Barry, the old Boy Scout Songbooks have become collectables. People get big bucks for those things now. They were pretty good songbooks Way Back When, but they've edited most of the fun songs out of the newer editions, for fear of being politically incorrect. We renegade scout leaders have preserved the canon of disgusting and obnoxious songs, passing them on by photocopy or word of mouth. As you say, the old songbooks had chanteys and all sorts of good stuff. I'm afraid nobody has tried to continue their use in Scouts. I tried to teach some of the old songs at a leader training session once, and was told to stick to the official songbook after that.
-Joe Offer-