The Collection

DIGGERS’ SONGS

Warren Fahey sings ‘Hanging on the Old Barbed-Wire’. with Mic Conway.

An essay on the folklore of Australians in times of war. It is also a comment on how we use popular music as parody vehicles. ‘With your drums and guns and guns and drums, Haroo, Haroo, With your drums and guns and guns and drums, Haroo, Haroo, With your drums and guns and guns and drums, The enemy nearly slew you, oh, Johhny dear, You looked so fine. Johnny, I hardly knew you.’ (Recorded from Mrs Rollinson, Brisbane, 1973) My task as a folklorist is that of a recycling unit! I scour the country collecting the bits and pieces that we recognise as ‘folklore’ and then, through books, recordings, radio and now the internet, I deliver it back, with or without comment, to the people who rightfully ‘own’ this heritage or, at least participated in the creative process that gave them their start in life. As Australia inevitably moves towards a more multi-cultural society it also becomes more important that we understand and appreciate the ‘how’s, why’s and where’s’ of our folklore for it is through these expressions of our creative memory that we express our fears, frustrations and aspirations. It is also through our folklore heritage that we record and document our social history. This is not to say that folklore is history for it is clearly not and ‘the folk’ have shown that they have little regard for accurate accounting of their history – a case of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story! What folklore does offer is the emotional history of our march through the years and all the facts and figures, dates and names are nothing when compared to the often heart-wrenching reminiscences of someone who was there and wished that he or she was not! Listen to a returned soldier repeatedly telling the tales that have been told hundreds of times before and you will discover stories to chill the bone. You will also hear tales of mateship and of heroic deeds carried out as matter of fact for this was the way of the ‘Digger’ at war. It also has to take into account that such ‘storytelling’ is part of a very old traditional process and although the songs and stories are regarded as ‘community property’ or ‘public domain’ the storyteller often feels a need to embellish the story ‘for the good of the listener’. This is why it is not unusual to find someone telling a story in the first person when he or she was not actually present at the event – in these cases the story or song has usually been so importantly intertwined with their own life that they believe that they were a witness to the event. I rush to say that this is not lying for it appears to be an emotional mechanism that is very much a part of the tradition. Surveying the songs in this collection you will gain a real insight into how the folklore process works. Several of the songs will travel with you and a commercial song like ‘Tipperary’ or ‘A Wee Doch and Doris’ will feature in two or three wars with obvious changes of text. It is also fascinating to see how the songs were used in the various wars. In the Sudan and Boer wars, the songs tended to reflect the flavour of nationalistic parlour songs complete with matching sentiment and doggerel. The first and second World Wars saw popular song being the most accepted parody vehicle whilst the Malayan and Korean wars saw the songs turn more introspective. Vietnam saw the American influence grow stronger and, of course, the circulation of a whole genre of songs against Australia’s involvement in this war. The most traditionally circulated song to emerge out of the Gulf war was a current popular song that lent its title to a different beat as Phil Collin’s ‘Something In The Air Tonight’ took on new meaning. I have long been fascinated by how songs travel and the military songs are an ideal study because of the way military service people travel around moving from one confrontation to the next. It is fairly easy to appreciate that a song could be carried from camp to camp, war zone to war zone by a travelling soldier and just as easy to imagine that the very same soldier could have sung the song in the local bar where airforce or naval servicemen could have heard the song, related to it, and took it with them as they themselves travelled on. By definition folk songs or traditional songs, and that definitely includes parodies, are those songs passed on by oral transmission as opposed to the printed page. The truth is that no matter what the original songwriter’s intentions, the travels and fate of the song depends on how it is influenced by history, politics and cultural situations. I am sure the original writer of ‘Tipperary’ never dreamed about how many parodies would ride along on the same melody! One can only speculate on why a particular tune can tickle the fancy of so many people. To understand the folklore process one needs to look back in time because in so many ways our entertainment patterns have changed and continue to change. At the time when Australia was being used as a colonial goal, the broadside ballad was in its heydey and the printers surrounding the Seven Dials area of London acted as the popular press reporting on savage murders, sensational transportation sentences and the latest news from the soldiers at the front. These stories, court decisions and military despatches were promptly turned into ballads which were printed and sold as ‘penny dreadfuls’ and, in many cases, were set to popular old tunes indicated on the ballad sheet. Most of the military songs tended to be reports of ‘gallant soldiers’ and of ‘glorious battles’ however the printers and ballad writers were not beyond publishing songs about unfair recruiting practices and even songs that criticised particularly harsh military leaders. The ‘folk’ loved these ballads, especially the more sensational, and many of these songs became firmly entrenched in the tradition and down through the years the stories became more embellished by the contributions of the ‘folk’. The style of singing would have been primarily unaccompanied as this was the style of the day and dictated by the reality that most working class families simply could not afford the luxury of a musical instrument. It is also related to the fact that the singing of songs served several purposes – many of the songs were thought of as ‘family songs’ as they had been passed down through several generations; they had often been localised to mention family and friends; they were educational in as much as many poor families had used the broadsheets as a tool for learning as books were too expensive and lastly, the everyday situations where such songs would have been sung, including taverns and as part of traditional ceremony, would have commanded a song ‘at the ready’. At the same time, the upper classes were singing a more patriotic type of ballad or song accompanied by the pianoforte. Australian baritone, Peter Dawson, recorded numerous ‘art’ songs to bolster the troops during the war years. One suspects that the soldiers and sailors of the time would have been singing rather robust backroom ballads whilst their officers would have been singing their continued loyalty to the throne. Jumping ahead in time (about fifty years) entertainment had experienced a dramatic change and the most important disseminator of song was the music hall. These were the ‘people’s palaces’ of song and the working class packed these halls in both England and Australia to listen to an endless parade of performers who not only sang about ‘Corned Beef And Carrots’ but also about the growing unrest in Europe and especially the growing threat of Germany. Thankfully this era coincided with the revolution in the printing industry which led to popular presses which churned out affordable printing including endless volumes of song books. The piano, ukulele, guitar, banjo, mandolin and mouth organ also became extremely popular and as millions practised their scales there developed a huge market for popular songs. By the time World War One was declared these songs had already gained unbelievably wide circulation. Next came the phonographic cylinder then the disc gramophone and, following close behind, the electric wireless all destined to carry the songs even further.

