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

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

I was coming here to recommend "The Constitution and the Guerriere" and found that ladymondegreen already covered that in her link. As well as "Perry on Lake Erie," and "James Bird," which are particular favorites of mine since they're about the Western Front, as it were -- the war of ships on the Great Lakes -- and I once served on the ship they both concern, the USS Niagara, currently "rebuilt" from a tiny fraction of the original wood, like the ship in philosophy. (I served for two and a half weeks, and sailed once, and learned almost zilch about sailing, but made some good friends.)

"Perry on Lake Erie" is a heroic praise song about Oliver Hazard Perry, who seems to have been nigh-self-destructively brave as well as having a great name.

"James Bird" is a heartbreaking ballad about the hanging of a war hero who then went home to see his family without leave from the US Navy and was done for desertion. It was written by a local newspaperman and it's got the force and immediacy of fresh reporting, and it's as strong an argument against capital punishment as I've ever heard.

Altogether, yes, I think the US is strong on War of 1812 songs only in areas like sea battles or The Battle Of New Orleans where we had a massive victory.

[sovay]

the war of ships on the Great Lakes -- and I once served on the ship they both concern, the USS Niagara, currently "rebuilt" from a tiny fraction of the original wood, like the ship in philosophy. (I served for two and a half weeks, and sailed once, and learned almost zilch about sailing, but made some good friends.)

That's extremely cool.

Altogether, yes, I think the US is strong on War of 1812 songs only in areas like sea battles or The Battle Of New Orleans where we had a massive victory.

Do you have copies of the three you name? "James Bird" sounds devastating.

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

George Ward, author of "Boatman's Cure," does a great version of "Perry" which he's slightly rewritten and merged with another song. It's on his "All Our Brave Tars," http://mulesong.net/index.html, and I don't have a version handy to send you just the one song, but let me look into that.

I don't know anybody who sings "James Bird" better than I do, so you might just ask me to sing it for you sometime.

(I made a recording called "Buckskin Heroes" years ago, focused on American Naval gazing songs, featuring "James Bird." It was a vanity press project that I was pressured into doing by someone else, and I never put time or energy into selling it, so I have cases of it sitting around my parents' house. I'll bring you a copy after the next time I visit them.)

"Constitution and Guerriere" is here, sung by a group I don't know, but whose Irish accents don't stop them from doing a convincingly chest-thumping job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N75v8e07Zu8 Contains the most desperate rhymes for "Brandy" imaginable. (I've heard it done to the tune of "The Bonny Lass of Fyvie," too, which I like even better.)