To the tune of "My Country Tis of Thee" (or "God Save the Queen," if you prefer)
My country's mad at me
I moved to Germany
to see the king!
His name was Donald Duck
he drives a garbage truck
to all in Germany,
let garbage fling!"
I heard this around the school in 1988, though one of the den mothers of my cub scout troop heard us singing it and remarked "they think they're singing the very latest thing, and it's just songs that I sang back in MY day!" Versions going back to at least 1957 appear in the books at the right. I see online that minor variations abound ("my country's TIRED of me" might be a more common first line).
One version from the 1950s:
My country's tired of me
I live in Germany
My name is Schulz.
My father was a spy
caught by the FBI
Hung by his own necktie
I wonder why
What version did YOU sing?
I heard it in the late 1980's in southern Georgia as:
ReplyDeleteMy country's mad at me
I'm going to Germany
To see the king
The king is Donald Trump
He drives a garbage truck
From every building top
Let garbage rain!
Very similar to what you had heard around the same time.
In Phoenix AZ in the late 60's it started like this:
ReplyDeleteMy country's sick of me
I'll go to Italy
to see the King (and another verse used queen)
I don't remember the rest, but it wasn't a duck in a garbage truck.
My mawmaw taught it to me in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteMy country's mad at me
I'm going to Germany
To See the king.
The King is Micky Mouse
The Queen is Minnie Mouse
The grass grows on their house
In Germany.
My mother taught me this version as a child in the Seventies in San Diego, California. She said she learned it as a girl in Sullivan, Missouri. She was born in 1946.
ReplyDeleteMy country's mad at me
I'm going to Germany
To see the king
The king is Mickey Mouse
He runs a boarding house
The queen is Minnie Mouse
She smokes cigars
My country 'tis of thee
ReplyDeleteI moved to Italy
To see the king.
His name is Donald Duck,
He drives a garbage truck,
He lives in a haunted house
With Mickey Mouse.
A friend of mine at the time knew a version where the king was Jackie Chan, but I don't remember the words, other than "He lives in a garbage can / He smells like an oilcan".
My country's tired of me
ReplyDeleteI'm going to Germany
To see a friend of mine
His name is Donald Duck
He drives a garbage truck
From here to eternity
God bless his dump-da-dump-dump (Dragnet rhythm)
== West Baltimore, mid 1950's ==
My country's mad at me
ReplyDeletesweet land of Germany
My name is Fritz
I like sauerkraut
it makes my ears stand out
From every mountain top
Let sauerkraut sprout
My country's mad at me
ReplyDeleteSo I went to Germany
To see the queen.
Her name was Daisy Duck
She drove a garbage truck
From sea to shining sea!
--Late 50's in Chicago, Illinois
My country 'tis of thee
ReplyDeleteSweet land of Germany
Of thee I sing
My father was a spy
Caught by the FBI
Tomorrow he will die
My name is Schulz
My country's tired of me.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to Germany
To see the king.
His name is Donald Duck.
He drives a garbage truck.
He works all night and day
To earn his pay.
Fifties, DC suburbs.
ReplyDeleteMy country's tired of me.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to Germany
To see the king.
His name is Donald Duck.
He drives a garbage truck.
He works all night and day
To earn his pay.
Oddly, in my predominantly Jewish playground in Bayside Queens in the mid-60's, it went like this:
ReplyDeleteMy country's sick of me,
Sweet land of Germany,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my father died,
Wanted by the FBI,
I'd rather live than die,
I'm a German spy.
My country sick of me
ReplyDeleteSent me to Germany
To see the King
His name was Donald Duck
He drove a garbage truck
From every mountain side
To the city dump!
-Kansas, mid 90s, from my mom who learned it in the 70s (I think she lived in Arkansas or Missouri at the time).
My country tis of thee
ReplyDeleteSweet land of Germany
My name is Fritz
My father was a spy
Caught by the FBI
Hung by his purple tie
The poor old guy!
-Kodaikanal International School (boarding school I attendended) back in the 1960's.
Pontiac MI area, mid-1970's:
ReplyDeleteMy country, tis of thee
Sweet land of Germany
My name is Fritz
I love my sauerkraut
It makes my ears stick out
From every mountain side
Let sauerkraut sprout!
Southeastern PA, late 90's
ReplyDeleteMy country hated me
Sent me to Germany
To see the king
His name was half made up
He drove a garbage truck
And he-e-e-e said to me
(Springboards into another song I've been unable to locate on this site)
Oh there once was a genie
With a ten foot weenie
And he showed it to the girl next door
She thought it was a snake
So she chopped it with a rake
And now it's only four foot four
HEY!