‘Tipperary’ was a popular song that grew up in the music halls and Melboume-born star of the British music hall, Florrie Forde, was the best known singer of the song. She had a good ear for a popular song and was recognised as the ‘greatest chorus singer of them all’ however her early attempts to popularise the song failed. It was only when the British soldiers marched away to war and took the song with them that it became a massive success and an accepted part of every soldier’s kit! Rome’s other big hit was ‘Goodbye-ee’ which pointedly ‘waved goodbye to the fighting men’ and this song was taken up by the civilian population as their tribute to the men leaving for the Front.

The First World War, that war which we foolishly believed was to be the ‘war to end all wars’, saw popular music play an important role as both entertainment and also providing words and melodies that could be and would be parodied. Likewise it would be difficult for many soldiers to even think about the Second World War without hearing the music to ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’, ‘Lilli Marlene’ or the much-parodied exploits of a certain ‘Mademoiselle From Armentieres’.

Even ‘Blind Freddie’ would appreciate that the songs of the services tended to be ‘rough and tumble’ and considering that the mess halls, the barracks, the ablution blocks and the town bars were the prime ‘recital halls’ then the use of bawdy language was commonplace and to be expected. As a folklorist I do not censor and I defend the language usage as part and parcel of the performance of the material. (The occasional ‘dots’ are there to protect the innocent, both young and old!) Australians have a well-earned reputation for calling a spade a spade. Blood oath!

