Songs You Sing In the Shower

Subject: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Amos
Date: 25 Oct 01 - 09:16 PM

Murray M has predicted someone would start this thread, a vitral bit of our arcane gatherings that has been overlooked.

Everyone knows that singing in the shower, when your vocal cords are wet and warm and the echoes bounce from the walls, is a great way to sound even better than you really are.

One survey has been reported that says Belafonte's "Day-O!" is the most-sung shower song. I don't believe the sample would be accurate for so knowledgeable a group as the 'Cat. I remember singing "Drill Ye Tarriers", "Whiskey in the Jar", some saccharine 50's doo-wop pieces, various sea chanties including "South Australia", "Away to Rio", and "Brazos River", and assorted rasty blues including "I'm Your Steamroller, Baby" and Bessie Smith's "You Been a Good Ole Wagon" -- which tells you where my attention is at in these years!!! My voice always sounds better to me in the shower, so much so that it enables me to dream about being Willie Nelson!! LOL!

So: what songs do you remember having sung in the shower? Which do you sing most often? And, have you ever heard someone else singing in the shower? What songs? How was the quality?

Let the wild note-comparing begin! :>)

Regards,

A.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: JenEllen
Date: 25 Oct 01 - 09:23 PM

Best compliment ever:

I was at a conference, staying in Seattle, in the same hotel as the San Diego Chargers. Apparently the big guys were up to pound the crap outta the Seahawks and enjoy the rain and rain. I was lucky(?) enough to be roomed on the same floor as the entire defensive line.

Anyway, my favourite shower song...hands down..."Bessie's Blues". Wee hours of the morning, wailing away in the mist and suds, I don't even remember thinking I was in particularly good voice that day, but it certainly made an impression. Got down to the restaurant for a cuppa and was given a 'hot damn' and 'hell yeah' from the guys lodged in the rooms on both sides.

Thanking my lucky stars to this day that all that was going on in there was singing...
~J

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Oct 01 - 09:27 PM

As some of you oldtimers may recall, Alice (in Montana) learns songs in the shower by attaching the words to the walls...as I recall she uses thermofax paper. Anyway, I figure she may show up here so I'll not go any further.

We have discussed the acoustics of this in the past, but I don't think we actually asked as Murray said in the other thread. No one has ever called me and asked either Murray......

I sing whatever is on my mind or not at all. I have learned not to fart in the shower though since I got the olfactory reminder that hot air rises...........

We did have one other interesting shower thread.....CLICK HERE

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Amos
Date: 25 Oct 01 - 09:42 PM

I don't believe that for a minute, Spaw. The idea that you could learn not to fart ANYwhere is just manifestly ridiculous on the face of it, so to speak.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 25 Oct 01 - 09:51 PM

That was one funny thread, Spaw, I re-read the first few posts and found myself laughing out loud again.

I don't think I do sing in the shower. I might sort of rehearse whatever song I am in the process of learning, but I do that in the car as well, in fact I sing in the car more than in the shower.

Back in Britain however, when I used to take a bath (which I believe is called a "hot tub" here) it was a different story. You can relax in a bath (or tub) and really let rip. I remember I used to sing "Caledonia" in the bath fairky frequently.

I always thought it would have been a nice touch if Hitchcock had gotten Janet Leigh to sing in the shower just before her untimely demise in "Psycho". Something from Rodgers and Hammerstein, perhaps, "I Feel Pretty" or "I Enjoy Being a Girl".

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Oct 01 - 10:08 PM

Murray, if you "really let rip" in the tub, I think that's called a jacuzzi bath. But didja' know that if you do let rip in the tub, and if you have a match handy, you can light the bubbles! Keep your head back a bit.....saves eyebrows.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 25 Oct 01 - 10:19 PM

Well, I had heard rumors about the pyrotechnic possibilities, but never really explored them thoroughly.

Didn't explore Rogers and Hammerstein thoroughly either as I have just realized that "I Feel Pretty" was from "West Side Story". Which still predates "Psycho"

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Alice
Date: 25 Oct 01 - 10:52 PM

Any song I know and any song I'm learning, I will sing in the shower, from Italian arias to A Stor Mo Chroi. Some day I'll have to post a photo of the curling layers of thermafax paper taped to the shower wall.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 12:24 AM

These days I'm singing "Magnificat" in the shower, I warm up on "Caro Mio Bien" and "Ave Maria". Rangeroger ... I'll bet your shower song is "Lay This Body Down"!! *BG*

LL

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Amos
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 12:29 AM

Or maybe "illegal smile".

