War of 1812 – Again

Lots of fall things to do this weekend including this shindig at Pt. Lookout.

Music-wise, in 1958 an Arkansas school teacher named Jimmy Driftwood was trying to teach his students about the War of 1812. He wrote a funny song about how the US defeated the Brits in the Battle of New Orleans. Johnny Horton recorded it in 1959 and you know the result (below.) Leads me to wonder how come we don’t have an 1812 hit song about Southern Marylanders fighting off the Brits? Then again the Brits did make it to DC to set fire to the White House and then on up to Baltimore to attack Ft. McHenry. Maybe we didn’t do such a good job fighting them off after all. (However, it did give Francis Scott Key a good excuse to write that other song which you may have heard once or twice.)

Did you know that Deep Purple also did a cover of Battle of New Orleans on one of their albums? Check here to listen to why you may not have heard it. Smoke On the Water it definitely is not.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: