Lyr Req/ADD: Good Morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip!

Subject: Lyr Add: GOOD MORNING MR ZIP ZIP ZIP
From: GUEST,Lily Gardner
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 11:36 PM

Hi all!

I've got 2 really terrible recordings of a song I just love, "Good Morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip!" Here are the lyrics as I hear them. Does anyone know if these are correct or if I'm mishearing?

We come from every corner
From the north south east and west
To clear the way to freedom for the land we love the best
We've left our occupations
And homes so far and dear
And when the going's rather rough we raise this song of cheer:

Good morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip with your hair cut just as short as mine
Good morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip, you're surely looking fine.
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
If the camels don't get you the Fatimas must
Good morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip with your hair cut just as short as mine.

You see us on the highway
You see us on the pike
In olive drab and khaki
Our soldiers on the hike
And as the column passes, the word goes down the line,
Good morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip you're surely looking fine.

(Chorus)

Also, were Camels and Fatimas just cigarettes, or was there some subtext there? My great grandfather used to think that was the funniest line for reasons he wouldn't explain. I guess the obvious other interpretation would be grouchy pack animals and local women...

Subject: ADD: Good Morning Mr Zip Zip Zip
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Aug 07 - 12:15 AM

Hi, Lily - This Google Search will lead you to lots of information. I was trying to find sheet music for the song, and found it here (click) at the Levy Sheet Music Collection.

Gee, this one's even got a Wikipedia entry!

Good Morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"Good Morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip" is a ragtime song published as sheet music in 1918 by Leo Feist Inc. of New York City. It was one of the most popular tunes with United States soldiers during the World War I era.

According to the sheet music, it was "written around a Fort Niagara fragment" by Robert Lloyd, "Army song leader." In 1918, both Victor Records (VI18510) and Columbia Records (A-2530) issued a recording of the song by Arthur Fields and the Peerless Quartet. It was sung (in part) in John Cassavetes' film HUSBANDS and was parodied by the Washington DC group Bill Holland and Rent's Due as "Good Mornin' Mr. Snip Snip Snip." The chorus of the Tom Waits song "Barbershop" contains the lines "Good morning, Mister snip snip snip/With your hair cut just as short as mine."


The reference to "Camels" and "Fatimas" (fa-tee'-mas) are references to popular cigarettes of the time. (Decades later, Fatimas was later a sponsor of the radio version of Dragnet.)

Mp3: http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/zipzipzip.htm

MIDI here (click)

---

The lyrics in the Wikipedia entry are almost the same and what's in the sheet music, but here are the exact lyrics:

Good Morning, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip!
Written around a Fort Niagara fragment by Robert Lloyd, Army Song Leader

We come from ev'ry quarter,
From North, South, East and West,
To clear the way to freedom
For the land we love the best.
We've left our occupations
and homes, so far and dear,
But when the going's rather rough,
We raise this song in cheer:

[chorus: repeat twice]
Good morning, Mister Zip-Zip-Zip,
With your hair cut just as short as mine,
Good morning, Mister Zip-Zip-Zip,
You're surely looking fine!
Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust,
If the Camels don't get you,
The Fatimas must,
Good morning, Mister Zip-Zip-Zip,
With your hair cut just as short as,
your hair cut just as short as,
your hair cut just as short as mine.


You see them on the highway,
You meet them down the pike,
In olive drab and khaki
Are soldiers on the hike;
And as the column passes,
The word goes down the line,
Good morning, Mister Zip-Zip-Zip,
You're surely looking fine.

[repeat chorus twice]


Copyright 1918, by Leo Feist, Inc.

from original sheet music printed in A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody (and other Favorite Song Hits, 1918-1919), Dover Publications

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip
From: GUEST,Denis
Date: 26 Jul 12 - 01:56 PM

The only double entendre I can see that might have amused your grandfather is that Fatima was the name of the then famous Egyptian belly dancer called Little Egypt, and I recall the name being loosely associated with all belly dancers. A pack of Camel cigarettes, by the way, depicted a camel with a pyramid in the background, also suggesting Egypt as a theme. At the time in western cultures belly dancing was regarded as the next thing to burlesque, or its modern form: 'pole dancing'. Only later was the artistry of belly dancing fully recognized in the west. Pole dancing is still thought of as largely salacious, although some have advocated for it being added as an Olympic sport.

Nowadays 'Fatimas will get you' might have a more sinister meaning to a soldier, given that Fatima was the favorite daughter of the prophet Muhammed.

Denis

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Jul 12 - 03:55 PM

Pole dancing as an Olympic sport? Something tells me you're teasing, Denis.

Subject: RE: req/ADD: Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip
From: Barbara
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 12:46 PM

At camp we sang:
"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,
If the army doesn't get you the mosquitoes must"
Otherwise the same.

Blessings
Barbara

Subject: RE: req/ADD: Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 10:50 AM

I, too, sang a snippet from this at camp. I had no idea until now that the song was a soldier's song from WWI. Thanks.