The songs and the role they played changed again after the Second World War and this was very much a move reflecting the current state of popular music and the changing face of warfare. Unlike previous wars the confrontations in Malaya, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf became primarily a war of the air and a war where battles became unrealistically described as ‘skirmishes’. Gone were the unbearably long days, weeks and months of waiting in the trenches as airforce personnel despatched load after load of high-powered bombs on daily or dawn raids. Being a war of the air meant that the need to sing or compose songs was unnecessary as the only ‘hanging around’ was at base where you listened to radio or, in the case of the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, watched videos. In combat the surrounding noise would have ensured that singing was nigh impossible and, besides, the sophisticated radar equipment demanded intense concentration.

The Australian service men and women who fought in the later wars did sing during those occasions where they hit the towns and cities on Rest and Recuperation leave however the songs that they sang once again reflected the popular culture and contemporary pop songs became the main vehicle for parodies. It is a comment on the times that I was unable to collect many songs about our participation in the Gulf War. This is not to say that we have stopped singing although we have certainly stopped singing as a social entertainment. These days singing is most likely to be restricted to one or two people who have come up through what I call the ‘Neil Young School Of Guitar Playing And Singing’ (well, many of them sound like they are trying to imitate Neil Young). These people will create a parody, sing it and the audience will attempt to join in but it is usually a feeble attempt as the majority of the songs are not conducive to group singing. This is more a comment on the style of contemporary song compared to the usually more melodic and simplistic songs of the earlier part of the century. Compare the ‘structural complexity and memorability’ of ‘Something In The Air Tonight’ to ‘Bless ’em All’ and it is easy to see how ‘Bless ’em All’ is a better song carrier. This is not to say that any one song is a better song – just a better song for a parody vehicle. It is also worth mentioning that alcohol seems to reduce the overall embarrassment of singers (and usually resulting in them being more embarrassing!) and it most probably why the few Vietnam songs that have survived had their debut in a Saigon bar.

It is interesting to note that one of our first military parodies uses A.B. Paterson’s ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and many believe that this song became an ‘unofficial’ anthem for the ‘Diggers’ who possibly didn’t feel too comfortable about ‘God Save The King’ as a parody vehicle. Lionel Wigmore in his book “The Japanese Thrust’ (Australian War Memorial Press) talks about the use of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ as a rally cry during the Battle of Muar, in Malaya: ‘a rapid and spirited assault was necessary to gain space. Anderson ordered Beverley to lead his men singing into the struggle. This he did, and these were the words they sang:

Once a jolly swagman, camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree….

‘Waltzing Matilda’, never sung by Australians with more enthusiasm than when they meet in surroundings strange to them, had become a battle song.’

The Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars saw a new type of war as the airfbrce played an increasingly important role. As a war staged primarily in the air the role of the songs were different. In the earlier wars the infantry had to spend days, weeks, months at the front living in trenches and waiting for ‘further orders’. Returned servicemen told me that the boredom was just as bad as the battle and one of the few possible forms of entertainment was singing. What started out as a solo singer often finished as a trench full of soldiers singing the same song. Such isolation, and the need to stay awake through the long nights and days, provided an ideal platform for the ‘wits’ to change the words of popular songs and create new words and ditties so that ‘I’m Only A Bird In A Gilded Cage’ becomes ‘I’m Only A Girl In A Uniform’, I Wore A Tulip’ changes to ‘I Wore A Tunic’ and that perennial bush favourite ‘The Dying Stockman’ becomes ‘The Dying Airman’.

‘Back at the base-camp the men rested on their palliasses playing cards, two- up, writing letters home and singing the old songs. Quite often a soldier would have a mouth organ, a tin whistle, jaw harp or even a guitar and a singalong would erupt. There was usually a wag who had put new words to some familiar old song and even more likely that the ditty mentioned various men in our platoon.’ (Bill Lowry, Penshurst, 1995).

With the advent of sophisticated aircraft and associated weaponry the situation changed and the soldier or airman was surrounded by whirling and whining sounds that were certainly not conducive to singing! The Gulf war saw these planes and weapons become even more sophisticated and it is difficult to imagine a soldier singing to a computer screen!

