American Independence 2025

Photo: Simon Meeds

At last week's Dragon Folk Session Colin sprang a theme on us quite reasonably, but very last minute. Being 4th July we were invited to find songs with American (or should that be USAnian?) connections. This was done admirably by all. I believe American connections were found for every song sung, but don't look too closely at the playlist because some were very tenuous, maybe even treasonous, connections depending on which country you find yourself in.

There seemed to be something not quite right with the ladies' toilet, so there were occasional excursions made through our room during the evening. Almost without exception they weren't too disruptive, but even as I arrived one lady was sitting with Roger. On a later visit this same person, who Roger later assumed to be his groupie, approached him while he was singing and appeared to caress his head. Roger meanwhile impressively continued his performance without so much as a stutter until she left the room, at which point he could go on no more. He soon carried on from where he had left off.

Colin himself started us off with Yankee Doodle (* roud 4501). There are plenty of stories about the origin and meaning of this song.

The Macaroni wig ("called it macaroni") was an extreme fashion in the 1770s and became slang for being a fop. Dandies were men who placed particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisure hobbies. A self-made dandy was a British middle-class man who impersonated an aristocratic lifestyle. They notably wore silk strip cloth and stuck feathers in their hats. In British conversation, the term "Yankee doodle dandy" implied unsophisticated misappropriation of upper-class fashion, as though simply sticking a feather in one's cap would transform the wearer into a noble.

Roger stayed firmly on the appropriate side of the Atlantic with Banks of the Ohio (roud 157, laws F5).

Paul brought to mind the author of Innocent when you dream (Tom Waits) before Denny gave us Row on (roud 2084), the words of with were found in the logbook of the Nantucket Whaler "The Three Brothers" in 1846, written in memory of the crew members of the "Essex", sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. The crew of 20 were in rowing boats for 95 days. Eight survived.

Simon completed the first rotation with The night they drove old Dixie down (Robbie Robertson).

Roger introduced a number of new songs to the dragon database, the first being It never rains in Southern California (* Albert Hammond, Mike Hazlewood).

It's not a serious aim or competition, but we do maintain a record of the number of songs sung at a Dragon Folk Song session. On the face of it at 41 performances, this evening was doing well, but nothing remarkable. However, Roger put the cat among the pigeons by singing and playing two medleys. The first combined four songs and the second included six. This could be said, arguably, to bring the total for the evening to 49. There is however no need to bring out the umpires to make a special decision, because the current record stands at 50.

Roger's first medley incorporated: Blue moon of Kentucky (* Bill Monroe), Today's teardrops (* Gene Pitney, Aaron Schroeder), Oh boy (Sonny West, Bill Tilghman, Norman Petty), and Hello Mary Lou (* Gene Pitney, Cayet Mangiaracina).

On a roll, Roger's second medley combined Folsom prison blues (Johnny Cash), Freight train (Elizabeth Cotten), Last train to San Fernando (* Sylvester DeVere, Randolph Padmore, Mighty Dictator), Midnight special (roud 6364), Runaway train (roud 9859), and Six-five special (* Don Lang and His Frantic Five).

Colin finished the session with Keep your lamp trimmed and burning (roud 10433).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*).