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10-13-2012, 08:55 PM,
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LincolnMan
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Posts: 5,433
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A Song from The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg's book The American Songbag is a wonderful collection of early American songs totaling 280 in the 1927 edition. Most of the songs contained therein are long forgotten by the public. Maybe Sandburg was aware that they were doomed to extinction if someone didn't "capture" them in his day. The following song is entitled: Lincoln And Liberty. It was sung to the tune of "Old Rosin Bow" for the campaign of 1860:
Lincoln And Liberty
Hurrah for the choice of the nation!
Our chieftain so brave and so true;
We'll go for the great reformation,
We'll go for the son of Kentucky,
The hero of Hoosierdom through;
The pride of the Suckers so lucky,
For Lincoln and Liberty too.
They'll find what by felling and mauling,
Our rail-maker stateman can do;
For the people are everywhere calling
For Lincoln and Liberty too.
Then up with our banner so glorious,
The star-spangled red, white, and blue,
We'll fight till our banner is victorious,
For Lincoln and Liberty too.
Bill Nash
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10-16-2012, 08:29 AM,
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LincolnMan
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RE: A Song from The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg
Another song from the American Songbag is called Old Abe Lincoln Came Out Of The Wilderness. The book says this about it:
Torchlight processions of Republicans sang this in the summer and fall months of 1860. The young Wide Awakes burbled it as the kerosene dripped on their blue oilcloth capes. Quartets and octettes jubilated with it in packed, smoky halls where audiences waited for speakers of the evening. In Springfield, Illinios, the Tall Man who was a candidate for the presidency of the nation, heard his two boys Tad and Willie, sing it at him. The tune is from negro spirituals, When I Come Out De Wilderness and Ol' Gray Mare Come Tearin' Out De Wilderness.
Here are the lyrics:
Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness,
Out of the Wilderness, out of the wilderness,
Old Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness,
Down in Illinios.
Bill Nash
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10-18-2012, 07:50 AM,
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LincolnMan
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RE: A Song from The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg
Continuing on in The American Songbag book, there is I Was Born Almost Ten Thousand Years Ago. It is also known as "The Bragging Song." It has been covered by a few recording artists over the years, most notably Elvis Presley. However, the Elvis version did not include the following stanza as in the book:
"Queen Elizabeth she fell in love with me
We were married in Milwaukee secretly,
But I schemed around and shook her,
And I went with General Hooker
To shoot mosquitoes down in Tennessee."
So there is our Civil War reference in the old tune. Wonder what it was like to shoot mosquitoes with General Hooker down in Tennessee? Come to think of it, wasn't General Hooker given to bragging also? 
Bill Nash
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A Song from The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg
