Liner Notes
Cat. No. 80222
Release Date: 1977-01-01
Historians measure time by the occurrence of wars, and individuals, too, describe the stages of their lives in terms of these awesome mileposts. Since music is such a basic element of life, the music of war retains a special meaning. War’s songs are not easily forgotten, and the endurance of some strains is remarkable.
While “Yankee Doodle” is indelibly associated with the American Revolution, its obscure ancestor may have been a jingle intoned before the eighteenth century. The fife tune “The Girl I Left Behind Me” survives from Colonial days. The War of 1812 provided our national anthem’s poem. A host of familiar songs still casts audible shadows from the Civil War: “Dixie,” “Aura Lee,” “Darling Nellie Gray,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” (See New World Records 80202-2, Songs of the Civil War.)
In addition to these, many marches became venerable favorites through the years, with Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” perhaps heading the list. “The Field Artillery Song” (also known as the “Caisson Song” and the “Infantry Song”), “Anchors Aweigh,” and the “Marines’ Hymn” (based on a duet from Offenbach’s comic opera La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein) are permanent fixtures in American life.
The songs of World War I and World War II, some of which compose this program, also retain their special meanings. The cliché that wars no longer inspire worthwhile popular music can be ignored. Jerome Kern’s “Till the Clouds Roll By” cannot be disassociated from the year 1917. Irving Berlin’s “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” (see New World Records [80]238, The Vintage Irving Berlin) now seems as familiar as a folk song. The songs of World War II are often felt to be inferior to those of World War I, but wartime loneliness, romantic fantasy, and even forced optimism can be clearly heard in Jerry Gray’s “A String of Pearls,” the Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer hits “One for My Baby” and “Accent-tchu-ate the Positive,” Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and Duke Ellington and Bob Russell’s “Do Noth-in’ till You Hear from Me.” Writers finally realized that martial spirit is by no means a vital ingredient for a good wartime song.
The public indifference to the Korean War was mirrored by the indifference of commercial songwriters. Wartime songs were no longer war songs. A minor but curious exception was inspired by the controversial Douglas MacArthur, who ended his nationally televised farewell address to Congress after his dismissal from command with lines from an old army song: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” Record companies rushed out versions of the song, which were enthusiastically plugged by disc jockeys. Otherwise, many veterans returned humming the Korean national anthem, but it was not given commercial notice in the States. The Vietnam War was a different matter. For the most part, well-established commercial writers did not risk professional security by producing songs either in support of or in opposition to the conflict. But other writers — like Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan — did create songs of protest, and prolifically. - Carl H. Scheele, from the liner notes
While “Yankee Doodle” is indelibly associated with the American Revolution, its obscure ancestor may have been a jingle intoned before the eighteenth century. The fife tune “The Girl I Left Behind Me” survives from Colonial days. The War of 1812 provided our national anthem’s poem. A host of familiar songs still casts audible shadows from the Civil War: “Dixie,” “Aura Lee,” “Darling Nellie Gray,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” (See New World Records 80202-2, Songs of the Civil War.)
In addition to these, many marches became venerable favorites through the years, with Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” perhaps heading the list. “The Field Artillery Song” (also known as the “Caisson Song” and the “Infantry Song”), “Anchors Aweigh,” and the “Marines’ Hymn” (based on a duet from Offenbach’s comic opera La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein) are permanent fixtures in American life.
The songs of World War I and World War II, some of which compose this program, also retain their special meanings. The cliché that wars no longer inspire worthwhile popular music can be ignored. Jerome Kern’s “Till the Clouds Roll By” cannot be disassociated from the year 1917. Irving Berlin’s “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” (see New World Records [80]238, The Vintage Irving Berlin) now seems as familiar as a folk song. The songs of World War II are often felt to be inferior to those of World War I, but wartime loneliness, romantic fantasy, and even forced optimism can be clearly heard in Jerry Gray’s “A String of Pearls,” the Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer hits “One for My Baby” and “Accent-tchu-ate the Positive,” Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and Duke Ellington and Bob Russell’s “Do Noth-in’ till You Hear from Me.” Writers finally realized that martial spirit is by no means a vital ingredient for a good wartime song.
The public indifference to the Korean War was mirrored by the indifference of commercial songwriters. Wartime songs were no longer war songs. A minor but curious exception was inspired by the controversial Douglas MacArthur, who ended his nationally televised farewell address to Congress after his dismissal from command with lines from an old army song: “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” Record companies rushed out versions of the song, which were enthusiastically plugged by disc jockeys. Otherwise, many veterans returned humming the Korean national anthem, but it was not given commercial notice in the States. The Vietnam War was a different matter. For the most part, well-established commercial writers did not risk professional security by producing songs either in support of or in opposition to the conflict. But other writers — like Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan — did create songs of protest, and prolifically. - Carl H. Scheele, from the liner notes
Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition: Songs of World Wars I and II
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When the Lusitania Went Down
Charles McCarron, Nat Vincent
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I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier
Al Piantadosi, Alfred Bryan
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Let's All Be Americans Now
Berlin, Leslie, Meyer
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Over There
George M. Cohan
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Hello, Central! Give Me No Man's Land
Schwartz, Lewis, Young
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There's a Vacant Chair in Every Home Tonight
Ernest Breuer, Alfred Bryan
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I've Got My Captain Working for Me Now
Irving Berlin
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My Dream of the Big Parade
Jimmy McHugh, Al Dubin
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Der Fuehrer's Face
Oliver Wallace
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He's 1-A in the Army and He's A-1 in My Heart
Redd Evans
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Stalin Wasn't Stallin' (A Modern Spiritual)
Willie Johnson
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We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again
Cliff Friend, Charles Tobias
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I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen
Irving Berlin
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Goodbye, Mama (I'm Off to Yokohama)
J. Fred Coots
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No Love, No Nothin'
Harry Warren, Leo Robin
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Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition
Frank Loesser
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My Guy's Come Back
Mel Powell, Ray McKinley
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