Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle

Subject: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: Kaleea
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 03:03 AM

Were there specific lyrics sung to "Yankee Doodle" during the Civil War? I am looking for different versions which might have been popular with the Union or Confederate troops.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 05:18 AM

Try to search the America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets site, which says "These [song sheet lyrics] were new songs being sung in music halls or new lyrics to familiar songs, like 'Yankee Doodle' or 'The Last Rose of Summer'," and has "69 Items containing the exact words yankee doodle."

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 05:43 AM

From Stuart Murray, America's Song: The Story of 'Yankee Doodle' (Images from the Past, 1999, p. 219):

There were new versions of "Yankee Doodle" during the Civil War, from both North and South. One was "Yankee Doodle for Lincoln."

                   Yankee Doodle does as well
                   As anybody can, sir,
                   And like the ladies, he's for Abe,
                   And Union to a man, sir.

Confederates equated themselves with the colonial patriots revolving against a tyrannical government. As such, they erected liberty poles and sang versions of "Yankee Doodle" that expressed their bitterness against Northerners, all of whom they lumped under the name "Yankees."

                   Yankee Doodle had a mind
                   To whip the Southern "traitors,"
                   Because they didn't choose to live
                   On codfish and potatoes.

The chorus changes each time, playing with the notion of all Northerners, including Abraham Lincoln, being drunkards.

                   Yankee Doodle, doodle doo,
                   Yankee Doodle dandy,
                   And so to keep his courage up
                   He took a drink of brandy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 08:44 PM

Some examples from America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets (For lyrics transcriptions, click on "Bibliographic Information"):

Yankee Doodle. No. 3. (H. De Marsan, Publisher, 54 Chatham Street, N. Y. [n. d.])

The Yankee's return from camp. (L. Deming, No. 62 Hanover Street, Boston. [n. d.])

The fight for the championship. No. 2. (H. De Marsan, Publisher, ... No. 38 Chatham Street, N. Y. [n. d.])

Monitor and Merrimac. Air--Yankee Doodle Dandy. (Johnson, Song Publisher, &c., Phila. [n. d.])

New Yankee Doodle. ([n. p.] [n. d.])

Dedicated to the She Rebels of Baltimore. Air-"Yankee doodle." ([n.p.] [n.d.])

Berdan's Sharpshooters. Air: Yankee Doodle. By S. G. Elder. (2nd edition. H. De Marsan, Dealer, ... No 54 Chatham Street, N.Y. [n. d.])

These seem to be newly composed songs (sheet music from the Levy collection).

Title: Dixie Doodle.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Words and Music by Wm. H. Stevens.
Publication: New York: Horace Waters, 481 Broadway, 1865.
First Line: Uncle Sam, with Gen'ral Grant, and Yankee Doodle Dandy
First Line of Chorus: Dixie Doodle Doodle doo, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, together live in Washington, with Uncle Sam and Andy

Title: The Volunteer Yankee Doodle, of '61. A Humorous Ballad.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Words & Music by Louis Selle.
Publication: New York: Horace Waters, 481 Broadway, 1861.
First Line: Yankee doodle comes to town walking on his feet sir!
First Line of Chorus: Yankee doodle comes to town, walking on his feet, sir!

Title: Two Pickets.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Words & Music by Ossian E. Dodge.
Publication: Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., 277 Washington St., 1863.
First Line: Hallo! you Yankee renegade, you mudsill of a cricket!
First Line of Chorus: Yankee doodle is the tune, tis so slick and handy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 09:10 PM

DigiTrad has two: Flight of Doodles and Confederate Yankee Doodle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: raredance
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 10:12 PM

This version was sung by Lincoln supporters during the 1864 election campaign agains General George McClellen "Little Mac"

How are you , Mister Little Mac?
you are a pretty dandy,
But you have got upon a plant
That will throw you very handy.

We're sorry for you, Little Mac,
You've joined a fated party;
So make your mind up to defeat.
How are you now, my hearty?


rich r

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 10:28 PM

There're two band music scores at Band Music from the Civil War Era.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: Benjamin
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 11:11 PM

The Boston Commerata recorded a great version. They also include some great information on the song. It's nothing like the song I was taught as a kid.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Jan 03 - 11:11 PM

THE VALIANT CONSCRIPT in the DT.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 10:29 PM

The old "Doodle" seems to have picked up creative lyrics as it went along like a Bassett Hound picks up fleas.

That Boston Cameratta version on their album "Liberty Tree" is a doozy; those lyrics are a little "naughty", and it is sung to the older of at least two distinct variations of the tune.

In the 3rd Maine Fife & Drum Corps, we do a set featuring both the "Old" or Revolutionalry War era "Yankee Doodle" as well as the "New" tune which seems to have evolved some time around or after 1812, and is the one most familiar to us today. The Old is keyed in "G" and features a slower cadence, while the New is in "D" and a little faster.

When performing as a "set piece" we often play "Doodle 3 ways"; a medley featuring the stately "Old Doodle", followed by the more vigorous "New (Civil War era) Doodle", and lastly our Drum-Major's jazzed-up arrangement that sounds a bit like "Pop Goes the Weasle", but with the snares and thundering Bass-Drum (which in Ancient Rudimental Drumming plays all of the beats that the Snares do, but often in counterpoint or syncopation)it really "rocks"!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: nutty
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 04:42 AM

There's a broadside here in the Bodleian Library circa 1860 that is called The Original Yankee Doodle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: nutty
Date: 22 Jan 03 - 10:56 AM

More from the Bodleian ....


a href=http://bodley24.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/acwwweng/ballads/image.pl?ref=Harding+B+31(138)&id=11324.gif&seq=1&size=0>THE YANKEE BOY

and one that may have its origins in British Music Hall, it's sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle

The British Militia-Man

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Civil war Yankee Doodle
From: masato sakurai
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 10:17 PM

There're three songs to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" in Vicki L. Eaklor, American Antislavery Songs: A Collection and Analysis (Greenwood, 1988): "Hail the Day" (No. 181), "The Neb-Rascality" (No. 441), and "The Old Fog's Appeal; or Do Not Touch the Nigger" (No. 468).