Subject: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Little Hawk Date: 14 Feb 07 - 05:49 PM One of the difficulties of getting through childhood was being made to sing some pretty weird songs back in primary school...songs which most of the children would probably rather not have sung, I suspect, although it remains debatable. Most of the boys in particular were reluctant to join in, as I recall. One was "Bingo". "There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-O! B-I-N-G-O...B-I-N-G-O...B-I-N-G-0...and Bingo was his name-O!" You sing that again and again and again till the teacher has mercy and finally lets you stop...or the bell rings. Singing it more than ten times in a row could really get to be a pain! It's even worse when they make you do it as a "round", and I suspect that they may do something rather like that in Chinese prisons to this day to break down the will of prisoners who won't confess. Then there was "Reuben and Rachel", a really insidious little number because it required the boys to sing one part and the girls to sing the other, back and forth, thus presumably assisting us in establishing our future societal gender roles... Girls: "Reuben, Reuben, I've been thinking...what a fine world this would be...if the men were all transported far beyond the Northern Sea" Boys' answer: "Rachel, Rachel, I've been thinking...what a strange world this would be...if the men were all transported far beyond the Northern Sea" It gets even worse after that! Most of us boys would rather have eaten sawdust for a week than sung that song...but we had no choice about the matter. You could not pass Grade 3 without singing the stupid thing. Anyone else got some golden memories along this line? |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Little Hawk Date: 14 Feb 07 - 05:51 PM Oh damn. I should've put this thread in the music section. Can someone in the management please move it there? |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Azizi Date: 14 Feb 07 - 06:51 PM Here's one I remember from elementary school {the younger grades} I call it the "Good Morning" song. I don't know what it's title really is but I still remember it was the song we sang after standing and doing 'the pledge of allegiance': Good morning to you. Good morning to you. We're all in our places with sun shining faces. Oh, this is the way to start a new day. -snip- Of course, I sang this song to my children. They didn't learn it in school. I don't think they even had a Good Morning song. |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Azizi Date: 14 Feb 07 - 07:04 PM Oh gee willikers! {that's the extent of my cursing} I do know the difference between it's and its. I learned it in school after singing the good morning song. Since I'm here, let me share another song. I remember being in one of the younger grades {maybe 2nd or 3rd grade} and there was this outdoor event for which each grade had to perform a song for the entire school, plus parents. I remember sitting high up in the bleachers listening to the performance. One grade of "little kids kids" sang this song: I know a little pussy Her coat is silver grey She lives in the meadow not very far away Although she is a pussy she'll never be a cat for she's a pussy willow. Now what do you think of that? Meow meow meow! Scat! -snip- It was many years before I figured out why some big kids sniggered at the word "pussy". I also remember that some other big kids sang "you big rat!" at the end of the song. I think they added that for its rhyming effect-notice I wrote "its" and not "it's" :o) |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Little Hawk Date: 14 Feb 07 - 07:45 PM Thanks, Azizi. I never heard of those two songs before. |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 14 Feb 07 - 08:54 PM Not only are the songs we were required to sing in school degrading, they were loaded with nonsense, fallacies, and disinformation that it took many of us years to get over. Consider the song "The Hole in the Bottom of the Sea": First, how can there be a hole in the bottom of the sea? If there's a hole in it, then it's not the bottom of the sea! The bottom of the sea is, by definition, the lowest point on the seabed. Well, if there's a hole at the lowest point, then it's the bottom of the hole that's the lowest point. The bottom of the hole in the bottom of the sea is, in fact, the bottom of the sea. There can be a hole in the seabottom, but the seabottom and the bottom of the sea are not the same thing. Then there's the matter of the frog on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea. There are so many things wrong with that picture they're hard to enumerate. First, a frog is an amphibian and breathes air as an adult and, we must presume, the frog in question is an adult since he is specifically called a "frog" and not a "tadpole". So, the frog must breath occasionally and, while most frogs can stay underwater for pretty good lengths of time, no frog can hold his breath long enough to dive from the surface of the sea all the way down to the bottom of the sea, perch upon a log, and swim back up to catch another gulp of air. Even if he tried, he'd either die of the bends or be crushed by the enormous pressure of the water. And we won't even mention the fact that frogs live in fresh water and will die if immersed in salt water. Then we have the matter of the hair on the frog on the log in the bottom of the sea. Frogs don't have hair. Period. I don't care about that old saw about "Fine as frog hair". It's a joke. I could spend an hour deconstructing that one but I've got better ways to spend an hour. And the flea. Yes, the flea on the hair on the frog on the log in hole in the bottom of the sea. Not only do frogs not have hair, they don't have fleas. And even if they did, the flea would be subject to the very same set of circumstances that make the frog's life on a log in a hole in the bottom of the sea so untenable. Even