MUSIC AND CONFLICT:
FROM PATRIOTISM TO PROTEST
Revolutionary War Full Song Lyrics
(as referenced on the Revolutionary War page)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (full version)
by Dr. Richard Schuckberg
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
[Chorus]
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
Fath'r and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.
[Chorus]
And there we saw a thousand men
As rich as Squire David,
And what they wasted every day,
I wish it could be saved.
[Chorus]
The 'lasses they eat it every day,
Would keep a house a winter;
They have so much, that I'll be bound,
They eat it when they've mind ter.
[Chorus]
And there I see a swamping gun
Large as a log of maple,
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father's cattle.
[Chorus]
And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder,
and makes a noise like father's gun,
Only a nation louder.
[Chorus]
I went as nigh to one myself
As 'Siah's inderpinning;
And father went as nigh again,
I thought the deuce was in him.
[Chorus]
Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared me so I shrinked it off
And hung by father's pocket.
[Chorus]
And Cap'n Davis had a gun,
He kind of clapt his hand on't
And stuck a crooked stabbing iron
Upon the little end on't
[Chorus]
And there I see a pumpkin shell
As big as mother's bason,
And every time they touched it off
They scampered like the nation.
[Chorus]
I see a little barrel too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked on it with little clubs
And called the folks together.
[Chorus]
And there was Cap'n Washington,
And gentle folks about him;
They say he's grown so 'tarnal proud
He will not ride without em'.
[Chorus]
He got him on his meeting clothes,
Upon a slapping stallion;
He sat the world along in rows,
In hundreds and in millions.
[Chorus]
The flaming ribbons in his hat,
They looked so tearing fine, ah,
I wanted dreadfully to get
To give to my Jemima.
[Chorus]
I see another snarl of men
A digging graves they told me,
So 'tarnal long, so 'tarnal deep,
They 'tended they should hold me.
[Chorus]
It scared me so, I hooked it off,
Nor stopped, as I remember,
Nor turned about till I got home,
Locked up in mother's chamber.
[Chorus]
Revolutionary Tea
by Anonymous
There was a rich lady lived over the sea,
And she was an island queen.
Her daughter lived off in the new country,
With an ocean of water between
With an ocean of water between, with an ocean of water between.
The old lady's pockets were filled with gold,
Yet never contented was she
So she ordered her daughter to pay her a tax,
Of thrupence a pound on the tea.
Of thrupence a pound on the tea, of thrupence a pound on the tea.
"Oh mother, dear mother," the daughter replied.
"I'll not do the thing that you ask.
"I'm willing to pay a fair price for the tea,
But never a thrupenny tax,
But never a thrupenny tax, but never a thrupenny tax,
"You shall!" cried the mother, and reddened with rage.
"For you're my own daughter you see.
"And it's only proper that daughter should pay
Her mother a tax on the tea,
Her mother a tax on the tea, her mother a tax on the tea.
She ordered her servant to come up to her
And to wrap up a package of tea.
And eager for threepence a pound she put in
Enough for a large family,
Enough for a large family, enough for a large family
The tea was conveyed to her daughter's own door,
All down by the Oceanside.
But the bouncing girl poured out every pound
On the dark and the boiling tide,
On the dark and the boiling tide, on the dark and the boiling tide.
And then she called out to the island queen
"Oh mother, dear mother," called she.
"Your tea you may have when 'tis steeped enough.
But NEVER a tax from me,
But NEVER a tax from me, but NEVER a tax from me.