Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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476
OUR FAMILIAR SONGS.
See the Loco's standard tottering, tottering tottering,
Down it must go, And in its place we'll rear the flag,
Of Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc.
The Bay State boys turned out in thousands, thousands, thousands,
Not long ago, And at Bunker Hill, they set their seals
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc.
Now you hear the Vanjacks talking, talking, talking, Things look quite blue, For all the world seems turning round For Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc.
Let them talk about hard cider, cider, cider,
And Log Cabins too, It will only help to speed the ball,
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc.
His latchstring hangs outside the door, door, door,
And is never pulled in, For it always was the custom of
Old Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc.
He always has his table set, set, set,
For all honest and true, To ask you in to take a bite,
With Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc.
See the spoilsmen and leg treasurers, treasurers,, treasurers,
All in a stew, For well they know they stand no chance
With Tippecanoe and Tyler too, etc.
Little Matty's days are numbered, numbered, numbered,
And out he must go, For in his place we'll put the good
Old Tippecanoe and Tyler too,
JOHN BROWN'S BODY.
I have been able to obtain but meagre information about the famous refrain which became the marching song of the nation. The stern, almost religious enthusiasm of the words blended with the stirring tread of the music, and suited *well the spirit in which Patriotism went forth to meet its foes. The words, except the first stanza, were written by Charles S. Hall, of Charlestown, Mass. Thane Miller, of Cincinnati, heard the melody in a colored Presbyterian church in Charleston, S. C, about 1859, and soon after introduced it at a convention of the Y. M. C. A. in Albany N. Y., with the words,
" Say, brothers, will you meet us? "
James E. Greenleaf, organist of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, found the music in the archives of that church, and fitted to it the first stanza of the present song. This became so great a favorite with the Glee Club of the Boston Light Infantry, in 1861, that they asked Mr. Hall to write additional stanzas. The Pall Mall Gazette of October 14, 1865, said: "The street boys of London have decided in favor of 'John Brown's Body,' against 'My Maryland,' and 'The Bonnie Blue Flag.' The somewhat lugubrious refrain has excited their admiration to a wonderful degree, and threatens to extinguish that hard-worked, exquisite effort of modern minstrelsy, 'Slap Bang.'"
By special permission of Messrs. Oliver Ditson & Co.