The Dada Andrews Sisters — 'Six Jerks in a Jeep'

The Andrews Sisters perform Sid Robin’s zany novelty song, let’s call it zoot-suit Dada for the “bleeps” enlisting in the US Army to fight the Nazis. Not quite Spike Jones’s “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” but even so, Robin pays tribute to the the unheroic “schlemiels” that’re gonna win the war. The jeep weeps for the jerks/wacks/quacks/creeps who are on their way to fight and die. “Six Jerks in a Jeep” combines slang and scat with rhyming abandon. It’s Nude Formalism as comic propaganda. 

At the risk of tarpooing the jouissance, the self-deprecation here is transvaluation. You have to be a jerk to go to war, knowing it’s not only hell but futile; knowing it’s the schmoes who end up on the front line while the privileged stay safe far from the action And yet, three cheers for them (them is us). 

The song was included in the 1942 WWII Army recruitment film, Private Buckaroo. Robin, a private, originally wrote it for a GI review. It didn’t make it onto an Andrews Sister Decca album and so remains one of their lesser known songs. But it’s pure lyric gold.

The transcription is mine: {stanzas bracketed} are in full recording [also YouTube] but not in movie clip. If you have any corrections, let me know. 

Six Jerks In A Jeep

Beep, beep!
Beep, beep!

Choo-choo to Broadway! Boo, Cincinnati!
In a jeep that was built for the six of us

Beep, beep!
[toot-toot]
Beep, beep!
[toot-toot]

This is a taxicab to Hackensack
We’re goin’ up to camp and back
An’ ready

We’re six jerks in a jeep
Six creeps in a jeep that leaps
Now here we come, beep, beep!
We’re six jerks in a jeep

We’re six wacks in a hack
Six quacks here to send you, Jack
Now look here, Max, no cracks!
We’re six wacks in a hack

The jeep goes jumpin’ an’ bumpin’ along
Gonna knock you right off your seats
Till we come rompin’ an’ stompin’ a song
Dig it — with a re-peat!

We’re six jerks in a jeep
Six bleeps in a jeep that weeps
Now here we go, beep, beep!
We’re six jerks in a jeep

The jeep goes a-jumpin’ along
Gonna knock you right off your seats
Here we come, a-stompin’ along
Just a-rompin’ along in our jeep

Beep, beep!
Toot, toot!
Lee-ah-da-Dada! 
Beep, beep!
Toot! toot!
Lee-ah-da-da- 

{We’re six beauts on a scoot
That will root for my baby
Beauts on a scoot that will zoot
Now here we come, toot, toot!
Toot, toot, toot
Six beauts on a scoot}

{We’re six heels on a wheel
Ba ba ba ze do wah
Schlemiels on a wheel that will reel
We’re lookin’, lookin’ for a meal
We’re six heels on a wheel}

{The jeep goes a-jumpin’ and a-boppin’ along
We’re gonna knock you right off’in your seat
Till we come rompin’ and stompin’ a song
With dig it — with a re-peat!}

{We’re six blokes on a spoke
Five blokes and a scarey mote(?)
And oh boy are we broke
Yes we have six blokes on a spoke}

We’re six jerks in a jeep
Six of us wacks in a hack that will leap like a jeep
Now here we come, beep, beep!
All heels, schlemiels, on a wheel that reels

We’re six jerks in a jeep
Beep, beep, beep!
Six bleeps in a jeep that weeps
Now here we go, beep, beep!
Here we go, all six jerks in a jeep