He’s got the weary blues
a 1918 popular song
words and music by Domer C. Browne & W. C. Handy
A World War One song. There is an instrumental jazz fox-trot with a similar title.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment:
Lyrics
- There’s a man this very minute
Wants the world and all that’s in it
Says his “kultur’s” gotta rule both land and sea
And I know it was heart rending
With our Uncle Sam a-sending
All our soldier boys
To tell him what we’d choose
When we refused, the Kaiser got the blues
(He got the weary blues)
He tried his luck in many battles
Got his goat and gave him rattles
Then old Hindenburg said
“Chief, the cake’s all dough”
And the Kaiser, sad but wiser
Split a bottle of Budweiser
And he said, “Ach Gott
What can my U boats do?
Such awful news, gives me the weary blues”
(I mean the weary blues)
Chorus
The Kaiser’s got the blues
He’s shakin’ in his shoes
He’s tried to pacify his nerves
But they’ve all refused
He’s tried all the nervous tonics,
Just to ease his troubled mind
Sent his gangs all huntin’
Medicated roots and vines
He’s used pills and dope
The Huns have lost all hope
Because they know his only cure
Is a bullet or a rope
Say what you choose
The Kaiser’s got the blues
(He’s got the weary blues)
- Oh he goes to bed a-schemin’
Falls asleep and starts to dreamin’
He’s the only oil can lyin’ on the dump
Then he jumps and starts a-screamin’
Perspiration just a-streamin’
When old Tirpitz tries to wake him with a bump
To tell the news, that gives ’em all the blues
(It gives ’em all the blues)
And then his brains they go a-whirlin’
And his whiskers start a-twirlin’
And he calls his gang around him once again
Tell my people we are winnin’
Then the gang looks up a-grinnin’
Says we’ve bulled ’em often
With that same old news
Which they refuse
And then he feels those blues
(I mean he feels those blues)
Sung here by Fred Feild: