Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)

Subject: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 02:12 PM

We're a pack of bastards,
Bastards are we.
We're from Australia,
The arsehole of the world (and all the universe).
We're a pack of bastards,
Bastards are we.
We'd rather fuck than fight for liberty!

A well-known Australian military song is the words assigned
to the regimental march of the 3rd Battalion, The
Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) - "Our Director".
Apparently, when heard by an American correspondent
in Vietnam, his reaction was "That's the first time
I've heard an Army unit advocating 'make love, not war'."

Text and description above was posted by an anonymous mudcat guest in the "Songs You Learned in the Service" thread on 03 Jul 09 - 09:06 PM.

Retrieved from here: https://mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?messages__Message_ID=2671146

More examples and variants to follow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 02:32 PM

WE'RE A BUNCH OF PHARMACISTS

Another college song sung to the tune of the old favorite "The Old Gray Bonnet" is the following Pharmacy song:

We're a bunch of phramacists
Phrmacists are we.
We hail from A.C.P.
Union University.
We're a bunch of phramacists.
Pharmacists are we.
We'd rather drink than fight
For A.C.P.

It is repeated, substituting "love" for the word "drink" in the nexxt to the last line. Then, singing it the third time, the follows substitute just a long sign for the word "love".

The above is from pg 25 of Sherle R. Goldstone's "Songs that are Unprinted (For Obvious Reasons)" term paper from 1934.

Read the scanned pages of the term paper here:

https://archive.org/details/1934-college-songs-that-are-unprinted-for-obvious-reasons-sherle-r-goldstone/page/n23/mode/2up

Another variant from that paper to follow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 02:45 PM

The Colgate version of the preceding song is not boosting its men at all.
It is sung to the old stand-by "The Old Gray Bonnet". Shock-absorbers, again,
please, Dr. Thompson.

We're a bunch of bastards,
Scum of the earth.
We hail from Colgate--
Rottenest dump in these United States.
We're a bunch of bastards,
Scum of the earth.
We'd rather (-----) than fight
For victory.

[Hand written "That is to another tune. a.n.u."]

From pg 26 of Sherle Goldstone's "College Songs that Are Unprinted (for Obvious Reasons)"

Read the original term paper here:
https://archive.org/details/1934-college-songs-that-are-unprinted-for-obvious-reasons-sherle-r-goldstone/page/n25/mode/2up


Dash expurgation is in the original. The hand written note is on the original paper (perhaps by the grader or teacher).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 03:15 PM

The song is sung in the following youtube video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgMN-yieg8o


The tune is some sort of march or fight song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 03:41 PM

We're a Bunch of Bastards

We're a bunch of bastards,
Scum of the earth.
We're from the U. of C.,
The Asshole of the earth,
And all the Universe;
Oh, we're a bunch of fairies,
Morphodites are we.
We'd rather fuck than fight
For Victory.

From pg 26, Apples of Eden: A Private Collection of American Folk-Lore: Gathered from cowboys, college boys, and latino americanos by a liberal who does not believe that these choice morsels should be thrown out of American Literature because of their vigorous and unconventional language. After all, a manure pile by any other name would smell no better! And even a manure pile has its values. 77 pages. 4to. (Berkley, California? ca. 1945.) Typescript.

Mostly bawdy songs. An important early record of bawdy songs, doggerel verse a third of which are limericks.

Read online here:
https://archive.org/details/1945applesofeden/page/25/mode/2up

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 04:00 PM

...marching song which we used to sing to the tune of "Our Director:"

"We're a bunch of bastards,
Bastards are we . . ."

From page 331, 1950, The Commonweal. See google here:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Commonweal/4EA8AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22pack+of+bastards%22+OR+%22bunch+of+bastards%22+song&dq=%22pack+of+bastards%22+OR+%22bunch+of+bastards%22+song&printsec=frontcover

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 04:49 PM

...Regimental March of the 3rd Battalion, Royal
Australian Regiment, Our Director.

We're a pack of bastards, bastards are we,
We're from Australia, the arsehole of the world and of the Universe.
We're a pack of bastards, bastards are we,
We'd rather fuck than fight for liberty.

From pg 21, Australian Bawdy Ballads by Ron Edwards, 1973.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 05:48 PM

MEN OF THE MARCHING CHIPS

We're a bunch of bastards,
Scum of the earth
Filth of creation,
Gone from bad to masturbating-sons-of-bitches.
We're known in every whorehouse
We smoke, we drink we screw (Yes, we do!)
We are the men of the Marching Chips
And we cordially say FUCK YOU!

Spoken: How do we say it?
Cordially, but emphatically, with the emphasis on Fuck Toledo!

Notes: From the "P-File" of Central Michigan University [ca. 1991]. This file was accompanied by a cassette recording with song sung by David R.   He says the tune is similiar to the one printed in The Erotic Muse, pg 351, for the song "We Are the Dirty Bitches".   The "Chips" are the Chippewa Marching Band "Chips". The rival of CMU is the University of Toledo.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 06:00 PM

And Cornell's run by jizzumjuice?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 06:08 PM

Rotten Bastards
Tune: I've Been Working on the Railroad

We're a bunch of rotten bastards,
Scum of the earth,
Scourge of creation,
We've gone from bad to worse (masturbating-sons-of-bitches)

Known in every whorehouse,
We drink, we fight, we screw, (mostly screw!)
We are the Hashers of the Denver Hash
And we say, "Fuck YOU!"

