"Army Life"
Song by Lead Belly
Released1944 (1944)
GenreNovelty song
Length1:48
Songwriter(s)Traditional, Gitz Rice credited

"Gee, Mom, I Want to Go Home" (also known as "I Don't Want No More of Army Life") is a traditional, humorous song satirizing life in the Armed Forces. Each verse has two lines relating what recruits are told, followed by an exaggerated description of the fact. For example:

The biscuits in the Army
They say are mighty fine,
One rolled off the table
And killed a pal of mine.

The original song was sung by Canadian soldiers during World War II. With original chorus

"Oh, I don't want no more of army life
Gee ma, I wanna go
back to Ontario
Gee ma, I wanna go ho_o_ome!"

The song occurs in several variations, the lyrics being adapted for the different branches of the Armed Forces, and it has been transformed into a camp song as well.[1]

  • The song appeared in the 1943 play Winged Victory by Moss Hart.[2]
  • The song, presumably sung by British Commonwealth soldiers, can be heard during "The Desert: North Africa", the eighth episode of the documentary series The World at War.
  • Folk singer Lead Belly performed the song (as "Gee, But I Want to Go Home" or "Army Life" [3] ) on several 1940s recordings.
  • The song was released as a single, titled "I Don't Want No More of Army Life", in 1950 by Texas Jim Robertson [4]
  • The character of Dino Manelli sings two stanzas in issue #58 (Cover date September 1968) of the World War II-set comic book series Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos.
  • The song was performed in the 1977 M*A*S*H episode "Movie Tonight" (season 5 episode 22), with lyrics adapted to the characters and situations in the show.[5] Father Mulcahy, Hawkeye and B.J., Colonel Potter, Klinger, Hot Lips, Radar and four of the nurses all sing a verse each. Frank Burns tries to sing a rather hostile verse after everyone has finished the song, but is glared down.
  • Manny Singer (Ray Liotta) sings a verse to his despondent daughter shortly after the death of her mother at the beginning of the 1994 film Corrina, Corrina.
  • A variant of the song is sung in the 2020 film Monster Hunter.

M*A*S*H version

There are six different verses in the M*A*S*H version, all of them reworded and each sung by a different member or members of the cast, including one by Hawkeye and B.J. Hunnicutt: "O the surgeons in the army, they say are mighty bright; we work on soldiers throughout the day and nurses through the night," a reference to the surgeons' womanizing habits. A verse sung by Klinger went like this: "O some guys like the army; I think that it's a mess; if it's so damned terrific, how come I wear a dress?" (Klinger's failure to get a psychiatric discharge from the army by dressing in drag was a recurring gag in the series).

References

  1. ↑ Bronner, Simon J. (30 May 1988). American Children's Folklore. August House. ISBN 9780874830682. Retrieved 30 May 2021 – via Google Books.
  2. ↑ Hart, Moss (30 June 2005). Winged Victory. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 9781419169847. Retrieved 30 May 2021 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ "Images for Leadbelly - Easy Rider: Leadbelly Legacy Volume Four". Discogs.com. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  4. ↑ Inc, Nielsen Business Media (4 November 1950). "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved 30 May 2021 – via Google Books. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  5. ↑ "M*A*S*H FAQ". Faqs.org. Retrieved 30 May 2021.


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