Chords Req: songs by John McCutcheon

Subject: Lyr Add: KINDERGARTEN WALL (John McCutcheon
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 May 20 - 11:13 AM

KINDERGARTEN WALL
Words and music by John McCutcheon
As recorded by John McCutcheon on "Mail Myself to You" (1988) and "Water From Another Time" (1989)

1. When I was a little kid not so long ago,
I had to learn a lot of stuff I didn't even know:
How to dress myself, tie my shoes, how to jump a rope,
How to smile for a picture without looking like a dope,
But of all the things I learned, my favorite of them all
Was a little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall.

CHORUS: Of all you learn here, remember this the best:
Don't hurt each other and clean up your mess.
Take a nap everyday, wash before you eat.
Hold hands, stick together, look before you cross the street.
Remember the seed in the little paper cup:
First the root goes down and then the plant grows up!

2. Well, it was first, second, third grade, fourth grade, too,
Where I had to learn the big things the big kids do,
To add, subtract, and multiply, read and write and play,
How to sit in a little uncomfortable desk for nearly half a day,
But of all the things they taught me, of all the great and small,
Still my favorite was the poem on the kindergarten wall. CHORUS

3. But lately, I've been worried as I look around and see
An awful lot of grown-ups acting foolish as can be.
I know there's lots of things to know I haven't mastered yet,
Still, it seems there's real important stuff that grown-ups soon forget,
So I'm sure we'd all be better off if we would just recall
That little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall. CHORUS

©1988 by John McCutcheon. Published by Appalsongs (ASCAP).

- - -
I think McCutcheon was inspired by an essay in this book:

Fulghum, Robert. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989.

but I think the essay was originally published in some other publication in 1986.

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: rich r
Date: 27 Jan 98 - 10:33 PM

Joe,

Braves were in Atlanta in 1966. Seattle Pilots, a new team in 1969, moved to Milwaukee after one season and were the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. Both the 69 Pilots and the 70 Brewers were bad teams and finished 33 games out. However the Pilots finished last but the Brewers finished 9 games ahead of the White Sox. I didn't remember this part, but looked it up in my Baseball Encyclopedia. I think this ios about enough arcane trivia

rich r

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jan 98 - 09:43 PM

Rich, I am truly humbled. I stand in awe of your memory.
I have to admit I wasn't there for the whole time. I moved to Milwaukee from Detroit in 1958 when I was ten, and didn't know anything at all about the National League before that. But the last Braves game I attended was while I was in high school, so I shoulda known. Were they still in Milwaukee in the Summer of 1966? I remember taking summer camp kids to a ball game at County Stadium sometime between 1966 and 1970, but I don't recall if it was a Braves or Brewers game. I didn't have time to watch the game - I was watching kids.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: rich r
Date: 23 Jan 98 - 06:34 PM

Joe, You ouhter know better. Braves came to Milwaukee (the "l" is silent) in 1953. Opening day at County Stadium, Billy Bruton hit an extra inning HR for the win. They moved to Atlanta in 1966, so that make 13 glorious years. The one vice I was permitted on school nights was to sometimes lie in bed with the Braves game on the radio. I remember hearing Hank Aaron's 11th inning HR in St.Louis in Sept of 1957 that clinched the NL pennant. As a kid lefty, I used to wind up like Spahnie. Nobody does that any more. Bob Hazel came up from the minors in the summer of 1957. He played in about 40 games the rest of the way and hit .403 in about 130-140 at bats. Next season he hit under .200 at the start and disappeared from the majors. Nippy Jones was a journeyman veteran also picked up in 1957. He is most noted for keeping his shoes shined. In the World Series he got hit on the foot and started down to first base. Umpire said c'mon back, you were'nt hit. Nippy tells the umpire to look at the ball which had a big smudge of shoe polish on it. Nippy got first base and the Braves went on to defeat the arrogant Yankees.

I love Paxton's song and sing it fairly often

rich r

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: Susan from California
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 11:40 AM

On the LA stations this morning was the teaser "Are the Raiders coming back to LA? News at 11" Please , please NO THANKS. Stay in Oakland. argh. I hate it when teams move with the one exception being when the NY football giants left NY and moved to NJ. As a former "joisey goil" I loved it. (And I still love the football Giants to distraction)

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: BK
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 11:05 PM

Spin-off (spin-out?) form the subject; you guys ought to love Tom Paxton's great baseball song "Favorite Spring." PS-My wife, a native Milwaukee girl, is still sad about the Braves; she felt betrayed.

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: ElderZ
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 05:57 PM

Joe...I already tried his homepage, in fact, I called him a little while ago. He said that the music books for his last few albums won't be out for at least a few more years...I was just hoping that someone had managed to pick the chords out of some of the stuff when they were listening. I have "Wintersongs, Dad and me, Soup, hot chocolate, and part of "My family" and "I love summer" figured out so far. I would just like to get afew more of them...

The $$ idea from Jon sounds about right though...

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: Jon W.
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 10:22 AM

I'll give you guys a hint about why pro sports franchises relocate: Draw a capital "S" and put two vertical lines through it.

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 12:31 AM

OK, OK, so we had the Braves for only five years, but Boston had another team, and didn't need 'em. After all, the brewery capital of the world certainly needs a ball team, doesn' it?
Don't recall Hazel & Jones, but he sure mentioned Spahn and Burdette and Aaron. Henry Aaron kept his house in Milwaukee after the Braves went on to Atlanta. We sure were proud of Henry. And one of the happier events of my younger life was seeing Burdette pitch a no-hitter.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: rich r
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 12:20 AM

Did he mention Bob "Hurricane" Hazel and Nippy Jones?

rich r

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: hanrahan
Date: 19 Jan 98 - 08:25 PM

never could figure why they ever left Boston... hanrahan

Subject: RE: John Mccutcheon
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jan 98 - 02:15 PM

Hi - try John McCutcheon's Home Page, http://www.folkmusic.com/. I went to his concert in davis, CA, last week, but I didn't get close enough to the merchandise table to see what songbooks he had out.
We heard a first-time-ever performance of a great song called something like "Land of the Free and Home of the Braves," about the year that the Milwaukee Braves were in the Series with the Yankees. He sang the names of all the players, and I remembered them all. Never could figure out why they moved to Atlanta.
-Joe Offer, Dislocated Wisconsin Boy-

Subject: John Mccutcheon
From:
Date: 19 Jan 98 - 11:39 AM

I am looking for chords to any of the songs by the folksinger/songwriter John McCutcheon. I would prefer songs off of his last 4 albums if possible. WINTERSONGS, SUMMERSONGS, BIGGER THAN YOURSELF, and FAMILY GARDEN. Thanks,

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