When Mark Lovewell and I were working on Songs of South Street--Street of Ships, we ran into trouble with "Blow, Boys, Blow." Specifically, the couplet: "And who do you think was the captain of her, Why Holy Joe, the Nigger lover" was troublesome. We called Pete Seeger for advice. His response was that if the word was essential to the meaning of the song, we should include it. If not, we should find a way around it.

Uncle Ned, as mentioned above, changes when the objectionable words are changed. By that criterion, they should be left in when the song is sung.

Recently, the song "All Mixed Up" was deleted from the curriculum at my son's school. The line, "How many Romans had dark curly hair Before they brought slaves from Africa," was considered objectionable by one black parent, who sold the objection to the music teacher. [He's a nice guy but not willing to stand up for the facts.] When I mentioned this to Pete, he was irritated that anyone would object to historical fact. This does raise the question, though, of whether or not the bowdlerizers should be allowed to censor the truth out of our material.