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

[movingfinger]

This might be available through ILL.

[the_rck]

Does "The Battle of New Orleans" count? That's still pretty widely performed.

[kore]

Oh wow, I hadn't thought of the Battle song in a long time -- my dad used to sing it (he knew all the lyrics to every song about up til maybe 1961, I am not even kidding. We called him the jukebox). I think he knew the Johnny Horton version, though.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The odd thing is we Brits have forgotten about it too. You'd think we'd make a big fuss about burning the White House, but we don't. I guess we were so caught up in the Napoleonic Wars that we never paid much mind to that little dust up across the Atlantic. There are, of course, endless songs about Nelson and Napoleon (the British common folk loved Napoleon) and the field of Waterloo.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

"The White House Burned" actually adapts some lyrics from an earlier song, "The Battle of New Orleans":

http://www.louisiana101.com/battle.html

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

This got buried in one of the tangent emails, but I found a Smithsonian collection that might be of interest here.</>

[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.

[dvulis.livejournal.com]

Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie (they're actually Canadian) have this cool song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7jlFZhprU4

[ookpik.livejournal.com]

More Tanglefoot: "The Commodore's Compliments." And is "Fire and Guns" the War of 1812 or the Revolutionary War?

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Chaz was unaware that England had any part of the War of 1812. It's not mentioned at all in British schools. I don't remember much about it from my US school, except that it was mentioned. So I wouldn't be surprised at a lack of songs.