The Overdone Songs of the Civil War

[PvtRJBrown]

Ok now,
What are the songs you've heard in the hobby that you're begining to think are the most over played/sung songs? I can for fact state that almost every patriotic song (i.e. Battle Cry of Freedom, Dixie, etc.) are among those songs.

[lukegilly13]

I would have to with "Buffalo Gals", it being outplayed only by the forementioned with "Bonnie Blue Flag" near behind.

[Pat.Lewis]

ANYTHING Irish. Seriously, guys, the Irish were a despised minority in 1860s America. Young soldiers on both sides growing up in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant craze of the 1850s would not have stood for the singing of nor would they have known Irish tunes. We might like them today because all things Irish are (for some reason) popular, but singing them as "native" Americans is just historically incorrect.

[brown]

While Patrick "the Skillet Thief" O'Lewis might be historically accurate, I believe his comments smell of an anti-Irish cultural insensitivity. Am I the only one that thinks Don Imus may be posting under another name?

These were citizen soldiers, so where are the popular songs of the era of the late 1850s? Just because, like traditional Irish songs, it may predate 1865, doesn’t make it a song the men would have known or enjoyed.

[Danny]

ANYTHING Irish. Seriously, guys, the Irish were a despised minority in 1860s America. Young soldiers on both sides growing up in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant craze of the 1850s would not have stood for the singing of nor would they have known Irish tunes...

Pat -

You get the buzzer on this one. At the time, regardless of what people thought of the Irish minority, they loved their songs and their songwriters. Keep in mind 'negroes' were also a despised minority, yet the hugely popular music of the antebellum and CW times was Minstrel stage music - which people were led to believe came mostly from negroes. Irony is that a lot of the claimed 'plantation' tunes were derived from Irish traditionals, jigs in particular. Minstrels mocked 'Paddy', 'Dutchmen', and 'negroes' but sure loved their songs.

So, quite the opposite: Young soldiers on both sides growing up in the 1850s would have stood for the singing of, and they would have known, Irish tunes.

At any rate, documented.

My vote for most oversung: Goober Peas. And, unbelievably, how many times have you heard 'Ashokan Farwell' (totally not period) violin strains drifting from the camp at night? at least from the mainstream side of camp.

Dan Wykes

[AZReenactor]

Specific Songs would be Good Ol' Rebel (the tune is just fine for Joe Bowers though) and Marching through Georgia. I very much like music that is appropriate for the time and place being depicted. Genre's would be Irish and Nautical songs. Fine in the appropriate places but I just don't generally see all that many sea faring Micks in the army during the war. (The worse part is the phony, poorly done Irish accents people attempt.)

I'm of the opinion that there is rarely enough music and would love to hear more of it at events, especially those non-martial civilian favorites from my (1st person) youth.

[Annette Bethke]

Gobber Peas. Everytime I hear that song it sticks in my head for weeks.

[Danny]

- - - - - - - - - - - -

[Danny]

Gobber Peas. Everytime I hear that song it sticks in my head for weeks.

Annette - the peas or the song? :)

Dan Wykes

[Annette Bethke]

Heehee :). Probably the peas...

[idlewild]

Gobber Peas. Everytime I hear that song it sticks in my head for weeks.I hear ya on that one. I heard it last weekend and I've been humming it since... it's a catchy tune no doubt but it gets old after awhile!

[Old Cremona]

ANYTHING Irish. Seriously, guys, the Irish were a despised minority in 1860s America. Young soldiers on both sides growing up in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant craze of the 1850s would not have stood for the singing of nor would they have known Irish tunes. We might like them today because all things Irish are (for some reason) popular, but singing them as "native" Americans is just historically incorrect.

I dunno, man...African-Americans were also a "despised minority," but music ostensibly by or about them was quite popular. Of course they didn't really write the tunes and they weren't at all an accurate depiction of their culture, but minstrel music was a vital part of period culture.

"Irish" music is certainly well represented in sheet music of the time, of course not really written by Irish people or accurately representing their culture, unless you believe all Irish people and their descendants are all mere drunken brawlers. Stereotypes were "in" and people liked to sing about them.

[33rdaladrummer]

Hell on the Wabash

[fedcampaigner]

One song that is over played...or maybe just bugs me is Just Before the Battle Mother. Just my two cents. Take it for what its worth.

