Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 270 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
"The Handsome Young Airman" is from Abbe Niles who comments on how landlubber songs often are in active duty on the high seas and vice versa. “Any living tune is a jack of all trades. This variant of Tarpaulin Jacket ten years ago on the flying fields was current among men who had never heard its original.”
Although clearly a parody of "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket," Meredith and Anderson claim there is a British version sung to "My Bonnie." Lomax's version was collected among U.S. troops in Korea.
Tawney's version makes the dead man an "AA gunner" rather than an aviator, but otherwise most of the words fit, e.g. the line about "there's lots of good parts in this wreck," so I've lumped them. (from the Traditional Ballad Index)
Day 270 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
"The Handsome Young Airman" is from Abbe Niles who comments on how landlubber songs often are in active duty on the high seas and vice versa. “Any living tune is a jack of all trades. This variant of Tarpaulin Jacket ten years ago on the flying fields was current among men who had never heard its original.”
Although clearly a parody of "Wrap Me Up in My Tarpaulin Jacket," Meredith and Anderson claim there is a British version sung to "My Bonnie." Lomax's version was collected among U.S. troops in Korea.
Tawney's version makes the dead man an "AA gunner" rather than an aviator, but otherwise most of the words fit, e.g. the line about "there's lots of good parts in this wreck," so I've lumped them. (from the Traditional Ballad Index)