A

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: rangeroger
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 03:23 AM

Got me.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Wolfgang
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 03:58 AM

Ich sing den Badewannen-Tango,
Badewannen-Tango
bei mir zuhause
unter der Brause
mit Schaum im Ohr...
ja, ja ich tu so
so wie Caruso

(I sing the bathtub-Tango
at my home
under the shower
with foam in my ear
yes I pretend
I am Caruso)

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 05:40 AM

My favourite song in the tub is a really sad squaddie song:
Do you see the cross in the cemetery,
Ornated with a Jager's hat? Most of the Companions are resting Of the 1st Jagers' Bataillon.
... and so on.
The syllable "Jä-" of "Jägerbateillon" is shared by 5 different climbing tones, then the rest of the song is falling to its end, giving a real sad howl. It echoes marvellously.
About lighting the bubbles: It shouldn't be done on dry ground, because it is very dangerous. A good friend, an old CSM, told me about his experiences as a young draftee: The guys used to light their farts lying on the bed, after lights out, and once one of them burned his pyjama and the hide below. So be careful.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: jeffp
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 09:18 AM

This morning it was "Carrickfergus." Some days it's "Parting Glass" or "Real Old Mountain Dew" or whatever springs to mind. Great acoustics.

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 09:23 AM

'Spem in alium' works for me, the shower is the only place one can sound like forty (including boy sopranos) ;-)

Subject: Lyr Add: AN DIE FREUDE (ODE TO JOY)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 10:12 AM

Speaking of German, how about this one? To tell the truth, I've never really learned all the words, just snatches of it, which I sometimes sing in the shower, interspersed with operatic German-sounding scat-singing in the style of Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner.

AN DIE FREUDE (ODE TO JOY)
(Words, Friedrich Schiller, 1785. Music, Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824.)

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Wem der große Wurf gelungen,
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!

Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!

Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brüsten der Natur;
Alle Guten, alle Bösen
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.

Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.

Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen
Durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan,
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,
Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuer-trunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder! über'm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such ihn über'm Sternenzelt!
Über Sternen muß er wohnen.

[From Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Literal translation:]

Joy, fair spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
Drunk with fiery rapture, Goddess,
We approach thy shrine!

Thy magic reunites those
Whom stern custom has parted;
All men will become brothers
Under thy gentle wing.

May he who has had the fortune
To gain a true friend
And he who has won a noble wife
Join in our jubilation!

Yes, even if he calls but one soul
His own in all the world.
But he who has failed in this
Must steal away alone and in tears.

All the world's creatures
Draw joy from nature's breast;
Both the good and the evil
Follow her rose-strewn path.

She gave us kisses and wine
And a friend loyal unto death;
She gave lust for life to the lowliest,
And the Cherub stands before God.

Joyously, as his suns speed
Through Heaven's glorious order,
Hasten, Brothers, on your way,
Exulting as a knight in victory.

Joy, fair spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
Drunk with fiery rapture, Goddess,
We approach thy shrine!

Thy magic reunites those
Whom stern custom has parted;
All men will become brothers
Under thy gentle wing.

Be embraced, Millions!
Take this kiss for all the world!
Brothers, surely a loving Father
Dwells above the canopy of stars.

Do you sink before him, Millions?
World, do you sense your Creator?
Seek him then beyond the stars!
He must dwell beyond the stars.

HTML line breaks added --JoeClone, 26-Oct-01.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Morticia
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 10:16 AM

Farewell to Tarwaithie and Smile in Your Sleep are the songs I find myself doing most often....and Song to a Seagull by Joni Mitchell, and Fever(something to with all that steam, I suppose).

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: MMario
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 10:22 AM

Alice - Why not send in a picture of the shower stall to the MudCat Calander - and the rest of us can just let our imaginations run wild?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Kim C
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 10:29 AM

I yodel in the shower. Good acoustics.

I also like to sing the song about Lord Randall and the poison eels.

