Join the British Army

As sung by Brendan Behan in 1951:

When I was young I used to be as fine a man as ever you'd see;
The Prince of Wales, he said to me, "Come and join the British army."
Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, they're lookin' for monkeys up in the zoo
If I had a head like you, I would join the British army.

Sarah Condon baked a cake; it was all for poor Nell Slattery's sake.
I threw meself into the lake, pretending I was barmy.
Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, 'twas the only thing that I could do
For to work my ticket home to you and lave the British army.


As sung by Ewan MacColl in 1958:

When I was young I used to be as fine a man as ever you'd see;
The Prince of Wales, he said to me, "Come and join the British army."
Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, they're looking for monkeys up in the zoo
If I had a face like you, I would join the British army.

Sarah Camdon baked a cake; it was all for poor old Slattery's sake.
I threw meself into the lake, pretending I was barmy.
Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, 'twas the only thing that I could do
To work my ticket home to you and leave the British army.

Corporal Duff's got such a drought, just give him a couple of jars of stout;
He'll kill the enemy with his mouth and save the British Army.
Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, Me curse is on the Labour crew;
They took your darling boy from you to join the British army.

Captain Heeley went away and his wife got in the family way,
And all the words that she would say was "Blame the British Army."
Too ra loo ra loo ra loo, I've made me mind up what to do
I'll work my ticket home to you and leave the British army.

An Irish rebel song which may have its origins, at least in a small part, from a Harry Lauder song.

In 1951 the great folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax recorded “Irish playwright and raconteur” Brendan Behan singing Join The British Army. You can hear the recording at the Lomax Digital Archive. (The song later appears in Brendan Behan’s play for radio The Big House first published in Evergreen Review in 1961.)

The song was later recorded by Ewan MacColl in 1958 and first released on his 10″ Topic LP Barrack Room Ballads. In his sleeve notes MacColl describes the song as:

 An Army favourite since Victorian days, this is also a children’s street ditty in Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow. I learned the version from my father, with additional verses from Brendan Behan of Dublin.

Ewan MacColl (1958)

In his 1990 book What a lovely war! Roy Palmer describes it as a:

…. song of Irish origin [that] has circulated both inside and outside the army since Victorian times. One version refers to Ta-ra-ra-boom-deray (popularised in 1891) and its singer:

Lottie Collins got no drawers
Will you kindly lend her yours?
For she’s got to go away
To sing ta-ra-ra-boom-deray

Singers would insert at appropriate points the names of NCOs they disliked.

Palmer, p25

The ease with which we can now search through millions of resources, makes it possible to corroborate Palmer’s and MacColl’s suggestion about the age of the song. The first stanza of Join the British Army seems have its origins in the Harry Lauder song Killiecrankie, which is sung to a very similar tune and begins with a similar couplet:

Oh, years ago I used to be the smartest chap as you would see
The Prince of Wales he wanted me to go and join the army

Lauder first sang his song in 1900, so if this point of origin is correct, the song does indeed go back to Victorian times, though to the very end of Queen Victoria’s reign. Lauder was hugely popular amongst troops from all over the English-speaking world and his songs were widely sung in World War I. It’s tempting to suggest that this song may well have been one of the songs produced by the soldiers in the trenches.

[It is also possible that Lauder borrowed the start of his song from already existing material – but I have been unable to find any earlier examples of anything similar. ]

MacColl sings his (1958) version:

As performed by The Dubliners:

Sources:

• Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A5680
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Lyrics: mudcat.org
• Information on MacColl’s Barrack Room Ballads The Balladeers
• Brendan Behan (1961) The Big House – A play for radio published in Evergreen Review Vol5 Iss 20 p
• Roy Palmer (1990) What a lovely war!

Last Updated on November 8, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: June 23, 2023