Topic: marching songs??

[Flying Spirit]

well, if I can just throw something in here: we don't sing because it's just gay. That simple, really. Everybody is trying to over-think it. It has nothing to do with anti-Americanism. It just sounds really fruity.

If you can sing, you ain't runnin' fast enough.

Singing or yelling attitude checks is not gay, actually, it boosts morale. Sure..getting to places quickly is a good thing too...but you don't want to wear everyone out before they even get to filling out their tasks.

[Recce41]

 Canadians don't sing. I have been down to the States and all they do is sing. For one Canadians run at a faster pace. My Troop was down at Ft Bragg, and were on their Base run. Damn, the pace was so slow we were almost walking.
 Most of US Bases have speakers up on poles that pipe, running crap out. Yes! it is fruity, as Para Cowboy said. As for dressing the same, check out the Royals, PPCLI or when the Hussars were in Petawawa. That damn Smurf suit. HAHA. 

[Kyle Burrows]

anyone know the full lyrics to "Flying Fortress" ? you know the one with the Sgt Major and bullets in you eye and a knife up your ***?

[bossi]

I'm quite surprised none of our bona fide historians didn't jump all over this, although I concede they did in an earlier thread:  http://army.ca/forums/index.php/topic,577.0.html

However, I'm actually quite abashed - the answer was staring me in the face, and I can't believe I didn't remember this until I saw it in the newspaper today (but, apparently I'm among good company - I could have sworn the Patricia's were in Italy, too ...)

... It reminded me of an experience I had as a brand   new Pl Comd in 3PPCLI. As a Militia soldier for eight years prior to transferring to the Regular Army, I had grown up with the idea of singing: singing when marching, running, or riding in trucks. We had lots of great songs (usually filthy...) and we didn't think twice about singing them.

I arrived at 3PPCLI and took my platoon out for its first run. I tried to get the platoon singing, and got a very spotty, lukewarm response. Afterward my Pl 2IC took me aside and said: "Sir--we don't sing in the Regular Force". Of course, I felt like a total fool, but now that I look back over the years, I see that he was right. Regular Canadian soldiers do not, as a rule, sing as part of any activity, much unlike their US counterparts.:Perhaps they just think it is a "Militia" thing, or too "American": I don't know.   ...

Of course, it's possible I'm brainwashed since my Regiment was amongst the "D-Day Dodgers", but ... it sure seems to me that somewhere along the way we've lost touch with our roots:

"It was a fantastic name and we're extremely proud of it," said George Burrows of Windsor, Ont., then a 20-year-old private in the Royal Canadian Regiment. "We wrote a song about it and we would sing that when we marched."

Angry at first, troops eventually embraced the nickname with the kind of stinging sarcasm and inimitable esprit de corps that only battle-weary soldiers can muster.

They rewrote the words to the popular German song Lili Marlene under the title We Are the D-Day Dodgers, the penultimate verse of which goes:

We hear the boys in France are going home on leave

After six months' service, such a shame they're not relieved.

We were told to carry on a few more years,

Because our wives don't shed no tears.

We are the D-Day Dodgers, in sunny Italy.

... The moniker D-Day Dodgers suggested those who fought in Italy - about 40 per cent of the Canadian army of the day - had it easy. But as names like Ortona, Rimini and Cassino attest, nothing could be further from the truth.

By the time their job was declared done in Italy, nearly 20,000 Canadians had been wounded and almost 6,000 killed. In Burrows' regiment alone, which fought for 22 months, more than 80 per cent suffered casualties.

The survivors were unceremoniously transferred to northwest Europe where they joined the fight through the Netherlands and into Germany itself. Italy became all but a footnote in the rush to the Reich and the glory of ultimate victory.

...

A special plaque will be unveiled to honour Ernest (Smoky) Smith, Canada's last living Victoria Cross winner, who singlehandedly held off multiple German attacks at Cesena one day in October 1944.

Two other Canadians, Paul Triquet and John Mahony, also won the VC in Italy. But the D-Day Dodgers name has largely overshadowed the campaign and the troops' accomplishments.

"We have been completely ignored since the end of the war," said Burrows, now 81. "It really hurt a lot of the guys."

"It doesn't seem right," added former armoured trooper Ralph Flanagan, 87, of Belledune, N.B. "We were fighting in Italy for almost a year before they landed in France."

There was no doubt the title hurt more over the years, said historian and author Jack Granatstein. D-Day came after the capture of Rome, which should have been a highlight of the war.

"In the media, and in the histories of the war, it became a sideshow," he said. "It became something of no consequence because everything was focused on France.

"It was grossly unfair to the people who fought in Italy and grossly unfair to the 1st Canadian Corps and the 5,000 Canadian dead in that campaign."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/10/23/682320-cp.html

[Rusty Shackleford]

20 Years in the Infantry and I haven't sung a note, I was trying to keep up.  If you can sing, you ain't running fast enough.

[bossi]

20 Years in the Infantry and I haven't sung a note, I was trying to keep up.   If you can sing, you ain't running fast enough.

So, in other words ... you're dissing the D-Day Dodgers ... ?

[Rusty Shackleford]

No, in other words, it has been my experience that if you can sing, you ain't running fast enough.

[SHARP WO]

Marching Songs? Marching songs have always been a part of the Reserves, but it was more prominent in certain units than in others. With the intro of SHARP, many of the songs we sang were deleted but not forgotten because they were offensive.

I also saw that episode pf TDV, young soldiers cant be expected to remember everything when put on the spot in an interview, it's like asking "what are the fundamentals of offensive operations". most people cant answer that off the top of their heads.

