October 21, 2014 (Tuesday)
Yesterday’s blog presented the lyrics to a love song. Today my subject is “Songs not Of Love.” Of course, that covers a lot of ground, so I’m zeroing in on songs that could not possibly be love songs: the songs of Spike Jones. He and his band were known as “Spike Jones and His City Slickers.”
He presented popular songs of the day in a different way, with whistles, cowbells, and sound effects of all kinds, complete with qwirky voices and singers. One of my favorites came out during World War 2: “Der Fuehrer’s Face.” On the record, the Heil was replaced with a razberry sound.
Chorus
When der fuehrer says we is de master race
We heil heil right in der fueher’s face
Not to love der fuehrer is a great disgrace
So we heil heil right in der fuehrer’s face
When Herr Goebbels says we own the world and space
We heil heil right in Herr Goebbels’ face
When Herr Goring says they’ll never bomb this place
We heil heil right in Herr Goring’s face
Are we not the supermen Aryan pure supermen?
Ja we are the supermen (super duper supermen)!
Is this Nazi land so good
Would you leave it if you could?
Ja this Nazi land is good
We would leave it if we could!
We bring the world to order
Heil Hitler’s world to order
Everyone of foreign race
Will love der fuehrer’s face
When we bring to the world this order
Chorus
Instrumental interlude
Chorus (slows down like a dying tape cassette on the last line)
Spike’s real name was Lindley Armstrong Jones (1911-1965). He was a drummer and a real musician. He started a second band: “Spike Jones and His Other Orchestra,” with accomplished musicians and serious songs, but the public preferred the “City Slickers.”
Just about every song he made was a hit. I enjoyed Spike Jones’ silly songs. So did millions of others.