When Johnny Comes Marching Home – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 159

When I hear (or play) When Johnny Comes Marching Home, it totally transports me mentally to civil war times. I can hear the drummer and the marching, and I can Imagine a soldier coming home to his family who had been missing him, and wondering if he would ever return alive.

It’s a sad melody to me, and I think it brings up the sadness of war time even when someone is returning home.  How does it make you feel? (Please leave me a comment and let me know.)

When Johnny Comes Marching Home According to Fiddler’s Companion

HEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME. AKA and see “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye.” American, Scottish; Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). A Minor (Kerr): B Minor (Sweet). Standard tuning. One part (Sweet): AB (Kerr). The tune uses much melodic material from the Scottish air “John Anderson my Jo.” See note for “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye.” Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; No. 6, pg. 28. Sweet (Fifer’s Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 11.

Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye according to Fiddler’s Companion

JOHNNY I HARDLY KNEW YE. AKA and see “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” Irish, American; March (6/8 time). C Major. Standard tuning. One part. O’Neill (1922) notes: “Classed as a street ballad in Halliday Sparling’s Irish Minstrelsy,London 1887, the editor adds, in a note on page 366,

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Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye ! This favorite old song is here

for the first time given complete. It dates from the beginning

of the present century (19th), when Irish regiments were so

extensively raised for the East India service.

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This spirited air almost forgotten in Ireland blossomed into new popularity during the American Civil War, and, after its arrangement by a master hand – Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore – it became a great favorite with military and volunteer bands. Parodies on the original song such as ‘When Johnny comes marching home again’, ‘Johnny fill up the bowl’ etc., were sung to it by the Union soldiers. After the manner of the “Loobeens” and occupational songs of olden days in Ireland, additional verses were improvised, some possibly crude, yet always mirth-provoking, and well-calculated to keep up their spirits on the march, or relieve the monotony of camp life. The circumstance of its arrangement as above stated no doubt led Adair FitzGerald to refer to it in his Stories of Famous Songs in qualified words:

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When Johnny comes marching home again, said to have been

composed by the celebrated Patrick S. Gilmore.

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The latter, a native of Dublin quite probably had memorized the tune in his youth. The original, it may be observed, included a refrain of four lines not found in the parodies.”

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When Johnny Comes Marching Home Lyrics

When Johnny comes marching home again,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We’ll give him a hearty welcome then
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The men will cheer and the boys will shout
The ladies they will all turn out
And we’ll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home.

The old church bell will peal with joy
Hurrah! Hurrah!
To welcome home our darling boy,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The village lads and lassies say
With roses they will strew the way,
And we’ll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home.

Get ready for the Jubilee,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We’ll give the hero three times three,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The laurel wreath is ready now
To place upon his loyal brow
And we’ll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home.

Let love and friendship on that day,
Hurrah, hurrah!
Their choicest pleasures then display,
Hurrah, hurrah!
And let each one perform some part,
To fill with joy the warrior’s heart,
And we’ll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home