The New York herald., 1922-02-26
Pop of Machine
Guns Inspiration
for Peppery Time
Gaskill Caught Melody for
Popular Air on Battle
fields of France.

Clarence Gaskill OF the college boy
Fay's Fables" admits that he got his
inspiration for
Its a pop-pcp-pop-po popular song
With a pep-pep- pep-pep peppery tune
from the popping of machine guns on
the front in France.
This is one OF the most whistled num-
bers in the new show at the Park.
There is Il military rhythm to most OF
the Gaskill music. which. however. is
not the explanation for the applause
that greets him when he is introduced
by Mr.. Fay and steps down to the piano
to do his bit at each performance, This
is another story. The uproar comes
from the composers former pals in the
911th Machine Gun Corps. which had its
baptism of fire in the Argonne along
with the Seventy-ninth Division. His
comrades are glad to find him looking
well again.
Those boys remember the "Pep-Pep
Peppery" song ever since they were all
together in the hospital base at Vichy.
France. IT was here that Gaskill wrote
and appeared in his first musical revue,
Hello, Coffee Coolers"' which he
staged for the soldiers. Having been
wounded by shrapnel and gas, the COM
poser started soldiers show as soon
as he was able.
I'VE had no professionals among the
wounded at Vichy," says Mr.. Gaskill,
"but there was plenty OF talent. and /
must say those soldier audiences were
critical. I learned lot from them. In
addition to an ear tickling melody. a
song to be worth more than dud
shell had to have a lyric written on
some catchy idea.
Now that we are all home again,
find audiences are good deal like the
boys who went through life in the
camps. trenches and hospitals. They
demand pep in their popular stuff.
The lyrics must be pop-popping with
something more than jazz phrases.
There is no way to tell how to write
popular song. nor anyway to know
what melodies will live. But we do
know that a good idea in a song will
help. The 'Marseillaise' and our own
Star Spangled Banner are the best
examples.
Camp songs since the civil war have
been strangely few. Such songs cannot
be written to order In the Spanish
war A Hot Time in the Old Town pro-
vided the spirit of determination that
thrilled the soldiers.
Before the United States entered the
great war the British 'Tommies' kept
step to 'Tipperary.' love ballad with
out note OF martial spirit Yet it be-
came the very soul of the war during
the early days.
Then came the greatest American
war song since Marching Through
Georgia. George VI. Cohan's Over
There, sung for the first time before
an assemblage of soldiers at an enter
tainment given by the Friars Club of
New York for officers in training at
Fort Myer. Va. 1t was in the big drill
hall and created q furore. 1t became
the outstanding popular song of the
war; both for America and England
But the boys who learned these and
many other songs under the direction
OF War Department song leaders came
to sense musical values. and since they
have DOTTED their uniforms and re-
turned to civil pursuits they select their
musical entertainments with more dis
elimination. 1t leads me to predict for
the very near future vogue for high
class musical plays and operas. even
If the tired business man does favor
musical revue and vaudeville"