Lyr Req: The Unknown Soldier's Grave (V Dalhart)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Unknown Soldier's Grave (V Dalhart)
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 07:32 PM

Ever since I was 6, I was obsessed with this song. I posted it on Youtube:       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P-ElIvXvPM

Subject: Lyr Add: THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER'S GRAVE (V Dalhart)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Oct 09 - 01:19 AM

Found it!


THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER'S GRAVE
Vernon Dalhart

There is a spot so sacred, covered over with flowers and wreaths.
Beneath a stone, there sleeps alone a boy who no more breathes.
He gave his life for freedom amid the battle's strife,
But flowers and praise can never raise this soldier back to life.

Somebody's boy is sleeping in the Unknown Soldier's grave.
Some mother's boy, her pride and joy, marched away both strong and brave.
There in the raging battle, his life he could not save,
And now far away he sleeps today in the Unknown Soldier's grave.

Oh, mother dear, so tender, do not shed a single tear.
Our nation's love and gratitude are his each day and year.
There is no death in Heaven, no thought of tears and pain.
No storm and strife can come in life where the Great Commander reigns.

Somebody's boy is sleeping in the Unknown Soldier's grave,
Some mother's son whose work is done, sleeping where old glory waves.
Maybe he's yours, and maybe mine. He'd want us to be brave.
He earned his rest and sleeps with the blest in the Unknown Soldier's grave.

[As sung by Vernon Dalhart on Victor 19918, 1925. You can hear this recording as part of an archived radio program from September 12, 2006 at The Antique Phonograph Music Program of WFMU, Jersey City, NJ. (Click to play.) The song begins at 33:30.]

Subject: Lyr Add: THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Oct 09 - 04:42 PM

Patriotic Song Lyrics has the following lyrics, but they give no provenance (no songwriter, no performer) and of course no tune—only the notation "Circa 1926". And the title is similar, but different. Does anyone know for a fact whether this is the song recorded by Dalhart?


THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

There's a grave right near the White House
Where the Unknown Soldier lies
And the flowers there are sprinkled
With the tears of mothers' eyes.

I stood there not so long ago
With roses for the grave
When suddenly I thought I heard
A voice speak from the grave.

"I am the Unknown Soldier"
The spirit voice began,
"And I think I've got a right
To ask some questions, man to man.

Are my buddies taken care of?
Was their victory so sweet?
Is that big reward you promised,
Selling pencils in the street?

Did they really win the freedom
That they battled to achieve?
Do you still respect the Croix de Guerre
Above that empty sleeve?

Does the gold star in the window
Now mean anything at all?
I wonder how my old gal feels
When she hears the bugle call?

And that baby that sang
'Hello Central, give me to No Man's Land;'
Can they replace her daddy
With a military band?

I wonder if the profiteers
Have satisfied their greed?
I wonder if the soldier's mother
Ever is in need?

I wonder if the kings
Who planned it all are satisfied?
They played their game of checkers
And eleven million died!

Oh, I'd like to see their faces
When they reach the Devil's door,
But even down in Hell
There is no torture such as war.

I am the Unknown Solder
And maybe I died in vain,
But if I were alive and my country called
I'd do it all over again."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Unknown Soldier's Grave (V Dalhart?)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Sep 09 - 02:12 PM

Can't find the Dalhart lyrics. Anyone?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Unknown Soldier's Grave (V Dalhart?)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Sep 09 - 01:43 PM

Black Cat, some of us on Mudcat have song sites we go back to time after time; we forget to give links- Patriotic lyrics

However, just google "Patriotic song lyrics" or whatever and often the link is in the first half dozen listed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Unknown Soldier's Grave (V Dalhart?)
From: Jamming With Ollie Beak (inactive)
Date: 02 Sep 09 - 01:21 PM

Challenge Records (Sears, Roebuck & Co.) 157
A side Zeb Turney's Gal B side The Unknown Soldier's Grave
Vernon Dalhart

Charlotte Olivia Robertson (Ms)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Unknown Soldier's Grave (V Dalhart?)
From: Black Cat
Date: 02 Sep 09 - 12:59 PM

I am so new to this type of searching. How do I get to the site you mentioned? Thanks to you and all who responded to my message. At this age maby this old cat (or is it dog) can learn ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The unknown soldiers grave
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 05:40 AM

Vernon Dalhart recorded a song with this title in the mid 1920's. It was issued on several labels.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The unknown soilders grave
From: Peace
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 12:50 AM

BTW, that's from a google of

Patriotic Song Lyrics!

Subject: Lyr Add: I DIDN'T RAISE MY BOY TO BE A SOLDIER
From: Peace
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 12:46 AM

By any chance is this the one?

I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier

Ten million soldiers to the war have gone
who may never return again.
Ten million mother's hearts
must break for the ones who died in vain
Head bowed down in sorrow in her lonely years,
I heard a mother murmur through her tears:

"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.
Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder
to shoot some other mother's darling boy?"

Let nations arbitrate their future troubles.
It's time to lay the sword and gun away.
There'd be no war today if mothers all would say,
"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier"

What victory can cheer a mother's heart
when she looks at her blighted home?
What victory can bring her back
all she cared to call her own?

Let each mother answer in the year to be,
"Remember that my boy belongs to me!"

"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.
Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder
to shoot some other mother's darling boy?"

Let nations arbitrate their future troubles.
It's time to lay the sword and gun away.
There'd be no war today if mothers all would say,
"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier"

Subject: Lyr Req: The unknown soilders grave
From: Black Cat
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 12:00 AM

There is song I would like to find about an unknown soldier's grave. It goes like this:

Some mother's son lies buried in an unknown soldier's grave.
Some mother's boy, her pride and joy, marched away so strong and brave.
There in the raging battle his life he could not save,
And so today he lies far away in an unknown soldier's grave.

It might be from WW1. I am trying to collect these songs for my children. Their grandfather was a special man and I am trying to put together the things I remember about him. He was an artist, a poet and a very "gentle man". Thanks again. Patsy