ADD:FortyTwo Kids/Teacher's Lament(16 Tons parody)

Subject: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: thespionage
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 01:23 AM

I heard of a Pete Seeger version of Sixteen Tons about schoolteachers, which I believe was called "Sixteen Kids" and included the line "I owe my soul to the youth of the state." Could someone post the full song?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: Flash Company
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 10:30 AM

It's called 'Forty two Kids', I have all the words somewhere and will post them tomorrow if no-one beats me to it and the 'cat is behaving.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: Wesley S
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 01:26 PM

I think that was printed in the last issue of Sing Out. It might even still be on the newstands. It was in the folk process column.

Subject: Lyr Add: FORTY-TWO KIDS (tune: Sixteen Tons)
From: Flash Company
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 04:51 AM

'Forty two kids'
Submitted to Sing Out way back in the '60s by Earl Robinson, attributed to an anonymous teacher in Arkansas:-

Some people say a teacher is made out of steel,
But a teacher's made out of stuff that can feel,
A mind and a body and a tortured soul
The ability to teach the shy and the bold

I teach forty two kids and what do I get
Another day older and deeper in debt
St Peter don't you call me to that Golden Gate,
I owe my soul to the youth of the state.

I was born one morning it was cloudy and cool,
I picked up my register and walked to the school,
I entered forty-two names on my class roll,
And the Super said ' Well bless my soul'

I teach 42 kids and what do I get,
Another day older and deeper in debt,
St Peter don't you call me to the Heavenly Shore
I've got 42 students and they're sending me more.

There's a child on every seat from wall to wall,
If they send any more they'll have to stand in the hall,
They're breathing down my neck and treading on my toes
They're telling me their joys and I'm sharing all their woes

Chorus as after verse 1

Well the bell rings at four but my bed's not made
I still have all of these papers to grade
The faculty meets at seven they say
And tomorrow ther's a meeting of the PTA

I teach 42 kids and what do I get,
Younger in heart and nothing to regret,
St Peter don't you call me 'cos I can't leave here
I'll have 42 kids again next year!

Give or take the odd word, thats it.

I used to sing a slightly abbreviated version which I anglicised a bit for UK audiences.

To quote Bob Copper 'Jolly good song, jolly well sung, jolly good company! Give the old beggar some beer!

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 07:10 AM

Good work!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: thespionage
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 07:15 PM

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: thespionage
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 07:22 PM

I'd like to see the Anglicized (Anglicised) version too!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: Flash Company
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 11:38 AM

thespionage.... Wow, you really want blood!
OK.. Verse two, The super changes to headmaster.
Verse three omitted.
Verse four;-

Well the bell rings at four but my day's not through,
I've still got a mountain of marking to do
There's a seminar meeting at seven, they say
And tomorrow there's a meeting of the PTA.

Choruses as earlier post.

Nice to be wanted

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: thespionage
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 04:49 PM

Thanks. Of course!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 11:25 PM

Great parody. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: Flash Company
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 09:54 AM

I'm thirty years older now, if I was doing my version today I would change 'seminar' in the last verse to 'governer's', think it makes more sense (Orless, depending on your view on beaurocracy)

FC

Subject: Lyr Add: TWO TRILLION TONS (J Gossett, L Larson)
From: oldhippie
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 09:58 AM

Here's a new parody (as recorded by David Ford):

TWO TRILLION TONS
(Jim Gossett & Lars Larson)

Obama got elected, now there is no end
To Democrats who want to tax and spend
Tax and spend us into bankruptcy
With a tax cheat running our treasury

You spend two trillion bucks
What do ya get?
No recovery
But deeper in debt
Saint Peter better call me 'fore its too late
I owe my soul to the welfare state

Obama is a leftist, this he can't deny
Coming from the center was a great big lie
Karl Marx' Manifesto is his playbook
And you and me soon will be on the hook

You're spending two trillion bucks
In unsecured cash
Soon the dollar
Will be pure trash
Our bondholders we had to appease
We owe our soul to the Red Chinese

Obama and his people are making a mess
Bernanke's fired up the printin' press
Printing money that doesn't exist
No wonder America is getting peeved

Two trillion bucks
And they ain't done yet
Obama and Pelosi
Piling up the debt
I work hard for my money this I don't deserve
We owe our soul to the Federal Reserve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Parody of Sixteen Tons by Pete Seeger
From: Severn
Date: 12 Sep 09 - 02:00 PM

I always thought there should've been one written about Theodore Bikel, called "You Speak Sixteen Tongues".....

Subject: ADD: Teacher's Lament (parody of Sixteen Tons)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Jan 23 - 10:40 PM

From Elizabeth Block:

TEACHER'S LAMENT

1. Some people say a teacher's made out of steel,
Her mind can think, but her body can't feel.
Iron and steel and hickory tea,
Frowns and gripes from nine to three.

You teach six full hours and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
You pay your dues in this and that,
Then for twenty-nine days your billfold's flat.

2. I woke one morning, it was cloudy and cool,
I picked up my register and started for school.
I wrote eighty-four names on the home room roll,
And the principal said, "Well, bless my soul!"

You teach six full hours and what do you get?
Cuts and bruises and dirt and sweat.
I got two black eyes and can hardly walk.
When I turned my back, there came the chalk.

3. I got eighty-four kids and forty-two seats,
Sixty are talking, while twenty-four sleep.
I can hardly get 'em all through the classroom door,
And if I don't watch out they'll give me twenty-four more.

You teach six full hours to eighty-four brats
And all of them yelling like dogs and cats.
They're cutting on the seats and writing on the walls,
Hugging and kissing n the upstairs halls.

4. The last bell rings and I start for the door,
My head is ringing and my feet are sore.
I taught six full hours—my day is made,
But I still have three hundred papers to grade.

You teach six full hours and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
I'll go to St. Peter, but I just can't stay—
I gotta come back to the P.T.A.

Edith Fowke and Joe Glazer, Songs of Work and Protest, pp. 141-142. Words by an unknown Arkansas teacher.

Subject: RE: ADD:FortyTwo Kids/Teacher's Lament(16 Tons parody)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jan 23 - 07:08 PM

I believe my max was 52 ... some on the floor and those that came early had seats on the counter, desks for 40.

California secondary grades 8-12 public schools, all on one campus. The counselors called it, "class leveling.". The juniors and seniors saw the 13 year old as "fresh meat." One year later the program for " SAM school age mothers" was created on the campus, 9th graders could identify the cry of their child through the folding partition walls. Never try to come between a mother and her child. At that time the state made payments for up to 5 kids under age 18 to one mother. Five daughters living at home ... that is a true welfare state that makes the "Irish woes" grovel in humility.