"The Makin's of the U.S.A."
by Peerless Quartette
Sheet music courtesy of Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection |
"The Makin's of the U.S.A." is a blatantly pro-tobacco statement in the face of a nascent prohibition movement, but more importantly it returns, in a way, to American arrogance. Only American tobacco is acceptable for American soldiers.
Italian smoke is strong enough to cause a mule to sneeze
The smokes they capture from the huns are like limburger cheese
You have to wear a gas mask using smoke made by the French
And English cigarettes will clean out any German trench.
The song's catalogue of rancid descriptions reads like the invective against hyphenated-Americans earlier in the war, and the economic implications of buying only American tobacco hearkens back to and ahead to incipient American isolationism and exclusivism. The song enlists the American family to supply the American soldier and thereby involve themselves in the war with him, but it is also a call to toe the line and be an active supporter of the war effort.
If you are not a slacker
Get a sack of good tobacco
And send it to some Yankee soldier right away
Send on the old Bull Durham
And then he'll know you're fur 'im
Because it is the makin's of the U.S.A.
The blatant nationalism reflects the American distrust of any European ethnic group, even its allies. The seemingly innocuous purpose of the song probably hides a review of national policy.
Listen: Streaming Real Audio | Windows Media Audio
