Lyr Add: 'We Think we ought to go'

Subject: Lyr Add: 'We Think we ought to go'
From: Micca
Date: 14 Jul 04 - 05:41 PM

As requested here is the first part of the Trilogy of songs about WW1 I wrote, They are this one, " My Grandfather hated the Germans" and "Thiepval" both of which are in Áines Songbook and I hope she will place this there too,

The background to this song is: In 1914 before the New Army of Kitchener got rolling,( it mostly didnt arrive in France until 1915 in any strength) the first batch of Volunteers and reservists and "rear echelon" troops arrived piecemeal in France to make up deficiencies and bring up to strength the BEF. They had the optimism of the civilian population about them and were expecting a short war,"Home by Christmas"... this is the feeling I wanted to capture and with this in mind I wanted a tune they would have known, that was upbeat and optimistic Thats why I chose this, so here is what I wrote.


" We think you ought to go"
(Tune Battle hymn of the Republic modified)


Young men they came forward and signed up for to go
They knew that God's on our side and we're right
White feathers flew around them like the freshly fallen snow
As they marched off to Flanders for to fight

Rifle smart and dressed in Khaki
just like strolling in the park eh?
Rifle smart and dressed in Khaki
As they marched off to Flanders for to fight

And they sang of "Tipperary" and of "the old kit bag"
And songs of other wars of long ago
They sang to keep their courage up not let their shoulders sag
To the strains of "we think we ought to go"

Rifle smart and dressed in Khaki
Home by Christmas what a lark eh?
Rifle smart and dressed in Khaki
To the strains of "we think we ought to go"

And what was waiting for them at Mons and Le Cateau
some lads hadn't even time to load
When wave on wave of Germans dressed in the old Feldgrau
came storming down what became the Menin Road

Rifle smart and dressed in FeldGrau
shooting Tommys from the hedgerow
Rifle smart and dressed in FeldGrau
storming down the Menin Road

These shiny New Contemptables who had hardly marched a square
Took station with the BEF old sweats
Who'd fought and held an empire oe'r the world and everywhere
And at doing "five rounds rapid" were the best

Rifle smart and dressed in Khaki
no more time for that malarky
Rifle smart and dressed in Khaki
And at doing "five rounds rapid" were the best

They bled and died retreating from the Conde to the Marne
And they're buried in small clumps of scattered graves
As they bitterly contested for each hedge and little barn
And the time they bought was one of the great saves

Hungry, tired in tattered kit Oh
stumbling backwards in the dark, oh?
Hungry, tired in tattered kit oh
But the time they bought was one of the great saves


And less than one year later the survivors at this game
Were at Loos and Arras blown to Kingdom come
But their losses held the trench line until The New Army came
Only to be decimated at the Somme


In straight lines and in close order
all right dress from the right shoulder
In straight lines and in close order
Forward to be decimated at the Somme

Says Hindenburg to Falkenhayn "I'll tell you this quite plain
How I admire these Lions of British Youth
And Falkenhayn replied " I agree but in the main
They are Lions led by Donkeys that's the truth"

Rifle smart and dressed in Khaki
Hungry, tired in tatterd Khaki
In straight lines and dressed in Khaki
Lions led by Donkeys that's the truth

and now here on the West Front again its all so quiet
the dead and missing do not make a sound
drifting faintly from the German line a ghostly " Silent night"
but the trenches have returned into the ground


making jokes oh what a lark eh?
just like strolling in the park eh?
no more time for that malarkey
the trenches have returned into the ground

©Micca Patterson June 2003

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'We Think we ought to go'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 01:29 AM

Thanks, Micca - together, the three songs tell the story well.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'We Think we ought to go'
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 06:14 AM

What with Micca's trilogy , Hovering Bob's stuff and Eric Bogle the First World War has been well served by the Folk Revival .