$25.00 CAD
| /
No.6 song sheet in a Series of 8 songs.
Photo on front: ‘The Duke of Connaught presenting the banner to the Cadets’
Oh! proudly they march, yet each soldier knows he may tread in his country no more – Yet bravely they hurry their steps to the field where the deadly cannon roar…”
Inside front cover has music and lyrics for four ‘Latest Song Hits’: ‘For King and Country’, ‘Where is my boy tonight?’, ‘When Jack comes back’, and ‘Days of Peace’.
Inside back cover advertising for Thompson’s “Loosesheet” music binder.
Back cover has advertising for ‘Musical Hits of the Day’: ‘Khaki’, ‘March of the Allies’, Take me to Toronto Fair’…
8 pages, 4 pages of the main song
Small nicks and creases. Small water stain tight border.
35 x 26.5 cm
Gordon V. (Vincent) Thompson, songwriter, music publisher (1888-1965). Several factors contributed to Thompson's gravitation towards songwriting in his teens: the singing at the missionary meetings of which his mother was an ardent supporter; a song publisher's advertisement soliciting compositions; and the convenience of a printshop owned by his brother...
With his March National and Song National both issued in 1912, Thompson turned from religion to patriotism. This proved to be another financially rewarding field when, during the first years of World War I, the Canadian demand for wartime songs could be filled without US competition. In 1914 Thompson acquired the rights to 'For King and Country' by the Australian Robert Harkness, and sold about 100,000 copies. He later acknowledged Harkness as an inspiration for his own war songs. Their titles reflect the progress of the war: 'Where Is My Boy Tonight?' (1915), 'Red Cross Nell and Khaki Jim' (1916), 'When We Wind Up the Watch on the Rhine' (1917), 'For the Glory of the Grand Old Flag' (1918), and 'You Are Welcome Back at Home, Sweet Home' (1919). With the series of eight Songs of the Homeland (1915-16) Thompson added such songwriters as Jules Brazil and Lewis Owen to his catalogue.
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
