"Steamboat Bill" is a 1910 song with music by the

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

group The

Leighton Brothers The Leighton Brothers (alt. "Leighton and Leighton") was the name of a vaudeville performance team consisting of brothers Frank Leighton and Bert Leighton.. They also composed various songs, most notably "Steamboat Bill," the tune used in the Disn ...

and lyrics by Ren Shields which became one of the first hit recordings in the United States through its 1911 recording by Arthur Collins. "Steamboat Bill" notably inspired two major works of American film with long-lasting influence: the 1928

Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...

film ''

Steamboat Bill, Jr. ''Steamboat Bill, Jr.'' is a 1928 silent comedy film starring Buster Keaton. Released by United Artists, the film is the final product of Keaton's independent production team and set of gag writers. It was not a box-office success and became th ...

'' and '' Steamboat Willie'', the first

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

cartoon.

Content

The song is an extended reference to a famed 1870 race down the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

between two

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

s, the ''

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nor ...

'' and the '' Natchez''. It imagines a fictional steamboat, the ''Whippoorwill'', captained by "Mr. Steamboat Bill," who is determined to beat the record of the ''Robert E. Lee''. He threatens his mates with death if they do not follow his orders and commands them to use

cargo Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tra ...

as fuel if they run out of coal. A gambler from

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

(home of the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-yea ...

) places a bet against Bill that the ''Whippoorwill'' will be unable to beat the record. Bill's obsession with speed causes the

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be ...

to explode, killing them both. The final verses imagine Bill and the gambler ascending to heaven, and his wife telling their children she will seek out a new husband in the railroad industry.

Analysis

A 1965 article in the '' Journal of American Folklore'' refers to it as a " pseudo-Negro" song and a parody of "

The Ballad of Casey Jones "The Ballad of Casey Jones", also known as "Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer" or simply "Casey Jones", is a traditional American folk song about railroad engineer Casey Jones and his death at the controls of the train he was driving. It tells o ...

". More recently, R. John Brockmann has called into question the time period the song is set in, pointing out that boiler explosions had not been considered an issue for steamboat captains since the 1880s. Brockmann suggests that the song recalls memories of the mid-19th century when such explosions were common.

Recordings

Arthur Collins, a

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...

singer, sang for the first recording in 1911. The song was a longtime hit in

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It origin ...

and was covered as late as 1951, by the Delmore Brothers.

Cultural impact

Bolstered by the Buster Keaton and Mickey Mouse references, the song created lasting interest in steamboats and showboats. At least one showboat was actually named after the fictional ''Whippoorwill''. This boat met a disastrous fate when it was hit by the

1978 Whippoorwill tornado The 1978 Whippoorwill tornado, also known as the Whippoorwill Disaster was a tornado that struck Osage County, Kansas on June 17, 1978. The tornado, which was on the ground for , struck a tourist boat called the ''Whippoorwill'', causing it to cap ...

, killing 16 passengers and crew.

References

{{reflist Songs about boats Songs about death Songs based on actual events 1910 songs