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New England Song Series No. 6:
"Father And I Went Down To Camp""-
The Boston Yankee Doodle Ballad
by Roger L. Hall
The tune now known as 'Yankee Doodle"
is shrouded in mystery how it was written.It has been claimed by many places at various times,
including such countries as England and Holland.
But the author of the words as the song relates to
Boston history during the time of
the American Revolution has been identified.
The Boston Ballad
First verse with Chorus
Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,
And there we see the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.Chorus:
Yankey doodle keep it up,
Yankey doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
These opening words are the beginning of one ofthe earliest known versions written during the American Revolution.
The song known as "Yankee Doodle" has been shrouded in legends for
several centuries and it is difficult to determine which versions are authentic.
Perhaps the most common legend is that a British Dr. Richard Shuckburghwrote a ballad text to the "Yankee Doodle" tune to poke fun at
New Englanders who served0 in the French and Indian War in CanadaHe was not very kind to the New Englanders
when he wrote words like this:
With his commission he had got,
He proved an errand coward,
He dared not go to Cape Breton,
For fear he'd be devoured.
Obviously verses like that didn't please the New Englanders or "Yankees"as they were called. Part of the legend is that Shuckburgh wrote his mocking
ballad in 1755 while a guest at the Van Rensselaer brick manor also
known as Fort Crailo, near Albany, New York.
As mentioned in David Hackett Fischer's extensive discussion on
"Yankee Doodle" in Liberty and Freedom, there are conflicting documents that
support this claim though he assumes that Dr. Shuckburgh wrote it.
But which version of the ballad did he write?
Are there any documents that can prove that "Yankee Doodle"
was written down?
Yes, there are several.
One of these documents is sheet music published in London,
titled:
"YANKEE DOODLE, or
(as now christened by the Saints of New England), THE LEXINGTON MARCH."This is undated but must have been printed after
the battles at Lexington and Concord in 1775. This version was meant to
ridicule the "Yankees" and the words are raw and humiliating.
Here is the first verse:Brother Ephraim sold his Cow and bought him a Commission,
And then he went to Canada to Fight for the Nation;
But when Ephraim he came home he proved an arrant Coward,
He wouldn't fight the Frenchmen there for fear of being devour 'd.
But the most important document is a broadside sheet probably printed
in or near Boston with fifteen verses.
In his fascinating though flawed book,
America's Song: The Story of 'Yankee Doodle,' Stuart Murray mistakenly claims
this Boston version of "Yankee Doodle" as being written by Dr. Shuckburgh.
That is incorrect. This Boston ballad has this heading:
The Farmer and his Son's
return from a visit to the CAMPIn her excellent book, Music for Patriots, Politicians and Presidents (1975),
Vera Brodsky Lawrence wrote this about the ballad:
Attributed to Edward Bangs. a sophomore at Harvard who had
served at Lexington as a minuteman, these words --with slight
variations -- were often reprinted during the later eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries.The broadside, probably dating from 1775 or 1776,
is the earliest known printing of this version.
Here are five of the fifteen verses of this ballad:
Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,
And there we see the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.Chorus:
Yankey doodle keep it up,
Yankey doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.And there we see a thousand men,
As rich as 'squire David,
And what they wasted every day,
I wish it had been saved.Chorus:
Yankee doodle etc.And there was Captain Washington
[that was a local officer not George Washington]
And gentle folks about him,
They say he's grown so tarnal proud,
He will not ride without them.Chorus:
Yankee doodle etc.And there we see a swamping gun,
Large as a log of maple,
Upon a deucid little cart,
A load for father's cattle.Chorus:
Yankee doodle etc.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:
Yankee doodle etc.
macaroni.
According to James J. Fuld's The Book of World Famous Music, the earliest
known printing of the best known words to "Yankee Doodle" relating to
"pony," "feather in his cap," and "macaroni"
are in James Orchard Halliwell's,
The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1842).
So that is NOT the original text.
Fuld also wrote:
Most of the authorities now conclude that the song is American in origin.
The tune for "Yankey (or Yankee) Doodle" was known in America
from the 1760s onward.
But it wasn't until the Edward Bangs version from 1775-76 that this most
famous of early American songs became well known.
By the mid-19th century, this ballad was printed
in Father Kemp's Old Folks Concert Tunes as
"Yankee's Return From Camp (Yankee Doodle Dandy)"
and the chorus was slightly different:
Yankee doodle keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy,
Beneath the fig tree and the vine,
Sing Yankee doodle dandy.Though it may not be the best known
version today, the Boston Yankee Doodle ballad, attributed to Edward Bangs,
was the best known version during the American Revolution.And the chorus ends with these suggestive lines:
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.Edward Bangs (1758-1818), as a young sophomore at Harvard College,
was having some fun as a frisky young lad presumably "handy"
or wishing he was that way with the girls.
One day, he wrote a simple ballad about a
farmer and his son as they "went down to camp" which was printed ona broadside sheet and distributed around the Boston area and elsewhere.
Now Edward Bangs and his ballad are part of American musical history.
-- Roger L. Hall, Music Preservationist
Director, Center for American Music Preservation (CAMP)
The Recordings
"Yankee Doodle" as arranged by William Arms Fisher in the collection,
THE MUSIC THAT WASHINGTON KNEW,was performed
by The Old Stoughton Musical Society Chorus -America's oldest choral society
founded in 1786That recording is on
this special 250th anniversary release...
American Patriotic Song Quartet
1. THE LIBERTY SONG -
John Dickinson ,17682. The New MASSACHUSETTS Liberty Song -
Dr. Joseph Warren,17703. FATHER AND I
WENT DOWN TO CAMP
(Yankee Doodle) -
Edward Bangs, ca. 17764. CHESTER
William Billings, 1778
New words by
Philip Doddridge, 1786
"Father and I
went down to Camp"
is also available
on this recording:
"The Star-Spangled Banner"
Early Songs of Protest and Patriotism
(AMRC 0045)
The References
Help support the educational mission of the
Center for American Music Preservation
Order audio titles on this highly praised CD
of very enjoyable piano music
and it opens with a keyboard arrangement of
"Yankee Doodle" by Benjamin Carr
To read about this limited edition CD, click this picture
See also the music collections available at the
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