What's the truth behind Yankee Doodle? Does it even mean anything? And why is
this even on this website? Flag Man with Macaroni Wig Promotional Poster |
Lyrics
Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain
Gooding;
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thick as hasty
pudding.
Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind
the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
There was
Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
A-giving orders to his
men,
I guess there was a million.
And then the feathers on his hat,
They looked so' tarnal fin-a,
I wanted pockily to get
To give
to my Jemima.
And then we saw a swamping gun,
Large as a log of
maple;
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father's cattle.
And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder;
It makes a
noise like father's gun,
Only a nation louder.
I went as nigh to one
myself,
As' Siah's underpinning;
And father went as nigh agin,
I
thought the deuce was in him.
We saw a little barrel, too,
The heads
were made of leather;
They knocked upon it with little clubs,
And called
the folks together.
And there they'd fife away like fun,
And play on
cornstalk fiddles,
And some had ribbons red as blood,
All bound around
their middles.
The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in
our faces;
It scared me almost to death
To see them run such
races.
Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some
onions,
For' lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young
ones.
But I can't tell half I see
They kept up such a smother;
So I took my hat off, made a bow,
And scampered home to mother.
Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared
me so I streaked it off,
And hung by father's pocket.
And there I
saw a pumpkin shell,
As big as mother's basin;
And every time they
touched it off,
They scampered like the nation.
Yankee doodle, keep
it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with
the girls be handy.
Yankee Doodle literally translates out to "Simpleton from the United States." Now, we would normally call a north-easterner a Yankee, but in the 1700's, a Yankee was an American. A 'doodle' translated out into 'simpleton.' Yankee Doodle was originally a British song taunting the Colonies for their reckless behavior and were teasing them. One of the more daunting lines was "Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni!" What this is supposed to mean is this: The newest fad was a huge wig called the macaroni wig. It was 'cool.' Therefore, anyone who didn't wear one was the outcast, like the weird kid at school. What the Yankee Doodle was doing was sticking a feather in his cap, and apparently thought it was as cool as a macaroni wig. This would be absolutely ridiculous to the British, so why not make fun of the Yankees and say they did so? But, lo and behold, the Americans took the verse and the added a 'couple of verses.' Rumor has it that they were singing this when they went to take over Charles Cornwallis' house!
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