FAR, FAR FROM YPRES SCRIPTS
Second Half
Pages 4, 5 and 6
They whistle and roar.
Take me over the sea.
Where the Alleyman
Can't get at me.
Oh my, I don't want to die,
I want to go home.
I want to go home.
I want to go home.
I don't want to go
To the trenches no more
Where whizz bangs and shrapnel
They whistle and roar.
Take me over the sea.
Where the Alleyman
Can't get at me.
Oh my, I don't want to die,
I want to go home.
I don't want to be a soldier
I don't want to go to war
I'd rather stay at home
Around the streets to roam.
And live on the earnings
Of a lady typist.
I don't want a bayonet in my belly
I don't want my buttocks shot away,
I'd rather stay in Scotland,
In bonnie, bonnie Scotland
I don't want to be a soldier
I don't want to go to war
I'd rather stay at home
Around the streets to roam.
And live on the earnings
Of a lady typist.
I don't want a bayonet in my belly
I don't want my buttocks shot away,
I'd rather stay in Scotland,
In bonnie, bonnie Scotland
Narrator
And far away in "bonnie, bonnie Scotland", the “lady-typists” were singing the songs of the time.
This song was introduced on the 19th of April 1916 and was sung as a duet between the original stars, George Robey and Violet Loraine. Unlike the Second World War, the population of Britain was, to a great extent, cocooned from the atrocities that were happening at the other side of the English Channel and any diversions from the news of the day was welcome.
And things look blue
I wish, A girl I had
Say one like you.
Someone within my heart
To build her throne,
Someone, who'd never part
To call my own.
I'll try, a love to teach dear
Fond and true,
I sigh, a world to reach dear
Just made for me and you.
If you were the only Girl in the world
And I were the only boy.
Nothing else would matter In the world today.
We would go on loving In the same old way.
A Garden of Eden just made for two.
With nothing to mar our joy,
I would say such Wonderful things to you.
There would be such Wonderful things to do.
If you were the only Girl in the world
And I were the only boy.
Narrator
I'm sure they'll be very happy together……….Back in Ypres, the “Wipers Times” continued to amuse the soldiers but it had a more serious side. It also printed the soldier’s darker efforts, some simple, some complex, but all of them sincere. Here’s an extract from one such poem called, “To My Chum”
“No more we'll share the same old barn
The same old dug-out, same old yarn,
No more a tin of bully share
Nor split our rum by a star-shell's glare
So long old lad.
But it's only myself who has lost a friend,
And though I may fight through to the end,
No dug-out or billet will be the same,
All pals can only be pals in name,
But we'll all carry on till the end of the game
Because you lie there.”
It wasn’t only sadness that came with the death of a comrade fighting alongside you. It was a feeling of ….“why him and not me?”
The Bells of Hell 2D
The bells of Hell
Go tingalingaling
For you but not for me,
And the little devils
How they singalingaling
For you but not for me.
Oh death where is thy
Stingalingaling
Oh grave thy victory?
Oh, the bells of Hell E DD
Go tingalingaling
For you but not for me!
The bells of Hell
Go tingalingaling
For you but not for me,
And the little devils
How they singalingaling
For you but not for me.
Oh death where is thy
Stingalingaling
Oh grave thy victory?
Oh, the bells of Hell
Go tingalingaling
For you but not for me!
Raining 2D
Raining, raining, raining
Always bloody well raining;
Raining all the morning
Raining all the day.
Grousing, grousing, grousing,
Always bloody well grousing,
Grousing at the weather.
Grousing at the pay.
ALL
Raining, raining, raining
Always bloody well raining;
Raining all the morning
Raining all the day.
Grousing, grousing, grousing,
Always bloody well grousing,
Grousing at the weather.
Grousing at the pay.
Narrator
Tonight, we have heard songs of boredom, songs of anguish, songs of pain, anger and frustration. Although the songs come from many sources, the texts written by the soldiers themselves shine through with an honesty that cannot be questioned. This is a love song from British officer Frederick E. Weatherley, and it tells of his love for a French widow, who sheltered and cared for him in war-torn France. The complex tune was written by Haydn Wood and it remains one of the most poignant songs of the Great War.
Roses of Picardy
She is watching by the poplars,