I wanted to hear “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” but it didn’t occur to me to check my Bing Crosby collection. Of course he sang it! And now that I’ve listened to it, I understand why Vonnegut specifically chose that song. First the lyrics say,
“They can play a bugle call like you never heard before,
So natural that you want to go to war.”
And then,
“Come on along, come on along.
Let me take you by the hand
Up to the man, up to the man
Who’s the leader of the band.”
I don’t want to spoil the book for my faithful reader by explaining the relevance, but Vonnegut must have expected readers to be familiar with the song, so it won’t hurt you to know the lyrics.
Thanks, Bing, for singing the song for me. I won’t forget you again! And thanks also to Irving Berlin, who wrote the song way back in 1911.