with its hard exoskeleton a flea cannot survive the horrendous pressures at the bottom of the sea. And we wonder why our kids do so poorly on standardized tests when we allow them to be exposed to such obviously non-scientific tripe as "The Hole in the Bottom of the Sea". |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Azizi Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:22 PM LOL! Bee-dubya-ell, that's a classic post. It oughta be framed! If there's not a Mudcat thread to archive classic posts like that one, there should be. |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Mooh Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:29 PM Oh Canada, God Save The Queen, and Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimey Gopher Guts, the last one unofficially on the playground...but as songs they are related...somehow. Jakob's ladder, Une Canadien Errant, and whatever else from the typical '60s songbooks. Too bad they didn't use the Canadian Book Of Penguin Folksongs. Peace, Mooh. |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Little Hawk Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:30 PM Yeah, but what about the bump on the log? I distinctly recall a bump. The frog was sitting on the bump. And there was also a wart on the frog. You're right, Bee-dub, it's gross disinformation. I think it's a conspiracy. |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Elmer Fudd Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:37 PM I remember all those songs, except O Canada.. How did we miss that one ; > ) The alternate way we sang: Reuben Reuben I've been thinking What on earth have you been drinking? Tastes like water, smells like wine, Oh my gosh it's turpentine! |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Elmer Fudd Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:39 PM Oops LOOKS like water, tastes like wine, Oh my gosh it's turpentine. Duhhhhhhh.... |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Little Hawk Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:45 PM What about the funny version of "Batman/Jingle Bells"? How did that go? |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Joe_F Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:45 PM The ants go scouting thru the grass. They hunt about as on they pass. If they should march across a worm, They tickle him and make him squirm. |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:52 PM I intentionally left out the bump on the log and the wart on the frog because they actually make sense. And I didn't bring up the matter of the log being in the hole in the bottom of the sea in the first place because even though it's pretty unlikely, I don't suppose it's impossible. By the way, regardless of what it says in the song "This Old Man", it's pretty much agreed nowadays that dogs shouldn't be given bones. Rawhide chew strips are much healthier. Unfortunately, "Give a dog a rawhide chew strip" neither scans nor fits the rhyme scheme. |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Rapparee Date: 14 Feb 07 - 10:00 PM We had singing classes. There was one about a tailor and his mouse. We also sang things like "America" "America the Beautiful" "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." But the real bit, when we REALLY got down, was in church. Every morning, the nuns would herd us all to Mass. There we would endure a Low Mass, usually, but once in a while there was a High Mass. THEN we'd all belt out such all-time hits as "Tantum Ergo" and "Gloria" in Gregorian Chant! Yes! From grades 1 through 8, we were singing...Latin! The really good stuff come at funerals, IF we were allowed to attend. THEN they'd sing "Dies Irae" and we'd all get funky from the incense! I won't even go into the Solemn High Masses or siging the Litany of the Saints (in Latin, of course) during our walks around the block during Rogation Days or the Stations of the Cross during Lent. Oh, man. Woodstock was nothin' to my grade school days! |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: number 6 Date: 14 Feb 07 - 10:04 PM doh, ra, me, fa, so, la, te, doh. biLL |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: KT Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:37 PM There was a tailor and a mouse Hi diddle um cum feedle They lived together in one house Hi diddle um cum feedle Hi diddle um cum ty rum tum tum Through the town of Ramsey Hi diddle um cum over the lea Hi diddle um cum feedle. That one, Rap? I could go on but....you get the picture.....and htat should be enough to have it stuck in your head for a while. KT |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Peace Date: 15 Feb 07 - 12:34 AM The National Anthem. |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Elmer Fudd Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:06 AM Azizi, we used to sing the good morning song: Good morning to you! Good morning to you! You look kind of drowsy, In fact you look lousy. Is that the right way To start the new day? |
Subject: RE: BS: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Wordsmith Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:53 AM Rapaire, you take me back. I was recently watching a travel program on PBS, and there was this Cathedral...I think it was in Spain...I wasn't really paying much attention to the show...but, I perked up when I saw eight men swinging up and down on these ropes that were pulling the largest incense container I've ever seen! Talk about nausea! How could anybody breathe in that place? We used to look forward to funeral masses...less school time. I did love the Dies Irae. But let's not talk about Lent. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Joe Offer Date: 15 Feb 07 - 02:38 AM I hated hand-motion songs. I thought they were dumb, maybe because I could never get the motions straight. And the dumbest of all was "Under the spreading chestnut tree" because both the motions AND the song were dumb.
