Camp Ajawah Reunion - August 14-16

It's hard to believe anyone reading this blog who is an alumnus of Camp Ajawah doesn't also have a connection to the Ajawah Conservancy or the Ajawah Facebook group... but just in case, please see these links?

http://ajawahconservancyupdates.blogspot.com/2009/05/reunion-registration-is-now-open.html

http://ajawahconservancyupdates.blogspot.com/2009/02/80th-reunion-info.html

A month or two ago there were two recording sessions, one for girls' songs and one for boys' songs - I look forward to hearing the results this summer.

Mail call

Yes, it has been ages since I posted. May be ages before I post again. Still busy with my work blog among other things. But in the meantime two friends have emailed me or commented on a post.

1 - John T commented on post Song 24 - Granny's in the Cellar:
***Last year I heard the missing first verse to this song, sung by DLM (our camp director)
"I grieve my Lord,
From day to day,
I've left the straight
And narrow way..."
and, he added this thigh-slapper:
"Oh you can't get to heaven,
With our SPL,
'Cause our SPL,
Is going to ....well?"***

SPL is "senior patrol leader," a Boy Scout position, as Camp Ajawah was founded by Minneapolis Troop 33.

2 - Mack asked ***Hey Joe,
what was the biggest song 'flop' that anywone can remember? What was the earliest flop that Moore can remember?

I recall the 'biplane' flop but I'm sure there were others***

I don't have answers, really, and if anyone has some, please share. Moore (the camp director) started at Ajawah as a small boy in the 1940s, so has certainly seen many songs introduced at camp only to die a dismal death, whether due to an unsingable melody, an uninteresting lyric, the incompetence of the person teaching the song, or some combination of the above.

-- The biplane flop he refers to dates to the late 1970s when Jim P tried to teach a song that, as I recall, had a chorus of "Bye bye biplane, once upon a sky plane." It as somewhat catchy and boys like planes, but it didn't last the summer. Interestingly, Jim has gone on to a long, fruitful career with the YMCA camps.
-- I tried to teach The Hobo's Lullaby, but couldn't carry the tune very well. I believe Bob F later was able to get it going a bit - he is the guy who to my amazement got Rule Brittania to become a popular song, despite it's extremely long syllables.
-- A few guys from Golden Valley tried to get "Son of a Son of a Sailor," a Jimmy Buffet tune, going, but it seemed not very melodic.
-- My brother and my roommate Tom once got up to lead "Black Water," the Doobie Brothers song - the idea that half of the mess hall could sing the "I'd like to hear some dixie music, pretty mama, come and take me by the hand" and the other half could sing the response: "by the hand, take me by the hand pretty mama, come and dance with your daddy all night long." Fun try...

I'm back...

Been a few months. Between doing a blog for work and the holidays, I have let When We Sing rest a bit. But I will try to get back to semi-regular posts.

I will start with a link sent to me by my buddy Mack; it's to a site where you can hear a woman's version of my favorite Camp Ajawah song, The Ash Grove. Nice voice, simple backing, works well.

She does split the two verses we sing at camp by interposing a verse that is an alternate version often sung by Girl Scouts, among others. I don't like that verse as much, but it's not bad.

http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/ashgrove.html

More Granny

From 35 years ago, courtesy of YouTube:

Granny's in the Cellar - Song #24

Song #23, "Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord," begins "Oh the deacon went down to the cellar to pray, but he got drunk and stayed all day." So why not post about the only other Camp Ajawah song that uses the word "cellar" (I always say "basement" myself, "cellar" is more evocative, I have to admit). And it's a song mentioned in the last two posts about Lisa Loeb's new CD: "Granny's In The Cellar."

Evidently lots of beloved authority figures get in trouble in cellars.

Just as "Ain't Gonna" is mildly scandalous, making fun of a deacon and drinking, "Granny" is playful with grandma and grossness. All in good fun...

Granny's in the cellar
Lordy, can't you smell her
Cooking greasy biscuits on the stove
In her eye there is some matter
That keeps dripping in the batter
And she whistles as the [sniff] runs down her nose
Down her nose, down her nose
She whistles as the [sniff] runs down her nose
In her eye there is some matter
That keeps dripping in the batter
And she whistles as the [sniff] runs down her nose

Granpa's in the basement
And to his amazement
There is something in the wine he made last fall
And his eyes are getting redder
As his tongue is getting wetter
'Cause it's ninety-seven percent alcohol
Alcohol, alcohol
It's ninety-seven percent alcohol
His eyes are getting redder
As his tongue is getting wetter
'Cause it's nInety-seven percent alcohol.

Granny's in the laundry
And she's in a quandary
'Cause she put some starch in with her underwear
And it's gonna be disaster
When it dries as hard as plaster
But she's tough as nails and so she doesn't care
Underwear, underwear
She put some starch in with her underwear
And It's gonna be disaster when it dries as hard as plaster
But she's tough as nails so she don't care.


Tune: "Y'All Come"

From _A Prairie Home Companion Folksong Book_ by Marcia & Jon
Pankake; (Viking, 1988)

Instructions given in text: "Where it says [sniff] just wind 'er up
and give a real good snort. Just don't be too long about it, and
don't be too disgusting, and above all, try not to get any on you."

Link to Camp Lisa

Here, at last, is the link to the new album I mentioned in the last post - check it out...

Lisa Loeb's new album

Just saw on iTunes' new releases that Lisa Loeb, who had a big alternative hit with "Stay" a few years back, has just put out "Camp Lisa." Listened to two excerpts of songs from Camp Ajawah which couldn't be more different:

Granny's in the Cellar - a rarely sung humorously gross song from Boys' Camp.

Linger - A sweet song that was part of the closing medley at all Girls' Camp evening campfires.

Check them out; I will try to get a link up soon...