Back Home Again in Indiana
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"(Back Home Again in) Indiana" is a song composed by Ballard MacDonald and James Hanley in 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.
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".
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 very 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 are undergird the Charlie Parker/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).
In most years since 1972, it has been an annual tradition at the Indianapolis 500 automobile race for actor and singer Jim Nabors to perform "(Back Home Again in) Indiana" with backing from the Purdue University Marching Band. It is usually performed immediately following the Star-Spangled Banner, and the playing of Taps.
The song is also featured prominently at the Indiana State Museum where a steam clock plays the tune at the top of every hour. [1]
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 Arnols Music's Newsleader and "Counterpoint with Indiana" (aka WISH-TV News Music Package) and 615 Muisic's "In-Sink (V.4 Indiana)" are news music themes that have the "Back Home Again in Indiana" Signature.
Contents |
[edit] Lyrics
[edit] First 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
[edit] Chorus
- Back home again in Indiana,
- And it seems that I can see
- The gleaming candlelight, still burning bright,
- Through the sycamores for me.
- The new-mown hay sends all its fragrance
- Through the fields I used to roam.
- When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash,
- How I long for my Indiana home.
[edit] Second verse
- 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)
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