Wartime Double-Entendre Songs

Subject: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: DMcG
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 02:01 PM

A current thread is asking for the words for a wartime song "He's got the cutest little dinghy in the Navy." Assuming I am not simply warped, this puts it in the same not-very-ambiguous class as Cuckoo's Nest, Bonny Black hare and so forth. Another wartime song I have is sung by woman who claims "I've got the deepest shelter in town". There was also one I vaguely recall about someone with a massive cucumber, but I've only heard that on the radio.

Why were these songs especially popular during the war years, and how long after the war did they continue to be mainstream? ("The Deepest Shelter" was certainly released on a 78rpm, it was not just a barrack-room song)

It certainly makes a change from those White cliffs of Dover!

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 03:51 PM

I should think they were extra popular in the war years because of all the men-without-women and women-without-men, added to a society (and I was there at the time) in which no-one was explicit in public, and especially not on the radio or in the movies (no TV then).

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 03:53 PM

Not a cucumber, but a marrow:

Isn't it a big one? I've never seen one like that before; Long and narrow, wheel it in a barrow, stop it trailing on the floor. Isn't it a big one, what a big surprise, I've never seen one that colour and I've never seen one that size!

George Clark will probably tell you the full story when his filthy mind alights on this thread.

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 03:58 PM

So what is a marrow ?? I've heard of marrow bone, is this just a shortened term for that?

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 04:06 PM

Marrow is UK for squash.

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 04:11 PM

Aha - I learn something new everyday!

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: jimlad
Date: 03 Apr 02 - 04:12 PM

As a teenager in the years just after WW2 I remember ex-servicemen singing a version of "I've got a lovely bunch of Coconuts" with totally different words to those being put out by the BBC on Billy Cottons Bandshow.

Also the lads who had seved in Egypt sang a version of the egyptian national anthem that started thus:-

King Farouk,King Farouk.hang your B*****Ks on a hook.....

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 06:47 AM

Not a song but the best I heard lately was the joke that got Max Miller (the cheeky chappie) in trouble with BBC. Max is from the right era anyway.

He explains how he is mountaineering and while traversing a particularly tricky and narrow ledge he rounds the corner to see a young landy completely stark naked. "I didn't know" says our Max, "Whether to toss myself off or block her paqssge..."

Cheers

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: HuwG
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 07:49 AM

Jimlad, another verse referred to King Farouk's consort and went,

"Queen Faraida, Queen Faraida, all the boys would love to ride her..."

I haven't the details to hand, but the British version was full of pidgin-arabic phrases, such as "Stanishwiya" ("Wait a bit"), "Taalaheena" ("Come here") and so on.

Relations between the British troops in Egypt and the Egyptian population were never exactly cordial. A famous story concerned a Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) driver, whose lorry clashed bumpers (US = fenders) with an Egyptian Army staff car. When he filled out the report on the incident, the relevant part read,

" ... collided with a staff car, registration no ... , containing three wogs."

Even for those non-PC days, this was going too far. His officer exploded. "Do you realise", he shouted, "that one of the occupants of that staff car was his Majesty, King Farouk of Egypt ? Go away and write that report again!". The driver did. The amended report read,

" ... collided with a staff car, registration no ... , containing his Majesty, King Farouk of Egypt, and two other wogs."

.....

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 06:07 PM

"Fuk Farouk" is really off topic for this thread, there being nothing double about its entendre, but here it is in full from _The Dirty Song Book_:

Oh, the wogs fuk the dogs and the dogs fuk the wogs,
Fuk Farouk, fuk Farouk,
Hang his ballocks on a hook.
Oh, Fareeda, fuking great lumps of duff.
Oh, Fareeda, fuking great lumps of duff.
Oh, Fareeda, oh, Faryda,
How the boys would like to ride 'er,
_Ma leesh, quoiski teer, bardin,_
Fuk Farouk!

The Arabic passage is glossed as "the hell, very good, tomorrow". The point of misspelling "fuck" is not explained.

The navy version of that story about revising a report: The first mate wrote in the log: "The captain was drunk this morning." The captain made it clear that that would not do. The first mate crossed out "drunk", wrote in "sober", and initialed the correction.

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: GUEST,B Hallett
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 04:23 AM

The words we sang,in the RAF, to the dirty ditty about Farouk were,
King Farouk,King Farouk,
Hang your bo**ocks on a hook,
Stan ashweir,stan ashweir,King Farouk,
Queen Farida,shagged by all the wogs,
Queen Farida,shagged by all the dogs,
Oh you can't have her today,
'Cos she's in the family way,
Stan ashweir,pull yer wire,King Farouk!

BTW,Maalish means 'It doesn't matter' or 'Don't worry about it'
and 'Bar den' means 'Later on'.

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: alex s
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 05:27 AM

I say, chaps, this is rather rude, what?

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Bert
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 04:40 PM

Didn't Gracie Fields sing about The Biggest Aspidistra in the world?

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 12:21 AM

The Farouk song was originated by the late Hamish Henderson.
One of the most popular WWII songs with double ( or 1-1/2) entendres was the classic "Roll Your Leg Over"

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Bert
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 11:23 AM

Doesn't 'Bless 'em All' count?

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 11:47 AM

Bless 'em All , while popular in WWII, was really much older. While I have a lot of versions, none seem to be suggestive, though most are certainly profane.

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 11:59 AM

How the following reached us in the backwoods I have no idea:--

"Twas on the Isle of Capri that I met her
She was naked and bound to a tree
So I took out my dagger and stabbed her
And now she"s the mother of three

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 12:00 PM

In "Ballads of World War II" (1947), Henderson describes his text of "The Ballad of King Faruk and Queen Farida" as "Chiefly the authentic version, as sung (1942) in the First South African Division, Seventh Armoured Division, Ninth Australian Division, Second New Zealand Division and Fifty First Highland Division."

In other words, he combined a number of versions and added some of his own touches.

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Hollowfox
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 12:08 PM

I'm given to understand that the "bless" in Bless 'em All is a euphemism for another monosyllabic word. *g*

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 04:12 PM

Lighter-
I have a recording of Hamish, discussing "Farouk" He said he wrote the first version, which was very short, and was set to the Tune of Egypt's national anthem which was played at every cinema he attended. He went on to describe how the fragment he wrote was adopted and vastly expanded by the troops.
    Double entendre songs were more apt to appear in published sheet music aimed at a general public;the soldiers I knew used lyrics that were unabashedly bawdy.

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 06:56 PM

As Dick states - What the Servicemen churned out , often rewrites of popular songs , were NOT what I would call bawdy , but Bloody Filthy

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 07:03 PM

Interesting.

Most versions of the song I've met with are about like B. Hallett's, posted yesterday.

"Faruk" is not included among Henderson's Collected Poems and Songs (Edingburgh, 2000).

Subject: RE: Wartime Double-Entendre Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 09:54 PM

Lighter-
If you PM me your address, I can send you a copy of Hamish's recording. Or I can E-mail you a MP3 download of it.