this tech,at the lab where i work, plays this great song but niether of us know the name of the song or the singer, the chorus goes something like this “in the summer of 1814 we took a little trip down to jackson corner on the mighty “mississipp” (then some more stuff i can’t make out) we fired our rifles and we fired our cannons, and the british keppa coming but there wasn’t nie as many as there was awhile ago, then we chased them on down to the gulf of mexico” this isn’t exact but its pretty close. Does someone out there in e-land know the name of this song and who sang as well as when.
That’s The Ballad of the Battle of New Orleans by Jonny Horton.
The battle in the song was the one in January 1815 between a group led by Andrew Jackson and The British. Hiding behind bales of cotton, they routed Britain in one of the most one-sided battles in American History.
Funny thing is, the battle was not needed to be fought. The Americans and British three weeeks before signed a peace treaty in Europe. Because they didn’t have the internet then, they had a ship send a copy of the treaty to America. It was in mid-ocean when the battle was fought.
Legend (urban legend?) has it that BBC radio refused to play Johnny Horton’s “The Battle of New Orleans,” precisely because its lyrics made the British army out to be cowardly losers.
I forget the EXACT wording, but that used to be a fairly popular trivia question… “In 1959, what #1 hit on the BIllboard charts was banned by BBC radio?” (it may have been a different year, but you get the idea). People always figure it was “Louie Louie” or some such “obscene” song.
Johnny Horton. Hmmph.
Bonus points to anyone who can explain why, given my username, it was imperative that I post to this thread.
HINT: Who wrote the song in question?
Driftwood was a teacher who wrote the song to help his students learn of the battle.
How a Columbia A & R rep got hold of the song and introduced it to Horton is a mystery I’m waiting to hear.
The Black Watch fought there. I find it hard to believe that they lost.
Anyway, the Brits had a lot more to worry about than a minor thing like the USA during the Napoleonic Wars.
Johhny Horton also recorded another history song, called “Sink the Bismarck.”
I vaguely remember Sink The Bismarck…
I wonder if the Stones had recorded a song about the Brits burning Washington DC in the War of 1812 if it would have gotten much airplay here in the colonies.
I dunno, The Guess Who had a pretty big hit in the United States with a heavily anti-US song you might remember, called “American Woman”.
Is it a UL that they were asked for their green cards at a concert in the US after that?
Johnny Horton has done a lot of “historical” songs. he has one about the USS Maine, and a couple of others that I can’t remember right now. sigh, it’s been years since I listened to him, my father used to love him. I know he did stuff about all of the wars from the Revolution through WWII.