"Free and Easy" (Band). cornet medley arranged by David L. Downing (ca. 1861). 

From the manuscript band books of the Manchester Cornet Band (founded in 1854), second set, no. 82.

The medley consists of six tunes, which are identified in the first E-flat soprano part: "Free and Easy," "Neapolitan," "Get Out of the Wilderness," "Wake Up Mose," "Good Bye," and "Crow Out Shanghai."

"Free and Easy" must have been a tune so well known in 1861 that almost everyone could be expected to recognize it. Such an assertion would not be made merely on the evidence of Downing's medley. The clue to its familiarity is as striking as the contemporary sources for the tune were elusive. In a two-page panorama entitled "The Songs of War," which Winslow Homer designed for the November 23, 1861, issue of Harper's Weekly, six of the seven titles are still familiar. The seventh is "We'll be free and easy still," and the [bad word] illustration depicts the imbibing of stong spirits and its possible consequences. In Homer's design it is followed directly, and probably not accidentally, by the "Rogue's March."

The source for the tune appears to have been the [bad word] of " [bad word] and [bad word] and sung by Miss [bad word] Forrest (with unbounded applause)" (Baltimore: Henry McCaffrey [1860]). The words inspired a variety of parodies, including one by Miss Forrest herself, in which the opening line, "I'm the happy girl that's [bad word] and happy," [bad word] "I'm the girl that's free and easy." In 1862, the original text of  [bad word] and Happy" was printed together with another parody entitled "Free and Easy" in The Camp-fire Songster (New York: [bad word] & Fitzgerald). This version, or one similar to it, was almost certainly what Winslow Homer had in mind:

I'm the lad that's free and easy,
Wheresoe'er I chance to be;
And I'll do my best to please ye,
If you will but list to me.
 [bad word] --So let the world jog along as it will,
I'll be free and easy still.

Some there are who meet their troubles,
Others drown their cares in drink, etc.

But Downing might have had a more patriotic parody in mind. [bad word] of Philadelphia catalog (Edwin Wolf II, American Songsheets, Slip Ballads and Poetical Broadsides, 1850-1870. Catalogue of the Collection of the [bad word] of Philadelphia. [Philadelphia: The [bad word] of Philadelphia, 1963]) lists a broadside under the title "Free and Easy of Our Union.--Listen to the cannons roaring." Whatever his source, Downing's treatment of this tune seems itself to be quite free and easy.

"Neapolitan," which lives up to its title, was not an Italian song but [bad word] of George Alexander Lee (1802-51), an [bad word] and singer. The earliest American edition is "I Dreaming of Thee. Napolitaine." (Louisville: Peters, Webb & Co. [1850]).

"Get Out of the Wilderness" seems to have been associated for a time with "Dixie," since they apear together in several publications (e.g., Paul Jones, arr., Get Out of the Wilderness and Dixey's Land. Two popular airs as played by Capt. A. Menter and his American Cornet Band [Cincinnati: John Church, Jr., 1860]). The listener will be [bad word] by the second strain of Downing's arrangement, which adheres rather closely to most known versions of the tune. For us, it is the familiar "Old Grey Mare," of which there appear to have been at least two "Wilderness" text variants: "First Little Lady in the Wilderness" (see Irwin Silber. Songs of the Civil War. [New York: Columbia University Press, 1960]. Downing's highly syncopated treatment is interesting, as it foreshadows the cake-walk and ragtime rhythms that appear more than three decades later.

The words to "Wake Up Mose&