O'Boyle, it's not absurd at all, given the meaning of the song, as indicated by the verses, as sung by Pete Seeger (first lines only, without the repititions):

My mommy said not to put beans in my ears.

Now why would I want to put beans in my ears?

Hey, maybe it's fun to put beans in my ears!

Hey, Mom, look at me, I've got beans in my ears.

"That's nice, son, just don't put beans in your ears."

I think that all grown-ups have beans in their ears.

Missus Jay's boy Elbie [LBJ} has beans in his ears.

The song, therefore, is about authority figures not listening to what they don't want to hear, something very relevant to the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (thanks, Jerry, but wouldn't that mean that Mumia's father is Jamal, not his son?) in which the judge who presided over his railroading in the first place is the judge, under Pennsylvania law, who hears his appeals.

The irrelevancy was the note bemoaning the mistreatment (!) of Bill Gates which preceded my bringing up Mumia. --seed

My first posting of this seems to have disappeared, as have several other of my postings. And Joe, I don't care if it is in the trad, I needed the lyrics on the page to make my point. (do you follow every link when you read postings?)