YANKEE DOODLE
Find an instrumental version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VDqRKukT_M
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♫ Please note: This is the very last song of the Derek Warfield album about the American Revolutionary War. I hope you have enjoyed this series. If you have any wants or suggestions on a new series just write a comment below this video.
Best regards and keep listening.
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Yankee Doodle is a well-known British-American song, the early versions of which date back to before the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution (1775 – 1783). It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the state anthem of Connecticut. The melody is thought to be much older than both the lyrics and the subject, even going back to folk songs of Medieval Europe an is well known across western Europe, including England, France, Holland (modern Netherlands), Hungary, and Spain. The earliest words of Yankee Doodle came from a Middle Dutch harvest song, possibly dating back as far as 15th-century. In British conversation, the term "Yankee Doodle Dandy" implied unsophisticated misappropriation of high-class fashion, as though simply sticking a feather in one's cap would make one to be noble.
Originally, it was a mocking tune by British officers to taunt the (in their eyes) undisciplined and disorganized "Yankees" with whom they fought together in the French and Indian wars. Already in the American Revolutionary War, the residents of the United States took the song and gave him a positive, patriotic rating. In the Civil War, the song became a popular marching tune of the northern states.
English lyrics:
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.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
And there we saw a thousand men
As rich as Squire David,
And what they wasted every day,
I wish it could be saved.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
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.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
And there I see a swamping gun
Large as a log of maple,
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father's cattle.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
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.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
I went as nigh to one myself
As 'Siah's inderpinning;
And father went as nigh again,
I thought the deuce was in him.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
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.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
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
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
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.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
I see a little barrel too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked on it with little clubs
And called the folks together.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
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'.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
He got him on his meeting clothes,
Upon a slapping stallion;
He sat the world along in rows,
In hundreds and in millions.
