"TOMMY'S SONGS."

Timaru Herald, Volume CVII, Issue 16447, 19 January 1918, Page 3

"TOMMY'S SONGS."

A\ new English publication, "Tommy's" Tunes, ' is* described as "A Comprehensive Collection of Soldiers' Songs, Marching Melodies, Uikl-; liimes, aud Popular Parodies, Composed, OoUected. and Arranged on Activo Service with the B.E.F. by i<\ T. Nefctleingham, Second Li-cutenani, R.F.C." These songs, as Mr Solomon Eagle shews in the "New Statesman" aro of many kinds and from many sources. One, however, puzzles him. and among'Mris guesses 'he cverlonks the fact that tho song in question might_ have noms from America. At least it is from this song, "Green Grows.the Grass," that tho word "Gringo," applied to the American "doughboy"- by the Mexican, is supposed to derive. Wo read: "As tho title suggests, Mr Nettleingbam lias not specialised in any cla.si of song. Ho gives not merely the songs which have come during tho war from no one knows where, and the burlesques of music-hall cjitties aud hymns, but a number of traditional pongs* and some compositions, largely drawn from th* U.F.C., that are obviously tho work of clever individuals. These are interesting extras. So are the old songs, but not all those to winch Mr Nettleingham refers as heirlooms of tho Old Army are peculiarly Army songs, and some are widely diffused among tho population. Anions those for which, he makes no sirh claim is 'The Green Grass Grew All .Hound. I suppose that collectors have printed it before. They may even have decided that it is an allegorv, religious or otherwise, like 'I Will Smg You One—o.' But I have certainly never seen it in print before, let is one of the. most widely dispersed of our popular songs; whatever music-hall ballads come and go, this goes on, and you are liable to hear parties of youths singing it almosi anywhere in the country. Several songs of this sort are given; but the greatest interest ■ must lie in those qeer, unique songs—whimsical, ironical, grumbling —which have come into being in tlir» Army during the war, and "manv of which, in the true 'fashion of folkportry, exist'in numerous versions. 7 ' The most famous of the latter, and "tho type of most of them," is said to be, "I Want to Go Home." lb expreses one thing that no British soldier even while he fights valiaht'y on—his "utter fed-upness:" "I remember, the first time I heard it. A gunner officer (he. is dead now), sent it to nie, with the tune roughly jotted down. He said tjiat his men would ting that melancholy tune very .quietly and slowly when grooming their horses, and that he bad neve? nrd anything in his life which moved him more. The difference between various versions of it usually lies in the fourth line. Mr Nettleingham gives 'Where there are shells and Jack Johnsons galore'; of those T have heard, I think 'For, oh, tho Jack Johnsons, they make such a roar,' sounds likelier to be general. Another song, which would do equally well as the type is that wiii'jli appears on tho wrapper of this:

'When this rucTay war Is over, Oh! how- happy I shall be.' tho tune of whieb seems to derive from 'Massa's in, the Cold, Cold. Ground.' (In New Zealaaid camps it is sung to tho tune of a well known Saukey hymn). Mr Nettleingham's discretion about 'ruddy' is not altogether kept; ■up.; occasionally ho admits things which make one think ono is reading collection of Toni ,d'TJrfoy's instead or a twentieth-century book. Ot 'Grousing,' another of the sort, tho compiler says that company commanders have been known to suppress it 'when men have spent long hours on the march. 5 It is unmitigated. It goes to the tune of "Holy, Holy, Holy,' the last verse is: 'Marching, Marching, Always rutJdy well inarching. Marching all the morning, And marching all the night. -'Marching, Marching, Marching, . Always ruddy well marching. Roll on till my time is up And I shall march no more.' ."Another of tho sort is, 'Why Did We Join the Army?' 'Why did we join tho Army, boys? Why did we join the Army? Why did) we come to Salisbury Plain? "Wo must have been niddy well balmy. Fol-the-rol-101, etc.' "One of the most wide-spread is that. which, sung to tho tune of 'The Church's Ono Foundation,' has been adapted to all sorts of bran;hcs, and of which one version is: 'We. are Fred Karno's Army, A jolly fine lob are we; Fred Karno is our Captain Charlie Chaplin our O.C. And when we get to Berlin, The Kaiser he will snv: Hoch! Hoch! Mein Got-t! What a jollv fine lot Are the 2—lth R.E.T.' "In most variations the second couplet is: *We can not fight, we can not shoot, What earthly nse are we?' or words to that effect." "The Tarpaulin Jacket," so familiar iu college-songs, has bean impnesscl by tho airman and now expresses his dying request to his mechanic to "reastouible the engine, tho parts of which ai'e embedded m various sections of his body." What Mr Eaglo calls "a leso literary one" is thus .savoured: 'Oh, had I tho wings of an Avro, -' Chorus: 'of an Avro.' Then far, far.away I would soar, -r>- i i yr j. 'would soar.' luglit off to my pals down in Holland, '. , ~ 'in Holland.' And rest thero ilio rest of the war, the war.' Mr Eaglo closes with a contribution not in tho book and a foot-note en "Tippcrary:" "One that reached mo from a I Fusileer battalion tlio other day may or may not bo a local adaption of a 1 song common to many regiments. It is a cho:-us, only, to the tune of 'Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Bov,' and runs: l 'Hold your head down, Fusileer, Hold your head! down, Fusileer, There's a bloody "great Hun With a bloody great gun Who'll shoot you Who'll shoot you:' There's a sniper up a ttfee Waiting for you and me, If you want to got back to your home any mora, Hold your head down, Fusileer.' It is sung in tho London vernacular, and is certainly iu the Flanders tradition. "It may be observed, by the war, that Mr Xxrtbleinghtani says iix his preface—every soldier who has mentioned it to me has certainly said tho same thing—that 'Tipperary' 'was nev.nTommy's song.' lb merely happened that a "Daily Mail" correspondent heard a few troops of the Expeditionary Forye singing it at Boulogne. lb was a chance that he did not hear i>t.her troops singing something else. In the anthologist's opinion tho most popular song is the Arms is, beyond question, 'Anuio Laurie.' "