Yankee Doodle...

[Shma]

www.joe-offer.com/folkinfo/songs/208.html

There was a discussion in this thread about issues with tenuto symbols in ABC. We concluded that the best approach was to simply the ABC. For anyone who wants the ABC we were discussing, it is included below:

X:1
T:Yankee Doodle
F:/songs
B:Agay, Denes, Best Loved Songs of the American People, 1975, Doubleday
M:2/4
L:1/16
K:G
(D2 |.{EF}G2).G2.A2.B2 |.G2.B2.A2.D2 |.{EF}G2.G2.A2.B2 | (G4 .F2)
w: *Fath'r and I went down to camp, A-long with Cap-tain Good-in',
.D2 |.{EF}G2.G2.A2.B2 |.c2.B2.A2.G2 |.E2.D2.E2.F2 | !tenuto!G4 .G2 z2 |
w: And there we saw the men and boys as thick as has-ty pud-din'
([E3C3]F.E2).D2 | .[E2C2].F2 !tenuto![G4E4] |(D3E.D2).C2 | (B,2C2) .[D2B,2] z2 |
w: Yan-kee Doo-dle keep it up, Yan-kee Doo-dle Dan-*dy,
([E3C3]F.E2).D2 |.[E2C2].F2.G2.E2 |.D2.G2.F2.A2 | !tenuto!G4 .G2 z2 |]
w:Mind the mu-sic and the step And with the girls be han-dy

Fath?r and I went down to camp
Along with Captain Goodin?,
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thick as hasty puddin?.

Chorus:

Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle Dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

And there we saw a thousand men,
As rich as Squire David;
And what they wasted ev?ry day,
I wish it could be saved.

And there was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
A-giving orders to his men;
I guess there was a million.

And then the feathers on his hat,
They looked so ?tarnal fine, ah!
I wanted peskily to get
To give to my Jemima.

And there I saw a little keg,
Its heads were made of leather,
They knocked upon?t with little sticks,
To call the folks together.

And there they?d fife away like fun,
And play on cornstalk fiddles,
And some had ribbons red as blood,
All bound about their middles.

The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in our faces;
It scared me almost half to death
To see them run such races.

Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some onions,
For ?lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.

But I can?t tell half I see,
They kept up such a smother;
So I took my hat off, made a bow,
And scampered home to mother.

Source: Agay, Denes, Best Loved Songs of the American People, 1975, Doubleday

Notes:

Agay includes another popular version:

Oh, Yankee Doodle went to town,
A riding on a pony
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni.

Yankee Doodle, doodle doo,
Yankee Doodle Dandy,
All the lads and lassies are
As sweet as sugar candy.


www.joe-offer.com/folkinfo/
This is a copy of the folkinfo.org forum and database, which closed in December 2012.
Thanks to all who contributed their knowledge and hard work to folkinfo.org over the years.

www.joe-offer.com/wordpress1/
Hello world!
Posted on August 3, 2012
1

Please be patient until I figure out what I want to do with this Website. For now, it’s mostly a storage facility for music information for users of the Mudcat Cafe, www.mudcat.org.

I’m hosting an archive copy of Jon Freeman’s folkinfo.org Website. You’ll find the archive at www.joe-offer.com/folkinfo/

I hope you enjoy my Website.

-Joe Offer-


www.breizh-partitions.fr/partition/428_Yankee_D...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle
www.vintageglorycards.com/Glorious_fourth.htm

100film.tumblr.com/post/18863920427/98-yankee-d...



I feel a lot better having now seen a James Cagney film.

What’s it All About?

The underlying emotion/message that I got from this film was that ‘the love of your family is greater than any applause.’ The opening scene (of the life story) shows Mr. Cohan ditching his stage bow/applause to rush to his wife’s side after the birth of George. This is a lesson that George spends his entire life learning. This idea is visualized primarily through the relationship George has with his father, and the struggle George faces to be like him (and put family/humility first).

Story Structure

Act 1 (George is too immature/cocky for his family’s own good)
●George (G) upstages family, Father (F) wants to punish him.
●G ruins opportunity to make it big, F punishes him.
●(Ten years later) Family a success, F throws ‘thank yous’ to G, G proves he’s not ready by ruining opportunity again.
●No one can work, 4 Cohans part ways.

Act 2 (George struggles to succeed on his own)
●G gets luck with success of Yankee Doodle Dandy, F jealous?
●G gets 4 Cohan’s back together, needs them to continue success.
●Fay Templeton gives G a taste of his own ego, G must work hard to impress.
●Eddie Foy shows a change in G’s character, Foy is the old G.
●Success with George Washington Jr., but is G a Yankee gimmick?
●Family retires, no more 4 Cohan’s, G goes 50/50 business with F.
●G seems to respect F, but still doesn’t grasp F’s humility.
●At lowest point, G wants to shed his family/Yankee persona and write a drama, but fails (even F thinks it’s bad).
●War!

Act 3 (George becomes/embraces his father)
●G now understands his Yankee persona is just a part of him as his family, F taught him how to wave that flag; he embraces this, writes “Over There!”
●G owns Broadway with confidence over the years.
●F on death bed, G shows his full character change by respectfully saying the ‘thank yous’ to F, understands family is greater than ego.
●Retires to farm life, scene with passing by youths, G is humble about youths not knowing who he is.
●Takes last job for the people he loves, not for the applause.
●Humbled by medal from FDR, delivers ‘thank yous’ in honor of his father.
●Last scene, G does not mention he wrote the song being praised.

Make ‘Em Laugh

I absolutely loved the scene when Mary is introduced into the story in George’s dressing room. Sometimes we need a reminder that a film is to be entertaining, and this scene was just that. Mary could have simply walked into the dressing room and her and George could have proceeded to fall in love, but having George in full old man makeup, and Mary oblivious, was fantastic.

This scenario played out well and built our anticipations as to how Mary was going to discover the real George (she was the leading lady, so we knew they’d fall in love). Plus, there was some nice performance stuff coming from James Cagney as an old man dancing with the pizazz of a twenty year old. It also played out as a great ‘how we met’ story and George and Mary referenced the old man bit throughout the film. Overall just a nice piece of business for what could have been a bland seen.

I recently heard Andrew Stanton quote William Archer as saying, “Drama is anticipation mixed with uncertainty.” We are anticipating Mary finding out it’s George under that make-up, but will she? And how so?

Character - What You Do When No One Is Watching

I mentioned this idea in my thoughts on Toy Story, and the same applies here. How do you show that George has completely embraced his father? Have him say the ‘thank yous’ to FDR. That’s what makes that moment so powerful; George is not trying to impress or perform (!) for anyone, he is speaking/acting from the heart. It’s a great way to visualize the change in his character (from a child who directly opposes what his father stands for). It’s one thing to say it to his father, but to embrace his humility after his death is what makes us believe George has changed.

Character - The Monster in the Mirror

A man facing his ego is a tough visual to sell. How do you have a man deal with his own ego when his ignorance is half the problem? The way this was dealt with was having George square off with Fay Templeton. When Fay and George’s egos collide, George must rely on his skill to continue his success. Thus the whole business with George writing her a new number during the first act of her show. When George puts his ego down, he can do remarkable things.

Shortly after visiting Fay, George comes into contact with Eddie Foy, who kind of portrays a caricatured version of George’s previous self. Eddie is used to visualize what George once was, and contrast with what George is becoming.
#Character
#Make 'Em Laugh
#Story
#Structure
#Yankee Doodle Dandy
#Michael Curtiz