"I'm Going to Follow the Boys"
by Elizabeth Spencer and Henry Burr
Sheet music courtesy of Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection |
In a dialogue that turns on the uncertain and unwilling at home, a young man tries to dissuade the object of his affection from going, again, "somewhere in France" to become a nurse. He reminds her that she doesn't know anything about nursing and that he and many others have stayed in the U.S. She does not need to go over there to find entertainment. "Jack and Harry" are in France so she will "follow the boys." She knows nothing of war or what it's about, but she is a wizard at "osculation" and that will aid the war effort in France. The stay-at-homes were the targets of much derision, mostly for the perceived anti-patriotic reticence. When men refuse to go, but women go instead, who, the song seems to ask, is the greater coward?
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