Trench Foot Songs of World War I

Subject: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 08:33 PM

I am researching military illnesses in World War One. Trench Foot undermined the health of many, leaving them not a leg to stand on. Were there any songs on this subject?

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: beeliner
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 11:58 PM

Slue (or Slew) foot yes, trench foot, not that I'm aware of.

"Heard you had trench foot. How are you feeling?"

"Oh, I can't kick!"

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 09:10 AM

I've not heard any contemporary songs - though there may be some. However, Lester Simpson wrote "Shuffling Jack" about the effects of Trench Foot and other aspects of World War 1 for "Passchendaele Suite".
Georgina

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: SylviaN
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 01:52 PM

And what a great song "Shuffling Jack" is!

Subject: Shuffling Jack WAS Trench Foot Songs of WW I
From: GUEST,schlimmerkerl
Date: 13 Dec 10 - 12:46 PM

I agree— and tune. Can anyone supply the lyrics? I can almost get most form YouTube, but some words are lost. Thanks very much.

Subject: Lyr Add: SHUFFLING JACK (Coope Boyes & Simpson)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Nov 13 - 09:06 AM

My transcription from the recording on Spotify. I'm not sure what a "five-park drive" is—or am I mishearing it?--in verse 2 line 6.

SHUFFLING JACK
As recorded by Coope Boyes & Simpson on "Rough Guide to English Folk" (2011)

1. Jack was a devil for a dance with a lass—
Sharp repartee and a forward pass.
He signed on with all the rest,
Keen as mustard to do his best.
They never knew; he never told
Why at twenty-one he felt so old,
But the music fades when Jack was shot,
And trench-foot finished with his turkey-trot.

CHORUS: Down the road goes Shufflin' Jack
With his daytime nightmare gas attack.
They sent him home but he never came back,
Mad old, sad old Shufflin' Jack.

2. On slippered soles with a toothless grin,
Jack tells the kids we're sure to win—
Home by Christmas, ev'rybody knows,
Back in Blighty before it snows.
A quart from the off-sale shuffle down the street
Five Park Drive(?) for his daily treat,
But the drinks won't quench and the facts fags just burn,
Like memories of friends that won't return.

3. Weekend sister comes to share
Roast beef, two-way family care.
Jack's on the front steps sittin' in the sun,
Sunday best, medal ribbons on.
No armistice for Jack it seems,
Conflict still in an old man's dreams,
A world destroyed and turned to sand,
And the future lost in No-Man's Land.

[You can see a video of Doug Eunson & Sarah Matthews performing this song at YouTube.

[I can find no mention of this song at Coope Boyes & Simpson's web site.]

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 18 Nov 13 - 09:17 AM

Park Drive cigarettes.

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Nov 13 - 09:29 AM

.. and , presumably, "the fags just burn…"

Regards

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: GUEST,gutcher
Date: 18 Nov 13 - 10:12 AM

five-pack ?----drink or fags?
I remember Woodbine fags in a five pack.

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: GUEST,IanA
Date: 18 Nov 13 - 01:55 PM

Not specifically 'trench foot' but I do like this mock-maudlin song from the trenches -

And when I die
Don't bury me at all,
Just pickle my toes
In alcohol,
With a bottle of booze
At my head and my feet,
And then I know
My toes will keep.

Each line is sung by a soloist and repeated by a weeping chorus.

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Nov 13 - 05:39 PM

Ah, yes, these are the hazards of an American trying to decode a British song. Having never heard of Park Drive cigarettes, I was at a disadvantage. But it all makes sense to me now.

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 19 Nov 13 - 02:41 AM

cf our use of "fags"

Subject: RE: Song Shuffling Jack ref. to Five Park Drive
From: GUEST,Paul from Brownhills
Date: 26 Aug 19 - 07:28 PM

Many older British brands of cigarettes before and well after World War 1 were sold in packets of five; W.D. & H.O. Wills of Bristol's 'Wild Woodbine' brand was perhaps the most famous and was still available in packs of five until after World War II.

In the words of the song Shuffling Jack about a WW1 soldier who had been gassed but survived to live into old age, probably after the Second World War into the 1950s enjoyed a daily treat of five 'Park Drive' cigarettes. Not sure whose brand that was but I well remember my father occasionally smoking them although I don't think they were ever sold in packs of five like the 'Woodbine'.

I think the reference to five Park Drive is probably that would be all someone who had been gassed in WW1 could manage 'without coughing their lungs up' and letting the cigarette just hang on their lips and smoulder rather than inhaling. Seen coal miners in the Midlands smoke like that ... and cough badly not from gas but lung disease.

Subject: RE: Trench Foot Songs of World War I
From: GUEST,Gasper
Date: 27 Aug 19 - 05:27 AM

Woodbine and Park Drive were available in 5s until the 1970s, I know as they were within my budget then.