Reply To: Music
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
—
Samuel Johnson (directed at William Pitt)
—
* * *
Sons of the Sea — England Expects
British Naval Song (1805)
(First two verses modified for WWI, 1915)
—Have you heard this talk of foreign powers,
—Building ships increasingly?
—Do you know they watch the Isle of ours,
—Watch their chance unceasingly?
—Have you heard the millions they will spend,
—Strengthening their fleets, and why?
—They imagine they can break or bend
—The nation that has often made them fly;
—But one thing we possess, they forget, they forget,
—The lads in blue, they’ve met, often met, often met.
—Sons of the sea, all British born,
—Sailing every ocean, laughing foes to scorn.
—They may build their ships, my lads,
—And think they know the game,
—But they can’t breed boys of the bulldog breed,
—Who made old England’s name.
* * *
Goodbye, Dolly Gray — Spanish-American War Song.
Lyrics: Will D. Cobb; Music: Paul Barnes (1897)
Singer: Edward Woodward
—I have come to say goodbye, Dolly Gray,
—It’s no use to ask me why, Dolly Gray,
—There’s a murmur in the air, you can hear it everywhere,
—It’s the time to do and dare, Dolly Gray.
—So if you hear the sound of feet, Dolly Gray,
—Sounding through the village street, Dolly Gray,
—It’s the tramp of soldiers’ true in their uniforms so blue,
—I must say goodbye to you, Dolly Gray.
—Goodbye Dolly I must leave you, though it breaks my heart to go,
—Something tells me I am needed at the front to fight the foe,
—See — the boys in blue are marching and I can no longer stay,
—Hark — I hear the bugle calling, goodbye Dolly Gray.
* * *
Robert Noonan was in Cape Town (1899-1901) when Goodbye, Dolly Gray was a Boer War anthem.
Edward Woodward played Breaker Morant, who was executed by firing squad for war-crime (a crime-within-a-crime) in the Boer War. Breaker Morant is remembered today for the movie metaphor that stands for all war-crime: Rule “303”.
