is an album called "Wiedersehen Mit Marlene," recorded live when she returned to Germany after a 20-year self-imposed exile (because of Hitler). It was recorded, I think, sometime around 1960.

I don't know if that was her first recording of it, but it's very special.

(Also, though I only took one semester of German, my understanding of the German lyrics tells me that she is a girlfriend, not a prostitute. If she is a prostitute, he sure is hung up on her!)

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: GUEST,argenine
Date: 03 Sep 01 - 05:04 AM

If you are singing armed forces songs, don't forget the oldest branch--the Coast Guard. Their song is "Semper Paratus" (Always Prepared).

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 10:43 AM

Hi Reta,

your story about the origin of Lili Marleen is definitely wrong. The lyrics were written in 1915 by Hans Leip when serving his time with the Fusilier Guards in Berlin (Look up the end of Lili Marleen in the Digitrad Database). Published the lyrics were in 1935 in "Die kleine Hafenorgel" (The little Port Organ), a collection of Leip's poems. Although of WW I origin, the song was made popular in WW II by the German Forces Network in Belgrad, when lacking a more popular song the military DJ played the B-side of a disc with a better known hit on it. Nobody could imagine at first what a hit they had landed. I think only a soldier parted from his true love, and remembering her in the dark hours can understand this song best, and the tune fitting the lyrics so well touches the heart of all soldiers, friend and foe.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 May 01 - 05:16 PM

Ahhhhh - thanks Doug. I should have said about WW11 - or was that irony? Never mind eh. Thanks anyway - either for the correction or for the laugh:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 25 May 01 - 11:17 AM

I'm disappointed! I think nobody's mentioned They Started Something, But We're Gonna End It, Right in Their Own Back Yard!" and Goodbye, Mama (I'm off to Yokohama)

Yours in the pursuit of musical excellence,

Dave Oesterrreich

Subject: Lyr Add: ROLL ME OVER^^
From: toadfrog
Date: 24 May 01 - 11:50 PM

Allen S: "Rodger Young" is on the DT, and you can find it easily without even a clickie. It is masquerading as a folk song; actually written by Frank Loesser, of Tin Pan Alley Fame (Tin Pan Alley gave us some great songs!)

What I actually miss on DT is the following genuine WWII folksong. A song honored by a mention in Stan Hugill's book. It is all over the web, including the following scholarly site, which identifies the author as "Anonymous."

ROLL ME OVER

Traditional

This is number one,
And the fun has just begun,

Roll me over, lay me down and do it again! (Do it again!)
Roll me over, Yankee soldier,
Roll me over, lay me down and do it again.

This is number two,
And my hand is on her shoe.

This is number three
And my hand is on her knee.

This is number four
And I've got her on the floor.

This is number five
And I'm glad that I'm alive.

This is number six
And I've got her in a fix.

This is number seven,
And I feel like I'm in Heaven.

This is number eight,
And the doctor's at the gate.

This is number nine,
And the twins are doing fine.

This is number ten,
Let's go back and do it again.

Charles McCabe called this the "Battle Hymn of the Republic of the Second World War." But people are always too embarassed to sing it, or else they add dumb cutsy lyrics which no soldier ever sang. But this is not just another "dirty song": It has a powerfultune, and millionsof British and American, and Canadian, and yes! maybe Austrialian soldiers sang it!

Subject: Lyr Add: PASSIVE RESISTANCE
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 May 01 - 07:56 PM

This is an unusal song an old friend found in the GET ON BOARD Collection of Folk Songs edited by Beatrice Landeck and published by Edward B. Marks Music Corp. in 1944; the song is unusual in terms of being a protest song, and for being written by a young Richard Dyer-Bennet.

PASSIVE RESISTANCE
(Words and music by Richard Dyer-Bennet © 1942)

This is a story of passive resistance,
Of a man who refused to give Nazis assistance;
A farmer there lived in occupied Norway
Who found a grim warning tacked on to his doorway,
It read: "You have failed to come up to your quota;
Next week if you fail by a single iota,
Your farm will be taken and you will be killed.
This is the law and must be fulfilled."

The farmer replied: "Sirs, the undersigned begs
To inform you concerning my quota of eggs,
I posted the warning right where the hens live,
But the stubborn old bipeds still failed to give
So I wrung all their necks, the foul saboteurs.
Delighted to serve you, sincerely yours."

Subject: RE: WWII songs
From: DougR
Date: 24 May 01 - 01:19 PM

I don't recall that song being popular during WWII, Dave.

DougR