Digital Tradition Mirror

The Rebels

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

The Rebels

Ye brave honest subjects who dare to be loyal
And have stood the brunt of ev'ry trial
     Of hunting shirts and rifle guns.
Come listen awhile and I'll sing you a song,
I'll show you those Yankees are all in the wrong,
Who with blust'ring look and most awkward gait,
'Gainst their lawful sovereign dare for to prate
     With their hunting shirts and rifle guns.

The arch-rebels, barefooted tatterdemalions
In baseness exceed all other rebellions
     With their hinting shirts and rifle guns.
To rend the Empire, most infamous lies
Their mock-patriot Congress do always devise
Independence, like the first of rebels they claim
But their p[lots will be damned in the annals of fame
     With their hunting shirts and rifle guns.

Forgetting the mercies of Great Britain's king
Who saved their forefathers' necks from the string
     With their hunting shirts and rifle guns.
They renounce allegiance and take up their arms
Assemble together like hornets in swarms
So dirty their backs and so wretched their show
That carrion-crow follows wherever they go
     With their hunting shirts and rifle guns.

WIth loud peals of laughter, your sides sirs would crack
To see General Convict and Colonel Shoe-Black
     With their hunting shirts and rifle guns.
See cobblers and quacks, rebel priests and the like
Pettifoggers and barbers, with sword and with pike
And strutting the standard of Satan beside
And honest names using, their black deeds to hide
     With their hunting shirts and rifle guns.

From Songbook of the American Revolution, Rabson
tune: Black Joak
RG
Apr98

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!