The ironic history of America’s first protest song
Protest music is a proud American tradition. From defiant Revolutionary War anthems to a number of Civil War standards and even modern classics by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, protest music is deeply entrenched in not only American popular music history by the very DNA of American history itself.
It’s ironic, then, that perhaps the first American protest song was actually born out of American mockery. ‘Yankee Doodle’ had its origins in a number of different folk melodies found across different cultures. It wasn’t unique to the British when they began to form the more familiar and standardised versions of the song in the mid-1700s, but it was this version that caught on across the pond around the same time.
First off, a lesson in etymology. The familiar first verse of ‘The Yankee Doodle Dandy’ goes, “Yankee Doodle went to town / Riding on a pony / He stuck a feather in his cap / and called it macaroni”. This might pass for some solid absurdism these days, but the “macaroni” referenced in the song doesn’t refer to the pasta of the same name. Instead, macaroni was a common type of wig used by those who were trying too hard to appear elite.
Thus, the first line of ‘Yankee Doodle’ needs a bit of a modern translation. In its most basic form, it refers to a fool who tries to make a feathered cap a highfalutin wig, one that wasn’t even fashionable to begin with. It was this interpretation that was popularised by the Brits to mock others. Soon, the song’s sights were turned on Americans, or “Yankees”.
During the pre-Revolutionary French and Indian War, the song became a popular way for British soldiers to mock their American counterparts. But what the British didn’t count on was Americans taking the derisive “Yankee” insult and turning it into a point of pride. It wasn’t long before the term “Yankee” was embraced by American soldiers and supporters of American independence, and thus, ‘Yankee Doodle’ started to take on a new meaning.
As the Revolutionary War raged, new versions of ‘Yankee Doodle’ continued to be penned, sung, and written down. New verses containing symbols of American pride began to emerge, with several variations venerating the Commander of the Continental Army and future first President of the United States, George Washington. From there, the song became a point of American pride, turning its original intention on itself and becoming a minor national anthem.
By the turn of the 20th century, ‘Yankee Doodle’ had become solidified as a song of American pride. James Cagney’s 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy, focused on the work of Broadway actor and composer George M. Cohan, featured extensive American imagery and became one of the more notable examples of the song permeating pop culture.
Check out ‘Yankee Doodle’ down below.
