Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?

Subject: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 09:57 AM

My good friend Jan from the South Street Seaport crowd sent me this provocative story of how a cherished traditional shanty has been reconfigured:

"What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor?" lyrics has been changed to remove alcohol references.(Published: 6:30AM GMT 30 Jan 2009, The Telegraph)

The lyrics of the popular sea shanty "What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor?" have been changed by a Government-funded charity to remove any references to alcohol.

Bookstart, a national programme to encourage children to read, has amended the words of the song, penned in 1891(sic!), from "drunken sailor" to "grumpy pirate".

The sobered-down version of the rhyme has been criticised by the Campaign for Real Education (CfRE), which believes children should hear the full version.

Nick Seaton, from CfRE, said: "It is political correctness gone mad and totally unacceptable.
"Changing the words is simply trying to rewrite the history and tradition of this country."

Parents are also angry that the shanty has been axed from songsheets at libraries across the UK.

The new version, What Shall We Do With the Grumpy Pirate?, was written for council-run "baby bounce and rhyme" sessions put on for parents and children.

Lines removed from the original ditty include "Put him in the brig until he's sober", "Keelhaul him and pass the bottle", "Round with the rum and scotch and whiskey".

The politically correct version instead has lines like "Do a little jig and make him smile", "Make him walk the plank till he starts to wobble" and "Tickle him till he starts to giggle".

Caroline Graham, 29, attended a session with her son Jacob, two, at her local library in Rainham, Kent.
She said: "I don't know why they bother sometimes. It is clearly meant to be politically correct but surely children that young can't be offended by a harmless rhyme.

"It makes me angry that during the current economic climate people are being paid probably more than my husband earns to come up with stuff like this.

"It's pathetic really."

Katherine Soloman, spokesman for Bookstart, said she could see how some people would think the change was politically correct.

But she said the change was to fit in with a "pirate theme" it was promoting.

The new version:

What Shall We Do With the Grumpy Pirate?

What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
What shall we do with the grumpy pirate?
Early in the morning.

Hooray and up she rises,
Hooray and up she rises,
Hooray and up she rises,
Early in the morning.

Do a little jig and make him smile,
Do a little jig and make him smile,
Do a little jig and make him smile,
Early in the morning.

Hooray and up she rises,
Hooray and up she rises,
Hooray and up she rises,
Early in the morning.

Make him walk the plank till he starts to wobble,
Make him walk the plank till he starts to wobble,
Make him walk the plank till he starts to wobble,
Early in the morning. (CHO)

Tickle him till he starts to giggle,
Tickle him till he starts to giggle,
Tickle him till he starts to giggle,
Early in the morning. (CHO)

I'm not so sure about that verse about "tickling." Some would consider "tickling" abuse.

And "walking the plank" is pretty scary; one might get a splinter!

Anyone want to lead this version the next time they're outward bound on a three-skys'l-yarder?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 11:42 AM

Bookstart trying to make piracy (a crime) acceptable to young children! Should be ashamed of themselves. What shall we do with a stupid censor?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pira
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 11:46 AM

"What shall we do with a stupid censor?"

Shave his belly with a rusty Sawzall!

Arrgggh!
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: ossonflags
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 11:51 AM

Cant beat a bit o'culture.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: Seayaker
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 03:53 PM

Looking at this in the context of a "Baby Bounce and Rhyme" session the new verse is ok IMO. Let's not get too carried away,the press, even the dear old Torygraph will try to raise a bit of heat with a good p.c. story. People will be singing the (not politically) correct version for years to come.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pira
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 08:14 PM

1) Why don't they just make up their own, new song? It's not that hard.

2) None of the lines they deleted sound very traditional, anyways.

3) I could swear a very similar story was posted on Mudcat a few years ago.:)

4) I wonder, if asked, what kids would say was the definition of a "pirate". Perhaps "A guy that wears a thing on his head and says 'arrrr'."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: meself
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 08:27 PM

"3) I could swear a very similar story was posted on Mudcat a few years ago.:)"

We get at least three or four of these every year. And, need I add that "very similar" comments are made every time? Anyway, there was a thread on "Grumpy Pirate" about six months (or was it years?) ago. Much sputtering and speechifying. And one or two timid voices suggesting that maybe, just possibly, the world would carry on ....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: Don Firth
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 08:42 PM

Well do I remember a songfest back around 1957 when about a dozen of us got going on "Drunken Sailor," starting with the verses usually found in songbooks. When we ran out of those, we started making them up. Not real difficult to do, because all one had to do was make up one line, and by the time it got back to you, you were usually all set.

We kept that sucker going for well over a half-hour, each new verse raunchier than the next!

Too bad we didn't have a tape recorder going at that session.

One the other hand, maybe it's just as well. . . .

Don Firth

P. S. Some PC merchants never have bowel movements. That's why they're so full of it!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 11:08 AM

This was in a thread a while back. Someone writes some new words to a well-known tune to make a fun music-and-movement activity for toddlers. Non story.

You're not going to sell newspapers with stuff like that. You've got to have a taxpayers-money-wasting liberal elite "trying to rewrite the history and tradition of this country". Can't say they've put a new version of a song in a songsheet. No, the old one was "axed" (much better, sounds more like they've gone and burned the non-PC songsheets) Cue quote from angry parent, along with obligatory speculation as to how much money this must have cost (that could no doubt have been used to give Caroline Graham's hard-working husband a tax cut). Jeez, I'm surprised they didn't get a bit about removing references to alcohol "in case it offends Muslims" - someone missed a trick there.

It must be really hard to go through life getting offended by stuff like this. Don't these peoples knees get worn out by that constant jerking?

One thing I would like to know- what is the so-called "Campaign For Real Education"'s problem with a national programme to encourage early literacy?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 01:15 PM

As a kid famously responded when Charlie O'Hegarty once asked for contributions from the audience, "Drag him 'cross the deck 'til he's full of splinters."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: Bugsy
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 06:57 PM

These people just don't get the point do they?

If they only listened to the song, they would see that it's just the thing that children should be learning and singing.

The message being "This is what happens to you if you drink too much alcohol."

Telling any young lad that you'll shave his balls with a rusty razor should be enough to put him off booze for life!

CHeers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pira
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 07:49 PM

Bugsy-

Not to mention any young lady!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: Soldier boy
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 09:24 PM

Dad's grumpy again and he's brought lots of men
And their wives home from the:
'correct parenting/let's teach kids about sex at the age of 6/understanding of homosexual/lesbian tendancies/acceptance of different cultural faiths and beliefs - and don't give a jot about your own cultural heritage and tradition because it doesn't mean a damn anymore' class.

Jesus, when will it all end?

My will to live and ability to love this country (the UK) is evaporating fast!!!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 07:05 PM

"Do a little jig and make him smile",
"Make him walk the plank till he starts to wobble"
"Tickle him till he starts to giggle".

Those lines sound a lot dodgier than anything in traditional versions...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: GUEST,koolgal98
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 07:01 AM

make him marry katy perry
make him marry katy perry
make him marry katy perry
er-lae in the morning

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pira
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 07:47 AM

For them who ain't celeb savvy: click here at your own risk!

Geeezzz!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 01:30 PM

As it says in a couple of the captions: KAty Perry NOT!

Clean his mind with a broken metaphor.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: What Shall We Do with the Grumpy Pirate?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 03:51 PM

So violence is preferable to alcohol? Explain to the kiddies what keelhauling was...in bloody detail.