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Back Home Again in Indiana
Old-time jazz and western song composed by Ballard MacDonald and James Hanley, first published in January of 1917.
ARTIST: Bob Wills
Listen: Back Home in Indiana- John Bubbles circa 1936
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1917;
RECORDING INFO: Back Home Again in Indiana [Me II-O59] - McDonald, Ballard/Hanley, James F.
Us - Back Home in Indiana
Back Home in Indiana [Me II-O59] - McDonald, Ballard/Hanley, James F.
Rm - On the Banks of the Wabash (Far Away)
Hughes, Thomas J.(ed.) / Fireside Memories of 1909 - 1939, Shapiro-Bernstein, Fol (1939), p18 (Indiana)
Herder, Ronald (ed.) / 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics, Dover dn500/500, Sof (1998), p161 (Indiana)
Edwards, Cliff (Ukelele Ike). Shakin' the Blues Away, Totem LP 1005, LP (198?), trk# A.07 [1940s] (Indiana)
Geiger, Fred. Fred Geiger, Ridge Runner RRR 0014, LP (1978), trk# 12
Hamblen, Stuart. Remember Me, Coral CRL 57254, LP (1958), trk# A.03 (Indiana)
Hoosier Hot Shots. Everybody Stomp, Properbox 63, CD (2003), trk# 1.10 [1935/06/14] (Back in Indiana)
LePage, Dennis. Banjo Newsletter, BNL, Ser (1973-), 1977/12,p15
Muddy Bottom Boys. Howdy Neighbor, Grassroots GR 009, LP (1981), trk# B.06
Reser, Harry. Banjos Back to Back, RCA (Victor) LPM-2515, LP (1962), trk# B.03b (Back Home Again in Indiana)
Wills, Bob; and the Texas Playboys. Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol 9, Edsel 329, CD (1990), trk# 14 [1946/05/20]
Williams, Claude. Fiddler Magazine, Fiddler Mag., Ser, 1/4, p29(1994) [1989]
OTHER NAMES: Back Home in Indiana; Indiana
SOURCES: Wiki; Folk Index
NOTES: First recorded by the Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917, the song has been covered by Bob Wills and the Hoosier Hot Shots featuring fiddle solos. It's in repertoire of fiddler Claude Williams.
"(Back Home Again in) Indiana" is a song composed by Ballard MacDonald and James Hanley, first published in January of 1917. While it is not the official state song of the U.S. state of Indiana (that honor belongs to "On the Banks of the Wabash"), it is perhaps the best-known song that pays tribute to the Hoosier State.
Origin and influence
The tune was introduced as a Tin Pan Alley pop-song of the time. It contains a musical quotation from the already well known "On the Banks of the Wabash", as well as repetition of some key words and phrases from the lyrics of the latter: moonlight, candlelight, fields, new-mown hay, sycamores, and of course the Wabash river.
In 1934, Joe Young, Jean Schwartz, and Joe Ager wrote "In a Little Red Barn (on a Farm down in Indiana)", which not only incorporated all the same key words and phrases above, but whose chorus had the same harmonic structure as "Indiana". In this respect it was a contrafact of the latter (see "A jazz standard" below).
A jazz standard
In 1917 it was one of the current pop tunes selected by Columbia Records to be recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band; this lively instrumental version was one of the earliest jazz records issued and sold well. The tune became a jazz standard. For years, Louis Armstrong and his All Stars would open each public performance with the number.
Its chord changes undergird the Miles Davis bop composition "Donna Lee", one of jazz's best known contrafacts (a composition that overlays a new melody over an existing harmonic structure).
An Indiana signature
Since 1946, it has been an annual tradition for the song to be performed at the Indianapolis 500 automobile race. In most years since 1972, it has been sung by actor and singer Jim Nabors with backing from the Purdue Marching Band. It is usually performed immediately following "The Star-Spangled Banner", the Invocation, and the rendering of "Taps". The song is accompanied by a large balloon release. The Indiana State Marching Sycamores also have a rendition of this song that is played at every event.
The song is also featured prominently at the Indiana State Museum where a steam clock plays the tune at the top of every hour. Since 1991 Indianapolis TV station WISH-TV used components of the song in their news themes; and since 1997 Fort Wayne TV station WANE-TV (WISH-TV's sister station owned by LIN TV) has also used components of the song in their news themes. Stephen Arnold Music's Newsleader and "Counterpoint with Indiana" (aka WISH-TV News Music Package) and 615 Music's "In-Sink V.4" (aka "In-Sink with Indiana") are news music themes that have the "Back Home Again in Indiana" Signature.It is also used to open every Little 500 race held at Indiana University.
John Bubbles
On this date in 1902, John Bubbles was born. He was an African-American dancer and entertainer; know as “the father of rhythm tap”.
John William Sublett (his name at birth), was from Louisville, Kentucky and grew up in Indianapolis, IN. At the age of eleven he teamed up with Ford Lee Washington in an act billed as Buck and Bubbles. Bubbles sang and danced while Buck played accompaniment. They won a number of amateur competitions performing around the Louisville, Detroit, and New York City areas, sometimes in blackface.
After his voice changed, Bubbles focused on dancing, he developed a new style of tapping that was blended extremely difficult innovations such as double over-the-tops (a rough figure-eight pattern done with a deliberate near tripping technique). Bubbles would do them while alternating legs, traveling backwards and forwards, and from side to side. By 1922, Buck and Bubbles reached the top in vaudeville by playing at New York’s Palace Theatre. They headlined the white vaudeville circuit from coast to coast. Their singing-dancing comedy act (which featured Buck’s easy piano style contrasted with Bubbles’s witty explosion of taps) was featured in the Broadway Frolics of 1922, Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1930 and Ziegfeld Follies of 1931. Bubbles made entertainment history by securing the dancing role of Sportin’ Life in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. The 1930’s and 1940’s were times of continued success for Buck and Bubbles until the death of Buck in 1955.
On his own, Bubbles appeared with Bob Hope in Vietnam, recorded several albums, and made his final public appearance in 1980 in the revue Black Broadway. John Bubbles’s style of rhythm tapping, later “jazz tap,” transformed dancing. Prior to his performances, dancers tapped up on their toes, focusing on “flash steps” and dancing to a quicker tempo. Bubbles cut the tempo in half and extended the rhythm past the typical eight beats. He also dropped his heels and hit unusual accents and syncopations.
He said about his style: “I wanted to make it more complicated, so I put more taps in and changed the rhythm.” He was the first Black to appear on Johnny Carson Tonight TV show. John Bubbles died on May 18 1986 in Louisville, KY.
"(Back Home Again in) Indiana" Original Lyrics- 1917 publication
Listen: Back Home in Indiana- John Bubbles circa 1936
Verse: I have always been a wand'rer
Over land and sea
Yet a moonbeam on the water
Casts a spell o'er me
A vision fair I see
Again I seem to be
Chorus: Back home again in Indiana,
And it seems that I can see
The gleaming candlelight, still shining bright,
Through the sycamores for me.
The new-mown hay sends all its fragrance
From the fields I used to roam.
When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash,
Then I long for my Indiana home.
Fancy paints on mem'ry's canvas
Scenes that we hold dear
We recall them in days after
Clearly they appear
And often times I see
A scene that's dear to me
(repeat chorus)
Chords:
| I | VI7 | II7 | II7 | V7 | V7 | I | I7 |
| IV | iv | I | I | II7 | II7 | V7 | V7 |
| I | VI7 | II7 | II7 | V7 | III7 | vi | vi |
| I | III7 | vi | II7 | I VI7 | II7 V7 | I | I |
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