A Playlist of Summer Camp Songs

This is by no means complete or comprehensive, but it's a decent sampling of many of the songs listed on this site.  Please take a listen and let me know what you think.

Google Playlist

The Song Detective: The Case of "I Want to Camp Until I'm 73"

As I post about the scores of songs I learned at Camp Ajawah in Minnesota, I dig around to see what I can find about the origins of each tune.  For most, there is ample information online.  Some are old folk songs; others are copyrighted and the composer is readily found; and others fall in between.

Once in a while I will find next to nothing about a particular song.  The most recent example is a very short tune whose lyrics in their entirety consist of:

I want to camp until I'm 73
For camping life is really great
I must avoid the marriage state
So Cupid keep your darts away from me
Until I'm 30, 40, 50, 60, 73.

Other than links to Camp Ajawah and this blog, all I've found are a few other random camps where a variation of "I Want to Camp" is sung.

A Girl Scout camp in Massachusetts (though to a different tune: Battle Hymn of the Republic)
Another Girl Scout camp (in Wisconsin)
Lincoln, NE YMCA songbook

And that's it.  No videos, no sheet music, no clue as to when or where it originated, or who wrote it.  Is it only known in a handful of camps, and, if so, who was the thread who connected MN, WI, NE and MA?

I tried searching fragments of the lyrics to see if it's related to some other, better known song, but I came up empty handed.  On my summer camp songs facebook page, I asked if anyone had any knowledge about the song.  Nada.

Sherlock is stumped.  I turn to you, my friends, to ask for any clues.  Let's solve this riddle!

Free holiday music - always a good thing

Paste always has excellent taste in music, so I look forward to this...

Dunderbeck - earliest version to date

It's Summer Camp Season!

And for those of you looking for a great camp, here is the link to the one where I learned all the songs I write about on this blog and on Facebook:

http://www.ajawah.org/dates%20rates.html

It's near the Twin Cities, sessions are 12 days long - two are girls only and two are boys only.  The first session (girls) starts tomorrow.  The campfire's ready for singing...

Taps turns 150

At Camp Ajawah, a bugler played taps every evening when it was time to go to sleep.  It sounded terrific drifting through the pines to our tents and then out across Linwood Lake and the stars above.

At the girls' sessions, it was also sung as part of a medley that closed every evening's campfire:

Day is done

gone the sun

from the hills

from the lake

from the sky

all is well

safely rest

God is nigh.

Here's a great article on the origins of the tune 150 years ago this summer:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/05/18/152939191/150-years-of-taps

My other blog

I just posted for the first time on my new blog, "One Song, Seven Questions."  The titles says it all.  Other than format, it also differs from this blog (which is about sing-a-long songs) by featuring popular music.  And by popular music, I mean the traditional definition of "anything other than classical."  Please check it out:

http://onesongsevenquestions.blogspot.com/