#the ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah

[cheesuschristman]

Bread w/ butter and sugar

[freddie-dafroggo]

they

they

say what now

[wordsforrain]

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching one by one,

They ate left beef with pizza none,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching two by two,

The little one said I’m right, don’t boo,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching three by three, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching three by three,

The little one said god I wish that were me,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching four by four, hurrah, hurrah

The ants go marching four by four, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching four by four,

The little one started to piss on the poor,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching five by five, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching five by five, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching five by five,

The little one said guess I’ll just die,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching six by six, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching six by six, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching six by six,

The little one said those are his hooves you bitch,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching seven by seven, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching seven by seven, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching seven by seven,

Confessed their love but went not to heaven,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching eight by eight, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching eight by eight, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching eight by eight,

The little one said it’s free real estate,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching nine by nine, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching nine by nine, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching nine by nine,

Laughed nervously and said this is fine,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

The ants go marching ten by ten, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching ten by ten, hurrah, hurrah,

The ants go marching ten by ten,

Through a hospital for sick children,

And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain.

[ratatatastic]

the beautiful helicopter entrance from a different angle so you can really appreciate how cool it is he really thought of everything

he tottles in with the cup in a solemnity matching the ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah kind of way you know? the we are the champions really makes it too

Forsy Cup Day | 8.2.24 (x)

[batmanshole]

FACT: the ants go marching one by one. hurrah.

[paperw0rmz]

My bf looks like the Ants that go marching by one by one (hurrah hurrah)

[thatoneluckybee]

Aaaa,,,,,

The ants go marching one by one hurrah! Hurrah!

[cattern]

“The ants go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah” song is so unreal because wtf do you mean they’re marching? How? Is the left half of their legs going forward then the right as a step? How can they play instruments, or use drums if they do? Do some of them stand on two legs to play drums?

So many questions and NO ANSWERS.

[strangecot]

dude who was gonna tell me the ants go marching one by one hurrah. why the fuck did no one say anything

[bookofexcesses]

The ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah

[kingofthewilderwest]

As much as it’s a powerful experience to record music, one of the biggest downsides is that there becomes “ownership” and “definitive” versions. Music becomes static property, unchanging, for “talented” people to perform, rather than an unrestricted playfield of the masses. You can’t really steal or rip off the melody of a folk song - it’s not owned. And since learning folk music lyrics and melodies is one constant game of aural and oral transmission, things get jumbled fast. Variation on how a song goes is unlimited. Plus, there’s always been the fun of changing the lyrics up or making your own - like for centuries, the broadside ballad tradition published news in the form of lyrics, on the top of which would tell you what well-known tune to sing the news lyrics to.

Murder ballads often took older melodies. Songs of other contemporary happenstances did it, too. A poem that was popular might be put to music by the common folk - using a melody you already knew. People wrote their own lyrics to well-known tunes constantly.

I haven’t researched The Ants Go Marching variation specifically; all my comments are going to be by what I “sense.” I feel like there are clear artifacts that indicate where this comes from. Consider the first line of When Johnny Comes Marching Home versus The Ants Go Marching:

When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah! hurrah!

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah! hurrah!

There’s no accident that both are about marching, the word “marching” is sung at the same point, and each end in a “Hurrah! Hurrah!” refrain. I’m sure the ants version was derived from the Johnny version. When Johnny Comes Marching Home is a meaty subject: the anticipation of young men returning home after war. And Johnny Fill Up the Bowl lyric variations are a whole level above that! People made up their own lyrics to comment on the Civil War bluntly with that. To provide one example of lyrics I’ve found:

In eighteen hundred and sixty one, hurrah boys, hurrah In eighteen hundred and sixty one, hurrah, says I In eighteen hundred and sixty one, this cruel war's just begun And we'll all drink stone blind. Johnny fill up the bowl! In eighteen hundred and sixty two, hurrah boys, hurrah In eighteen hundred and sixty two, hurrah, says I In eighteen hundred and sixty two, we’ll whip the whole rebel crew And we'll all drink stone blind. Johnny fill up the bowl!

Taking a popular tune that’s around everywhere and reworking it to entertain kids makes sense.

It’s to note The Animals Went in Two by Two variant is one step further removed from the war topic. The animals aren’t marching and we’ve turned it into recitation of a Bible story.

Hi, in the HTTYD episode "Tone Deaf", you had mentioned that Smotlouts song was a ripoff of a similar song (repetitive melody with increasing pitch). What is the artist/song title of the song that Snotlout was imitating? I remember hearing this on a radio station and have been unable to identify it. Thank you.

