The men of the 10th Mountain Division were an educated and worldly lot, and enjoyed classical music and the popular music of the day. The Division was made up of skiers and outdoorsmen from all over the world, who brought into the unit a wide variety of skiing songs, hiking songs, drinking songs and college and fraternity songs. This interaction of musical influences produced new music of its own. The soldiers composed and sang songs satirizing their experiences in the ski troops, and many of them became immortalized in the lore of the 10th Mountain Division.
One such song was Oola, sung in a faux-Scandinavian accent. One of the interesting things about this recording, made after the war, is how clearly it illustrates the evolutionary nature of most military and folk music. The songs were not static things. Early in the life of the song, a more or less standardized chorus and perhaps a couple of initial verses would evolve. Beyond that, the songs were highly improvisational and changed over time, adapting themselves to new surroundings and experiences. New verses were invented constantly, some of them becoming so popular that they become part of the canon of the song. This post-war rendition of Oola includes verses from all phases of the 10th Mountain Division’s service, and amounts to a musical history of the division itself.
This blog is part of a larger body of research culminating in the publication of the book ‘Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86th Regiment, 10th Mountain Division 1943-1945’ which is available in select bookstores and on amazon.
I’m Oola, ski-yumper from Norway brought up on Lutefisk and Sil
Ay come to New York for to find me some vork, but Ay guess Ay go vest right avay.
Ay yomp on a train for Ft. Lewis to fight for the U.S.A.
Ay yoin up the Mountain Battalion and here Ay tink Ay will stay.
Each day and each night at Ft. Lewis, yee vhiss! how it vould rain.
And if it vould keep up dis vedder, ay never go skiing again.
At last Ay go up to the mountain. It’s one doggone place you should see.
The minute Ay get there I’m happy. Ay run out and yomp on my skis.
[Chorus:]
I’m Oola, they all call me Oola. Don’t know vhere they get ahold of my name.
Ay never told any dem fellers. But they call me Oola yust the same.
And then Ay climb up to Panorama, and point my skis down from the top.
Yee Goodness! but how Ay get moving. Ay tink that Ay never vould stop.
Ay vunder my heart is still beating as off of a cornice Ay schuss.
Ay bail out in Edith Creek Basin and landed kerplunk on my puss.
And den Ay vent up to Pando
The best doggone place Ay,ve been put.
The mountains are high, not a cloud in the sky,
But Ay yust can’t get yust to the soot.
[Chorus]
And guess vere dey took us for fighting, such country Aye neffer haff see,
Vid Vino and Vimmen exciting. Dat’s vun damn fine place, Italy.
Ve fought on de Belvedere mountain, and svam in de river called Po,
De vino she flow like de fountain, how Aye made it Aye yust do not know!
An ven datt damn fighting vas over, dey sent us to Caporetto
To play in de Jugoslav clover and tum up de nose at Tito.
And now Ay have one great big trouble; de number of points Ay have got.
Dey may let me out on de double, more likely dey maybe vill not.