The fact is that Australians at war have always sung about their experiences at ‘the front’ and ‘at home’ and these songs, reflecting periods of extreme frustration and fear, tend to be short humorously bitter parodies or ditties. The experience of war with its obvious horror is not a pleasant subject for a songwriter to confront so the songs move away from the descriptions of battle to seemingly unimportant subjects like the attitude of the military brass, the lousy food, the lack of booze and women, the loneliness and the memory of home and family.

There are also the songs that have a role in taunting the enemy and there is something to be said for giving the enemy a ‘human face’ that can be hated. This appears to be a psychological necessity and we can trace the history of our wars through The Mahdi, The Empress Dowager, Kaiser Bill, Adolph Hitler, Ho Chi Min and Saddam Hussein. Without these ‘monsters’ we find it difficult to kill everyday soldiers. Another category of song is those that place the soldier at the front line to defend ‘King, Home and the Mother Country’ and whilst predominantly ‘recruiting’ songs they are songs usually developed for the general public and as a conscience-pricking reminder that duty calls.

In every war the soldiers, sailors and airmen sang in the towns and cities where they had their rest and recreational leave. ‘R&R’ meant ‘letting your hair down’, ‘cutting a rug’, going on the ‘rantan’ and ‘cutting loose’! Men travelled in ‘packs’ moving from bar to bar and consuming vast quantities of alcohol as if to flush the fears of war away with the booze. Some of the same songs travelled with the drinkers and songs like ‘Horseferry Road’ or ditties like ‘When I Die’ were common to several wars. Repetitive songs, especially chorus songs, like ‘The Quartermaster’s Store’ which allowed singers to add their own verses were extremely popular and once again the poor old Sergeant Major was the main target. When you think about it the ‘airing’ of such gripes could only be done through song and this was most probably revenge enough for the drill, the early morning abuse and the seemingly endless inspections. You couldn’t very well bop him on the nose but sure as hell you could make him a figure of ridicule through the songs!

The songs also relieved the tension of the horrors of war where one’s mates could be blown to smithereens and you had no option but to continue to fight. The songs offered a fantasy escape that many men would have needed if they were to fight again. This is not to say that the songs were sentimental and the reality is that they were far from it as they glossed over such horrors preferring to sing about the enemy, home and that ‘other horror’ – army food! Interestingly few of the songs could be described as ‘hateful’ towards the ‘soldiers on the other side’ and especially in the WW1 and WW2 songs there seems to be an unspoken respect for the enemy front-line fighters despite the fact that they were definitely the enemy.

Where soldiers did mention death it was a fleeting pass and more likely to be about the enemy such as in ‘My Little Wet Home In The Tent’ where the words of one of the versions offer:

There’s a dead Turk close by
With his feet to the sky,
And he gives off a beautiful stench.

If there is any area of our wartime experience that is glaringly missing it is the songs that came from the female services. Many women fought in the three forces and I know that they sang however I could not track down many specific songs that could be described as representative. Of course many of the songs sung by the men were picked up and also sung by the women however, considering the segregated barracks such opportunities to exchange songs were limited. Some observers point to the fact that women would be disinclined to sing the more bawdy songs and would have restricted their repertoires to popular songs. I find this difficult to accept as I have collected all types of songs from women including a good few bawdy songs! Another area of song are those that were sung back home in Australia particularly by the women involved in essential war industries. Fortunately, and thanks to Jean Scott, I have been able to include a selection of songs from the Land Army and these offer an important perspective of our military folklore.

The songs in this collection come from real people. Many were offered to me by my family and fellow collectors, others were sent to me in response to my continued requests on ABC radio, through letters to magazines and (I often fear) to shut me up as I pestered people to scratch back inside their memory banks. I also trawled my way through many books, army magazines and library shelves so I am indebted to those noble archivists called librarians. What’s left came to me from the back of my own ‘noggin’ and files – over thirty years of collecting and singing. I point out that folklore is a strange little devil having little regard for historical accuracy, preferring to let the emotions run loose and believing that the facts should never get in the way of a good yam! Historians tread carefully for this is the people’s history!

