作詞・作曲
作詞者も作曲者も分かりません。
このメロディーはアイルランドの曲『All the way to Galway』に由来している可能性があります。
Yankee Doodle ヤンキー・ドゥードゥル
Yankee Doodle（ヤンキー・ドゥードゥル）はアメリカの民謡（童謡）です。
この曲の初期のバージョンはアメリカの独立戦争よりも前に作られ、今日でも愛国歌として歌われます。
元々は帽子に羽根を突っ込んでさえいればスタイリッシュだと考えるアメリカ兵の固定観念を嘲笑して、イギリス軍が歌った歌だと言われていますが、その後にジョージ・ワシントンを大陸軍の司令官として称賛する詩がこの曲に付けられ、愛国歌に変わっていきます。
現在ではコネチカット州の州歌にもなっています。
日本語タイトルでは『アルプス一万尺』が有名ですが、他にも色々な替え歌が存在します。
『アルプス一万尺』のアルプスは日本アルプスのことで、一万尺は約3,000メートル、歌詞中の小槍は槍ヶ岳（3,180メートル）の山頂付近の岩を指しているようです。
歌詞
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
Chorus：
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.
Chorus
And there we saw a thousand men
As rich as Squire David,
And what they wasted every day,
I wish it could be savèd.
Chorus
The 'lasses they eat every day,
Would keep a house a winter;
They have so much, that I'll be bound,
They eat it when they've a mind to.
Chorus
And there I see a swamping gun
Large as a log of maple,
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father's cattle.
Chorus
And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder,
And makes a noise like father's gun,
Only a nation[c] louder.
Chorus
I went as nigh to one myself
As 'Siah's underpinning;
And father went as nigh again,
I thought the deuce was in him.
Chorus
Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared me so I shrinked it off
And hung by father's pocket.
Chorus
And Cap'n Davis had a gun,
He kind of clapt his hand on't
And stuck a crooked stabbing iron
Upon the little end on't
Chorus
And there I see a pumpkin shell
As big as mother's basin,
And every time they touched it off
They scampered like the nation.
Chorus
I see a little barrel too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked on it with little clubs
And called the folks together.
Chorus
And there was Cap'n Washington,
And gentle folks about him;
They say he's grown so 'tarnal proud
He will not ride without 'em.
Chorus
He got him on his meeting clothes,
Upon a slapping stallion;
He sat the world along in rows,
In hundreds and in millions.
Chorus
The flaming ribbons in his hat,
They looked so tearing fine, ah,
I wanted dreadfully to get
To give to my Jemima.
Chorus
I see another snarl of men
A-digging graves, they told me,
So 'tarnal long, so 'tarnal deep,
They 'tended they should hold me.
Chorus
It scared me so, I hooked it off,
Nor stopped, as I remember,
Nor turned about till I got home,
Locked up in mother's chamber.
Chorus
管理人コメント
『アルプス一万尺』は良く聞きますよね。
ヨーロッパ・アルプスの事だとずっと信じていたんですが、日本アルプスの歌だと知ったときには驚きました！
元の歌にも複雑な経緯があったんですね。
YouTube 動画
注）歌詞は若干違うようです。