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Few Days
American, March (2/4 time)- USA, Southwestern Pa.
ARTIST: From American Memory Collection
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1800’s RECORDING INFO:???
OTHER NAMES: A Few Days
SOURCES: Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc; Fifers Thomas Hoge (Greene County, Pa., 1951), Samuel Palmer (Greene and Fayette Counties, Pa., 1944), Marion Yoders (Greene County, Pa., 1960) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 154A-C, pgs. 89-90.
NOTES: From Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion: D Major. Standard. AB. A fife tune once popular in southwestern Pa. Bayard (1981) retells the legend about the origins of the tune, given to him by an informant, which begins in the last days of the Civil War. Lee's men had surrendered and the vast Union Army was standing down, but it took some time to process the orderly discharge of so many men. To prevent them from disbanding wholesale at the prospect of a long wait they were told by the command that they would be going home "in a few days." As this line was repeatedly given for the continued delays it became a camp joke, and any fifer who composed a tune, if asked what he named it, said "Oh, a few days." Bayard says that "Quick Dutch," one of the traditional "Fife Duty" pieces from old fife tutors, may be an ancestor of this tune. The real origins of the tune are in a pre-civil war camp meeting spiritual, says Bayard, which in southwestern Pa. went:
Our camps in the wilderness, a few days, a few days,
Our camps in the wilderness, and then we're going home.
Here’s another version from the 1800’s from American Memory Collection:
Our country now is great and free,
Few days, few days,
And thus shall it forever be,
We know the way.
We'll teach the hosts that gather here,
Few days, few days,
That we'll protect what we hold dear,
We know the way.
CHORUS: We'll battle innovation, Few days, few days,
And fight against usurpation by a cunning foe.
For our guide is Freedoms banner, we know the way,
The world shall see that we are true,
Few days, few days,
And that we know a thing or two,
We know the way.
As "Know-Nothings," we're hand in hand,
Few days, few days,
Our countless throng shall fill the land,
We know the way.
CHORUS: We'll battle innovation, Few days, few days,
And fight against usurpation by a cunning foe.
For our guide is Freedoms banner, we know the way,
From East and West, from South and North,
Few days, few days,
We'll call our many legions forth,
We know the way.
The freedom that our father's won,
Few days, few days,
Shall be defended by each son.
We know the way.
CHORUS: We'll battle innovation, Few days, few days,
And fight against usurpation by a cunning foe.
For our guide is Freedoms banner, we know the way,
Then shout o'er hill and plain,
Few days, few days,
Our Union shall its rights maintain,
We know the way.
We'll guard, we'll guard the ballot-box,
Few days, few days,
From foreign wiles and treason shocks,
We know the way.
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