Shelley and Byron will be on their way begging for my postal code

[sovay]

For everyone whom I may have scarred with the last installment of Bradford pears, please enjoy some flowering trees from this evening's walk that can be safely, for individual values of pollen, inhaled.



The lilacs are emerging at the top of our street.



I wished these tulips well in their quest to be birds of paradise.



A raft of dogwood holding up the sky.



I miss the brick of our old neighborhood, so I like the one outcropping we have here.



This dogwood cut so beautifully across its house.



This one formed a screen.



Elegantly insectile.



I also miss the poppies of our old neighborhood, so this tulip doing its best impression pleased me.



Haven't a clue what this stuff is except brilliantly colored.



The ornamental cherry went full Maxfield Parrish in the sunset.



I got sick of pastorals.

Thanks to a stray line that got it stuck in my head last night, I became weirdly obsessed with trying to figure out my family's chain of transmission for the folk song variously known as "Army Life" or "Gee, Ma, I Want to Go Home." My grandfather famously got nowhere near the armed forces in World War II on account of being what selkie once succinctly described as blind as half a bat. (He worked the duration of the war in the mill room of the California Ink Company and I wrote a poem about it.) I know it got out into the wild and was recorded by Lead Belly and Pete Seeger and even musicians I didn't grow up listening to, I've just never heard one of those versions that sounded like a direct vector for the three verses I learned from my grandparents in the 1980's. Based on available snippets, it's looking oddly as though the closest thing might be the version incorporated into Moss Hart's Winged Victory (1943). I have ordered the playscript through the library and wish I could find an original cast recording. I am unfamiliar with the 1944 film beyond the fact that it preserved most of the original stage cast who also toured nationally. Or maybe there's just a popular recording I haven't heard. I learned Irving Berlin's "Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" from these same grandparents and no one had to go through World War I for it.

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Thanks to a stray line that got it stuck in my head last night, I became weirdly obsessed with trying to figure out my family's chain of transmission for the folk song variously known as "Army Life" or "Gee, Ma, I Want to Go Home."

I loved reading about this!

[sovay]

I loved reading about this!

Thank you!

[radiantfracture]

chain of transmission for the folk song variously known as "Army Life" or "Gee, Ma, I Want to Go Home.

I learnt it at Girl Guide Camp, where they probably learnt it from Pete Seeger, as none of us, so far as I know, had ever been to war.

[sovay]

I learnt it at Girl Guide Camp, where they probably learnt it from Pete Seeger, as none of us, so far as I know, had ever been to war.

spatch learned it as a camp song, too! I was a Girl Scout and didn't.

How did your version run?

[lauradi7dw]

I'm pretty sure I learned it at Girl Scout camp (in NC, specifically). That would have been mid-late 1960s. Having just listened to the Pete Seeger version
https://youtu.be/cWWd2Y9S_Rc?si=QIT4wzRJ9nWEisIm
the one that I know is very much the same, with a few words different. We sang "in the Army" when he is singing "they give you," "Gee ma," rather than "gee but" and we didn't have the verse about the women in the PX.
Quite a few of the campfire songs would have been modified (or not) folk songs. The counselors were college student age and there was definitely a fondness for things one could sing while one of them was strumming a guitar or ukelele. Kingston Trio stuff? That ilk. I'm not surprised about a Pete Seeger song, anyway.

[moon_custafer]

I also learnt most of my army-adjacent songs in Girl Guides, but I think this one might have been from elementary- or middle-school music class?

eta — the first time I can recall hearing anyone sing “We’re Here Because We’re Here” it was my mother, but she was driving me to Girl Guide camp so she may also consider it a camping song.

[sovay]

eta — the first time I can recall hearing anyone sing “We’re Here Because We’re Here” it was my mother, but she was driving me to Girl Guide camp so she may also consider it a camping song.

That's so neat. I've never heard that one outside of contexts of World War I.

[sovay]

the one that I know is very much the same, with a few words different. We sang "in the Army" when he is singing "they give you," "Gee ma," rather than "gee but" and we didn't have the verse about the women in the PX.

His version also differs a little melodically from the one I learned from my grandparents and I can't tell if it's my grandparents or Seeger. It's part of the reason I wish I could hear the version from Winged Victory. It looks like there was a recording at the time, but only selections which did not include this song.

Kingston Trio stuff? That ilk. I'm not surprised about a Pete Seeger song, anyway.

My elementary school ran a lot of its music off the American (and British) folk revival, although so did my parents' record collection.

[radiantfracture]

Yeah, our template was "they say that up at our camp the X is mighty fine," and then pretty much the same jokes.

