The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #174033 Message #4221198
Posted By: Robert B. Waltz
19-Apr-25 - 05:10 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Songs about Paul Revere?
Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about Paul Revere?
There's always Frank Loesser's "Fugue for Tinhorns" from "Guys and Dolls," in which Paul Revere gets ridden: "I got the horse right here, His name is Paul Revere...." :-p
There are only two songs in the Traditional Ballad Index which I have noted as mentioning Paul Revere. One is "The Massacre at Butcher's Hall," about the Boston Massacre, which is very possibly only a poem; the only source is Shoemaker's collection of Pennsylvania texts.
Much better known is "The Sword of Bunker Hill," Roud #4684. Roud mentions more than fifty printed versions. It's not about Paul Revere's ride, but Revere is mentioned.
There was a broadside, "The Yankee Volunteer," which Alan Lomax printed in Folk Songs of North America as "In the Days of '76," which refers to Lexington and Concord. There are also references in "Old Granny Wales."
Ranald MacDonald, the son of Flora MacDonald of Bonnie Prince Charlie fame, is reported to have fought on the British side at Lexington and Concord.