Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'

Subject: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST,TAnnison
Date: 16 May 00 - 04:04 AM

Anyone remember this - an old army song (from my Grandad) that goes to the tune of "Glory, Glory Halleluia" (Battle hymn of the Republic?) with words about a parachutist :

He jumped out of the aeroplane at 30 thousand feet He jumped out of the aeroplane at 30 thousand feet He jumped out of the aeroplane at 30 thousand feet But he ain't a-gonna jump no more

Glory, Glory Halleluia Glory, Glory Halleluia Glory, Glory Halleluia He ain't a-gonna jump no more

with verses : 'Cos the man who packed the parachute forgot to pack the straps...

They scraped him off the runway like a lump of strawberry jam...

They stuffed him in an envelope and sent him off to Mum...

Does anyone rememnber any more verses? I'm sure there must have been some more at the beginning...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: AndyG
Date: 16 May 00 - 04:25 AM

Yes...

AndyG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST,TAnnison
Date: 16 May 00 - 04:35 AM

Aha - You're right. Strange, isn't it, how these things mutate subtly, as the one I know is only slightly different. I wonder where it originally came from...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 16 May 00 - 05:12 AM

G'day,

Here's some other verses more or less to the version Alison posted (linked to above)

I'd like to find the Seargeant who forgot to hook me up (x3)

I'd like to find the WAAF who tied a love knot in my line(x3)

I'd like to find the pilot who forgot to throttle back (x3)

I'd like to find the WAAF who put the blankets in my chute (x3)

WAAF = Women's Auxillary Air Force - pronounced "waff"

There's also another somewhat more complicated version to the same tune:

"Is everybody happy?" said the Sergeant, looking up,
Our herofeebly answered "Yea" and then they hooked him up,
He jumped into the slipstream, and he twisted twenty times,
And he ain't goin' to jump no more.

[Cho] Glory, glory, what a hell of a way to die! (x3)
And he ain't going to jump no more.

There's another six verses if anyone is interested. I have lyrics for another eight paratrooper songs - haven't checked DT for 'em yet.

Bit gory, 'eh? I've known a couple of recreational 'chutists who "candled" - one survived. I'd never have the guts to do it - even with modern technology. I'll stick with one of the other WWII para' song mottos "Always Keep Your Trousers Clean"

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 16 May 00 - 05:20 AM

G'day,

The old grey cells seem to remember a somewhat sub rosa rendition along the lines of:
I'd like to (meet) the WAAF who cut her panties from my chute ...

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 16 May 00 - 06:24 AM

Roger Dodger Bob - I'd forgotten those - wasn't there a series about various damsels getting their silk wearing apparel from the chutes. Now you've got my grey (verging white) cells cogitatin'....

I'd like to meet....

the packer, (who) picked her panties...

the floozie, flogged her flimsies....

the "nightguard"(What was the name like that for the ARP ladies?), nicked her knickers...

etc... from my chute

Aaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhh.....

With threads like this, and Quartemasters Store, I'll have to plunge into the boxes of books to find the old WWII songbooks and records

Sam

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 16 May 00 - 11:07 AM

Reminds me of the old want ad:
For sale: one parachute, used only once, never opened. Small stain.

Subject: Lyr Add: GLORY, GLORY HOW PECULIAR
From: radriano
Date: 16 May 00 - 11:35 AM

Hey, Sam, by all means, post the rest of the verses.

Here's a kid's song using the same melody:

GLORY, GLORY HOW PECULIAR

One slick snake slid up the stake
While the other slick snake slid down

Repeat four times

Chorus:
Glory, glory how peculiar
Glory, glory how peculiar
Glory, glory how peculiar
As one slick snake slid up the stake
While the other slick snake slid down

One eager eagle eased into the eaves
As the other eager eagle eased out

One drunk duck dropped into the ditch
While the other drunk duck dropped dead

One black bug bled blue black blood
While the other black bug bled blue

One queer choir quoth queasy quatrains
While the other queer choir quavered not

Radriano

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 16 May 00 - 12:20 PM

There are a few variations on this in DigiTrad. Usually, with chorus of Gory, Gory Hallelujah. Or try a search for parachute or chute.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: TerriM
Date: 16 May 00 - 01:41 PM

The first verse as I heard it was
Our sergeant major jumped from 50 thousand feet X 3

They packed his vest and underpants instead of a parachute x3
and then onto your version.
Andy, I loved that link, what a treasure trove!!Thank you!