Australians have fought in eleven wars. It seems incredible but eleven times we have responded to the sound of the bugle and every time it was a call to join our allies at arms. We fought in the famed Maori Wars of Taranaki and the Waikato; a contingent of gallant lads travelled to the Sudan Wars and then our Lighthorsemen galloped into the Orange Free State and the Boer War. Next came the Boxer Rebellion and then the First and Second World Wars.We glibly believed that World War Two was the last ‘World War’ but we were wrong and over and over again our troops were called to battle, or to keep the peace, in lands sometimes too close to home – Malaya, Korea and these were followed by the horrors of Vietnam. As if to remind us that war is always ‘just around the comer’ our troops rallied in 1990 to confront the threat of yet another uprising in that wom-tom zone known as the Middle East.

Music has long played a leading role in so many early times of conflict. The British drummer boy signalled that the Recruiting Sergeant had arrived in town to entice enlistments with the King or Queen’s ‘shilling’; the Scots used the bagpipes to signal that the clan war parties were on the move; American Indians, like so many native people, prepared themselves for the battle by fortifying the braves through repetitive drumming, dancing and song; the American Civil War was fought to the sound of the fife and drum whilst the northern European tradition called for excessive feasting, drinking and epic singing before the battle.

Music also played a role in documenting the successes of armies. Even disastrous defeats were made to sound like heroic battles. Nearly all cultures offer epic songs that tell of glorious victories, heroic deeds and sanctioned pillage. Such historic songs obviously played an important role in being retold down through the years to fortify and ready soldiers for the next battle- front. Australia, by comparison, offered only a short European settlement and virtually no experience of war to sing about!

Around the time that Britain commenced establishing a penal settlement in New South Wales the role and sound of military music and song was changing to reflect the times. It had moved from the troubadour days where travelling singers were relied upon to relate and act as custodians for the soldier songs and old ballads to a more disciplined military based-music. Specially composed military songs were created and promoted and the singing style became more of a stylised rendition than the ballad of old. England had, of course, also become a more stabilised monarchy and the songs reinforced this fact swearing loyalty to the King and death to all those who would dare to threaten the Crown. Nationalistic songs with long-winded titles emerged such as ‘The Soldiers Lamentation For The Loss Of Their General’, ‘The Pitman’s Revenge Against Bonaparte’ or ‘The Countryman’s Reply To The Recruiting Sergeant’. This is not to say that there were not songs deploring the war or warning against accepting ‘the King’s Shilling’ – these songs simply were unlikely to be sung by soldiers whose repertoires would have been predominantly songs about loyalty to the King, the separation from loved ones and songs that ‘belonged’ to their infantry battalion.

By the middle of the nineteenth century it became obvious that music had attracted a commercial edge. ‘Penny dreadful’ song sheets or broadsides were giving way to ‘popular songsters’ with arrangements for the pianoforte, violin and mandolin. The popular music industry was starting to replace the old songs that had been sung for years and even the newsworthy broadside ballads of the Seven Dials district were being edged out by singalong songs and sentimental ballads with equally heart-rendering titles like ‘Don’t Sell My Mother’s Picture In The Sale’ or that tear-jerker of all tear-jerkers, ‘The Luggage Van Ahead’. Next came the Music Hall and the choms rang out loud and clear – ‘turn up the music and give us another song!’

By the time of the First World War it was apparent that with this war for the first time both the civilian population and the soldiers would be singing the same songs. Florrie Forde, sang ‘Tipperary’ and ‘Goodbye-ee’ and was joined by thousands as they jam-packed the music halls to sing our soldiers to battle. Commercial recordings were produced and wind-up gramophones carried the songs far and wide, even to the front line.

Australians have also sung in every war. They sang on the march to relieve boredom and to maintain uniform marching time, they sang in the barracks, in trucks as they criss-crossed the country and, of course, they sang in the trenches. Above all, they sang in those rare opportunities when they were ‘temporarily free men’ on leave and on ‘the rantan’. The songs in this collection are mostly songs sung by the troops rather than the work of Tin- Pan-Ally songwriters. Mind you, considering the number of parodies using popular songs of the day it would be unfair to dismiss the role of the professional songwriter. Florrie Forde may have been singing ‘Tipperary’ Oops soon changed the words to suit their needs and the first line soon became ‘It’s a long way to Melbourne, It’s a long long way to go’. It seems that no popular song was safe from the wit of parody.

