When I was 12 or so, my father picked up a newly released album of World War One music entitled, after the most famous American song of the war, Over There. It is now long out of print (though still occasionally available used). As is sometimes the case with highly singable songs one heard as a youth, several of these songs had been on my mind lately, and so when the breakdown of the dishwasher the other night set everyone to washing and drying dishes, I put it on and we sang along to the oddly cheerful songs inspired by one of the world’s darker interludes.
“Over There”, written in 1917 by George M. Cohan (I didn’t like the historical versions I found on YouTube as much, so I made my own with the Feinstein rendition of the song.)
The original lyrics are as follows:
Verse 1
Johnny, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun.
Take it on the run, on the run, on the run.
Hear them calling you and me,
Every Son of Liberty.
Hurry right away, no delay, go today.
Make your Daddy glad to have had such a lad.
Tell your sweetheart not to pine,
To be proud her boy’s in line.Verse 2
Johnny, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun,
Johnny, show the “Hun” you’re a son-of-a-gun.
Hoist the flag and let her fly.
Yankee Doodle do or die.
Pack your little kit, show your grit, do your bit.
Yankee to the ranks from the towns and the tanks.
Make your Mother proud of you
And the old red-white-and-blueChorus
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
The drums rum-tumming everywhere.
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware –
We’ll be over, we’re coming over,
And we won’t come back till it’s over, over there.
That was a fun movie. I loved the scene where he does the dance routine to try to convince the recruiting officer he’s fit enough to enlist despite his age.
Cohan died from stomach cancer on November 5, 1942, not long after the release of Yankee Doodle Dandy. He received a private showing before the release of the film.
Nice work Darwin!
[…] My friend and co-blogger Darwin Catholic at The American Catholic put together the above video, which I believe is one of the best videos I have seen on World War I. George M. Cohan of course wrote Over There, the song which became the battle hymn of the American war effort in World War I. George M. Cohan was immortalized by James Cagney in the 1942 film biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy. Dying on November 5, 1942 of stomach cancer, Cohan saw the film shortly before its release in a private screening. I do not know if the ending of the film in the clip below brought tears to his eyes, but it always does mine: Share this:StumbleUponDiggRedditLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Published in: […]