I Don't Want to Join the Army

DESCRIPTION: "I don't want to be a soldier, I don't want to go to war, I'd rather stay at home, Around the streets to roam." Rather than join the army, the singer prefers to hang around Picadilly, "living off the earnings of a highborn ly-dee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Nettleingham-TommysTunes)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Australia Canada US(MW,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 384-386, "I Don't Want to Join the Army" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 67, "I Don't Want to be a Soldier" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, p.66, "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" (1 text, tune referenced)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 146-147, "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" (1 text with variants, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp. 79-80, "I Don't Want to Join the Army" (1 text)
Nettleingham-TommysTunes, #19, "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" (1 text, tune referenced)
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, p. 21, "O Don't Want to Join the Air Force" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOINARMY*
ADDITIONAL: John Mullen, _The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain during the First World War_, French edition 2012; English edition, Ashgate, 2015, pp. 203, "(I don't want to be a soldier)" (1 text)
Roud #10263
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "On Sunday I Walk Out With a Soldier" (tune, according to Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang)
cf. "Come, My Lad, and Be a Soldier" (tune, according to Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver)
NOTES [47 words]: Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook suggests that his Air Force version, which he thinks is from 1916, is the oldest version of this -- but given that most of the versions refer to being a soldier, I have to think the Air Force reference is a modification of the original song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: EM384

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