Whether the point of the song was directed at the enemy, or at the army institution, or at the seemingly deplorable character and attitude of any or all Sergeant Majors, or whether it compares the singers’ troop unit with other units (always with much ridicule of the latter), or dwells plaintively on the delights of beer and women; or whether it has no point whatever and is just plain silly – the idea is the same: get your troubles off your chest! – ‘pack up all your cares and woes’.

In assembling the folkloric jigsaw that could be loosely described as ‘Australian military folksong’ I searched high and low to ensure that this collection would be as representative as possible. Much of the material came from ready informants and, in most cases, returned soldiers, who were eager that the old army, airforce and navy songs be recorded. In this day and age of electronic entertainment even ‘Blind Freddy’ should be able to see that the old songs are threatened as we become a nation of people who get entertained rather than entertain each other.

In reality little has been done to collect this important part of our tradition. Graham Seal of the Centre For Australian Studies at Curtin University published a pioneering ‘work in progress’ as a folklore occasional paper, in 1991, titled ‘Digger Folksong And Verse Of World War One’ and British writer, Martin Page, published quite a number of Australian songs in his highly enjoyable books ‘Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major’ and ‘For Gawdsake Don’t Take Me’. Apart from these three publications the soldier’s song book is rather empty.

It is not surprising that there are no available songs from the Maori Wars considering that they took place in the middle of last century and that they only involved a handful of Australian soldiers. This isn’t to say that songs were not written or sung and I am confident that there were such songs. I, wrote to the New Zealand Library Service to no avail. I am still curious to see if the Maori people have any songs that document this episode of their history and if any such songs mention the Australian participation.

The Sudan produced songs as this was the heyday of the patriotick song complete with jingoistic phrasing and equally bad verse. It is also little wonder that so few songs from this war entered the tradition as they were mostly unsingable and very forgettable! The same could be said of the Boer War where the surviving songs still smack of the heavy hand of the poet as opposed to the free-thinking, free-wheeling pen of the community-at-large and the pack-slogging soldier in particular. One suspects that the soldiers did sing a great deal because singing was so much a part of every day entertainment however these songs were more likely to be ‘barrack room ballads’ than patriotic songs and because of their rowdy and rough language they would not have survived being far too rough-house to be printed or even sung in ‘polite society’. This is more of a comment on the social environment of the time than on the shyness of singing soldiers!

It was in the First World War that the role of the ‘soldier songs’ became more defined and many of the songs created in this war also travelled down through the years to be used in subsequent wars and it is possible to see a WWI song reappear in WW2 and also in the Korean War. Even the ever-popular ‘Dinki Di’ has this distinction and it is fascinating to compare the three versions and see how they travel. In many cases such songs only require a slight change of location or personnel and they are new again.

In studying the songs of the First World War one needs to have one eye cocked towards the popular music industry, especially the British Music Hall, and the emerging gramophone industry. Music publishers played an important role in the dissemination of the songs as they plied their trade promoting songwriters, singers and song books. All these had Australian equivalents and when one considers that some of the most influential international music hall artists were also Australian there is a direct link. Melbourne-born Flon-ie Forde, ‘Music Hall’s greatest chorus singer’, was as influential as Vera Lynn was to become in WW2 and Sydney music publisher and songwriter, Joe Slater, published volume after volume of his ‘Imperial Songster’ and several ‘Wartime songsters’ published ‘in support of our fighting men’.