Where I knelt down upon my knee We were as happy as could be Under the spreading chestnut tree spreading - spread arms above head chest - strike chest nut - knock on top of head But hey, I can sing "Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" really fast. -Joe- |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Wilfried Schaum Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:06 AM We had singing lessons at school and sang some really fine folksongs, or poems by famous poets. Often we started the English lesson, after a look out of the window, with: Good morning, good morning, Oh what a sunny morning! We laugh and play And sing all day This sunny, sunny morning. Sunny was replaced by rainy or foggy, depending on the wheather outside. I must say, I enjoyed this song. We had an excellent and motivating English teacher (R.I.P.) |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 15 Feb 07 - 04:08 AM We used to sing Clementine in Latin. My mission for today is to find the words. We also sang Quand trois poules vont aux champs. I loved: From the Cotswolds and the Chilterns From your fountains and your springs Flow down o London river To the seagulls' silver wings etc. Actually, I loved some (not all) of the songs we had to sing at school. What was disappointing for me was not being allowed in the choir at primary school - it gave me a complex for ever after, however it didn't stop me joining in. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Scrump Date: 15 Feb 07 - 04:36 AM Good morning to you. Good morning to you. We're all in our places with sun shining faces. Oh, this is the way to start a new day. That reminds me of the Laurel & Hardy film Pardon Us, where they end up in jail for bootlegging, and attend a prisoners' class where they all sing: Good Morning to you Good Morning to you Good Morning dear Teacher Good Morning to you One of my favourite L&H films, is that :D |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Metchosin Date: 15 Feb 07 - 04:43 AM Generally, when I was little, I really enjoyed the weekly musical escape from regular class stuff, but whoever set the curriculum for some of the songs was a bit bent. Why anyone would expect to get a class containing 10 and 11 year old boys and some naughty girls, through the verse, Ahoy, Ahoy, the balls whistle free from HMS Pinafore, without snickers and guffaws is beyond me. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Azizi Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:34 AM LOL! Unless you were a student in the school I attended, it's interesting to know that other schools had their students sing that Good Morning song. I love your parody of it. I can't remember kids making up one in my school. But at least we came up with a 'risque' jingle from our principal's last name. His name was Mr. Ushry. So kids would sing "Mr Ush-er-ree/toilet flush-er-ree". {repeat as many times as you dared}. I'm not sure if Mr. Ushery ever heard that chant. If he did, I hoped he smiled at our creativity and didn't get angry about it. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:54 AM What does LOL stand for? I haven't liked to ask before in case I seem stupid! |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Scrump Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:55 AM "Loads of Laughs" |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Scrump Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:59 AM or "Lots of Laughs" (etc.) Talking of singing the wrong words to songs, I don't remember doing that in school music lessons - we would have got whacked for that! But we used to sing different words to hymns during school assembly. I can't remember any for the moment, but I can remember during teh hymn "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken" we used to sing "...ever flows their thirst to a sausage" (instead of "to assuage"), which for some reason, usually caused many of us to "corpse" (to borrow an acting expression). Can anyone remember any other hymns being 'adapted' in this way? |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Linda Goodman Zebooker Date: 15 Feb 07 - 08:02 AM In Girls Glee Club we were forced to sing a sachharine song which included the words, "like a zephyr through the window". We replaced it with "like a heifer through the window". Linda |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 15 Feb 07 - 08:11 AM Hey, we were lucky, I guess. I never thought of any of the songs as ones we HAD to sing. The ones that I remember most are: Oh, I am a lonesome cowboy, all on the western plains (pretty much the same version as the one on the Anthology Of American Folk music A Spanish Cavalier, while on his retreat, on his guitar played a tune, dear Barnacle Bill The Sailor (with the boys singing in a very manly voice) Do ye Ken, John Peel Sweet Betsy From Pike Sante Fe Trail ( Plod