Historic Songs For A Pandemic

In 1918 two events were consuming the attention and resources of the world: World War I and the Flu pandemic.  The pandemic received scant attention from popular culture though it affected most aspects of everyday life in the U.S.  Public institutions closed, most families lost loved ones to the disease, and the mood was grim.  There were no songs or movies that made it to the top 40 of the day that were inspired by the flu that was ravaging the nation though much grist for the popular song mill. Widespread use of public radio was still a few years away. However, the movie industry, also in its infancy, provided a glimpse of first great World War. 

The War provided material for its early stars like Charlie Chaplin in Shoulder Arms, a silent comedy set in France during WWI, and Mary Pickford in The Little American, a dramatic war romance directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The flu did not receive the same attention from Hollywood. No films made at that time explored the impact the flu was having on the lives of Americans, though certainly there was great suffering and sacrifice not dissimilar from that caused by war. In fact, movie productions were forced to shut down because theaters were closed to protect the public from infection leaving no venues for new films.

While popular culture was rife with references to WWI  with memorable songs such as George Cohan’s “Over There” and Irving Berlin's “Oh How I Hate Getting Up in the Morning”  becoming favorites, a quick perusal of a list of popular songs from 1918 will give no indication that the nation was in the midst of a deadly flu pandemic. There are few songs that relate to the pandemic and they are little recalled. One song was a sort of nursery rhyme sung by children.

“I had a little bird, its name was Enza

I opened up the window and in flew Enza.“

 

Although this version was popularized during the pandemic of 1918, it seems to have derived from an earlier version from the largely forgotten flu pandemic of 1889-1890.

 “There was a little girl, and she had a little bird,

And she called it by the pretty name of Enza;

But one day it flew away, but it didn't go to stay,

For when she raised the window, in-flu-Enza.“

 

The melody for both of these ditties seems to have been lost but it is easy to imagine it chanted as a sing-songy, rhythmic cadence chanted by children. At that time it was apparently a not-uncommon belief that the air was poisoned and that keeping the window closed kept out the disease. Health authorities had campaigns that encouraged the opposite, often posting signs admonishing people to keep their bedroom windows open to prevent disease. There do not seem to be any songs from that era promoting the health benefits of fresh air, though!

Another method of disease prevention that officials advocated during the flu pandemic of 1918 was to wear a face mask. According to Emily Hamilton, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst this little jingle musically, though perhaps a bit awkwardly worded, helped remind people to wear their masks: 

“Obey the laws, and wear the gauze. Protect your jaws from septic pause.”

A more somber song was recorded by Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945), a Texas Blues musician who witnessed the devastation wrought by the flu. The title does not indicate that the flu is the subject, but the lyrics clearly reference it.

"In the year of 19 and 18, God sent a mighty disease. It killed many a-thousand, on land and on the seas. Great disease was mighty and the people were sick everywhere. It was an epidemic, it floated through the air.

 The doctors they got troubled and they didn't know what to do. They gathered themselves together, they called it the Spanish flu. Soldiers died on the battlefield, died in the counts too. Captain said to the lieutenant, ‘I don't know what to do.’

Well, God is warning the nation, He's a-warnin them every way. To turn away from evil and seek the Lord and pray. Well, the nobles said to the people, "You better close your public schools. Until the events of death has ending, you better close your churches too."

The scarcity of songs and other forms of artistic expression related to the great Flu Pandemic of 1918 is a bit of a mystery since often such cataclysmic events are an inspiration for artists, writers, and musicians. Perhaps the sadness engendered by the pandemic was too personal and too great. Though there are certainly written and photographic records of the great pandemic, the few musical mementos that exist create another small window to that time.

Further Reading: LOC Blog Now See Hear, “The Talking Machine Industry and the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918,” April 30, 2020.