Tune Req: Searching for War of 1812 song

Subject: Their Coats As Red As Roses
From:
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 03:47 PM

Greetings. I am searching for a tune and title for the following lyrics:

"We fed them lead fer breakfast,
And we fed them lead for dinner,
And the ones that didn't say their prayers,
went straight to hell a sinner.

We shot them in their big round eyes,
we shot their chins and noses,
We shot all the buttons off.
Their coats as red as roses!"

It is sung in Robert Schenkkan's play THE KENTUCKY CYCLE, which is to be performed at the end of this month at the University of Evansville in Indiana where I am a student. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A H Knight

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: GUEST,Timehiker
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 05:56 PM

Can't say whether or not it's the correct tune, but, Yankee Doodle fits those lyrics perfectly.

Take care, Timehiker

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 06:38 PM

I found this site dedicated to the War of 1812. Has a link to a song page and a sound page, but none of them sounded like what you are asking for. Nothing turned up on searches for the lyrics phrases, either.

I wonder if Schenkkan didn't write it for the play?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: Snuffy
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 07:30 PM

The words also fit The Battle of New Orleans. There have been several discussions of this and related songs in the forum. Just type in "Battle of New Orleans" in the Digitrad and Forum Search box on the main threads page to find them.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: GUEST,redhorse
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 08:29 AM

If you need a tune you could do worse than "hunters of Kentucky" which fits the words and is of the right age (and subject matter)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: GUEST,Timehiker
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 09:43 AM

Yeah, Redhorse!
I like Hunters of Kentucky better.
Timehiker

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: Kim C
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 11:20 AM

For some reason I thought Hunters of Kentucky and Battle of New Orleans (or 8th of January or Jacksons Victory or whatever you want to call it) were the same tune.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: GUEST,Timehiker
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 10:56 PM

Kim,
The Hunters of Kentucky is set to an earlier tune called The Unfortunate Miss Bailey. The fiddle tune, The 8th of January is, as far as I know, the tune Johnny Horton used for the chorus of his recording, The Battle of New Orleans.

Take care,
Timehiker

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: Barry T
Date: 15 Mar 01 - 12:57 AM

Those lyrics fit the tune The Girl I Left Behind Me, which has been adapted for quite a few lyric variants.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Serching for War of 1812 song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Jan 12 - 02:09 PM

From Fate by Lee Dorsey (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2004), page 19 [I have rearranged the line breaks to emphasize the rhyme pattern.]:


John Bull's soldiers were vanquished by an enemy who combined the most savage traits of both races. Read the words that were sung by these mountain men after the Battle of New Orleans.

We made a bank just nipple high behind which we was layin',
And when the Redcoats come in sight, we started out a-slayin.

We fed them lead fer breakfast and we fed them lead fer dinner,
And the ones that didn't say their prayers went straight to hell a sinner.

We shot them in their big round eyes; we shot their chins and noses.
We shot all the buttons off their coats as red as roses.

When we first went to New Orleans, they said, "John Bull's a-comin'."
When we'd been there a mighty short time, they said, "John Bull's a-runnin'."

When we got through a-shootin' them, ye should of heerd [something missing here?]
'Cause we went out and got their hair and sent their skelps to dryin'.


[This book seems rather amateurishly written and published. I doubt this is the pop/R&B singer Lee Dorsey who died in 1986.]