The music used to carry the songs is also worth exploring. Certain older tunes, especially marching and recruitment tunes reappear with new words, however it is the more popular tunes that the soldiers turned to as their favoured vehicle. The repetitive ‘cumulative’ songs tend to prefer the commonly-known, usually older traditional songs, and this might have something to do with the fact that these songs were favoured for the drunken sessions in bars and taverns. ‘Abdul The Bul Bul Amir’ certainly falls into this category. The popular tunes like ‘Tipperary’ and ‘A Wee Doch And Doris’ turn up time and time again and have a lot to do with the overall commercial success of the original song. It’s easy to imagine how a bored sentry soldier could create a parody for his own amusement and then how such a parody could travel as other soldiers heard the soldier sing his ditty in the shower-room, mess-hall or even in the trenches. One also needs to appreciate that folks used to listen to the words of songs in those days!

Whilst music has a noble history at the front line it appears that musical instruments were few and far between. The smaller, more portable, instruments were obviously the most popular – the harmonica, jaw-harp, tin whistle and ukulele. There were also ‘novelty’ instruments including the musical saw, the kazoo, the bones, spoons, tissue paper and comb and when they could find the right leaf, the ‘gumleaf’. Many the ‘barrack’s band’ would have offered a combination of these instruments to back an inspired rendition of ‘Sweet Adeline’, ‘Ka-Ka-Ka-Katie’ or ‘Ida (sweet as apple cider)’.

It was in WW1 that the songs openly expressed the emotional fears experienced by the soldiers. This was new in the history of soldier songs and it was apparent that the army ‘brass’ was prepared to turn ‘a deaf ear’ to allow such fears, grievances and downright bitch-sessions to be aired. It was also a lengthy war and the songs played an important role in maintaining solidarity and morale. There is something spirited in defiantly singing in the face of the enemy and it appears as if singing songs about ‘top army brass’ was considered good practice!

I’ve always thought that the monologue, How Would You Be?,is so typically Australian with its improbable exaggeration combined with what has become known as ‘a dry sense of humour’. It has also led me to speculate whether the term ‘dry sense of humour’ is distinctly Australian and does it come from our outback with its seemingly endless plains of red dust? I first heard ‘How’d Yer Be?’ recited by Alex Hood in the 1960’s and its hilariously absurd imagery has remained with me ever since. I could not resist the temptation to add even more to this story!

War is always a frustration and the songs, parodies, ditties, poetry and stories serve many well-earned roles as a morale booster, to facilitate camaraderie, to educate and assimilate ‘new recruits’ and to allow that necessary on-going de- fusing of tension. As with other periods of history when all is not well, like economic recessions and depressions, the songs tend to be short and not so sweet, and, army songs being what they are tend to be very much to the point – boots and all! This said, I believe that the bawdy songs were not as bawdy as we would believe and certainly not as crude as today’s society would allow. What was considered shocking in WW1 could be ‘wicked’ in the 1940’s and simply bawdy in the 1990’s. Sexual innuendo certainly played a role in ‘reminding’ the soldiers that there was another side of life however, one suspects, it was similar to the ‘bromide in the tea’ which supposedly suppressed such urges! It is the later wars, particularly the Korean and Vietnam Wars, that the ‘filthy songs’ gained wide circulation and this most probably reflects the fact that the majority of song sessions would have been when the soldiers were relaxing and ‘on the town’ – this being a more acceptable venue for such songs and, besides, the on-leave soldiers wanted to be reminded that there was such an urge as sex!

The first call to arms meant training and there’s a load of truth in the old maxim that ‘life in the army would make a man of you’. There was no choice as recruits marched, marched and marched some more with the only diversion being rifle drill – Present Arms! Attention! Present Arms! – and hour upon hour of boot polishing (Soldier! I want to see your face shine in that!), brass polishing (I want that buckle to be like gold!) and blanco duty (Soldier! I don’t want to see a single mark on that webbing!).

Soldiers have always sung ditties to accompany route marching. It not only served a purpose as a time-keeper but also as a relief from boredom – especially if the words could be spiced up a bit with topical references. This aside, there were several standard ditties used by Australian soldiers down through the years and one suspects that these ditties had another use in regimentation. If you can get a new recruit to sing, march and drill in time you have the makings of an army!