THERE'S LONG, LONG TRAIL 

ANSWER TO QUERY 2 (FR Issue 188, Summer 2018)

By  David Kidman

(Query 2 asked about a song used as the intro. to a BBC radio programme in the 1950s.)

Thanks to David Kidman who identifies this song as There’s a Long, Long Trail. Dave tells us that the snippet shown in the last issue is the beginning of the chorus. The words are by Stoddart King, and the music by Zo Elliott, and the song was published in 1915 by M Witmark & Sons.  

 The original manuscript is set in the key of A flat major (4 flats!). For ease of reading, we have transposed it into the key of C. The tune for the verse seems to be quite idiosyncratic, but the chorus is wonderful - particularly when heard sung in harmony.

Mike Hughes confirms the above, and adds that this was also recorded by John McCormack.  

Sammi says, "Spot on! I found it on youtube, see below:

Mike also suggests that people who were in scouts or guides might remember a parody: “There's a long, long worm a-crawling across the roof of my tent...”. Ah, memories are made of this!

Ged Wilson (ex Lord Colingwood’s Stump) also confirms the lyrics, and tells us the Long Long Trail was recorded by the New Victory Band on their 1978 album One More Dance and Then.

There's A Long, Long Trail - lyrics (Query 2)

Nights are growing very lonely, days are very long
I'm a-growing weary only, list'ning for your song
Old remembrances are thronging thro' my memory
Till it seems the world is full of dreams just to call you back to me

There's a long, long trail a-winding into the land of my dreams
Where the nightingales are singing and the white moon beams
There's a long, long night of waiting until my dreams all come true
Till the day when I'll be going down that long, long trail with you

All night long I hear you calling, calling sweet and low
Seem to hear your footsteps falling ev'ry where I go
Tho' the road between us stretches many a weary mile
I forget that you're not with me yet when I think I see you smile       

here's a long, long trail a-winding into the land of my dreams
Where the nightingales are singing and the white moon beams
There's a long, long night of waiting until my dreams all come true
Till the day when I'll be going down that long, long trail with you

More about the song 

Having had the song identified for us, we have been able to find a bit more about it on the internet. The radio programme The Long, Long Trail was first broadcast on the BBC Home Service in December 1961, but subsequently re-made and broadcast again in February 1962. It tells the story of World War One through the songs created and sung by soldiers. The show was written and produced by renowned producer Charles Chilton but, contrary to what the enquirer thought, it seems to have been a single programme rather than a regular series.

 Why did Charles Chilton create this radio programme?

Chilton’s inspiration to create the show was part of a personal quest to learn more about his father - who he never met. Chilton’s father signed up to the army underage, and was killed at Arras in 1918, aged 19. When Chilton visited the site of the battle he did not find a marked grave, but instead he found his father’s name inscribed on a war memorial along with over 35,000 other men. Later, Chilton asked, “What horror could have taken place that rendered the burial of 35,942 men impossible, and all in one relatively small area?”

Chilton set about researching the lives of ordinary soldiers, and his research led him to collect soldiers’ songs from a wartime book titled Tommy’s Tunes. Many of the songs were adapted from music hall.

The Long, Long Trail was originally narrated by actor and politician Andrew Faulds. Its 1962 remake was narrated by Bud Flanagan, a popular music hall star who had served in the First World War. 

Inspiration for Oh What a Lovely War

While recovering from an accident in 1962, Gerry Raffles heard The Long, Long Trail on the radio. His attention held by the soldiers’ songs, Raffles was convinced that it had potential for a stage show adaptation. Over the next year, Raffles, Chilton, Joan Littlewood and the cast of Theatre Workshop worked on the themes of The Long, Long Trail to produce the landmark musical satire Oh, What a Lovely War. 

While Oh, What a Lovely War became one of the most famous British plays of the 20th century, The Long, Long Trail all but disappeared. Shortly before his death on 2 January 2013, however, Charles Chilton donated a copy of the 1962 recording to the British Library (reference C1186). In 2014, BBC Radio 4 re-broadcast the programme for the first time since its original transmission.

[Some of our older readers may also remember Charles Chilton (producer) and Andrew Faulds (as Jet Morgan) from the 1953 radio series Journey Into Space.]