[sovay]

up at our camp

That does scan!

[aurumcalendula]

Those are gorgeous photos!

[sovay]

Those are gorgeous photos!

Thank you! The last week has really exploded, florally.

[ethelmay]

I learned it from a grade school friend who may have learned it at some camp or other (she wasn't a Scout that I recall). We sang a lot of songs while climbing trees, like Tolly in the Green Knowe books. I learned several Irving Berlin songs (but not "Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning!") from a book of them that lived with my grandmother's little electric organ, which I was allowed to pick out tunes on. I always think of myself as having been a quiet child, but in fact I can remember a lot of equally noisy activities.

[sovay]

I learned it from a grade school friend who may have learned it at some camp or other (she wasn't a Scout that I recall).

Nice. May I ask you for the lyrics? By now I'm just interested in the variations of the song. spatch has some lines very different from the ones I know.

I always think of myself as having been a quiet child, but in fact I can remember a lot of equally noisy activities.

They sound great to me.

Irving Berlin is one of the people I'm always forgetting I know songs by on account of their assimilation into the Great American Songbook.

[ethelmay]

I don't recall the order of verses, but there was
The clothes in the army they say are mighty fine, Me and my buddy can both get into mine, I don't want no more of army life, Gee, but I wanna go, Gosh, but I wanna go, Gee, but I wanna go home.
The biscuits in the army they say are mighty fine, One rolled off the table and killed a pal of mine...

Dang it, I am sure there were one or two more that I can't recall at the moment.

[sovay]

Dang it, I am sure there were one or two more that I can't recall at the moment.

My grandparents sang:

"The coffee in this army, they say it's mighty fine
It's good for cuts and bruises and it tastes like iodine
Oh, I don't want no more this army life
Gee, Ma, I want to go home

"The biscuits in this army, they say they're mighty fine
One rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine
Oh, etc.

"The chicken in this army, they say it's mighty fine
One jumped off the table and started marking time
Oh, I don't want no more this army life
Gee, Ma, I want to go
But they won't let me go
Gee, Ma, I want to go home!"

They didn't sing the verse about the clothes, but I've seen it in collections! Also one which is clearly inapplicable outside of military settings, but which I find very funny: "The furloughs in the Army they say are mighty fine / They put it down on paper, but where the hell is mine?"

[ethelmay]

The coffee one sounds very familiar. If we didn't sing that it was something quite similar.

[radiantfracture]

We also had (I assume the army version was otherwise gendered) "They say that up at our camp / the boys are mighty fine / they say he's Elvis Presley (!) / but he looks like Frankenstein."

[sovay]

"They say that up at our camp / the boys are mighty fine / they say he's Elvis Presley (!) / but he looks like Frankenstein."

I think that started as Betty Grable.

[nineweaving]

Perfectly lovely flowers.

I heard that song at my beloved summer camp. Many of the campers were Canadian (we raised both flags, just before going in to tin pitchers of hot cocoa), and the version I heard was "Gee Ma, I wanna go / Back to Ontario ..."

The best-loved sport at that camp was making parodies of show tunes.

Nine

[sovay]

Perfectly lovely flowers.

Thank you!

I heard that song at my beloved summer camp. Many of the campers were Canadian (we raised both flags, just before going in to tin pitchers of hot cocoa), and the version I heard was "Gee Ma, I wanna go / Back to Ontario ..."

I saw that variant on the internet! It's delightful. And put my brain back in Berlin territory: "I'll put my uniform away / And move to Philadelph-i-ay / And spend the rest of my life in bed . . ."

Claims of the song being originally Canadian would make "Ontario" the rhyme that "won't let me go" had to substitute for. I'm hoping I can find more information about it in Les Cleveland's Dark Laughter: War in Song and Popular Culture (1994) when I can get the book out of hock, by which I mean storage.

The best-loved sport at that camp was making parodies of show tunes.

Any especially lasting travesties?

[radiantfracture]

I've heard the Ontario version, too.

[pameladean]

Oh, wonderful photos!

My dad used to sing "Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning" on cold miserable dark school mornings -- NOBODY in my family was a lark. He learned it in the Army, but in Korea. I still sing it occasionally when things are very dire sleep- and schedule-wise. As a teenager I would sing, "Some day I'm going to murder the alarm clock."

P.

[sovay]

Oh, wonderful photos!

Thank you!

My dad used to sing "Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning" on cold miserable dark school mornings -- NOBODY in my family was a lark. He learned it in the Army, but in Korea.

I think the sentiment is immortal.

