"the songs our fathers loved" ( -- Charles Ives)

I am a Junior Geezer, and I need constantly to remind myself that the things I take for granted, the things I know for certain about the Past ... perhaps 2/3 of the blog-reading world have never heard of these things, or have the most vague and hazy ideas about them.

Don't be angry that Prince Harry went to a costume party dressed in a Nazi uniform, with a swastika armband. His grandfather, Prince Philip, was an officer who saw combat action (and was mentioned in dispatches) in the Royal Navy during World War II. His grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, served in uniform during World War II as a military driver, while enemy bombs and rockets were falling on London.

Her mother, the late Queen Mother Elizabeth, told the Nation:

"The Princesses will never leave [London] without me.
I will not leave without the King,
and the King will never leave."

Grandma and Grampa will explain World War II and Nazis to Prince Harry.

Well, I'm just a Junior Geezer, I have utterly no direct personal knowledge of World War One.

But that previous post, "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag" -- that old song wasn't just a popular song of World War One.

It was THE song of World War One.

At the time, World War One wasn't called World War One, because no one could possibly imagine there could ever be such a huge, world-wide, ghastly slaughter and carnage ever again. At the time, and until the next huge, world-wide, ghastly slaughter and carnage began, everyone just called it: The Great War.

It ended in 1918. Movies did not have sound until 1929. But silent movie theaters always had an orchestra, or, in small towns, a piano player, and the movie came with a special music score, for the pianist to play the right music for each scene.

There were (there still are) hundreds of World War One silent movies. And just one measure on the old tinny piano of "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag" -- to everyone in the theater, that instantly meant The Great War.

I don't know how Automatic this will be on your computer -- first ya gotta un-MUTE your computer -- but if all goes well, with just one click, here is World War One, the Great War, in the ears, minds and hearts of your English-speaking great-grandmother and great-grandfather, in America and Canada, in the UK, in Australia and New Zealand.

A lucifer was a strike-anywhere match, a fag was a cigarette. Bosch was one of many insulting names for Germans -- another was The Hun.

If it works as it's working right now for me, follow the bouncing ball and sing along:

MIDI file courtesy Benjamin Tubb.

Private Perks is a funny little codger
With a smile, a funny smile.
Five feet none, he’s an artful little dodger
With a smile, a funny smile.
Flush or broke, he’ll have his little joke,
He can’t be suppress’d.
All the other fellows have to grin
When he gets this off his chest, Hi!

CHORUS [sung twice after each verse]:

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag,
And smile, smile, smile!
While you’ve a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, boys, that’s the style!
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile, so:
Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag,
And smile, smile, smile!

Private Perks went a-marching into Flanders
With his smile his funny smile.
He was lov’d by the privates and commanders
For his smile, his funny smile.
When a throng of Bosches came along
With a mighty swing,
Perks yell’d out, "This little bunch is mine!
Keep your heads down, boys, and sing, Hi!"

CHORUS [sung twice]

Private Perks he came back from Bosch-shooting
With his smile, his funny smile.
Round his home he then set about recruiting
With his smile, his funny smile.
He told all his pals, the short, the tall,
What a time he’d had;
And as each enlisted like a man
Private Perks said ‘Now my lad,’ Hi!

Words by George Asaf, 1880 - 1951
[pseudonym for George Henry Powell]
Music by Felix Powell, 18?? - 1942
[Felix was George's brother.]

Published 1915 by Vide Press, London

"What is best described as a Philosophy Song,
is now being sung -- and whistled
by the troops as they march along.
We believe that it will become
overwhelmingly popular."

From the MIDI website:

This song did become quite popular, actually becoming a national blockbuster that boosted British morale as it sagged at the face [of] incredible casualties. From 1914 to 1918 the British Empire suffered 908,371 battle deaths and 2,090,212 wounded. -- S.W.