Subject: Lyr Add: ALWAYS KEEP YOUR TROUSERS CLEAN
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 16 May 00 - 10:46 PM

G'day,

The "longer" version I mentioned is in DT as "Blood on the Risers", so I won't post. Here's another, not in DT.

ALWAYS KEEP YOUR TROUSERS CLEAN
(Tune: Knees Up, Mother Borwn)

When first I came to PTS, My CO he advised
Take lots and lots of underwear, you'll need it, I surmise,
By I replied, "By Gad, Sir, Whatever may befall,
I'll always keep my trousers clean,
When jumping through the hole".

[Chorus] Jumping through the hole,
Jumping through the hole,
I'll always keep my trousers clean
When jumping through the hole.

I went into the hangar, Instructor by my side,
And on Kilkenny's Circus had many a glorious ride,
"On these ingenious gadgets", said he, "You'll learn to fall
And keep your feet together, when yer jumping through the hole."

He swung me in the swings boys, he shot me down the chute,
He showed me the high aperture, I thought it rather cute;
Said he "This apparatus will teach you one and all
To centralise your C of G, when yer jumping through the hole.

I saw the glorious statichutes, with camouflage design,
I heard the Warrant Officer shoot such a lovely line,
"This loverly bit of stuff, lads," said he, "Upon my soul,
T'is sweeter than your sweetheart, when jumping through the hole."

One morning very early, cold and damp and dark,
They took me in a so-called bus, out to Tatton Park,
In keeping with the weather, I said to one and all,
"I take a dim and misty view, of jumping through the hole."

He fitted me with parachute and helmet for my head,
The Sergeant looked with expert eye, "It fits you fine," he said,
"I'll introduce you now to 'Bessie', that's what we call the nice balloon
From which you'll very soon be jumping through the hole."

"OK - Up six hundred! Four to drop," said he.
"Four to drop? Good God!" I cried, "And one of them is me!"
So clinging very tightly to the handles on the floor,
I cursed the day I volunteered for jumping through the hole.

Sarg' told a funny story, I couldn't see the joke,
In fact, I thought he was a most unsympathetic bloke,
But when he shouted "Action stations!" and then he shouted "GO!"
I simply couldn't stop myself from jumping through the hole.

I hit my pack, I rang the "bell", I twisted twenty times
I came down with both feet entangled in the rigging lines,
But floating upside down to earth, I didn't care at all,
For I had kept my trousers clean when jumping through the hole.

_________________________________

WWII song from PTS (Parachute Training School), the first "real" jump was at Tatton Park, Cheshire, a Stately Home now famed for it's gardens, including NZ tree ferns. The things you find on the Net - after typing in the above, I got 2K hits on an AV "Tatton Park" search last night - just tried "Tatton Park" +parachute, and have found a GOLDMINE.

John Donaldson was there! Here's his Home Page AND FURTHERMORE you'll find all the Chutin' Songs I was going to post at Parachutists Songs

And photos, and explanations!

I've e-mailed John, and pointed him to this thread - hope he joins in. I'm off to town for a couple of days - look forward to what I find on the thread when I get home.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 16 May 00 - 11:11 PM

Here's a sidelight on the parachute story. As a first-year med student I was about to do my first laceration repair (that is, sew up a cut). The patient was a young lady who fell and put her forearm through a glass door. As I picked up the needle holder with probably evident trepidation, she pulled her arm back and said to the senior resident who was supervising me, "Wait. Has he ever done this before?" The resident said, "Let me ask you a question. What do you do for a living?" She replied, "I'm a parachute packer at the army base down the road." He looked at her for a few seconds and then said, "You know, I'll bet somewhere there's a guy walking around who jumped out of a plane wearing the first parachute you ever packed." She held out her arm and didn't say a word. True story.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: Lyr Add: TARPAULIN JACKET
From: GUEST,John W Donaldson
Date: 29 May 00 - 05:07 PM

Sam

I took your advice and here I am! I am fascinated by the posts, the question I have to ask is "Why did you search the web for Tatton Park and parachutists"? There has to be a connection that I am missing, maybe you knew someone who was a Parachutist In WW II?

