From: Bill Steele To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Re: lyrics for WWII folk song? X-Listserver-Version: 6.0 -- UNIX ListServer by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: Folk Music Discussion Group Status: RO X-Status: >Hey folks, > >Here's a message that I just got and wasn't sure what to do with. Does this >ring a bell with anyone. I don't know if it was a reworked traditional tune >or even sort of a werid Al reworking of one of the pop songs of the day. >I've never heard of this. If you have any clues, please relay them to the >original poster Larry Cook as he isn't on this list. His email is > > >>I am looking for lyrics to a song. During my search, I came across your >>name as a knowledgable person on the subject. Please forgive me if I got >>bad information. >> >>I have a WWII buddy who was a flyer. He wishes he could remember the >>words to a song that his CO sang whenever they started out on a mission. >>It had may verses and probably was a "folk" song, never published. >> >>I'm not sure of the spelling but the song is about a Russian named "Ivan >>Skavinsky Skavar". >> >>Can you suggest a starting point to find the lyrics to unpublished WWII >>songs? I know that this is a tough one but I'd appreciate an answer even >>if it's that you don't have a clue. Thanks for your help. >> >>Larry Cook Sounds like a reference to what may be my favorite song of all time, The Ballad of Abdul Abulbul Amir. This is a tongue-in-cheek narrative of a battle between Abdul and the aforemetioned Ivan during the Crimean War. The song was written by Percy French, an Irish music-hall performer, around 1860-some (I have the exact info at home, if anyone wants it.) He was ripped off by a London publisher who published a slightly different version of the song as "Anonymous," so it often appears that way in books. A radio singer named Frank Crummit recorded it on two different 78s in the 1930s and it was a major hit. What he recorded was closer to the ripoff version than the original, and that's the way most people, including me, sing it. Sorry Percy. The version Larry heard may have been some sort of parody applied to WWII, though. Bill Steele ws21@cornell.edu