along plod, on the Sante Fe Trail) I thought that they were all good songs then, and I think that they still are. They gave me a love of folk music, as just another part of my life. Jerry |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 15 Feb 07 - 08:14 AM Oh yeah, and how can I forget Erie Canal? It was one of my favorites, and is still fun to sing. And I've Been Working On The railroad. I was in a wonderful workshop at the North Country Folk Festival in the Northern Penninsula of Michigan many years ago with the great title: "Songs We All Know, But Are Too Cool To Sing." My friend Jerry Rau did A,B,C,D,E,F,G. He is a wonderful man with absolutely no discernible ego. Jerry |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: muppitz Date: 15 Feb 07 - 08:20 AM Oh my most classic Primary School songs were along the lines of: "5 little speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log, eating the most delicious bugs (Yum, Yum)...." "10 green bottles hanging on a wall...." Anything by the Beatles, although at the time we were too young to have a clue who they were and in my school assemblies most notably we used to sing "Wind in the Willows" which I was told to sing in a session at Sidmouth by one of my teachers who happened to be there. I was about 10 years old and petrified! muppitz x |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Fidjit Date: 15 Feb 07 - 09:09 AM LOL Lots of Love surely?? Chas |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Flash Company Date: 15 Feb 07 - 10:52 AM The Talor and the Mouse quoted earlier I remember, also a very bowdlerised version of The Crab Fish. Billy boy came out as............ And me Nancy tickled me fanny, FC |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: mack/misophist Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:02 AM No one's mentioned the song I remember with the most affection, The Keeper. I could sing up a storm in the third grade. No longer. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: GUEST,Pig O'Malley Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:03 AM Loved the deconstruct of Frog, Log, Flea, bottom of Sea. Dreary old "God Help the Queen", or something similar. Then there was that curious, repetitive, thumping one, which we got for a couple of years; "Dah-Dahs-Dah-Dah, Dah-Dahs-Dah-Dah, Dah-Dahs-Dah-Dadah, Dah-Dahs-Dah-Dadah..." and so on, right up to, "Twelve-Twelves-are-Adadadah...." |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Little Hawk Date: 15 Feb 07 - 12:07 PM We used to sing "Barnacle Bill" too, with the boys and girls divided up, of course. Like you say, the boys were expected to sing Bill's part in very manly voices. That was the children's song which, more than any other, lent itself to obscene parodies composed later by nasty young men in their spare time as an extracurricular activity. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Dave Hunt Date: 15 Feb 07 - 12:36 PM From: Little Hawk - PM Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:45 PM What about the funny version of "Batman/Jingle Bells"? How did that go ======================================= Jingle bells Batman smells,Robins gone away Catwoman lost her knickers on the M6 motorway LOL = I always understood as Laughing Out Loud See:- LOL - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia LOL (Internet slang), meaning "Laugh(ing) Out Loud"; from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOL" ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOL AND :-http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,88686-page,1/article.html Dave |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Dave Hunt Date: 15 Feb 07 - 12:41 PM Songs in school - I do remember -(well a bit of it) a turgid song called Hope the Hermit Once in a blithe green wood Lived a hermit wise and good Whom the folks from far and near For his counsel sought Knowing well that what he taught The dreariest of hearts would cheer YUK! Dave |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Rapparee Date: 15 Feb 07 - 12:55 PM That's the one, KT. Of course we did "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" in Kindergarten. Poor Mr. Barrett, who taught Phys Ed, was known far and wide as Mr. Bare Ass. We also sang at home and while riding in the car. THOSE were better songs: Ach, du Lieber Augustine Red River Valley Du, Du Liegst Mir Im Herzen (sorry if I'm butchering the German) Clementine Down in the Valley On Top of Old Smokey Sailing Down the River Shine on, Harvest Moon Billy Boy She'll be comin' round the mountain Frere Jacques Sur la pont, d'Avignon and lots of others. Still, there was nothin' like a good funeral! |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Little Hawk Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:03 PM The Batman version I recall was: "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg! The Batmobile has lost its wheel, and...