Recently, the MOD as an economy measure did away with Balloon jumping and now the first jumps are made from an Aerovan.

As far as I know the only two planes that used a hole in the floor were the Whitley and The Halifax. In the case of the Halifax there was o hole in the floor aft of the bomb bays that housed a radar set, either Gee or H2S so that when they wanted a plane to parachute people into Europe they just pulled it out and put a door over the hole and they were in business.

"Ringing the bell" as you pushed off into the hole your parachute pack hit the back of the hole and your face hit the other side. Broken noses were very common!!

Enough about that, getting back the songs, There was an old Artillery song to the tune of the Eton Boating song entitled "The Screw Gun" It re-surfaced in the First World War as "Tarpaulin Jacket" The verses that I remember go something like this:-

TARPAULIN JACKET

A young aviator lay dying
at the end of a bright summers day
His colleagues around him were gathered
to hear the last words that he would say

Take the piston rod from my kidneys,
the butterfly valve from my neck
From the small of my back take the cylinder
Theres's a lot of good parts in this wreck

When the Court of Inquiry assembles
Tell them the reason this young aviator died
That a flat spin so faintly resembles
The maximum angle of a glide

The chorus between verses

Wrap me up in a tarpaulin jacket
and say a poor fellow lies low
Then stand by your glasses steady
Drink a toast to the men of the skies
Heres to the dead already and
Hurrah to the next man to die

I may have missed a line in the chorus Any comments?

John

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 22-Mar-03.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST,John W Donaldson
Date: 19 Jun 00 - 08:02 PM

Mea Culpa. I should have gone to FAQs and I would have found the words, original, to Tarpaulin Jacket.My words are different, does anyone have any idea of the words to my version. John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: NH Dave
Date: 20 Jun 00 - 02:03 PM

The first part of the words in John's song refer to the universal practice of salvaging still useful bits from wrecked aircraft, in areas where spare parts are scarce. The next bit notes that an aircraft in a flat spin - rotating around the vertical axis of the aircraft - produces no lift from the wings, and drops like a pregnant rock.

This song comes around each war, the US WWII version being Dying Pilot, which Mudcat notes to be a parody of Dying Hobo(also on Mudcat). Dick Jonas sings it as, "By a Laotian waterfall..." bringing it into the Viet Nam era, but I suspect the lack of waterfals or any running water in the Arabian Peninsula precluded an update during Desert Storm. Dave

Subject: ADD: The Screw Gun Song (Kipling)
From: Gareth
Date: 21 Oct 03 - 07:23 PM

The Screw Gun song is Kipling

SCREW GUN SONG
(Kipling)

Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool,
I walks in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule,
With seventy gunners be'ind me, an' never a beggar forgets
It's only the pick of the Army that handles the dear little pets -- 'Tss! 'Tss!
    For you all love the screw-guns -- the screw-guns they all love you!
    So when we call round with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do -- hoo! hoo!
    Jest send in your Chief an' surrender -- it's worse if you fights or you runs:
    You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don't get away from the guns!

They sends us along where the roads are, but mostly we goes where they ain't:
We'd climb up the side of a sign-board an' trust to the stick o' the paint:
We've chivied the Naga an' Looshai, we've give the Afreedeeman fits,
For we fancies ourselves at two thousand, we guns that are built in two bits -- 'Tss! 'Tss!
    For you all love the screw-guns . . .

If a man doesn't work, why, we drills 'im an' teaches 'im 'ow to behave;
If a beggar can't march, why, we kills 'im an' rattles 'im into 'is grave.
You've got to stand up to our business an' spring without snatchin' or fuss.
D'you say that you sweat with the field-guns? By God, you must lather with us -- 'Tss! 'Tss!
    For you all love the screw-guns . . .