Speaking of German - Wolfgang - is it true that the German word for bagpipes is something that sounds like "doodlesackfifer"?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 10:31 AM

Jim, I read that G. Gordon Liddy sang Beethoven's Ode to Joy in German when he was in prison and had to walk to the showers! He said it was quite inimidating, and the guys left him alone.

Me, I always fancied singing Un Bel Di (in Italian) but never learned the words!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 01:03 PM

Buddy Holly's Oh Boy.

Gives me the hickups, sometimes...

Jery

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Dunc
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 01:14 PM

In the shower I sing songs I'm trying to learn... and on one occasion I wrote a song during the course of a shower.
I called it "I'm Monica Lewinsky" or "The End Of His Old Cigar" as an alternative title.
You can check out the words on Mudcat.
What should make me think of Monica and cigars in the shower - I have no idea.
I sang it two hours after getting out of the shower at the Glenfarg Folk Club and I still perform it to this day(wet and dry).

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Alice
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 02:48 PM

Lyrical Lady, I sing Caro Mio Ben and Ave Maria (Schubert's) in the shower, too. And Vedrai, carino (Don Giovanni) and Juliet's Waltz Song, and Villia, and Think of Me (Phantom of the Opera), and Se tu m'ami, and La Vie En Rose, and Someone To Watch Over Me, and Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, and Wouldn't It Be Loverly, and Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, and ... and.. and

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: alanabit
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 03:23 PM

Kim, the word you want is "Dudelsack". What you have given us sounds perilously close to either "Dudelsackkiffer", which might mean a pot smoking bagpiper - I guess there must be some... The other thing it sounds perilously close to is "Dudelsackficker", which would mean a piper who.. erm...does something one does not usually do with a set of bagpipes! (You pronounce the correct German word "doodlezack").

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 03:30 PM

May in Kentucky: I think I'd leave G. Gordon Liddy alone no matter what he did in the shower, but that's just me I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Snuffy
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 05:05 PM

I think maybe "Dudelsackpfeifer" was meant (Dudelsackspieler?)

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: alanabit
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 05:47 PM

And I think/hope you are right Snuffy.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: GUEST,Ely
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 08:09 PM

"Telluride", "Walking After Midnight", "Old Bangum", "Barbara Allan", darn near anything, especially if it's just a bit too far out of my vocal range to sound decent otherwise. It's nice to pretend I can sing for just a little while, and the sound of the water muffles my efforts.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Vanessa
Date: 26 Oct 01 - 11:23 PM

I sing a lot of old songs by the Bobs, Tom Lehrer, and maybe the Beatles. Comfort songs, like comfort food. Hadn't even considered the beneficial effects of steam. Have to remember that before my next sing-along.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: CapriUni
Date: 27 Oct 01 - 12:01 AM

Why, this old camp favorite, of course:

Oh, I wish I was a little bar of soap
(bar of soap)
Oh, I wish I was a little bar of soap
(bar of soap)
Oh, I'd slippy and I'd slide-y
Over everybody's hide-y
Oh, I wish I was a little bar of soap!

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: DonMeixner
Date: 27 Oct 01 - 12:16 AM

Kim, I yodel in the shower too. Great organic echo, singing in the steam filled head. Lately I sing Generations of Change.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Wolfgang
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 05:48 AM

Kim,

as for 'bagpipes' in German, alanabit has already said it, but I have an idea, what your German words actually was:

'bagpiper' = Dudelsackpfeifer and that is close to your transcription.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 29 Oct 01 - 10:09 AM

Thanks y'all. I don't know any German and was just spelling it the way it sounded to me. It gives me the great giggles to think of a bagpipe as a "doodlesack." ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Big John
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 06:40 AM

I just came across this "old" thread and it made me realise why we Irish sing so much. The f***ing weather here is like a permanent shower so the answer to your question is EVERY SONG !!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Genie
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 07:31 AM

Murray, if you're doing Rodgers & Hammerstein in the shower [now, THERE's and image!], you can't leave out "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair."

Amos, you're right about how great the acoustics make your voice sound. ["One's voice," that is--I've never heard "yours" in the shower.] My shower makes me sound so good that I tried recording in there. Unfortunately, it shorted out my amp and ruined a perfectly good Shure SM58!