[Shantyman]

In the fife and drum world...anything Army 6/8

[lambrew]

"When Johnnie comes marching home". No one seems to know the lyrics other rhan the first verse. But I have to admit that when the whole company whistles it, and gets the whole "Bridge of river Kwai" thing going it sounds kinda cool. And just like "Marching through Georgia" the tune is often sung/played out of the proper time frame. Johnnie wasn't written until after the battle of Gettysburg if I remember right.

Respectfully....
Sean Collicott

[Pat.Lewis]

"Irish" music is certainly well represented in sheet music of the time, of course not really written by Irish people or accurately representing their culture, unless you believe all Irish people and their descendants are all mere drunken brawlers. Stereotypes were "in" and people liked to sing about them.

Excellent point. The minstrel stage was not a place to glorify or heroize, it was a place for mockery, and social regulation through "othering" minorities of all sorts. When so many in this hobby are quick to jump in defense of breaking the n-word taboo in first person "because it accurately represents the racism of the time," I think it only fitting and appropriate that we play fair with all stereotypes on the 1860s table, the Irish included. The problem is, the Irish have been normalized in the intervening century, have been brought fully into mainstream white American society, and there are today many who are justly proud of their heritage. But pride doesn't fit the impression of 186x. Unless you've got the (proper) accent to back up an Irish impression; fear, mistrust, and mockery are your proper responses to Irishness.

When and if you choose to sing Irish or minstrel-Irish music at an event, consider tunes that depict them in the "drunken brawler" role. If you are a "native" company, throw on the lucky charms accent and play up the stereotypes. For that matter, find out the political leanings of the men you are portraying. See if their home county had strong Know Nothing leanings in the 1850s. If they were Whig counties in the 1840s, North or South, you can bet they were. Discuss the Irish, if you find such, as political threats to America. The next time someone fires up the "Minstrel Boy" around the campfire, rail at them like a loyal native American. Bet you haven't gotten in that political debate around the campfire.

The point is, I'm not arguing against Irish or minstrel-Irish music being present during the war, I'm just arguing that it is often sung by reenactors without understanding or accurately representing the ethnic prejudice with which it was loaded in 1860s America. I would rather it not be sung at all if it is not sung with an eye to contextual accuracy.

[Old Cremona]

That's good stuff you wrote there, Pat me boy.:wink_smil It makes one pause for a second when considering all the fine points of a correct impression.

My buddy Dan Partner once said of minstrel banjo playing, "We're not delineators and cannot be. The Zeitgeist has moved so far as to be in a different galaxy."

Which is not to denigrate the excellent work of so many top-notch living historians that frequent this board. Just a thought about the shifting nature of societal strictures.

[Arch Campbell]

I agree wholeheartedly with the OP, but I would expand it to not just patriotic songs, but ANY song written DURING (and especially ABOUT) the War.
I was excited to see the anti-Irish discussion here. My mess (Hairy Nation) has been virulently anti-Irish (in first person) for fifteen years. It's always interesting when someone tries out their Darby O'Gill voice in our ranks. After being stunned by the unexpected nativist sentiment from the rest of the company, they usually trail off pretty quickly. When someone tries to strike up an Irish tune around our fire they are quickly shouted down. It is simply not tolerated.
(I should point out that neither I or my pards espouse these views in the real world. For me, first person just isn't enjoyable unless Arch is very different from me.)

[DonH]

Yes, most patriotic tunes, except for maybe Hail Columbia which I personally rarely hear. Bonnie Blue Flag is a tune I simply can not stand anymore after hearing it like 30 times in one day at a re-eactment a few years back. But some fife and drum tunes (that I might like) but are still overplayed at CW events: anything by Roy Watrous (a rather famous fifer who just passed away like 2 or so years ago), anything post-CW in fact (like Grandfather's Clock), and Green Cockade, Jaybird & Fireman's, Downfall of Paris, Hell on the wabash, and the list goes on... Don't get me wrong though, I do like the last three tunes I mentioned, but they're seriously played too much sometimes!

As for "Marching Through Georgia," I've often heard that the song was written to the older tune "The Bedbug and the Flea." I haven't seen any actual reference to this, perhaps one of you has...

[Johnny Lloyd]

Most annoying song:

"Goober Peas"

'Nuff said... Johnny Lloyd