The eagles is screamin' around us, the river's a-moanin' below,
We're clear o' the pine an' the oak-scrub, we're out on the rocks an' the snow,
An' the wind is as thin as a whip-lash what carries away to the plains
The rattle an' stamp o' the lead-mules -- the jinglety-jink o' the chains -- 'Tss! 'Tss!
    For you all love the screw-guns . . .

There's a wheel on the Horns o' the Mornin', an' a wheel on the edge o' the Pit,
An' a drop into nothin' beneath you as straight as a beggar can spit:
With the sweat runnin' out o' your shirt-sleeves, an' the sun off the snow in your face,
An' 'arf o' the men on the drag-ropes to hold the old gun in 'er place -- 'Tss! 'Tss!
    For you all love the screw-guns . . .

Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool,
I climbs in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule.
The monkey can say what our road was -- the wild-goat 'e knows where we passed.
Stand easy, you long-eared old darlin's! Out drag-ropes! With shrapnel! Hold fast -- 'Tss! 'Tss!
    For you all love the screw-guns -- the screw-guns they all love you!
    So when we take tea with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do -- hoo! hoo!
    Jest send in your Chief an' surrender -- it's worse if you fights or you runs:
    You may hide in the caves, they'll be only your graves, but you can't get away from the guns!

And sings well to the Eton Boating Song.

But the "Dying Airman" ties in with this thread

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 06:15 AM

The version of the chorus that I've heard to "The Dying Aviator" is

Take the piston from out of my kidneys,
the valves from out of my brain,
From the small of my back get the cylinder-head back
And assemble the engine again


Alternative verses for "Gory, Gory, What a helluva way to die" (after the Strawberry Jam verse:

They sent him home to mother on a piece of four by two. (rifle cleaning pad)

She keeps him on the mantlepiece besides his DFC.


Does anyone know the RAF song "The Ballad of Mr Richard Suppards" - his name is sung at the end of each verse, with his first name reduced to it's initial ie:

He boldly flew his aircraft - R. Suppards

There are a lot of verses about what he did - arse uppards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST,KB
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 06:26 AM

My dad knows this song as "The Abingdon Jumping Song" - must have been an air base at Abingdon (UK).
He sings approx Billy the Bus's version (above), whereas T Annison's version is the one that was sung in Berkshire (UK) schools when I was a kid (early 70s).
Billy's version is more technical, whereas the kids version is delightfully gorey. Horses for courses & all that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 11:55 AM

RAF Abingdon was the home of No.1 Parachute Training School up until late 70s. (I learned to jump there)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 12:00 PM

Incidently, just before I did my first parachute jump with a rip-cord (the earlier ones were on a static line), the instucter told us all, "Remember, contrary to what you might have heard, if you don't pull the cord that long fall won't hurt you at all - You might not enjoy the sudden stop at the end though !".

I can also remember being told during preliminary "fan-tower" jumps "If you must cross your legs, always cross the left over the right - if a canopy fails, we hate getting people out of the ground with a left-hand thread".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 02:00 PM

But in spite of Kipling's screw guns, the people they were used against are still there, and it's the British Empire which is dusty history.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 05:17 PM

I have just purchased a book - which given the nature of my business will be for sale eventually - called Tommy's Tunes dated 1917.

In there it has (Page 76)

Tune: The Dying Lancer

A handsome young airman lay dying (lay dying)
And as the airdrome he lay (he lay)
To the mechanics round him came sighing (came sighing)
These last dying words he did say (he did say)

Take the cylinder out of my kidneys (...)
The connecting rod out of my brain (......)
The cam box from under my backbone (.........)
And assemble the engine again (again)

Dave
www.collectorsfolk.co.uk

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: HuwG
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 07:08 PM

A bizarre twist to this thread ...

