Lycée George-Sand La Châtre

YANKEE DOODLE

Yankee Doodle is a song which was created during the Independence War of America. At the beginning, it song was sung by the British soldiers ( called “redcoats” or “lobsterbacks” because they wore red uniform vests) , to mock the patriots : back then, the British wanted the Americans to give up on their ideas of revolution, and "Yankee Doodle" was the warning. This song was used later for the hymn of Connecticut (a northwestern state ). Doodle is a synomym of « fool ».

Yankee Doodle went to town

Riding on a pony 

He stuck a feather in his hat,

And called it macaroni

Chorus :

Yankee Doodle keep it up,

Yankee Doodle dandy,

Mind the music and the step,

And with the girls be handy.

There are several versions of this text, some created by the British and some by the patriots but the most famous one is the “full version”. Today, there are lots of parodies of this song.

Thereare severalversions ofthistext, somecreatedbytheBritishand somebythepatriotsbut themostfamousoneisthe“full version”. Today, there are lots of parodies of this song.

A macaroni, in mid-18th century in England was a term for a dandy, a fellow who dressed and even spoke with exaggerated high-fashion mannerism. The main aim of this revolution song is to laugh at the macaroni’s fashion.

This poster stands for the brand “Yankee Doodle” - as showed by the logo - and represents a kind of “yankee doodle” march. At the center of the picture, we can see soldiers playing drums and flute. At the bottom we can see the mention “Highgrove Fruit ”.

This painting has a patriotic connotation : it reminds us of the famous painting “The spirit of ’76’, painted by A.M. Willard in 1875, at the occasion of the centenial of 1776 :

 A.M.Willard is a veteran of the American Civil War. He painted several scenes of the war. (This painting is also referred to in a scene of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Slaughterhouse Five” where the protagonist Billy Pilgrim walks through a camp of prisoners near Dresden.)

The musicians are injured, they wear bandages. We can see three people : the one on the left is a child, the one of the middle is an old man, the one on the right is a middle-aged man. This shows that each American is involved in this war, no matter his age.

This stamp gives an “image” of America : the Yankee Doodle Dandy is the way Americans want to be seen by the others countries.

This stamp seems to have been inspired by the film “Yankee Doodle Dandy”- in which George M. Cohan is the main character – which also helps to convey the image of the Yankee Doodle Dandy.