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Essays, Manifestos, Statements, Speeches, Maxims, Epistles, Diaristic Jottings, Narratives, Natural histories, Poems, Plays, Performances, Ramblings, Revelations, and all such ephemera as may appear necessary to bring society into a slight tremolo of confusion and fright at least.

Listen to the Mockingbird: American Folksongs and Popular Music Lyrics of the 19th Century

Douglas Messerli

Editor

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Editor Douglas Messerli has collected 78 lyrics of American folksongs and popular music. The African American spirituals, the chanteys, and the cowboy songs are beautiful paeans to the American way of life. But the rest are often perverse in their racial humor and sexual undertones, especially the minstrel songs and the Civil War ballads. These lyrics both energize and frighten us, not unlike the wild and open American landscape. From the patriotically conceived “America” (1832), to the rebelliously insistent “I’ll Marry the Man I Love” (1897), Listen to the Mockingbird reveals our national identity.

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Cover photographs (clockwise from left):

Stephen Collins Foster
Septimus Winner
Charles K. Harris
George F. Root

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CONTENTS

All God’s Chillun Got Wings
Bought Me a Cat
Carry Me Back to Green Pastures
Coming ’Round the Mountain
The Drunken Sailor (What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?)
Ezekiel’s Wheel
Go Down, Moses
I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen
The Old Chisholm Trail
Polly Wolly Doodle
Red River Valley
Roll Jordan, Roll
Shenandoah
Short’nin’ Bread
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
America (1832)
Zip Coon (Turkey in the Straw) (1834)
Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep (1840)
We Won’t Go Home Till Morning (1842)
Buffalo Gals (1844)
Jim Crack Corn (1846)
Simple Gifts (1848)
Susanna (Oh! Susanna) (1848)
De Camptown Races (1850)
Old Folks at Home (Swanee River) (1851)
Wait for the Wagon (1851)
My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night (1853)
Hard Times Come Again No More (1854)
Listen to the Mockingbird (1855)
Some Folks (1855)
Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh (1857)
The Yellow Rose of Texas (1858)
Dixie (1859)
Old Black Joe (1860)
Aura Lee (1861)
The Battle-Cry of Freedom (1861)
Battle Hymn of the Republic (1862)
Grafted into the Army (1862)
Beautiful Dreamer (1862)
Just Before the Battle, Mother (1862)
Kingdom Coming (Year of Jubilo) (1862)
Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground (1863)
All Quiet Along the Potomac (1863)
The Arkansas Traveler (1863)
Kissing in the Dark (1863)
My Wife Is a Most Knowing Woman (1863)
There Are Plenty of Fish in the Sea (1863)
When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1863)
Der Deitcher’s Dog (1864)
Shall We Gather at the River? (Beautiful River) (1864)
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (1864)
Jeff in Petticoats (1865)
Marching Through Georgia (1865)
Goober Peas (1866)
The Little Brown Jug (1869)
Shew Fly Don’t Bother Me (1869)
Sweet Genevieve (1869)
Reuben and Rachel (1871)
Silver Threads Among the Gold (1873)
Bringing in the Sheaves (1874)
Grandfather’s Clock (1876)
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny (1878)
Oh, Dem Golden Slippers! (1879)
In the Evening by the Moonlight (1880)
Ring Dem Heavenly Bells (1883)
My Thoughts Are of Thee (1884)
Clementine (1885)
Johnny Get Your Gun (1886)
There Is a Tavern in the Town (1891)
After the Ball (1892)
Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two) (1892)
The Sidewalks of New York (1894)
The Band Played On (1895)
A Hot Time in the Old Town (1896)
Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1896)
I’ll Marry the Man I Love (1897)