Genie §;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 10:20 AM

Usually I sing various dreadful snatches of operatic gibberish that I make up on the spot...in bogus Italian. I also sing certain songs I really can't stand...like "Havin' My Baby" or "My Way"...in a loud and exaggerated fashion.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: toribw
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 10:39 AM

It depends on whether I'm showering alone or with my husband. When we're together, we tend to make up goofy lyrics to whatever tune comes to mind. If alone, I generally sing whatever song I'm learning at the time.

Steam is great for the throat, I love singing in the shower.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Brían
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 10:46 AM

I am usually likely to sing about anything that I would perform in the shower, usually long involved songs in Irish, but I have found that CARRIKFERGUS sounds particularly nice. On an Irish-Language immersion week end I found that the shower was the best place to rehearse. I would often come out of the shower to the enthusiastic applause from bare shaving cream-plastered men. An interesting to include in my resumée...

Brían

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: DonD
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 12:32 PM

My languaghe-loving father taught me as a child what he claimed was a wonderful example of word accretion in the German language, a word he claimed meant the Bagpipers' Association of Constantinople and which I haven't though of forever but was something like:

Constantinopalitanischerdoodlesachspfeiffergeselschafft -

but it might have been longer. Wolfgang?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Justa Picker
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 12:44 PM

"The Impossible Dream."

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Snuffy
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 12:55 PM

Is that longer than Oberdonaudampfschifffahrtsgesllschaftskapitän (Upper Danube Steam Navigation Company Captian?)?

And of course supercallifragilisticexpialidocious goes well in the shower!

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: GUEST,gamine
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 02:20 PM

I love to sing in the shower! And I have a recent funny story about it:

I live in a duplex. The sides of the duplex share a long wall down the center of the house and so our hallways and bathrooms are back to back. Elsewhere in the house I can't really hear what is going on in the next abode, but in the bathroom I can hear EVERYTHING (which can get downright disgusting at times, but that is another thread altogether!), as if we are in the same room (which, come on, we practically are).

A family lives next to me and has two older teenage daughters. They have caught me a few times to tell me that they have heard me playing guitar and singing in the backyard and that they really enjoy listening, that they sing to, blah blah blah.

ANYWAY! The other day I was getting ready to take a shower and someone on the other side of the duplex was already showering away. She was singing, at the top of her lungs, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". I listened for a minute - getting some strange clandestine and surreptitious pleasure from listening (aside: you know how people sing with their soul if they think no one is listening and it is just *beautiful* because it is so truly *them* even if the sound isn't necessarily good? That's what this was like - I was spying on her soul). So I listened for a moment and then felt sorta guilty (spying on the soul thing) and felt like I should give something back so I started my shower and began to sing with her: Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high... When I began, she stopped for a minute (embarrassed, perhaps?) but then, with great gusto, she began again and we sang that song over and over. At a few points we messed up the words or got off key and laughed but just kept on singing. It was really fun! A musical, sudsy twosome (hey guys [and girls] think of the possiblities!). I still don't know which of the two girls it was...and I don't really want to know.

Anyone with similiar experiences?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: toribw
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 02:31 PM

Great story, gamine! When I was in the Army, we had open showers (during basic training) and we would often sing songs in the shower. Lots of times they were jodies, but it was something we all knew and practiced daily. Kind of took the mind off of being in an open shower with 10 other people...

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 05:06 PM

The Impossible Dream is a great shower song...I amended the lyrics to "The Impossible Scream".

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 09:12 PM

It's compulsive. In the shower I always sing only one song. Hoagy Carmichael's version of "HUGGIN' AND A CHALKIN'"

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: GUEST,gamine
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 06:40 AM

OMIGOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that Art Thieme, the one I listened to all my life?! Could it be??? Did you have an album out with Ole Blue? " Had my a dog his name was Blue, Had me a dog his name was Blue, Had me a dog his name was Blue Betcha a dollar he was a good dog too..."

And it went on to tell the story of Old Blue and he had two legs and on the same album a version "Barbara Allen" and "Blue Mountain yer azure deep Blue mountain your sides are steep Blus Mountain with a horsehead upon your side you've won my soul to keep"

And there was a song about the pond and it froze and all the ducks were frozen in it and they stared flappin their wings and lifted the whole pond up in the air??!!!!

