Musical Airs
Songs inspired by the early age of flight.
- By Rebecca Maksel
- AirSpaceMag.com, February 19, 2009
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Smithsonian Institution Libraries
On August 8, 1908, Wilbur Wright made a controlled circular flight of one minute, 45 seconds before an enthusiastic group at the Hunaudières racetrack near Le Mans, France. The next day, it was reported, “Hundreds of people have turned up in the hope of a repeat of yesterday’s performance. They will be disappointed: Wilbur is a devout Christian and never flies on the Sabbath.” Just a few months later, on December 18, Wilbur would win the Michelin trophy (and its 20,000-franc prize) after staying airborne for one hour, 54 minutes, and 53 seconds:
It’s Wilbur and Orville Wright
Who has shown the world their flight
In their aeroplane which made their fame
And gave the boys a name
Now Dayton she was slow,
But the whistles they did blow,
When the boys returned from foreign lands with honors of their fame. It’s
Wright boys all right, who won the flight came the right
It’s Wilbur and Orville Wright, it’s Wilbur and Orville Wright
Now we hope that Uncle Sam will treat the Wright boys fair
That he will lend a helping hand to the conquerors of the air
They soon will make the test
To prove to all the land that they are worthy of the best
That to the Wrights can come,
It’s Wright boys all right, who won the flight gained the right,
It’s Wilbur and Orville Wright, it’s Wilbur and Orville Wright
In 2003, the National Air and Space Museum recorded several of the songs in the Bella C. Landauer Aviation Sheet Music Collection for the exhibition "The Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age." Click here to hear "Song of the Wright Boys," and other musical selections.
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Comments (2)
I believe that, from the final sentence of this snippet from the song, you can interpret that the song's lyricist intended the title to be a shortening of something like, "My bomber and I fly high in the sky." Other than that, I'm a long time fan of this site. Keep up the great work!
Posted by Mike Burkholder on February 25,2009 | 01:27 AM
I'm not sure how my submitted comment of 2/25/09 lost its first lines but, in them, I disagreed with the author of this article. "My bomber and me" would be the grammatically incorrect form. If one were to use a pronoun rather than "My bomber and I" that pronoun would be "we" as in "We fly high in the sky." In the same vein, "My bomber and me" would need to be replaced with "us" which would result in the grammatically incorrect "Us fly high in the sky." Although it is the more colloquially popular, "X and me" followed by a verb is still grammatically incorrect. I stand with Jay Garside and his lyrics. I hope that this comment does not make me appear to be a grammar goon because I don't normally point out bad grammar but, when I see correct grammar being identified as being wrong, I feel compelled to respond. Thanks for your great website!
Posted by Mike Burkholder on February 28,2009 | 01:11 PM