Cylinder of the Month


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A Billy Murray double feature!

•  From 1908, the comic song, I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark.
— and —
•  From 1909, its humorous sequel, I Used to Be Afraid to Go Home in the Dark.

I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark

 
Company Edison's National Phonograph Company
Cylinder # 9780
Category Tenor solo
Title I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark
Performed by Billy Murray
Circa 1908
Announcement "I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark, sung by Billy Murray.  Edison record."
 

A popular song of 1908, sung by an equally popular singer.   Billy Murray recorded dozens of comic and popular songs for Edison for many years beginning in late 1903.

Here, we meet the wayward newlyweds, Jones, and his not-too-longsuffering wife Mabel.

To hear I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark   —

 
For help playing these sounds, click here.

                   


I Used to Be Afraid to Go Home in the Dark

 
Company Edison's National Phonograph Company
Cylinder # 10127
Category Tenor solo
Title I Used to Be Afraid to Go Home in the Dark
Performed by Billy Murray
Circa 1909
Announcement None
 

Just over one year later, Murray records this great sequel in which our favorite reprobate, whose name has inexplicably changed to Joe Morgan, suffers terribly from "that awful dark song of last year"!

To hear I Used to Be Afraid to Go Home in the Dark   —

 
For help playing these sounds, click here.

                                       

To hear other examples of wax cylinders, see the