If it is you I heard you sang in the Grand Rapids, MI Folklore Society in the Grand Rapids Public Museum (my folks were members and kept the Cider hot) and I LOVED YOU and my dad bought your ( I think ) self titled album and we have been singing your songs for years together!!

All the way back to the COW SONG ( which is one of my personal favorites! along with the one about Paul Bunyan [I think] and the toothpick? )

Anyway, if it is you -- thank you for hours of listening and wishing I could be you and, ohmigosh the connection you provided, me with my dad, that we still share to this day...

Thank you....and will you write back so I know it is you?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 08:14 PM

I don't sing in the shower, I don't like drowning.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 09:09 PM

gamine,

What lovely things for you to say. Yes, that was me ! Those things you mentioned were on two different albums but I am definitely the guilty culprit. And I've got fond memories of that old museum---and then, later, of the newer one. I did a concert there too I'm pretty sure. Spike Owens was a big part of that scene, right? Celery City Music Hall sticks in my mind too. Or was it Kalamazuu I'm remembering? Wasn't an astronaut a hometown guy who was featured at the museum??

It's fun remembering...but I hope I'm on the mark avout what we're talking about here. "When your memory goes, forget it !"

I'm at [e-mail] if you'd like to e-mail.

All the best,

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 09:15 PM

Sorry for rhe thread creep folks.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: GUEST,ozmacca
Date: 02 Jun 02 - 09:47 PM

There are two old Flanders & Swann pieces which are my very own bathroom favourites,

"In The Bath".... (Oh I find much simple pleasure, when I've had a tiring day.........) especially in a suitably echoing bathroom.

And "Spider In The Bath"..

Great stuff.... and better than my slightly garbled renditions of G&S favourites.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Genie
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 01:57 AM

That is a great story, gamine!

Somehow, I think "The Hippopotamus Song"--especially the chorus of "Mud, mud, glorious mud, ... etc." would be very 'shower-friendly.'

Then there's also the old song that Looney Tunes characters (Bugs, Porky, etc.) used to sing:
"Singin' in the bathtub [shower], la ti da ti da...".

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 02:03 AM

Alright, I suppose Sesame Streets' Bert's 'Rubber Ducky' song may have passed my lips whilst bathing various children.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:25 AM

Oberdonaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän is certainly the longer word, since Constantinopolitanische Dudelsackpfeifergesellschaft are two words. Attributive adjective and substantive are not written in one word in German.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: BS: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: paddymac
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 12:26 AM

Lately it's "Call Me The Whale." No, it's not a reference to girth. It's a truly great song we're developing at the moment.

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 12:05 PM

To scream...the impossible scream....to sing...the unsingabble song...to wri-i-i-i-i-te...the unreadable letter...to errrrrr...without doing it wrong...to fly...like a bucket of lard...to dance with the grace of a moose...to boldly and recklessly tighten...a screw...that has NEVER BEEN LOOSE...

THIS IS MY QUEST

TO FOLLOW THAT TRAIL

NO MATTER HOW POINTLESS

no matter how stale

I will fearlessly fight

For the right to be wrong

I will....... (okay, that's enough, isn't it?)

- LH

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Genie
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 12:16 PM

No way, Hawk. I wanna hear the rest of it!
(Is it in the DT?)

Genie

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 01:39 AM

Don't stop now Little Hawk!!

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From:
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 01:57 AM

Little Hawk ---

"I will stand up and march into hell in a top-coat and thong..."

"And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest.."

"That I'll have the attention of all, when I don't post the rest....."

"And the world..."

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: rich-joy
Date: 05 Jun 02 - 05:41 AM

Genie mentioned "Singing in the Bathtub" which is my Significant Other's (where DO they find these descriptions?!) favourite shower song - a la Robert Crumb and the Cheap Suit Seranaders. I believe there is a Mudcat thread that details that song's origins ...

He also likes to practice his Tibetan Monk impersonations (he's actually very good at it!)