Canada gu brath

[I, Citizen]

from a place far far away. in a time long long ago, they used to sing... *this song might be offensive to some persons*

Three germans marched across the Rhine Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
Three germans marched across the Rhine Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
Three germans marched across the Rhine, ****** the women and drank the wine and they all went singing,

Chorus
Seik He*l my *** Ta-Boot

They came upon a wayside inn Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
They came upon a wayside inn Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
They came upon a wayside inn, the door was locked they kicked it in and they all went singing,

Chorus

The Inn-keeper had a daughter fair Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
The Inn-keeper had a daughter fair Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
The Inn-keeper had a daughter fair, with long blonde locks and **** out there and they all went singing,

Chorus

They tied her to a feather bed Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
They tied her to a feather bed Ta-Boot Ta-boot
they tied her to a feather bed and 'tickled' her till she was nearly dead and they all went singing,

Chorus

The inn keeper was so ashamed Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
The inn keeper was so ashamed Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
The inn keeper was so ashamed, he tickled her back to life again and they all went singing,

Chorus

The Inn keeper had a trusty gun Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
The Inn keeper had a trusty gun Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
The Inn keeper had a trusty gun and he shot those krauts one by one and they all went singing,

Chorus

The Germans thought they won the war Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
The Germans thought they won the war Ta-Boot Ta-Boot
The Germans thought they won the war, but QOR killed them all the day before and we all went singing,

Chorus

[Moderator Note:  Edited because this adult song can be seen by young, impressionable eyes]

[Kirkhill]

I think that the reason the youngsters may have given up singing is that most of them couldn't carry a tune if you handed it to them in a bucket.    Have you heard the stuff they listen to?  Where's the melody?

From days of yore, partially remembered

Stick a needle in my eye,
Beat me, hurt me, make me cry,

Masochistic needs within,
Love to feel that burning skin,

When I was young and had no sense,
I tore my balls on a barbed wire fence,

The pain it made me scream and shout,
Went to ground and tore them out

Four hours lying in the mud,
Almost died from loss of blood.......

And that point Old Age and Aluminum catch up,  perhaps if MCpls Rankine or Bonneville, or any other old CH types of a certain vintage are monitoring these means they could fill in the rest.

Cheers.

[PARAMEDIC]

hhahahahaha  oh man nearly shat my pants.

thats a good one.
 

[Blindspot]

Not sure if it qualifies as a marching song but maybe one of you Highlanders might know a little Scottish ditty I have in mind. It was sung to us during PT by a Mcpl from the 48th. The first line goes:

"Oh down in [bleep] Country were the red river flows..."

The [bleep] relates to female genitalia. As I can recall the melody, I have sadly lost all recollection of the following lyrics. I even used this song many years ago in a high school english writing assignment. The teacher honoured me by reading it aloud to the class, though omitting the [bleep], which I suspect helped garner more interest in my writing among my classmates.  

[bossi]

It's not Scottish - it's obscene (and unacceptable for young ears or eyes)
I learned it in the early 1970's from some guys in a drum and bugle corps.
Many things have changed since then, both on civvie street and in our Army.

And, let's get something perfectly clear - no backtalk, no discussion, no argument:
This song is NOT acceptable for any official activity associated with our Army.

[axeman]

I agree there are limits today . that song crosses them all

[I, Citizen]

lets just stick to drunken renditions of 'ol Hirams goat' and its many adventures with cooks, trains and everything else.....

[ARMY 523]

WE SANG SONGS IN OUR RESERVE TRAINING

WHO ARE WE C COY 9705, WHO ARE YOUR FRIENDS? TRUST IN MY SELF AND MY COMMRADS, WHO IS THE ENEMY? FEAR THE LACK OF DETERMINATION TO SURVIVE SOLDER ON DUCIMEUS!  THAT WAS OUR MARCH SONG. gIVES A LITTLE MORE PEP INTO IT I THINK.

[PARAMEDIC]

ok ok no need to scream.. lol check yor caps we woulda got the point anyways.

and yeah no filthy lyrics either( directed to blindspot ) im sure it was prolly funny as hell but keep it clean, its sends the wrong message to kids checking the site.

[ARMY 523]

sorry i was doing some on line stuff didn't realize sorry

[SHELLDRAKE!!]

I think this marching song thing has an even simpler explanation.Most people who join the reserves are typically more hyped up about the whole military experience and the small amount of actual time training makes the "military life" that more special.Reservists tend to spend less time with their military coworkers and are therefore given more of a familly feeling and esprit de corps wheras regs live the life daily and more often want a break from the faces they see everyday.To someone who takes a break from their civilian job to experience military life,they are more apt to want to sing the old songs like in the military's early years, but for someone whos job is the military, most would rather spend their breaks doing anything but military stuff.

[MrRGoyer]

I think marching songs are great they get u all hyped up and it gets your mind off of how tired u really are!!

[Alex252]

QOR that song us so good

[Blindspot]

ok ok no need to scream.. lol check yor caps we woulda got the point anyways.

and yeah no filthy lyrics either( directed to blindspot ) im sure it was prolly funny as heck but keep it clean, its sends the wrong message to kids checking the site.

Ok, which is precisely why I "bleeped" out any such references.

I offer a public apology to this forum.

As I said in my post, I could not recall the lyrics and as further explanation, I also did not recall the drastic nature of the song, which Bossi clearly pointed out. This song was sung to my platoon, along with others like it over sixteen years ago. I can only give my word that it was never my intention to denigrate the CF with mention of this song at any time should anyone think that.

Again, I apologise.

[I, Citizen]

we also sing to work the lungs and help keep a rhythm for marching too....

[MrRGoyer]

good point

[ArmyRick]

I have been in (reg and reserve) for several years (14) and i have never singed while marching or running.
What's the point?
We are IMO being uniquely canadian by not singing anything...