Monday, July 4, 2016

WKRLEM: Let's Call it Macaroni!

10 comments:

edutcher said...

And, of course, the admonition, with the girls be handy, would be vital in building the new nation.

Synova said...

Dang, I can't understand the verses... maybe google knows. Google knows everything.

Trooper York said...

That line was put in because of Betsy Ross. She was famous for two things. Sewing.

And giving Patriots hand jobs.

edutcher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
edutcher said...

You ask, you get.

As often with our forefathers, and some of us may have that many, it appears to have been a bawdy ballad.

Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony
He stuck a feather in his hat
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!

Father 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 was Captain Washington
And gentle folks about him
They say he's grown so tarnal proud
He will not ride without them.

Chorus
Full version of Yankee Doodle:
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

Synova said...

Thank you. I will have to admit, though, that it makes no more sense than the video. ;)

Of course "macaroni" was the name given to those English dandies who really dressed up like peacocks. I suspect it was a reference to Continental (Italian) flamboyancy. A fellow I know insists that Macaronis meant homosexuals. I think this is absurd. Some may have been but dressing up to extremes with red high heals and elaborate wigs and make up, patches and rouge, was something that het men did.

America's first major assertion of sensibility... a feather in your hat is *enough* already.

edutcher said...

Synova said...

Thank you. I will have to admit, though, that it makes no more sense than the video. ;)

Of course "macaroni" was the name given to those English dandies who really dressed up like peacocks. I suspect it was a reference to Continental (Italian) flamboyancy. A fellow I know insists that Macaronis meant homosexuals. I think this is absurd. Some may have been but dressing up to extremes with red high heals and elaborate wigs and make up, patches and rouge, was something that het men did


This may or may not better answer your question.

Apparently, it was a style the dandies affected that many considered overdone. The homosexual overtones seem a bit iffy, but give the article a shot.

Synova said...

"Well, there you have it. Is it too much of a stretch to wonder if the culture wars in America began when colonial hayseeds internalized their status as an elite class of Revolutionary War citizens to proudly distain intellectualism and urbanity?

I don’t know. But my parrot has just dropped a flight feather into my bowl of penne bolognese, which I shall now proudly place upside down upon my head as a pasta-hat in tribute to the Yankee-yokels who threw the Brits’ scorn back at them with wit. I am, as ever, the soul of patriotic dignity."

Thank you edutcher.

rhhardin said...

Find "To Anacreon in Heaven," the star spangled banner original drinking song, with google.

edutcher said...

You got it.