Hey there! I'm stoked about this because you're sneaking into my passion for folk music! Be prepared to get 500% more information than you needed! ;)

For starters, I'm glad good search engines exist to refind what you were referencing. In this 2016 post about Tone Death, I commented Hiccup's song started melodically similarly to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," while later elements of the song sounded familiar, but I was unable to place it. I'm still unable to place it, though it sounds like another old-fashioned band tune.

Since you mentioned a repetitive melody with increasing pitch and that matches When Johnny Comes Marching Home, I'm assuming that's what you were thinking about!

I don't mind that RTTE 'used' When Johnny Comes Marching Home. It wouldn't be a ripoff in my book. It makes music in RTTE boringly unoriginal, but composers closely mirror songs (especially folk songs) constantly, and a composer would know that, if he modeled something off a famous melody like When Johnny Comes Marching Home, it'd be noticed.

I'm not going to assume knowledge or nationality here, though I know many folks online will be well-acquainted with the song. So I'll start by saying there's no artist particular to it. There's technically not even one concrete title since it's a folk song from the United States Civil War, and as with all folk songs, that means variation, variation, variation. As a child, I learned it as The Ants Go Marching One by One! There's another children's variation, The Animals Went in Two by Two.

I have to nerd out and blab on the song since your ask gives me the excuse!

Irish-born immigrant Patrick Gilmore, one of the most well-known bandleaders of his time, is said to have composed When Johnny Comes Marching Home, with lyrics, in 1863 while serving the Union in the US Civil War. It was published on September 26 under the pseudonym Louis Lambert. The song became popular with both Unionists and Confederates, as it sang about the desire to see soldiers return home. However, Gilmore acknowledged he'd adapted an older melody. Where this older melody came from, though, isn't clear-cut.

The best claims I've seen point out the tune was published in July 1863 as Johnny Fill Up the Bowl, arranged by J. Durnal. Well, where did Durnal arrange it from? I've read Johnny Fill Up the Bowl was a popular drinking song with soldiers. But that's not the origin point, either.

There's a branch of this folk tune that's Irish, Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye, published contemporarily to When Johnny Comes Marching Home. (Hmhmhmhm Gilmore was Irish.) This publication was in 1867 by Joseph B. Geoghegan. I read that was originally under a different melody, though I couldn't find a scan of the sheet music to verify that with my own two eyes.

Tracing the song back further isn't as certain. Folklorists have pointed out melodic similarities to John Anderson, My Jo. That came from Robert Burns circa 1789, but even he was placing lyrics to an earlier melody. His poem was a polite change from bawdy lyrics that existed previously - a song running back to at least 1630. There are tons of variant titles to John Anderson, My Jo, and there are reportedly about forty variations to the tune (everywhere from Sweden... to Wales... to the USA's Johnny).

Going further back then that, there's less consensus. One scholar has suggested a connection to The Three Ravens, which was first referenced in print in 1611, but would be even older than that. Another song that's been proposed is I Am the Duke of Norfolk or Paul's Steeple, first put to print in 1651, but possibly arising from an event that occurred in 1561. Presumably a ballad arose within a week of a fire that burned down a steeple at Old Saint Paul's in London.

Of course, if you listen to something like Paul's Steeple, it's quite different from Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye - but that's the nature of centuries-long folk song evolution, where new sounds, shifting melodies, different lyrics, and more spawn across generations. It's like languages... Old English ain't intelligible to today's English, but there's a direct chain of evolution linking back.

As an American, I can say When Johnny Comes Marching Home is one of the most ubiquitous folk melodies around me. Its references typically retain military connotations -- to give one example, in Guns N' Roses's Civil War.

If you heard it recently on the radio, that's heckin' cool! I know that this song keeps appearing and reappearing in pop culture in different iterations. I'm so removed from pop culture I have no idea what you might've heard that's recent. Maybe now that you know it's citing When Johnny Comes Marching Home helps! Best of luck finding what you heard.

[today-is-this]

, a day filled with many symptoms.  Some my own, some hers; all challenging.  Full steam ahead in trying to be successful in this life of caring for and protecting others.

also, today is this Monday.

[nachodroppedfood]

ok so y’all know how my shower is infested with ants? So I was washing them down the drain and suddenly this giant fucking bug came out and got washed, and I’m pretty sure it’s the queen??? Did I just massacre an entire colony?

Also I saw two lesbian ants kissing

[moonsyrups]

the ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah

[chickwiththepurpleguitar]

hiiii Lilly my dear beloved friend, this is more than 5 words but can I pls officially give you Molina-Wilson children arguing about the ant song as a prompt

I'm way behind on these cause I got my wisdom teeth out and didn't write for a week, but I'm trying to catch up! Enjoy, my friend :)

This takes place in my Parenting Verse; Julie and Carrie are like 2.5-3 years old here.

