Vintage Audio - We Don't Want the Bacon (What We Want is a Piece of the Rhine)
Reproduced below are the lyrics to the humorous 1918 U.S. song We Don't Want the Bacon (What We Want is a Piece of the Rhine).
With words and music by (Kid) Howard Carr, Harry Russell and Jimmy Havens the song was published in Chicago in the closing year of the war, 1918.
Use the player above to listen to a version of the song performed by the Peerless Quartet in 1918.
We Don't Want the
Bacon
(What We Want is a Piece of the Rhine)
First Verse:
If you read your history, why it will show
That we have always held our own with any kind of foe.
We've always bro't the bacon home, no matter what they done,
But we don't want the bacon now,
We're out to get the Hun.
First Chorus:
We don't want the bacon, we don't want the bacon,
What we want is a piece of the Rhine.
We'll feed "Bill the Kaiser" with our Allied appetizer.
We'll have a wonderful time.
Old Wilhelm Der Gross will shout "Vas is Los?"
The Hindenburg line will sure look like a dime;
We don't want the bacon, we don't want the bacon,
What we want is a piece of the Rhine.
Second Verse:
When this trouble started they said we did not have a chance.
They could not figure out how we could get our men to France.
But we defied the U-boats, for our motto is to win,
We've got them into France right now,
They're headed for Ber-lin.
Second Chorus:
We don't want the bacon, we don't want the bacon,
What we want is a piece of the Rhine.
We'll crown "Bill the Kaiser" with a bottle of Budweiser.
We'll have a wonderful time.
We'll defeat the subm'rine, their Hindenberg machine;
There won't be any stop, when we go over the top;
We don't want the bacon, we don't want the bacon,
What we want is a piece of the Rhine.
"Eggs-a-cook" were boiled eggs sold by Arab street vendors. It was later used by Anzac soldiers when going over the top.
- Did you know?
