Quote: I know only two tunes; one is Yankee Doodle, and the other isn't. (U. S. Grant variant Lincoln)

[victor steinbok]

Garson beat me to the punch on this one, but also check out Grant
biographies from 1890 and 1915 (?) that give slightly different versions of
the anecdote. The earlier one gives "One is Yankee Doodle and one isn't".

But there are several similar comments from the period, including one that
implicates Mark Twain, for a change. Here we have an expression that has
/not/ been attributed to him and he actually had something to say on the
subject.

Unfortunately, I can't post the details right now, but will do so later,
unless Garson beats me to it.

VS-)

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> Cite: 1839 May 4, Musical Review, Page 11. (Google Books full view)
> http://books.google.com/books?id=iQYtAAAAYAAJ&q=%22two+tunes%22#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> We ought to apologize for swearing, but really we suffer considerably
> from music, and only know two tunes, one of which it " Old Hundred,"
> and the other isn't.
> Picayune
> [Old excerpt]

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