Yankee Doodle

     As you have probably read by now, "Yankee Doodle" was a song that was sung when Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown. Have you ever wondered where that song originated or what it means? Here is a little back story on the song:

     The earliest words came form a a Middle Dutch harvest song possibly dating back as far as the 15th century. It contained mostly non-sensical words in English and in Dutch.
     The term Doodle first appeared during the 17th century and was derived from German meaning "playing music badly".  The Macaroni wig was in high fashion during the 17th century, and Dandies were men who took great pride in their appearance. A Dandy was usually a  British middle class  man who impersonated an aristocratic lifestyle.  They wore silk clothing, stuck feathers in their hats, and wore two pocket watches attached to their vest with a chain. It was the era of "dandyism" in London.
     In British conversation, a "Yankee Doodle Dandy" implied an unsophisticated misappropriation of high fashion, as though placing a feather in one's hat could make them noble.
     Tradition believes the song to be pre-Revolutionary War, sung by British military to poke fun at the "Yankees" who served during the French and Indian War. They mocked the Yankees attempt to appear to be higher class then they were by sticking a feather in their hat, as if it elevated their social status. By 1781, Yankee Doodle went from being an insult to being a song of national pride.
     There have been many versions of the song since it was first introduced. Different words have been put to the tune of Yankee Doodle and different meanings understood from it. It has been sung in schools around the nation and held with great fondness. Here is the entire Yankee Doodle song:

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.

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 we saw a thousand men

As rich as Squire David,

And what they wasted every day,

I wish it could be savèd.

[Chorus]

The 'lasses they eat every day,

Would keep a house a winter;

They have so much, that I'll be bound,

They eat it when they've a mind to.

[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 underpinning;

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 basin,

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]