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Arthur Fields sings “We're All Going Calling On The Kaiser” Columbia A2569, recorded on May 13, 1918.
Oh, John, pack up your kit and come along with me!
There's a party 'cross the sea and they need your company to grace it!
Oh, John, kiss her goodbye--
you know that she'll be true.
It's near the time to fall in line
With a million more like you.
And we're all going calling on the Kaiser,
For we've got to teach the Kaiser to be wiser,
And we'll bring him something good,
A kimono made of wood,
We'll wish him well with shot and shell
The son-of-a-gun we'll give him hell;
We're all going calling on the Kaiser,
The English, French, the Yanks and Irish, too.
Don't forget what Sherman said,
That's where he'll be when he's dead
For we're all going calling on the Kaiser
Oh, boy, think of the fun in making Germans run,
They'll be running night and day,
But they'll never get away.
We'll get 'em and oh, boy,
Wilhelm the Great will hear the eagle call.
We'll never stop once over the top,
'Till the German pirates fall.
And we're all going calling on the Kaiser,
For we've got to teach the Kaiser to be wiser,
Sure we'll send him down below,
Where the likes of him should go,
We'll leave him there to rave and tear,
and devil a one is going to care,
We're all going calling on the Kaiser,
The English, French, the Yanks and Irish, too,
He'll be looking at his best,
With a lily on his chest,
For we're all going calling on the Kaiser
And we're all going calling on the Kaiser;
For we've got to teach the Kaiser to be wiser,
When the morning glories climb,
And it's Kaiser picking time,
The Kaiserine will be seen
Spraying a bed of myrtle green,
We're all going calling on the Kaiser,
The English, French, the Yanks and Irish, too,
And an epitaph will tell
How poor Willie went to hill,
For we're all going calling on the Kaiser.
Born Abe Finkelstein in Philadelphia to Mortimer and Elizabeth Finkelstein, Arthur Fields (6 August 1888 - 29 March 1953) spent early years in Utica, New York, singing solos as a boy in church.
He was a professional entertainer by age 11 or so, singing illustrated songs (as the singer performed, colored slides with images related to a song's theme were projected on a screen) with Ray Walker at Wackie's Theater at Coney Island. Around age 17 he toured with the Guy Brothers Minstrel Show.
His friend George Graff, the successful lyricist, wrote to Jim Walsh in 1953, \"Around 1907-08 [Fields] helped form a vaudeville act--Weston, Fields and Carroll--one of the earliest, and possibly the first, Rathskeller acts. Eddie Weston was a veteran performer and a few years older than Arthur and Harry Carroll, who were about 19 at the time. The act was a great success and headlined the Keith Circuit until Weston died. Fields and Carroll worked together for a while. They were both writing songs and Carroll had a couple of pretty big hits.\"
Born on November 28, 1892, Harry Carroll was four years younger than Fields. With partners other than Fields, Carroll wrote \"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine,\" \"By The Beautiful Sea,\" \"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows,\" and other popular numbers. The first genuine hit of Fields the songwriter was \"On The Mississippi.\" He wrote the music in 1912 with Carroll; Ballard MacDonald supplied lyrics. It was recorded by the American Quartet for Victor 17237, Billy Murray for Blue Amberol 1637, Collins and Harlan for Columbia A1293, and Prince's Orchestra for Columbia A1307.
Fields sometimes composed music and other times provided lyrics to music written by others. In 1914 he supplied lyrics for \"Aba Daba Honeymoon\" (music by Walter Donovan), his most popular song. It was revived in the 1950 MGM film Two Weeks With Love, soon followed by the release of a popular Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter MGM record (30282), and Fields earned around $10,000 in royalty fees in 1951. The song was first popularized on records made in late 1914 by Collins and Harlan (Victor 17620, Edison Diamond Disc 50192, Blue Amberol 2468).
Another hit for Collins and Harlan was a Theodore Morse tune with lyrics provided by Fields: \"Auntie Skinner's Chicken Dinner.\" Versions cut by the duo for Victor, Columbia, and Edison sold well. The song was later reworked into \"Mammy Blossom's 'Possum Party,\" with similar lyrics and the same basic melody, Fields and Morse again credited as songwriters. It was cut by Collins and Harlan for various companies, including Edison and Paramount.
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