Songs for Soldiers
Distributed to soldiers last week was a pocket-size, words-without-music version of a new Army Song Book. Copies with music had been issued previously to bandsmen, reserve officers who had experience in group singing, and the soldiers themselves (one copy to groups of 50 men). Of the 67 songs, most were as familiar to civilians as they were to soldiers (The Last Roundup, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, The Star-Spangled Banner, Dixie, Casey Jones, etc.). Newer to rookies were the Army songs: > The Field Artillery's rollicking The Caissons Go Rolling Along, written for horse artillerymen, now has a modern parody: Over hill, over dale, motorized from head to tail, With the caissons and hosses all gone. Stop to fix up a flat, or to get the captain's hat, Motor trucks with pieces hooked on.* > The Army Engineers sing: The Captain says my rifle's rusty And I don't know but what he's right, If he'd inspect my pick and shovel, He'd always find them shining bright.* > The Air Corps now has an official song: Off we go into the wild blue yonder, Climbing high into the sun; Here they come zooming to meet our thunder, At 'em boys, give 'er the gun! . . . With scouts before and bombers galore Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!* > The Infantry song is still: The Infantry, the Infantry with dirt behind their ears, The Infantry, the Infantry, they drink up all the beers, The Cavalry, Artillery, and Corps of Engineers, They couldn't lick the Infantry in a hundred thousand years. > Last song in the Army book, first when the columns are marching, is still You're in the Army Now. > Unfit to print for the 1941 Army was Mad'moiselle from Armentieres. Soldiers with a yen for back-room balladry will have to get along with a laundered, abbreviated Bastard King of England (retitled The Minstrels Sing of an English King) and a sanitized Colombo (borrowed from the Book of Navy Songs).
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