I remember the queueing for showers at Folk Festivals being made more bearable, by the impromptu community concerts from the shower stalls!! Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Genie
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 10:26 PM

rich-joy, no thread creep intended, but to reply to your query re "significant other," the application of that term exclusively to one's "main squeeze' is, to my way of thinking, a deterioration of our language -- especially social science terminology -- as a result of the ever-increasing speed and power of the mass media. At least as far back as the 1950s the term was used --PLURAL form-- in sociology to refer to any and all people who were important figures in one's life [family and close friends especially, but also including such people as business partners]. Much was written about the influence these "significant others" had in the socialization process and personality development. Sometime in the 1980's, IIRC, when folks were looking for a term to describe live-in boyfriends and girlfriends--serious romantic/sexual partners who were not spouses--, various terms were tossed about, such as POSSLQ [can you say "pahz-zel-cue?], which is a census acronym [persons of opposite sex sharing living quarters; "er-um" [as in "Mom & Dad, I'd like you to meet my... er...um...], etc. Somebody [who no doubt knew nothing about sociology or social psychology] decided to limit the term "significant other" to the same hard-to-label person, and the media being what they are, the new usage caught on almost overnight. Now, if you tell someone you're going to spend the holidays with your significant others, they'll probably think you're into group sex!

I think it's a shame, because this usage implies that no one besides your sex partner is significant in your life, or that, say, the person you've been shacking up with for three months is more significant to you than your children, siblings, parents, etc.

-------

Bringing this thread back on track, who can think of a good song for a GROUP to sing in the shower?

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: GUEST,ozmacca
Date: 06 Jun 02 - 10:35 PM

Hawk, I stand amazed. Nay, dumbfounded... FANTASTIC!!!! Even beats that version of If I Ruled The World I used to shower to from time to time, which included the memorable line.... "Every head will be held up high/ There'll be birdsh*t in everyone's eye/If the day ever dawned/That I rooooooooled the world!!!"

And as far as songs for groups in the shower, any multi-part round should do it I suppose.... or a good barbershop quartet.... Sweeeeeeet Adeline.....

Hullo, now where's the soap gone?

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Ringer
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 12:50 PM

I am reminded of a joke. It's a bit coarse, so read no further if you are easily offended.

Two men talking:

A: Men can be divided into two groups. There are those who sing in the shower and those who wank in the shower. And of those who sing in the shower, do you know what thay sing?
B: No.
A: I didn't think you would.

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Kim C
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 04:15 PM

Lately in the shower I have been singing Sting's "Fields of Gold." "The Painful Plough" and "The Sheepstealers" also sound really good in there.

Speaking of significant others, I can't recall as I've ever heard Mister sing in the shower.

Speaking of German, I have started to learn some since this thread started. Mad Maudlin, who posts here sometimes, is kind enough to help me when I have dumb questions! Schokoladekuchen is one of my favorite words. It has a nice rhythm to it. Then I figured out that chocolate cheesecake would be Schokoladekasekuchen. Last night I happened upon the word for oxtail soup: Ochsenschwanzsuppe. Not as long or fancy as some mentioned above, but fun all the same.

And Sunday, I'm going to an uberraschung Geburtstagsparty. (did I say that right?)

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Deda
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 06:24 PM

Little Hawk, that is truly, truly wonderful. LOL!! But shouldn't the marching be done "in a top-hat and thong"?

Why haven't you been flooding the Song Challenges with entries? You've been holding out on us!

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Deda
Date: 07 Jun 02 - 06:30 PM

Genie -- fun to be reminded of the Census bureau's silly acronym, which gave rise to this doggerel:
Roses are red, violets are blue
Won't you be my POSSLQ?

Probably can't be sung in the shower.

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Genie
Date: 08 Jun 02 - 12:26 AM

Kim C. (only very temporary thread creep), We used to have an old VW that was made in Germany. On the dash, it said "Der Drizzleflippen," "Der Puttersparken," and "Fahrt." *

Genie

*That's "windshield wiper," "ignition," and "start." ["Fahren" = "to go." "Fahrt" = "It goes."]

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: musicmick
Date: 09 Jun 02 - 12:28 AM

What an interesting thread. Here's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Some years ago, I played as a sideman with a wonderful dou called Sadie Green Sales Ragtime Jug Band, for two weeks each summer at an amusement park in the coal country of Pennsylvania. We set up our campsites (they didn't offer accomidations to the performers but they let us camp near the merry-go-round and we could ride the Pheonix rollercoaster for free when we weren't on stage.) When we had finished our last set of the night, we piled into the van and headed for the showers in the customers' canpground. There, in communal cleanliness, we sang Flanders and Swan's "Hippopotamous Song". You know, the one that has the "Mud, mud, glorious mud" chorus. I wrote a new verse for it every year. I'd love to know where those verses are now.

