I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier

"I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" is an American anti-war song that was influential within the pacifist movement that existed in the United States before it entered World War I.^[1][2] Lyricist Alfred Bryan collaborated with composer Al Piantadosi in writing the song,^[3] which inspired a sequel, some imitations, but also a larger number of scornful parodies.^[1]

Contents 1 Themes 2 Impact and response 3 Other versions 4 Political reaction 5 Original lyrics 6 References

Themes

The song purports to be the lament of a lonely mother whose son has been lost in the war:

I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy ^[4]

She comments on the irony of war being between different mothers' sons, killing each other with muskets. Conflict between nations should be resolved by arbitration, not by the sword and the gun. Victory is not enough to console a mother for the loss of her son, and the blighting of her home. War would end if all mothers said they would not raise their sons as soldiers. The song thus apparently connects the suffragist and pacificist movements.^[1][2]

Impact and response

"I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" helped solidify the anti-war movement enough to make it politically relevant on the national stage.^[1] The song's success and its resulting political strength brought supporters to the pacifist movement whose main priority was other issues.^[1] Unreconstructed southerners appealed to popular distaste for the war in Europe in order to argue that the Civil War had been no more justified, and suffragists joined the peace movement because of its political potential and leverage in the campaign for women's right to vote.^[1] As with the later 1930s hit "God's Country", it shows that American popular music "generally reflects the isolationist tendencies of the public" and that pro-war songwriters were rarely successful.^[5]

The song became known in a number of countries which were already at war - in Britain and in Australia notably.

Other versions

In 1968 the Eli Radish Band recorded an updated Outlaw Country Rock version of the song to protest the Vietnam War. Their Capital Records album bore the same title.

Political reaction

Back in its day, prominent politicians attacked the song both for its pacifism and early feminism. Theodore Roosevelt remarked that "foolish people who applaud a song entitled 'I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier' are just the people who would also in their hearts applaud a song entitled 'I Didn't Raise my Girl To Be A Mother'".^[6]

Many parodies of the song were produced, such as "I Did Not Raise My Boy to Be a Coward," "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier, But I'll Send My Girl to Be a Nurse," and "I Didn't Raise My Dog to Be a Sausage."^[1][2] Parody poems and other responses were also produced such as "They Didn't Raise Their Son to Be a Soldier".^[1]/ According to Groucho Marx, a popular joke of the period concerned a poker game in which a cardplaying mother states, "I didn't raise my boy, he had the joker".

Original lyrics

Lyrics per original sheet music

Verse 1

Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,

Who may never return again.

Ten million mother's hearts must break

For the ones who died in vain.

Head bowed down in sorrow

In her lonely years,

I heard a mother murmur thru' her tears:

Verse 2

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier,

I brought him up to be my pride and joy.

Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder,

To shoot some other mother's darling boy?

Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,

It's time to lay the sword and gun away.

There'd be no war today,

If mothers all would say,

"I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier."

Verse 3

What victory can cheer a mother's heart,

When she looks at her blighted home?

What victory can bring her back

All she cared to call her own?

Let each mother answer

In the years to be,

Remember that my boy belongs to me!

References