(?)" I can't remember how it finished. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: saulgoldie Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:35 PM I always thought that LOL was "laugh out loud." There is also LMAO, and ROFL, and the combination: ROFLMAO. (Laught my ass off; roll on the floor laughing.) I fergit, but there are several Internet places where they define most of the popular acronyms. Or "initialisms" as they are more properly called. (An acronym can be pronounced as a word, while an initialism is just the first letters of a series of words. Don't give me any of that! I am a charter member of the grammar police force, and I can have you arrested! ;-) ) And now, back to the thread which is already in progress. (Antelope Freeway, 1/4 mile...Shadow Valley condoms: if you lived here, you'd be home now...) |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: GUEST,Bubba Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:54 PM Farmer in the Dell, Pop Goes the Weasel, Old McDonald, can't remember more right now. This was grade school in the US in the early 50's. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 15 Feb 07 - 02:13 PM Anyone mentioned "Found a Peanut" yet? I don't recall ever being led in its singing by a teacher, but I remember some teachers allowing students to pick and lead songs of their own choice, and it was a favorite. It is totally abhorrent, sadistic, and without redeeming social value. In other words, it's just the sort of song kids love. To the tune of "Clementine": Found a peanut, found a peanut Found a peanut just now I just now found a peanut, Found a peanut, just now. It was rotten, it was rotten... (continues as above) Ate it anyway, ate it anyway... I'll spare you any further lyrics, but after eating the rotten peanut, the kid got sick, called the doctor, died, and went to heaven. Well, you'd think it would end there, wouldn't you? Wrong! The song can be drug out until eternity by making up one's own verses. And, since the made up verses in question usually come from the minds of eight-year-olds, there's no requirement that they make a lot of sense. Wanna have the kid be reborn, make his little sister eat a worm and succumb to irreversible diarrhea? No problem! I remember one of my grade-school teachers banning the song from being sung in her class. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Little Hawk Date: 15 Feb 07 - 02:15 PM Wow. That is downright horrifying. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Ferrara Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:10 PM yeah Bee-dubya-ell, there were an awful lot of verses including Went to Heaven Got Thrown Out Went the Other Way Got put to work Started Shoveling Found a Peanut ... and it all starts over I always reserve LOL for "Laughed Out Loud." I'm with Jerry Rasmussen, I enjoyed almost all the songs we sang in elementary and middle school. Only trouble was, until I started taking piano lessons I had absolutely no sense of the difference between one pitch and another! So I was the only kid in third grade who had to miss recess while the music teacher tried to teach me the difference between singing higher and singing louder! Well the piano lessons made the difference for some reason. Some of my favorites that I still remember were John Peel White Coral Bells, and Tulip, which was another round The Vesper Hymn (also a round) The Quilting Party (I still play and sing that one, also John Peel) Old Folks at Home We did a lot of singing in the car and my father taught us the Hole in the Bottom of the Sea, and Oh You Can't Get to Heaven, etc, and various cousins taught us things like "There were three jolly fishermen." There were three jolly fishermen (2) Fisher Fisher men-men-men (2) There were three jolly fishermen ... The sailed away to Amsterdam Amster Amster dam-dam-dam etc ... of course we loved saying "dam-dam-dam" and not getting scolded for it! This is not precisely how it went,it's just to give the idea. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Ferrara Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:11 PM Hmmm... I am sure there were songs in school that bored me to death but I think I have just forgotten them and kept the ones I liked best. |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Azizi Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:43 PM Well, I admit that I used to think LOL meant "Lots of Love" and was thrilled when someone included that in messages he wrote to me. But then I learned that acronym's real meaning, and was devastated, I tell you I was truly devastated. ;o) |
Subject: RE: Songs we were made to sing in school... From: Alec Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:45 PM Lots Of Love to ya Azizi. :-) |
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