I still sing it occasionally when things are very dire sleep- and schedule-wise. As a teenager I would sing, "Some day I'm going to murder the alarm clock."

Solidarity. I sing it whenever it gets stuck in my head, which is lately the last twelve hours, but I always want to murder the bugler.

[lauradi7dw]

In those circumstances, my father sang "Hop up my ladies, three in a row," well-suited to a household with a mother and two daughters. He tended to truncate songs and never got to the part about "don't mind the weather when the wind don't blow" but we could fill it in in our heads because I think I we learned that one in school.

[nineveh_uk]

Gorgeous photos!

Haven't a clue what this stuff is except brilliantly colored.
We've got one just like that, too, and I also don't know. I go with "some variety of ornamental prunus," which is likely to be close enough!

[sovay]

Gorgeous photos!

Thank you!

We've got one just like that, too, and I also don't know. I go with "some variety of ornamental prunus," which is likely to be close enough!

I shall think of it as such.

[thisbluespirit]

Lots of beautiful blossoms! Thank you for sharing. <3

That sounds like a fascinating rabbit hole to have gone down. Good luck with chasing up your version. I don't know that one, but I've come across odd things like that before where I definitely know a different version of a song or a saying to the usual one.

[sovay]

Lots of beautiful blossoms! Thank you for sharing.

You're welcome! I have to walk farther for the really good trees in our new neighborhood, but I don't mind the effort.

That sounds like a fascinating rabbit hole to have gone down. Good luck with chasing up your version. I don't know that one, but I've come across odd things like that before where I definitely know a different version of a song or a saying to the usual one.

Thank you! I am not completist about it, but I like tracking folk variations. I'm not convinced I'll be able to find the missing link for this one, but I'm really enjoying everyone's contributions on the subject.

[mrissa]

You can sing that song with the Marine Corps substituted in if you use monosyllables in the things you're complaining about, for example, "The chow in the Marine Corps, they say it's mighty fine, a bean rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine."

I know this because my Marine grandfather would not have been caught dead singing about the Army, and would not have me do so.

[sovay]

"The chow in the Marine Corps, they say it's mighty fine, a bean rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine."

I was suddenly reminded of Ursula Vernon's "Balthazar Disdains the Lemon" with its mention of "a little lemon-sized Uzi."

I know this because my Marine grandfather would not have been caught dead singing about the Army, and would not have me do so.

spatch's version of the coffee verse has it looking like soapy water and smelling like turpentine, which I found attested in a Navy variant.

[asakiyume]

I know that song! ... Not well enough to sing it, but I can hear the melody in my head.

That second photo of dogwoods is amazingly beautiful. But they're all good blossoms, Brent. Really nice.

[sovay]

I know that song! ... Not well enough to sing it, but I can hear the melody in my head.

Its pop-cultural penetration in my generation and up seems near-universal. Now what I am really curious about is whether it will percolate down to my godchild and my niece.

That second photo of dogwoods is amazingly beautiful. But they're all good blossoms, Brent. Really nice.

Hee. Thank you.

[ethelmay]

The song I really want to track down (beyond the info on https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=62702) is one my father used to sing: Brother Noah, Brother Noah
Can I come aboard on the ark of the Lord
Cause it's raining awful hard and I'm getting awful cold
Brother Noah, Brother Noah

No, you can't, sir! No, you can't, sir!
You can't come aboard on the ark of the Lord
Cause you smoke cigarettes and you never pay your board,
No, you can't, sir! No, you can't, sir!

I think he had a version of the verse about "You can just go to hell with your damned old scow, cause it ain't gonna rain very long anyhow," but I can't remember the specifics and I think he cleaned up the swearing when he was singing to little kids. But no one else seems to have the bit about "you smoke cigarettes and you never pay your board," which seems the best line to me.

[sovay]

one my father used to sing: Brother Noah, Brother Noah

My father sings that also! He got his version from Dave Van Ronk.

I think he had a version of the verse about "You can just go to hell with your damned old scow, cause it ain't gonna rain very long anyhow," but I can't remember the specifics and I think he cleaned up the swearing when he was singing to little kids.

"You can go to the Devil" is how I know it, which I guess is mildly less profane.

But no one else seems to have the bit about "you smoke cigarettes and you never pay your board," which seems the best line to me.

If your father invented it, more power to him.

These photos bring me all the joy

[jesse_the_k]

of the hub without the annoying proximity to my family.

Re: These photos bring me all the joy

[sovay]

of the hub without the annoying proximity to my family.

I am glad to be able to provide!