My Old Iron Cross
DESCRIPTION: "I'm the bloke that broke the bank at Monte Carlo, I'm the hero of a dozen dirty nights. I went out in a submarine to give the Kaiser one"; he meets the Kaiser and is given an Iron Cross. Iron crosses are tossed around for various other trivial feats
AUTHOR: Huntley Trevor (source: mudcat.org thread by Jim Dixon)
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (recording, Harry Champion)
KEYWORDS: war royalty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 33-34, "My Old Iron Cross" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" (tune)
NOTES [102 words]: This is listed as having both words and music by Huntley Trevor, but Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver lists it as being sung to "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," so presumably Trevor is responsible primarily for the lyrics.
The song really doesn't make much sense to me. Yes, a lot of Iron Crosses were awarded in the First World War. But you genuinely had to do something worth doing to earn one.
Harry Champion, who was the first to record this, is perhaps best known for popularizing "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am." For background on Harry Champion, see the notes to "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am." - RBW
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File: AWTBW033
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