"I'd Feel at Home if They'd Let Me Join the Army"
by Billy Murray
Sheet music courtesy of Clarence Johnson |
"Domestic life = battleground" was a regular formula from vaudeville, one used succesfully by the likes of Eddie Morton, Nora Bayes, and Bert Williams. Songs like "I'd Feel at Home if They'd Let Me Join the Army" encourages married men to volunteer because married life can't be significantly different from the dangers of combat duty. The song gets extra points for using (like Uncle Josh) one notable reference to the horrors of modern warfare—the use of poison gases—as the butt of a joke, when Billy Murray says that in domestic squabbles, he's "always mustered out." Murray revived the song at the beginning of World War II, and the joke was as fresh as ever. Take my wife—please!
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