Drink it down, down, down, down

I [[Jeff "Little Head" Hutchinson]] learned this song from Chuck E Cheeks.
According to several Hash Hymnals, it is based on the White House
HHH anthem, but it's not quite the same as the words usually
cited for their song.

Retrieved from here: https://littlehead-dh3.angelfire.com/hymnal/words/rttnbast.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 07:03 PM

I should tell you that we had a particular
marching tune that is the official marching tune of the
3rd Battalion. It’s proper name is ‘Our Director’ but
the boys called it ‘You’re a pack of bastards’ because
they had a ditty that went to the tune and it went
something like; - can we use the word bastards? Well the
words to the song went something like this; sung to
the tune of ‘Our Director’ – dah dah dah dah dee
        
Good tune. Great marching tune. Great marching tune.
And it was absolutely tradition that the troops would
sing to the song ‘You’re a pack of bastards, bastards
are we, we’d rather [(UNCLEAR)] than fight for liberty’.
Okay? Good ditty and a great marching tune.

Online recording of an interview with Stanley Connelly (Slim) a WWII and Korean War veteran in the Australian Army. Date of interview 27th November 2003.

Online video and transcription here: https://australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/1216

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 07:40 PM

We're a bunch of bastards,
Bastards are we,
We'd rather fuck than fight
For count-er-y

Supposedly in Les Cleveland's 1994 book Dark Laughter: War in Song and Popular Culture. He notes it is a World War I song. If someone can confirm this quote and if he documents it to WWI, it would be appreciated.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 08:12 PM

WE'RE A PACK OF BASTARD
Tune: Unknown
Source: Watt-1

Oh, we're a pack of bastards
Bastards are we.
We're from the Sith Regiment,
The asshle of the world,
And all the universe.
And we're a pack of bastards,
Bastards are we.
We'd rather fuck than fight for liberty.

Song #59, pg 49, in "THE LONGEST YEAR: A Collection of Songs by Aviators and Civilians in the Vietnam War" collected and annotated by Brigadier General Thomas Bowen and Dr. Lydia M. Fish. Dec. 1990.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 08:37 PM

We Are the Dirty Bitches

This example of what is known as a rasty-nasty among sorority women.

[Music provided]

[text "A"]

We are the dirty birtches
Of Sullins C.,
Born in a whorehouse,
Knocked down, gragged out, scraped across the universe.
Of all the dirty bitches,
We are the worst.
We hail from Sullins C.
The biggest whorehouse on earth.


[text "B"]

We're the dirty bastards,
Scum of the earth,
Born in a whorehouse,
Shit on, spit on, kicked around the universe.
Of all the dirty bastards,
We are the worst.
We're from ole M.S.C.
The asshole of the earth.

From Ed Cray's The Erotic Muse. Pgs 358-359.    Can anyone confirm if the tune shown in the link below matches Our Director March ?

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Erotic_Muse/W8PvCRbEKLYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=we+are+dirty+bitches+erotic+muse&pg=PA352&printsec=frontcover

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: GerryM
Date: 28 Apr 23 - 11:23 PM

Morphodites? Sith Regiment? gragged out?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 07:20 AM

Sorry about the mis-typing the transcriptions. The "Morphodites" is original, Sith Regiment, of course, is Sixth Regiment, "gragged out" is "dragged out".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 07:28 AM

THE DOCKYARD CALVARY
(Tune: 'Our Director', March by Bigelow)

We're a shower of bastards,
Bastards are we.
We are the Navy,
The Dockyard Cavalry.

We're a shower of bastards,
Bastards are we.
We'd rather fuck than fight,
We're the Dockyard Cavalry.

Song #26 in Grey Funnel Lines: Traditional Song & Verse of the Royal Navy 1900-1970, by Cyril Tawney.

See google books here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Grey_Funnel_Lines/r01ACwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq="we're+a+shower+of+bastards"&pg=PT65&printsec=frontcover

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 07:39 AM

Roud No 29395
Title: Bunch of Bastards
First Line: We're a bunch of bastards, bastards are we


Roud No 29949
Title: The Dockyard Cavalry
First Line: We're a shower of bastards, bastards are we

These two Roud #s should be combined.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: and e
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 07:50 AM

Bunch of Bastards

DESCRIPTION: "We're a bunch of bastards, bastards are we, We of the Air Force are assholes of the earth... 'Cause we're a bunch of bastards, Morphidites [?] are we, We'd sooner fuck than fight for victory." Or "We're a bunch of bastards... We're the dockyard cavalry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1979 (Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear)
KEYWORDS: soldier bawdy
FOUND IN: Canada
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 113, "Bunch of Bastards" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 42, "The Dockyard Cavalry" (1 short text, tune referenced)
Roud #29395 and 29949
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Our Director" (tune, according to Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
NOTES [42 words]: Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear claims there are many versions of this, but cites only one verse. Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy's stanza is different -- a navy version rather than an army version -- but it seems to demonstrate Hopkins's claim. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: We're a Pack of Bastards (Bawdy Song)
From: Joe_F
Date: 29 Apr 23 - 06:07 PM

"Morphodite", I believe, is a corruption of "hermaphrodite", and in some vulgar dialects is slang for "queer". A further corruption, "morphodike", is said to be the origin of "bulldike".