Yankee Doodle Dandy has GOT to be one of the worse songs ever written.
I am as patriotic as the next guy. Well, unless the next guy is from the Michigan Militia, which used to meet regularly at a restaurant a quarter mile from my house. Scary. You always knew it was “meeting night†when there was a bunch of “NRA 4 Life!†and “My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student†bumper stickers on the rear window and tailgates of a bunch of rusty Chevy pickup trucks in the parking lot.
Yankee has been slang for someone born in the northern part of the United States since the civil war. It was always meant to be derogatory, not a badge of honor.
Doodle is to draw aimlessly or absentmindedly. It is not used in any other connotation as far as I know? That is not true; I used to use it when potty training my oldest daughter. “Did you make a doodle? Good girl!†I also used “Piddle†which I learned from my Grandmother. Strange how I just remembered that…
Dandy means very good, excellent, or first rate. It also has the meaning of “A man who is much concerned about his elegant appearance.†When I was a kid, if someone called you a “Dandy†there would be a fight.
I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy (An American from the North who dresses up and draws a lot)
A Yankee Doodle, do or die. (I would rather die than be denied the ability to doodle and dress up nice and pretty.)
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam (How can you be OF your Uncle Sam? That would make him Father Sam, correct?)
Born on the Fourth of July (In a SHOWER of fireworks! Yeah!)
I’ve got a Yankee Doodle sweetheart (An American from the North who also likes to doodle)
She’s my Yankee Doodle joy (I have my way with her. Or is the word HER simply a euphemism?)
Yankee Doodle came to London (On a cruise ship!)
Just to ride the ponies (Who the heck would go all the way to London JUST to ride a Pony?)
I am the Yankee Doodle Boy (The boy who draws a lot and dresses up.)
Written by George M. Cohan for the play “Yankee Doodle Dandyâ€, Cohan was America’s first superstar, so says Musicals101.com. So how did this song, a horrible song by any standard, somehow become a patriotic song? One sung by Children in school? I remember singing this is the second or third grade, and thought it was horrible even then.
The only person I can honestly see singing this song, and feeling that they really are being 100% patriotic, is Richard Simmons. That is not meant in a derogatory manner, either. I think Richard Simmons is hugely entertaining and funny, and is a master at “getting†it when being laughed at. He is a really swell guy. Very few people would open themselves up to the sort of ridicule he endures on the talk shows, and can still walk away as a class act.
I say enough is enough, America! Let’s do away with the LAME patriotic songs and get some new ones that reflect our world today. Here are some prime song titles to choose from. You make up the words:
We Will, We Will, Bomb You!
Takin’ Care of Daddies Unfinished Business.
You Say al Qaeda, I say I-raqie
My Country ‘Tis of Deficit
America the Jobless
Your Land is Our Land
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