Perhaps you wonder what I am,
I will explain to you,
My conscience is the only thing,
That helps to pull me through.
Objection is a thing that I
Have studied thoroughly,
I don't object to fighting Huns,
But should hate them fighting me.
Non-combatent battalions
Are fairly in my line
But the sergeant always hates me
And he calls me "Baby mine",
But oh, I got so cross with him
I rose to the attack
And when he called me "Ethel"
I just called him "Beatrice" back!
Send out the Army and The Navy,
Send out the rank and file,
Send out the brave old Territorials
They'll face the danger with a smile.
Send out the boys of the Old Brigade
Who made Old England free
Send out me brother, his sister and his mother
But for Gawd's sake don't send me.
We have a nasty officer,
He is a horrid brute,
Last Friday he was terse with me
'Cos I did not salute.
But I cut him twice today,
Then he asked the reason please?
I said, "I thought, dear Captain,
That you still were cross with me."
[I was doing a fatigue
The other day at half past two
A pal of mine got jealous
Of the job I had to do
When he asked me how I got it well,
I said, “You must be dense,
I'm friendly with the second Lieut.
It's merely influence.”]
Send out the Army and The Navy,
Send out the rank and file,
Send out the brave old Territorials
They'll face the danger with a smile.
Send out the boys of the Old Brigade
Who made Old England free
Send out the bankers and the bloomin' profit-makers
But for Gawd's sake don't send me.
I will explain to you,
My conscience is the only thing,
That helps to pull me through.
Objection is a thing that I
Have studied thoroughly,
I don't object to fighting Huns,
But should hate them fighting me.
Non-combatent battalions
Are fairly in my line
But the sergeant always hates me
And he calls me "Baby mine",
But oh, I got so cross with him
I rose to the attack
And when he called me "Ethel"
I just called him "Beatrice" back!
Send out the Army and The Navy,
Send out the rank and file,
Send out the brave old Territorials
They'll face the danger with a smile.
Send out the boys of the Old Brigade
Who made Old England free
Send out me brother, his sister and his mother
But for Gawd's sake don't send me.
We have a nasty officer,
He is a horrid brute,
Last Friday he was terse with me
'Cos I did not salute.
But I cut him twice today,
Then he asked the reason please?
I said, "I thought, dear Captain,
That you still were cross with me."
[I was doing a fatigue
The other day at half past two
A pal of mine got jealous
Of the job I had to do
When he asked me how I got it well,
I said, “You must be dense,
I'm friendly with the second Lieut.
It's merely influence.”]
Send out the Army and The Navy,
Send out the rank and file,
Send out the brave old Territorials
They'll face the danger with a smile.
Send out the boys of the Old Brigade
Who made Old England free
Send out the bankers and the bloomin' profit-makers
But for Gawd's sake don't send me.
Contributed by Bernart - 2013/7/26 - 13:44
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Scritta da Davy Burnaby e Gitz Rice
Testo in due versioni parzialmente differenti trovate qui e qui.
Interpretata da Alfred Lester (1872-1925), cabarettista inglese piuttosto noto nell’avanspettacolo durante gli anni a cavallo della Grande Guerra, nella rivista musicale intitolata “Round The Map, a Musical Globe Trot”.
Nella raccolta intitolata “Oh! It's A Lovely War (Vol 2) – Songs and Sketches of the Great War 1914-1918”
Sicuramente gli autori di questa canzone (Gitz Rice, in particolare, era un ufficiale con il compito di organizzare spettacoli di intrattenimento per le truppe) intendevano proporre una parodia di chi si rifiutava di combattere (si veda l’insistenza sull’effeminatezza e la suggerita omosessualità), ma resta il fatto che nelle trincee fu cantata con gusto e con sincerità dai soldati inglesi che mettevano l’accento sul verso “in trincea spediteci chi vi pare ma, per Dio, non me!”.
Il penultimo verso del secondo ed ultimo refrain, poi, dovette proprio essere modificato dai soldati, perfettamente coscienti di essere carne da macello che ingrossava le tasche dei “bankers and the bloomin' profit-makers”. Infatti il verso originale doveva essere “Call out my uncle and clean out every funk hole”.