Broadside ballads > 23. Daar komen de schutters - Here come the shooters
Listen to this song, performed by Freek de Jonge
MP3 sound file'Daar komen de schutters' is a song that mocks the Home Guard. Militia members in Rotterdam are cowards who never do anything useful. The only fighting they ever engage in occurs when they have been drinking heavily.
The song was recorded in 1903 by Duo Speenhoff. Both words and music were written by 'poet-singer' J.K. (Coos) Speenhoff, and this became the best-known song in his career. Speenhoff's lyric does not appear in the collection, but other lyrics to this melody can be found there.
The song was even a minor hit in 1986, performed in the Netherlands by Hans de Booij and in Flanders by Mama's Jasje.
It is still a well-known tune today, although hardly anybody knows the author or the exact lyrics to it. Most people tend to sing 'There come the shooters / There they come' (rather than 'They're walking their legs off'), perhaps followed by 'those strappers / from Rotterdam'. Few people know that the chorus has four additional lines, let alone the song's forgotten verses.
Freek de Jonge sings the original version of the song, accompanied on guitar by Bouke Feleus.
