A German dialect form used as slang by black GI's

Mon Aug 2 21:34:45 UTC 2004

On Aug 2, 2004, at 4:45 PM, Geoff Nathan wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Geoff Nathan <an6993 at WAYNE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: A German dialect form used as slang by black GI's
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> <html>
> <body>
> <font size=3>At 04:14 PM 8/2/2004, you wrote:<br>
> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>FWIW, some here may recall that,
> in
> 1961, there was a popular song<br>
> called "Wooden Heart," by an Elvis sound-alike named Joe
> Dowell, who<br>
> didn't, since he was a one-hit wonder. This song is set to the tune
> of<br>
> "Muss' I' Denn," the best-known folksong in the Schwaebisch
> dialect.</blockquote><br>
> Err, Wilson, I suspect others may get there first, but there was also a
> recording of Wooden Heart (including verses in 'German') by the most
> authentic sound-alike of all, Elvis himself.  Remember he also
> spent
> time in Germany as a GI.  His version also had American accented
> Schwaebisch.<br><br>
> Geoff</font></body>
> </html>
>

I may very well also have heard the Elvis version, at one time or
another. The Dowell version appears to have been an exact  cover of
Elvis's version, since what you describe is what I heard. In fact, at
the time, I had the feeling that the song was something that I'd heard
even before going to Germany. That was most likely Elvis's version. At
that time, of course, German dialects held very little interest for me.
Once I'd heard the folksong, I become retroactively interested in the
US ripoff. When I checked the title on a "Musicbox," as jukeboxes were
called in Germany at that time ["Hier spielt Rock-Ola Musicbox!"], I
was surprised to see this Dowell guy's name and not Elvis's.

Elvis and I just missed each other. He was shipping back to The World
as I was - thank God! - *flying* over to Cumrad. I came back by
troopship, but the North Atlantic in July is very different from the
North Atlantic in January. Even in July, it was cold enough that you
had to wear a trench coat to go "topside," as the sailors call it.

For your six-degrees-of-separation collection: Dave Pugh, the son of
the commanding general of Elvis's old armored division -can't remember
its designation; 2nd? 3rd? - went to the Army Language School with me
and was a barracks-mate of mine in Germany. Very handsome guy, like his
father, who was the very picture of a modern major-general.