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In addition to sheet music of individual songs, I have boxes of these 'Song Annuals'.
They seem to have been very popular around the period 1910 to 1930. Being an annual, I would assume this one below had been going for 23 years. This one is from the 1914-18 war period with several songs related to the conflict.
Songs like "There's a Ship that's Bound for Blighty" and "When the Bells of Peace are Ringing".
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Not all the songs are serious and one amusing one that I liked is......
TEN DAYS’ LEAVE
When Private O’Malley got his ten days’ leave from Flanders,
He shook hands with the sergeant and he shouted “Hip Hooray”
He open’d wide his mouth to give his lungs a few expanders,
Then slung his pack upon his back and started straight away.
Ohhhhh,
On his first day’s leave,
On his first day’s leave,
He’d ev’ry kind of sport you could conceive!
He met a little French girl, they both got very pally;
She tickled him beneath the chin which made his spirits rally;
He gave her his German helmet and he missed the boat for Calais,
On his first day home on leave!
This now goes on day by day a bit like "On the First Day of Christmas", through the next ten days of his leave.......I think I'll just pick out a couple of the best.
The man next door, who always met him in town at the station,
Had eaten pickled onions till his voice had inflammation,
So Tommy put his gas mask on to hear the conversation,
On his second day home on leave!
He took his girl to church and there they married this old stager,
That night he got in bed with both his spurs on for a wager,
Next morning she had more stripes than a full-blown Sergeant Major!
On his fourth day home on leave!
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In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)
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In Flanders fields always seems such a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the futility of it all and the poppies symbolise (for me) the blood lost, but it also symbolises the hope of rebirth from all the atrocities.
All very true Cherie....I did this bit to show the contrast of how even with all that blood lost, there was still this this "keeping a stiff upper lip" and there was still room for humour.
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