Lyrics to Stars and Stripes Forever

Poststructural Pub
1

Can someone help me out with the lyrics to Stars and Stripes Forever, AKA Be Kind To Your Web-footed Friends? I remember singing the lyrics at the top of my voice along with some friends years ago during a Fourth of July celebration where the band played a number of John Phillips Sousa marches, including S&SF. The lyrics as I remember them go like this:

Be kind to your web-footed friends,
For a duck may be somebody’s mother.
Be kind to the denizens of the swamp,
'cause a duck is a dilly, too.
You my think that this is the end,
Well it isn’t, there is still another chorus,

And so on and so forth.

Thanks to all who reply.

With best regards,

Steve Mack

2

There are a lot of different versions of this.

The version I know is as follows:

Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody’s mother
Be kind to your friends in the swamp
Where the weather is cold and damp - to rhyme with swamp -
You may think that this is the end
Well, it is, but just to prove that I’m a liar
I’m going to sing it again
But only this time I will sing it rather higher…

Then you start again a few notes higher. When you can sing no higher, you end on “…Well, it is!”

3

We haven’t exactly had the question before, but we have touched on the lyrics before.

Have a look here and here!

More lyrics there if you want 'em!