Wakey Wakey, Lash Up and Stow!

Wikipedia informs:

The first lines of the British Cavalry "Reveille" were for many years rendered as:
Soldiers arise!
Scrub the bloody muck out of your eyes...
The infantry and general "Reveille" ran:
Get out of bed,
Get out of bed,
You lazy bastards! (repeat)
I feel sorry for you, I do!
In the Royal Navy, "Reveille" was usually verbalised as:
Wakey Wakey, Lash up and Stow!
To the U.S. tune:
I can't get 'em up,
I can't get 'em up,
I can't get 'em up this morning;
I can't get 'em up,
I can't get 'em up,
I can't get 'em up at all!
The corporal's worse than the privates,
The sergeant's worse than the corporals,
Lieutenant's worse than the sergeants,
And the captain's worst of all!
< repeat top six lines >

3 comments:

J Melcher said...

Irving Berlin memorializes by incorporation a slightly different US version:

Oh, (possibly, "Oy") How I hate to get up in the morning,
Oh how I hate to get out of bed...

YOU GOTTA GET UP
YOU GOTTA GET UP...

https://youtu.be/71smG5d29to

Someday I'm gonna go murder the bugler,
Some morning he's gonna wake up dead.
And then I'll kill that other pup
the guy that wakes the bugler up, and then
spend the rest of my life in bed.

Eric Blair said...

I do not actually remember ever hearing first call at Ft. Lewis, but the F*n speakers were right outside my building, basically right outside my window.

It would make the glass rattle in the window.

Tom said...

That was funny, J.