So, I would nominate that wonderful anthem for bathroom bassos. It is, of course, more fun when you do it with a convivial group but, then, what isn't?

Mike Miller

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Genie
Date: 11 Jun 02 - 02:41 PM

I second that nomination, Mike! And I'd love to hear your extra verses, too!

Genie

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Gloredhel
Date: 11 Jun 02 - 06:40 PM

Alice: I sing Vedrai Carino too, and Batti Batti.

Also sing Le Roi de Thule (Gounod's Faust), Silhouettes, You're the Top, My Lagan Love, and anything else I happen to be learning, lately an Ave Maria by Leos Janacek (in Czech, which is why I have to practice in the shower--one doesn't notice the flying saliva).

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: musicmick
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 12:59 AM

Well, Genie, I'd kind of like to remember them, myself. Maybe Tim and David (the two and only true members of the Sadie Green Sales band) have them written somewhere. I just dashed them off between sets. Writing them was a chore of love. I had to keep to Michael Flanders' rhyme scheme and progression of polysylabils and there are only so many ways of describing hippopotimi (hippopotimuses?) in a single word. Pachyderm comes to mind, so I must have used that one in one of my annual epics.

I'll search my notes to see if there are any remnants, but I wouldn't bet the ranch. In a pinch. I suppose I could knock one out, but it would lack the gilt of nostalgia.

Mike Miller

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Genie
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 03:04 AM

Mike:

Hippopotamus ["hippo"]
Plural:
Hippopotami ["hippos"]
though, I think "hippopotamuses" is also acceptable*

Genie

*because they is big mo'fockers!

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: musicmick
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 02:39 PM

Genie,

I spell like I make love; inaccurately, clumsily and incorrectly, with only my enthusiasm to see me through.

Mike

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Genie
Date: 12 Jun 02 - 09:27 PM

Mike, Is that your own assessment or feedback you've been given? *G*

Genie

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: musicmick
Date: 13 Jun 02 - 12:47 AM

It is, I fear the wages of a youth, so misspent that it has yielded libidal bancrupcy. Oh, ok, I'm exadurating, but not about the spelling. I offer, in evidence, anexample of how I, now, spend the time I once used for more "social" endeavors.

My beard, of late, assumes the glow

And color of a city snow.

That sooty mix you see sometime,

Of dust and grit and mottled grime,

That makes the winter dark and colder,

And taunts me that I'm getting older.

Mike

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 13 Jun 02 - 07:32 PM

Inasmuch as I can stay on pitch, I learned to do it by singing "Just like a Woman" in the shower. The intervals were just enough to challenge my then almost nonexistent "ear."

Cosmically coincidental that this should come up because today for the first time I can remember I overheard somebody else shower singing--neighbor lady doing a Boz Scaggs (?) song which I think is called "We're All Alone." or whatever. It's been too long. I've heard worse at open mikes.

I always thought "Non Dimenticar" (sp?) would be a perfect shower song, or "O Sole Mio." You need all those nice Eye-talian open vowels for resonance.

Carlo Cacciatori

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Mad Maudlin
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 09:50 AM

What I sing depends on the mood...My shower top three are "The Snowy-Breasted Pearl" and "She Moved Through The Fair". But I've also been known to sing "Old Rosin the Beau" and even Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper". Thank God I live alone :-) Kim, it's a pleasure to help you with this terrible language of ours. And remember: The only dumb question in the world is the one not asked!

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: WyoWoman
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 06:38 PM

My shower set depends on the mood, too. From "Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair," to "Love Me Like a Man," to "You Bring Out the Boogie in Me." Sometimes, "IF I Can't Sell It (Gonna Keep Sittin' On It ...")

I must be feeling fragile these days -- I've been singing "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" a lot ...

ww

Subject: RE: Songs You Sing In the Shower
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 14 Jun 02 - 09:51 PM

Usually, if I sing at all in the shower, it's something I am trying to learn for the band. My memory is for shite, and I know very few songs completely by heart that are not a part of our repetoire (unless they're playing on the radio, and I have the lyrics being sung to me as a reminder).

"What a draaag it is gettin' OOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooold!