I did a brief search and did not see it, so will recite:I live in Alaska, but hale from Needham, Mass. which traces its roots to colonial times when it was a suburb of Dedham. We modestly call our portion of the world 'New England'. During the Bicentennial my town released a creditable recording of period songs, one of which was 'Yankee Doodle' with (I believe) the original words, which were written by someone from Mother England to poke fun at the colonials' feaux primness, simplicity, thrift, and habits of naming themselves after little known biblical figures. It dates more from the time of Indian Wars and attacks on French Canada:
Brother Efrem sold his cow
And bought him a commission
Then he went to Canada
To fight for the nation
But when Efrem he come home
He proved an arrant coward
He wouldn't fight the Frenchmen there
For fear of being devoured.chorus:
Sheepshead and vinegar
Buttermilk and tansy
Boston is a Yankee town
Sing hey doodle dandy
First we take a pinch of snuff
then a drink of water
Then we say 'how do you do'
And that's a Yankee supperAminadab has just come home
His eyes all crisped like bacon
And all that news that he can tell
Is that Cape Breton's taken
Stand up, Jonathon
Figure in by neighbor
Father, stand a little off
And make the room some widerchor.
Christmas is a-comin' boys
We'll go to Mother Chase's
And there we'll get a sugar dram
And sweeten with molasses
Uncle is a Yankee man
In faith he pays us all off
He has got hisself a fiddle
Big as Daddy's hog-troughchor.
Hey ho, for our Cape Cod
Hey ho, Nantasket
Do not let the Boston Whites
Feel your oyster basketchor.
Man I'm homesick. I think I'll go to Boston next week!
HTML line breaks added --JoeClone, 28-Nov-01.