Four-balls

[Mark A. Mandel]

Larry sez:

>>>>>
Indeed.  I checked once but can't remember if any preserve the
version from my own childhood, which (the march, not the childhood)
was colored by two relevant factors:

(1) Since I was born in 1945, the song was cast in past tense.
(2) Since I was in an American English environment, the past tense of
possession could only be "had", not "had got".  ("Hitler had only got
one ball" is impossible.)

So for us it was:

Hitler
Had only one, left, ball
Goering
Had two but they were small
Himmler
Had something sim'lar
And Goebbals
Had no balls
At all.
<<<<<

Born in 1948, I learned the same words as you, with the following differences:

     Had only one, left, ball
       => Had only one -- big -- ball

     And Goebbals
       => And Hermann Goebbels

Dashes are a common way of showing a rest or prolonged note. I don't hear
the pauses before and after "big" as belonging to the text (non-restrictive
commas), but rather to the music. Of course, with "big" there's no need for
non-restrictive pauses. "Goebbels" has a long "o" /ow/ as the first vowel,
rhyming with "nobles" and almost-rhyming with "no balls", rather than any
attempt at an o-umlaut. "Goering", OTOH, rhymes with "herring" or "daring".

-- Mark A. Mandel