When I was just a young tyke, my grandfather would sometimes sit me in his lap and sing to me. He didn't have much of a voice, but I loved it when he did. One song he sang a few times went like this:
I
had a machine without horses,
That made noise
as it went down the road.
It always got stuck in the mud, sir.
And
couldn't take much of a load.
Unfortunately, I can't remember much more than that, but I learned a few years later that the tune was one of the most often parodied pieces of music in history...best known as Rosin the Beau. It has been sung for centuries in pubs and taverns throughout the English-speaking world, and probably in other languages as well. Often, tracing the origins of an obscure tune is much easier than one as popular as Rosin the Beau because of the many routes the latter has taken down multiple pathways. I have dated it to at least the 17th century as "The Gentle Maiden," and as "Rosin the Beau" to 1838.
The number of lyrics accumulated over the years can only be described as amazing, ranging from a song of murder and mayhem: "Down by the Willow Garden" to an endless variety of drinking songs. Probably because it was so easy to sing, many tasteless but humorous lyrics have also been created that can't be recounted here because this website is accessable to children.
It was a campaign song of William Henry Harrison in 1840:
A
bumper around now, my hearties,
I'll sing
you a song that is new;
I'll please to the buttons all parties
And
sing of Old Tippecanoe.
It ends with, "Bid Martin Van Buren Adeau." Harrison won.
Then there was "Harry the Honest and True:
Ye gallant
true Whigs of the army
That conquered for Tippecanoe,
Come
with us, and join now the standard.
Of Harry,
the honest and true.
Another version went:
Ye
Jolly young lads of Ohio,
And all ye sick Jackson
men too,
Come out from among the Van party,
And
vote for old Tippecanoe.
Yet another was:"Little Vanny:"
You can't make
a song for Van Buren,
Because his long name will
not do,
There's nothing about him alluring,
As
there is about Tippecanoe.
Henry Clay ran against James Polk in 1844 and had a few versions:
The "Pennsylvania Song" went like this:
Ye friends
of the Keystone awaken
And rally the Locos to
flight;
Tennesee Polk is forgotten -
They
cannot on Muhlie unite.
The most popular of the Clay renditions was "Acres of Clams:"
I've
travelled all over this country,
Prospecting
and digging for gold
I've tunneled, hydraulic'd and cradled,
And
often been frequently sold.
Clay lost.
Prior to Lincoln's presidential campaign in 1860, there was a popular abolitionist song that went:
Come
all you true friends of the nation,
Attend to
humanity's call-
Come aid in the slave's liberation
And
roll on the Liberty Ball!
This tune eventually evolved into "Lincoln and Liberty , Too."
During the Civil War, another version was created, entitled "Sherman's March to the Sea," with these lyrics:
Our camp-fires shone
bright on the mountains
That frowned on the
river below,
While we stood by our guns in the morning,
And
eagerly watched for the foe.
Born in New Hampshire, Horace Greeley was a writer and publisher who supported Ulysses S. Grant in his first campaign in 1868. He became disenchanted with the corruption of Grant's administration and decided to run against him in 1872 as a Democrat. The Grant campaign countered with another version of the tune:
Then
Greeley can go to the Dickens,
There is only
one thing that we know;
Too soon he has counted his chickens,
For
Ulysses S. Grant we will go!
Greeley lost.
In 1877, it was revived again as a Fenian song of an 1876 escape by Irish prisoners held in a British prison in Australia, "On Board the Bark, Catalpa." A whaling ship had been purchased and a captain was hired to sail to Australia to carry out the successful release of the prisoners, who were then transported back to the U.S.
Now boys, if you will listen,
A
story I'll relate.
I'll tell you of the noble men
Who
from their foe escaped.
Though bound with Saxon fetters
In
the dark Australian jail,
They struck a blow for freedom
And
for Yankeeland set sail.
It appears to be an ongoing process. I have heard busloads of children drive by me at Independence Hall with their happy voices singing the tune. I couldn't make out the words, but could easily recognize the melody. I would not be surprised to hear Britney or JenLo recording it some day. Rosin the Beau has a life of its own!