"Tell That to the Marines"
by Al Jolson
Sheet music courtesy of Clarence Johnson |
"Tell That to the Marines" is a frontal assault on the Kaiser himself. It plays on the German attitude toward American troops, their preparedness and their numbers. The Germans were not concerned over the Americans because they believed there was no resolve, there was not enough time to prepare, and that America would not get an effective Army into the field. If they had kept it to themselves, they might have been right. But German strategists and politicians like General Von Ludendorff and Count Von Bernstorff, German Ambassador to the United States, seemed to be intent on pointing out the failures of American arms and the song writers took it up. The sheet music features an outraged civilian, shedding his clothes and ready to fight, after reading the paper's report that "The Huns Kill Women and Children!" "Marines" goes on to remind the Kaiser of the success of the first Marine division to reach France and of their resolve to cross the Rhine and take Berlin. The song is pure patriotic bluster, but it played with the homefolks—which is what it was intended to do.
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