Songs My Mother Never Taught Me

[tbstreet]

I have a copy of Songs My Mother Never Taught Me, a collection of WW I service songs, including some flyers' dark ditties. These purport to be the songs the boys actually sang, not those written by people who made money at it. As far as I can tell, that's true..."take the piston out of my brain, my brain, and assemble the engine again..."

If there's interest, and if I can figure out how to post 'em, I'll try to put the flyers' songs up here.

T. E. Bradstreet

[rainbase]

That would be great! I'd love to hear some of these.

[WarrenD]

Hey TBStreet,
Put up all of 'em! I remember a pic in A Doughboy of the Fighting 69th of Father Murphy, I think, watching over the 69th as the marched by on their way to the front. The author said that when the photo was published in the papers back home, the caption was something like, "Father Murphy blesses the troops as they march by singing 'Onward Christian Soldiers' ". The author said they laughed because:
1) that's a Protestant hymn, and
2) they were singing "Banging Away on Lulu".



Warren

[retread]

...... as in "Go forth and be fruitful."


Hopefully we will shortly be knee deep in lyrics.

[tbstreet]

I've done a little research on the book since my first post. Its authors were John J. Niles (primary), who was an important early collector and performer of folk music and a recon pilot in the Great War, and Douglas S. Moore, a Lt(jg) in the US Navy in same. The book includes music for the songs and I'll try to figure out how to post it. I'll try to post what seem to me to be the less-familiar songs first. Wish me luck.

TBst

[dpolglaze]

There are a number of songs, sung to the tunes of popular songs of the time, that appear in various letters/bio type books, as well as several other books of WWI aviation songs. A couple that come to mind are "Cinquante Quatre" which is flying songs of 54 Squadron, "Songs of the Air" by DeJean and "Barrack Room Ballads of Our Airmen at the Front" collected by J. R. A. Emert. I even have a book entitled "Sitka Spruce: Songs of the Queen Charlotte Islands" which includes songs sung by the Spruce Squadron logging spruce for airplane parts.

The song lyrics from tbstreet come from "The Young Aviator Lay Dying" which can be found in many variations. See also this thread right here at The Aerodrome: http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/mu...ess-party.html

Dan

[tbstreet]

Well, here's the first attempt. The ditty is "The Kiwi Song," a salute to the non-flying officers of early flying units. I know the tune as "The Old Gray Mare."

Sorry, can't get the music scans small enough to attach. Here are the words, sung to the tune of "The Old Gray Mare:"

"Oh, we don't have to fight like the infantry,
shoot like the artillery, ride like the cavalry; Oh,
we don't have to fly over Germany.
We are the Ki-wi-wi.
We are the Ki-wi-wi. Oh,
we don't have to fight like the infantry
shoot like the artillery, ride like the cavalry; Oh,
we don't have to fly over Germany.
We are the Ki-wi-wi."

I have a vague feeling that I've seen it with the Kiwi line as "We are the brave Kiwi." You will know that a kiwi is a "wingless bird with hairy feathers" from New Zealand, though the authors did not.

TBst

[tbstreet]

Now that I know I can't post the music, I'll get on with posting lyrics. This song is very AEF, sung to the tune of "Frankie and Johnnie:"

"Frankie and Johnnie were bombers,
Oh, my God, how they could bomb.
Frankie, he had a Croix de Guerre,
And Johnnie, he had the Palm.
Those poor damned fools -- they done 'em wrong.

Frankie, he flew in a D.H.,
'Twas just a flamin' damned hearse,
Sent 'em over to the A.E.F.,
'Cause they didn't have nothin' worse.
Those poor damned fools -- they done 'em wrong.

Heinie sat up in his Fokker,
Fokker was built to fly.
Heinie pulled back on the joystick,
And she roared right up in the sky.
Those poor damned fools -- they done 'em wrong.

Heinie slid south over Conflans,
Some nice easy meat to spy,
'Till way down below he saw the D.H.,
A slowly flop-floppin' by.
Those poor damned fools -- they done 'em wrong.

Heinie nosed down on the D.H.,
His guns they went tick, tick, tack,
And the second burst of his Spandau
Caught Johnnie square in the back.
Those poor damned fools -- they done 'em wrong.

Frankie, he turned to Johnnie,
And he said, "For God's sweet sake, shoot!"
But Johnnie was up at the pearly gates
A hearin' the angels toot.
Those poor damned fools -- they done 'em wrong.

Heinie dove straight on the D.H.
And he held the trigger back,
'Till the D.H. vrilled in a cloud of smoke,
And the smoke was gol-darned* black.
Those poor damned fools -- they done 'em wrong.

Forty-seven flea-bitten Heinies,
And one burlap sack,
Carried Frankie and Johnnie to the boneyard,
And they ain't a comin' back.
Those poor damned fools -- they done 'em wrong."

*I suspect "gol-darned" may be a euphemism, as the lyrics of such songs tended to be somewhat "earthier."

TBst

[tbstreet]

This is a poem apparently never set to a tune, picked up from the RFC by American pilots flying with them.

"I cannot do the old things now
That I've been used to do.
I'm all smashed up from doing stunts
And so must keep from view.
In doing tail-spins near the ground,
I lost my nerve for sport,
I am not good for anything,
One leg's a trifle short.
In flying upside down one day
I turned the wrong direction,
So to the hospital I was sent,
For rest and for correction.
For flying at high altitude,
My life is quite undone;
My pressure gauge is smashed and bent,
And I have lost a lung.
Up in a tree there hangs a wing,
And on the ground a wheel,
While on the struts there rests an arm
That has no power to feel.
I left a wish-bone in the grass,
And broke my collar-bone;
The major saw the ship and swore,
In purple rage he said,
"We cannot have these ships smashed up!"
While on the ground I bled.
In kindness, keep my girl away,
Nor even send a rose,
I haven't any sense of smell,
I've lost my only nose.
Please tell the folks at home I'm dead,
And send to them my pension;
And you cadets take heed of this,
And from me learn prevention."

TBst

[tbstreet]

The book contains versions of two songs that can be picked off the web fairly easily, "A Poor Aviator Lay Dying" and "Beside the Brewery at St. Mihiel." The first is the song commonly sung to the tune of "Tarpaulin Jacket" (though the book gives a different tune) and which gives instructions to "assemble the engine again." The second is sometimes known as "Beside a Belgian 'Staminet," and seems to be the aviator's version of "Big Rock-candy Mountain," in this case, the American aviator's.

Unless there is a call for these versions of these two well-known songs, I'll skip them.

TBst