Folks, I'm glad to be able to truthfully say that I missed 95% of those songs you all seem to know.

(I guess that's just one of the many perks of being into trad folk! ;-)

But you have missed the absolute worst, saccharine, treacly, and unabashedly dumb song of all. I say that BECAUSE it was taken to heart by so many folkies who certainly should've known better!! ---

I am, of course, talking about the completely insipid song that led the way from the languid old folk era when urban navel-gazing singer/songwriters, writing about love on the school bus and other aspects of pimply infatuation angst, were few and far between---.

The song I am thinking about, even though thoughts of it sicken me to the point of losing my lunch, got grown men to go beating their drums (among other things) out in the woods with Robert Bly. Clutching their new copy of "Iron John" (among other things), they pranced around like wanna-be ballerina Neanderthals and sang the national anthem of the biological-orientation-and-animal husbandry movement:
Wa wa wa waltzing---"waltzing with bears"
My uncle Walter goes "waltzing with bears"...

Sadly, I fear I need say no more!!!!! But this song (and armies made up of, unbelievably, ALL VOLUNTEERS), is what folks mean when they talk about how the world is dumbing down !!! It does leave one nostalgic for the Viet Nam era. -- Back then we at least knew enough NOT to go!

Art