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So join right in and gloat about the War of 1812
Does the U.S. have any songs of the War of 1812? The national anthem doesn't count. I have trouble imagining they weren't written, but I realized a few days ago that the only ones I know are Canadian: Stan Rogers' "MacDonnell on the Heights," Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie's "The White House Burned (The War of 1812)," and now Tanglefoot's "Secord's Warning." Am I just seeing the difference in the war's importance between countries? Was the whole engagement so nationally embarrassing that even the American folk tradition tried to forget about it? In the course of writing this post I remembered "The Hunters of Kentucky," but I believe it owes its prominence to Andrew Jackson using it as a campaign song and I still can't think of anything more recent.1 Is there a very simple explanation I'm missing because I tapped out of formally taught American history at the end of eighth grade?
[edit] I have been reminded of the existence of Jimmy Driftwood's "The Battle of New Orleans," which I encountered as a child, but had forgotten about completely.
1. And in fact I learned it from the curtain call of Michael Friedman and Alex Timbers' Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2010), a musical I cannot honestly recommend listening to right now. Some of the lyrics of "Populism, Yea, Yea!" are a little too on point.
[edit] I have been reminded of the existence of Jimmy Driftwood's "The Battle of New Orleans," which I encountered as a child, but had forgotten about completely.
1. And in fact I learned it from the curtain call of Michael Friedman and Alex Timbers' Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2010), a musical I cannot honestly recommend listening to right now. Some of the lyrics of "Populism, Yea, Yea!" are a little too on point.
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That makes sense to me. Although then I don't know why I don't know it when I can sing the theme song of Disney's Davy Crockett.
Incidentally, further research suggests that Jimmy Driftwood actually adapted the tune from an old fiddle melody known as "The 8th of January" or "Jackson's Victory". So there may have been songs made up at the time, but they definitely named a tune in honor of it!
That's cool!
[edit] I hadn't realized that Driftwood wrote "He Had a Long Chain On," recorded most famously and effectively by Odetta. I might have to research him.
[edit edit] Major force in American folk music and preservation of folkways. That's pretty cool.