Skydive murder Police arrest two

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Gareth
Date: 22 Oct 03 - 07:14 PM

Ooops - Silly Me

From: GUEST,John W Donaldson - PM
Date: 29 May 00 - 05:07 PM - Post

Includes a cross over in the chorus from "The Cholera Song ie "Bloody war or sickly season !"

Now I have seen this posted in a thread somewhere


"Then stand by your glasses steady
Drink a toast to the men who survive
Here's to the dead already and
And here is to the next man to die"


Perhaps some other 'Catter can identify ?

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST,NH Dave
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 03:57 PM

One of the US versions of this song can be found by searching for "Gory Gory" or going to http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=710

the search will also turn up hiking and mountain climbing versions as well.

Dave

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 04:35 PM

"Then stand by your glasses steady
Drink a toast to the men who survive
Here's to the dead already and
And here is to the next man to die"

That's pretty well the version used in Dawn Patrol with Erroll Flynn and David Niven.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Gareth
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 06:57 PM

Not bad Kevin - If I remember accuratly the "Cholera Song" dates back to "Empire" - Now I learnt the chorus from my father, who served with 2 Para, was declared unfit to jump, after a partial candle (leg and back injuries - jumping from a Whitley), and remustered with the 93rd Anti-Tank (RA) Normandy to Keil.

I don't know where he learnt this, 2 Para or the RA, but I am happy to say from previous threads that this song predates WW1.

I have also heard a version sung by members of Mines Rescue Bettshanger, Kent in 1983/4 - OK a Strike benefit ! But please can someone find or direct me to thefull version.

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 11:24 PM

Gareth,

Thanks for reviving this thread. I'd completely forgotten it.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: wildlone
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 03:41 PM

Mc Grath of Harlow the song you want is THE REVEL
dave

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Gareth
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 07:16 PM

Wildone - Thanks - sufficient info for me. or The McGrath, to trace.

Thanks gain.


Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 09:12 PM

Here's a cut down version said to be from the Great War - and I think this is the one used in Dawn Patrol:

Stand to your glasses steady
This world is a world full of lies
A toast to the dead already
Hurrah for the next man to die

We stand 'neath resounding rafters
The walls around us are bare
They echo back our laughter
It seems that the dead are still here.

(I found it here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Joybell
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 09:32 PM

Another medical diversion. When I was a student nurse in Melbourne in 1962 we sang various parodies based on the "Glory Glory" song involving putting senior nursing staff named one by one -
"in a house of ill repute, when the Red revolution comes"
Diverticula (pouches in the bowel) were poetically called "houses of ill repute" because of their tendency to become pockets of infection.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 09:44 PM

Here's a version of the song Joybell remembers ARSON, RAPE, AND BLOODY MURDER


Only a few verses mind you. I betcha Gareth could dig up a few more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST,Ron Halkett
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:22 PM

I'd like to get the WAAF who tied a love-knot in me line,
I'd like to get the WAAF who tied a love-knot in me line,
I'd like to get the WAAF who tied a love-knot in me line,
and I ain't goin to jump no more,
Glory hallelujah etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Rumncoke
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 10:08 PM

We meet 'neath the sounding rafters
Though the walls around are bare
As they echo to our laughter
't wouldn't seem that the dead were there
Who dreads to the dead returning
Who shrinks from that sable shore
Where the high and haughty yearnings
Of the soul shall be no more

So stand to your glasses steady
't is all we have left to prize,
Drink a toast to the dead already
and here's to the next man to die.

Time was when we frowned on others
We thought we were wiser then
But now let us all be brothers
For we never may meet again
But a truce to this mournful story
For death is a distant friend
So here's to a life of glory
and a laurel to crown it's end

Cheerful stuff. Number 160 in my book.

My dad - in the RAF WWII used to sing the 'assemble the engine again' song. At least, bits of it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: Snuffy
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 09:06 AM

Bits of the engine?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 10:57 AM

"Number 160 in my book."

What book is that, Rumncoke? Is there more good stuff in it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The man who packed the parachute'
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 22 - 12:13 AM

They carried him off the runway on a piece of 2x4( and he 'aint go to jump no more).