So join right in and gloat about the War of 1812

[sovay]

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.

Comments

[sovay]

Did yours also sing Working on the Railroad?

My mother did. My father sang "Hobo's Lullaby" and a song I know only as "Bed is too soft for my tiredness."

Bed is too

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I learned it (and sang it) as "Bed is too *small* for my tiredness." When my daughter was little, she referred to it as "The Chin song."

Wasn't there a top 40 version of the Battle of New Orleans? I certainly remember hearing it on the radio.

Hit song

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Johnny Horton's version of The Battle was a Billboard #1 hit in 1959, according to the Wikipedia.

Re: Bed is too

[sovay]

I learned it (and sang it) as "Bed is too *small* for my tiredness." When my daughter was little, she referred to it as "The Chin song."

Do you have any idea of its origins? I have only heard my father sing it.

Re: Bed is too

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

My automatic assumption was that it was a Girl Scout song, because many songs in my childhood were. My mother was a professional GS worker for a while (trained leaders, dealt with bureaucracy) and loved many of the campfire songs. This seems to be confirmed by a quick Duckduckgo search (I tend not to use google) in which "bed is too small" autocompleted to "for my tiredness" first. Some of the hits were Scout or Guide references. That doesn't explain your father. My husband was a Boy Scout, but learned it from me as an adult.