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Full Version: 1284th Combat Engineer Company B Song (Elsie)
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Procyon2014


Hello, I have a question regarding one of the favorite songs that is listed in the pdf booklet on the 1284th Combat Engineer's booklet: http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/docs/1284th%20Engineers/1284th%20Book.pdf

I'm asking because there was a question on a reddit subreddit about a song someone's grandfather sang, which is very similar to the song on page 12 of the above booklet.  The song is called 'Elsie'.  Does anyone with family members that belonged to this Company know the origin of this song?  One theory is that the song was inspired by the Alabama folk song 'Merry Girl' as this Company had members from almost every state, including Alabama and the lyrics are very similar.  The Company B song appears to be (to put it politely) about a woman with not the best reputation while the folk song is sung from a totally different perspective, but there are many similarities.  Thanks to anyone with info on this.

I'm going to crosspost this to one of the other forums, perhaps the WWII tunes forum, if that is allowed.


Procyon2014