As another birthday of our nation approaches people are planning their celebration of the founding of this great nation. At almost any organized event you're likely to hear the song Yankee Doodle Dandy. Many people seem to think the origin the song was the George M. Cohan musical but it goes back much further.
The first version of “Yankee Doodle” seems to have been written by a British army physician in the French Indian War. It poked fun at the colonist. Later several versions were written by colonists, meant to be more funny than patriotic. However, the version we sing today was a British song. During the war it became a marching song used by both the British and colonists.
Few colonist gave any thought to what a Yankee Doodle Dandy might be. The real meaning of the song is an insult. It's not just any insult, either. With “Yankee Doodle,” the Redcoats were delivering the most puerile, schoolyard insult in the schoolyard insult book. They were suggesting that American soldiers were gay. A dandy was vain and shallow person who dressed like a doll, often a mommy’s boy, a ninny, a very effeminate fellow.
That Diss Song Known as ‘Yankee Doodle’
The first version of “Yankee Doodle” seems to have been written by a British army physician in the French Indian War. It poked fun at the colonist. Later several versions were written by colonists, meant to be more funny than patriotic. However, the version we sing today was a British song. During the war it became a marching song used by both the British and colonists.
Few colonist gave any thought to what a Yankee Doodle Dandy might be. The real meaning of the song is an insult. It's not just any insult, either. With “Yankee Doodle,” the Redcoats were delivering the most puerile, schoolyard insult in the schoolyard insult book. They were suggesting that American soldiers were gay. A dandy was vain and shallow person who dressed like a doll, often a mommy’s boy, a ninny, a very effeminate fellow.
That Diss Song Known as ‘Yankee Doodle’