Send me prompts (I'm still like 5 short for the month)!

“Good night, my beautiful butterfly,” Rose says, kissing Julie’s forehead as she tucks her butterfly blanket around her.

Then, she moves to the other bed in the room to do the same with Carrie and her Cinderella blanket. “Good night, my sweet princess.”

Carrie, upon being tucked in, immediately wriggles and kicks until her feet pop out the end, and then she says, “Mami, ant song please.”

“Ant song!” Julie agrees, kicking her legs under the covers. “Ant song! Ant song!”

Rose puts her hands on her hips, holding back a laugh in order to feign surprise. “What? You want to hear the ant song before bed? Are you absolutely sure?”

Carrie giggles and joins in on Julie’s chant: “Ant song! Ant song! Ant song!”

“Well, okay,” Rose sighs, dramatically falling back into the rocking chair between the girls’ beds. “I suppose I can sing my babies’ very favorite ant song just this once.”

The girls erupt into laughter again, and the sound makes Rose’s heart glow with the warmth of a million sunny days. She leans back in the chair and closes her eyes, hoping that by modeling tranquility, she can encourage Julie and Carrie to settle down, too, and rocks slowly back and forth as she begins to sing:

“The ants go marching one by one. Hurrah! Hurrah! The ants go marching one by one. Hurrah! Hurrah! The ants go marching one by one, the little one stops to suck his thumb, and they all go marching down. To the ground. To get out. Of. The rain.”

It’s not exactly an efficient lullaby— not when Julie and Carrie have an ongoing competition over who can sing along the lyrics fastest and loudest— but Rose has spent the last two and a half years choosing lack of sleep over making her children anything less than happy, and she’s not about to stop now.

Still, she has to at least try to say, “Settle down, nenas,” after each verse, and eventually, the giggling and play-fighting die down, if only because Carrie and Julie don’t know the words as well the higher the numbers go.

Until they get around to the fourth verse. Sometimes, Rose has the forethought to skip it entirely, since the girls are still too young to notice when the order of numbers is wrong. But tonight, she’s tired, and her daughters are settling into calm more quickly than usual, so Rose doesn’t realize which verse she’s gotten to until the words, “the little one stops to shut the door,” are already out of her mouth.

“Stop, Mami!” Julie shouts, making Rose jump and almost tumble out of the rocking chair entirely.

“Julie!” she gasps, a hand to her heaving heart. “Don’t shout like that, baby, you scared me!”

Julie huffs, arms crossed over her chest. “But that’s the end of the song, Mami.”

“Noooo,” Carrie whines immediately. “There’s one more! One two five!”

Rose starts to correct her, and then realizes now is not the time. “You don’t want to hear about the ants marching five by five, Julie-bean?”

Julie stubbornly shakes her head. “No, a-cause the little one already shutted the door, the house is closed now.”

Rose sighs. “Right. That makes sense, Julie. We can end the song after four ants.”

But of course they can’t, because Carrie shouts, “No! Five! Five! Five! Five! Five!”

“Okay, okay!” Rose says hastily, before a full-on tantrum can begin. “What if I switch them, huh? The ants go marching four by four, the little one stops to take a dive, then the ants go marching five by five and the little one stops to shut the door, and the house is closed, the end? How’s that, baby girls?”

Julie and Carrie exchange a look from across the room, their little faces screwed up in intense consideration. Rose does not have the energy for this right now— she’s about three seconds from tapping Ray or Trevor in.

But then, Julie says, “I guess that’s fine,” and snuggles back down under her covers.

“Four and dive are not rhyming words,” Carrie informs them, “but the ants can switch just this one time.”

Rose lets out a long sigh of relief. “Okay. Time for bed, girls. We’ll sing the ant song the right way tomorrow.”

--

Taglist: @whenweremarried @sunsethimb0s @pink-flame @penguin0613 @fighttoshine @sunsetcurvecuddles @teenagedirtbag-dot-jpeg @brightattheorpheum @queenmolina @jandthephantoms @lexilucacia @sapphossidechick @acnhaddict @shrimp-colours @sunset-bobby @lenacarstairspotterstewart @conversationaltreestump @burntchromas @julieandthequeers @joyandthephantoms @it-tastes-like-lizard @jatpfs 

[chasingfictions]

DAWN SUMMERS SINGING THE ANTS GO MARCHING ONE BY ONE MY BELOVED. i did sing along bc critically i a) support her and b) i am an the ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah STAN. that song SLAPS it FUCKS