Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1919-02-06
What Was the Best Song Hit of
War? Will It Live?
From the New York Times.

Ffom the New York Times.
Beginning about 25 years from now magazine and especial feature" peNsn,nor
arhcesw will be published on the songs of the Yankee soldiers in the gra VA Ths
is Il safe prediction, since it was about hat length of i'm after the Civil wa. that
writer's began to treat of a imiar subject; many AN article and even book has
!en written on the songs of that var
The songs of the old war Differed from those of The present one in that thv
more different shades of feeling. Dur war has been $50 short that there
was mott oomf for much more than one state of mind; the state of mind tina is rep
resented IN owe There" Over There" was just as sneabe up to the very day
h the arrhstcea as it vas when the soldiers began to ross the Atlantic tut the
history or the our years OF thee Civil war; with its hopes. ppomtme and
renewed determination can be traced in the varying themes of its songs. In tn
It year OF the civil war such a song as Tramp Framp. Tramp the Boys Are
sarchfng, could not have been written: it needed the great losses of the north to
lrng it about.
over There vas surely the great ong of this war as John Browns Body"
vas of tn other. George NJ Conan is entitled. not for the first inn to the credt
OF haVng his hand OF thep peoples pulse of bGne Il real interpreter of heir moods.
'The fanks are coming. the ianba are coming. ad we won como HON till it's
over there and the gay but threatening melody epnomtedt the whole struggle
IRON thu Ameriean VIEWPOINT Later Conan struck another chord. When o Come
hack. and You WHO ome Back; There's a Who'll World Waiting for YOU M here
ne touched only a phase. In tee earlier song he struck the national noe as George
r: Rot struck 1t In the old war with his" Rally 'Round the Flag" Root toe. had
his song Of a single phase-We Are Coming. Father Abraham, Three Hundred
Thousand More We may call COhan the Root of this war
Mex to Cohan nus be ptacedI Irving Berln. witt his" Hate to Get ~ though
HI wrote others. III " catchhst lines. those which raphr the busle call
we're not original. having been used in the army long before hee entered it; but it was
ne wo mad a song around them. a song that was sung III over the country by
hufnins was written before the wal. but is entitled to rank as a wars song because
1T was adapted to the purpose; AM the same may be said of TO- Eliotts "Theres a
l"hs.. Long lrrah whch the soldiers across the w2er sang m their marches
"Goodby. Broadway; Hello, France" was first IN thu field. went while 1T lasted
but ast 900 commonplace to hold out ASH POPULAR song as my was "Joan of Are"
Pack U Your Troubles in -FOUR Old Kit Bag was as popular among the sol
as any song. At home We sang mores sentimental songs, suha as You Boy
and ny Boy" Hello, Central Give Ne No Mans Land" Bring Sack My Daddy to
bother with: but re Ill joined the soldiers Enthusiastically in Godfrey OIIaras
Ike which. written by an army arm. has real soldier hunor. 1t ranks
with 1.-The Captain Will His Whskers Stole Il SLY GEnce at Me-" In comic soldier
song of the old war;.