SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT
[HE chorus of "John Brown's Body," which I remember young moonlight picnickers singing as a .marching song on the way home, was written first, and, according to Percy Scholes, it had a circulation before the verses existed. Thomas Brigham Bishop, of Portland, Maine, hearing a pious brother-in-law exclaim, "I am bound to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord! Glory, glory, Hallelujah!" set this assertion to music and soon found it popular as a camp-meeting hymn. Bishop’s own statement was, "It was really done as a joke upon my sanctimonious brother-in-law." Then in 1859, hearing of the hanging of John Brown for his taid at Harper’s Ferry, Bishop wrote verses on this subject to the sarme music. Union soldiers adopted them as a marching song and it was they who added the verse about hanging Jeff Davis. Bishop also wrote "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 769, 15 April 1954, Page 29
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151SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 769, 15 April 1954, Page 29
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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