Mystery Solved!

In my last post, I asked if anyone had any idea from whence sprang the song sung at Camp Ajawah as "If You Want to be a Boy Scout."  I asked the same thing on the Summer Camp Songs Facebook page and am glad to say someone provided an answer

It came from one state over, as a song played by the University of Wisconsin marching band at football games.  Someone at some point simply substituted the words "Boy Scout" for "Badger."

In 1919, U of W professor Julian Olson wrote the words for IYWTBAB for an alumni dinner and asked the school's musical director, Charles Mills, to set the lyrics to music.  Without further ado, here is an instrumental version...


And a vocal version:

 

Another musical mystery

Googling a song from my days at Camp Ajawah, I found nothing online other than references to this very website or to Camp Ajawah songbooks.  The lyrics are:

If you want to be a Boy Scout
just come along with me 
and we'll hike by the light
by the light of the moon

If you want to be a Boy Scout
just come along with me
and we'll hike by the light of the moon.

By the light of the silvery moon
Oh, we will hike by the light of the moon
If you want to be a Boy Scout
just come along with me
and we'll hike by the light of the moon.

Oh, the Boy Scouts are coming with a choo-choo rah rah
Choo-choo rah rah
Choo-choo rah rah
Oh, the Boy Scouts are coming with a choo-choo rah rah
Choo-choo hurrah hurrah hurrah Hey! Hey! Hey!

So maybe they aren't the most sophisticated lyrics in the world, but the tune itself is rousing and well suited for group singing.  Not everyone at camp - or even most - were Boy Scouts, but we all hiked.

I searched under the title "If You want to be a Boy Scout" and also tried using various fragments of the lyrics, as it's not unusual for songs to have words altered a bit to fit a different use.  But nothing turned up.

A note: for the line "By the light of the silvery moon" the melody comes from the 1909 Broadway standard of that title, but the rest of the song has a different melody and tempo.

I'll try asking the folks who know Camp Ajawah's history the best if they know from whence came this song, but if you know anything about it, please share your info in the comments.