From GARGOYLE

Mr. Alex - Folklorist

HUMOR/SATIRE/IRONY - are powerful tools - they engulf American Song however, many times the meaning is "lost" (even to a generation only a decade removed ...because language changes) ...even more difficult, like poetry it does not translate easily into another language.

Songs of War are very much a part of the U.S.A.

I believe most nations have them.

Maybe, there are a few countries with only a few such songs, perhaps, Canada or Iceland?

For USA examples here are some with links to Susan's and Dick's Digital Tradition

I know basic Russian history from Catherin the Great to Afganistan. I know, you know, basic US history but I have included a few explanations along the way. If something is unclear please ask.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR - AKA "War of Independence" 1775 - 1783
(Key Issues = "Taxation without representation and Rights of man"

The Battle of the Kegs
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5874
The Battle of the Kegs
(From Burl Ives' Song in America - Our musical Heritage Wayfarer Music Co., 1962, The verses are by Francis Hopkinson, who first described the incident to General Washington to the tune of "Yankke Doodle," giving the hard-pressed general one of his few light moments of the war. It is the first record of the use of a floating sea mine.")

Yankee Doodle
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7980
Yankee Doodle
(a song of derision from the oppressor... reversed into a song of pride by the oppressed)

The Liberty Song
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6596
The Liberty Song
(Ives, p 248. In 1768, John Dickinson of Delaware, later a member of the first Congress, wrote this song to the English tune "Heart of Oak." It became widely known, reprinted as a broadside and in newspapers, and sung in the taverns.)

The Bostan Tea Tax
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7031
The Bostan Tea Tax
(Ives p 256. The tea-dumping affair in Boston Harbor has always tickled the imagination of Americans. Here's another song on the subject that began as a comedy number on the variety stage, proved to have staying power, and became a folk song.)

Cornwallis' Country Dance
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=1343
Cornwallis' Country Dance
....The retreat and advance of General Cornwallis reminded an American balladeer of the contemporary "cortre" dance, where two facing lines move back and forth....tune "Pop Goes the Weasel."

WAR OF 1812 (USA vs British)
(Key Issues = Britain's interference with American international trade and impressment of American sailors)

How Happy the Soldier

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2738
How Happy the Soldier
(Ives - This favorite of the British soldiers during the Revolutionary War was picked up by the Americans. It was sung by both sides during the War of 1812)

Hornet and the Peacock AKA The Wasp's Frolic
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6465
Hornet and the Peacock
(Written October 18, 1812, re: Captain Jones' taking of the "Frolic" by the "Wasp." Tune: Rosin the Beau.

The Battle of Plattsburgh AKA The Banks of Champlain
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=8127
The Battle of Plattsburgh
(Broadside. Tune: Yankee Doodle. Attributed to Miner Lewis of Mooers Forks, NY., wrote out words on chips of wood as he was logging.)

The Battle of New Orleans
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=535
The Battle of New Orleans
(by Jimmy Driftwood, 20th Century pop music hit)

STAR SPANGLED BANNER AKA "National Anthem of USA"
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7004

STAR SPANGLED BANNER
August 1814 British troops entered Washington. They set fire to the United States Capitol, the President's Mansion, and other public buildings. The local militia fled, and President James Madison and wife Dolley barely escaped.

Britain's naval force was poised to strike Fort McHenry and enter Baltimore Harbor. At 6:30 AM on September 13, 1814, Admiral Cochrane's ships began a 25-hour bombardment of the fort. Francis Scott Key was detained aboard a truce ship for the duration of the battle.

Moved by the sight of the dawn's early light of September 14, 1814, of the American flag above the fort, Key knew that Fort McHenry had not surrendered. He began to compose a poem on the back of a letter he was carrying.

Our official national anthem was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Herbert Hoover in 1931.
SOURCE
http://americanhistory.si.edu/ssb/6_thestory/6b_osay/fs6b.html

TUNE = bar-room bawdy "Anacreon in Heaven."
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7357
Anacreon in Heaven

CIVIL WAR

(Key Issue = One Nation Indivisable "A House Divided")
(Two of my great grandfather's were in this war - some great family stories passed down)

Battle Hymn of the Republic
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=528
Battle Hymn of the Republic
(1862, Julia Ward Howe)

When Johnny Comes Marching Home
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7774
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
(1863, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore)

Marching Through Georgia
(Many of the great grandfather's stories deal with this event)
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=3860
Marching Through Georgia
(1865, Henry Clay Work)

Dixie
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=1597
Dixie

(The Mudcat version is "cleaned-up" the original and still frequently sung today is like the Obama previous posting written in the African American Vernacular English)

(Mason and Dixon were surveyors - it took them four years to cover the 233 mile-long Mason-Dixon line by 1757 - HEAVY, rugged, mountainous forests - eventualy it became established as the boundary between the "slave states" of the South and the "free states" of the North in 1820. It is still a POWERFUL symbol of "State's Rights vs Federal Rights."

No Body Know De Truble Ah Seen http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4266n
Truble Ah Seen
(A negro spirtual - associated with slavery)

Goober Peas
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2345
Goober Peas

Armies must march and soldiers will gripe. Food was a problem to the Confederate Army in the war between the States. Peanuts (goober peas) grow easily in the South, and became a wry joke to the Confederate soldier when he could find nothing else to eat.)

SPANISH AMERICAN WAR aka "War with Mexico"
(Some on BOTH sides - TODAY!! - believe this war never ended - and continues with attempts to reclaim Azatlan. Many border-state public schools have teachers who advocate the overthrow and return of lands to Mexico...imagine your country's current situation with Georgia but in a reversed mirror view.)

See Mudcat thread - discussion and sharing of ideas (good place to see MC "in action,"
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63698

SPANISH AMERICAN WAR

Of course there are also:
WWI
WWII
Cold War
Korean War
Desert Storm
Enduring Freedom

VIETNAM WAR
(A couple of my favorites)

Draft Dodger's Rag
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=1703
Draft Dodger's Rag

I Got a Letter From LBJ
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=3572
I Got a Letter From LBJ

Ballad of the Green Berets
(commercial capitalist jingoism at its best...if there is buck to be made...there is always a corporation to exploit it)
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=455
Ballad of the Green Berets

Sincerely,
GARGOYLE

Please ask questions from this thread to this thread...I will look for them....you will find many wonderful people here.

How did YOU? - Mr. Alex-Folklore discover Max's Mudcat Cafe??? (since the Brits stumbled in it has been more like a drunkard's pub....it would be nice to see it become more international like a "coffee house")

Invite your friends!!!