When We Sing

Facebook

2011-08-07T18:51:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have been very on and off on this blog - mostly off lately - so I have started a Facebook page along the lines of When We Sing. Please check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Summer-Camp-Songs/215418638505711

Swinging Low

2011-04-11T12:13:00.002-04:00

Back in my post for song #22, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," I embedded three versions of the song by famous artists. It's just one of those venerable tunes that lends itself to a million variations, almost all of them good. I came across this one randomly this morning and thought I'd share:

Choo'n Gum (variation on a song from Girls' Camp)

2011-03-10T18:39:00.000-05:00

Donkeys are in Love with Carrots - Song #36

2010-11-11T22:39:00.002-05:00

I am not finding a lot of info about this song at first glance - it's a simple song with silly lyrics. And that's about it.

Donkeys are in love with carrots

carrots aren't in love at all

Hee haw hee haw

Listen to their braying call

Anyone know any more than this?

More music alone

2010-11-09T22:11:00.003-05:00

To follow up on my previous post, here are three versions of "Music Alone Shall Live":

1 - A guy singing all the parts himself through the magic of recording technology - charming:

This is also a good place to point out that another term for a round is a simple canon. There are other types of canons where the original melody is not repeated exactly - can be a variation, or reversed, or at an interval, etc. But that's a bit complicated for our purposes.

2 - I love this version, though it's not sung as a round. 1970 reggae:

3 - And finally, in the original German, more or less, by a guy and girl who look like they are at a camp similar to Ajawah:

Music Alone Shall Live - Song # 35

2010-10-29T14:37:00.002-04:00

Back to my list of rounds... next up is another classic example, one with a very simple lyric that is easy to learn and sing. It's on the lovely side, rather than the rowdy.

Here is a link to sheet music, though the first line is a slightly different melody than the one I know:

http://www.8notes.com/scores/5637.asp

Also, I see that many places have the words as "all things shall vanish," but I prefer the way we sing it at Camp Ajawah: "All Things Shall Perish." Not sure what the closer translation is from the original, which is German:

Himmel und Erde mussen vergehn;
Aber die musici,aber die musici
Aber die musici, bleiben bestehn.

Put the first line in babelfish and it outputs :"Heaven and Earth mussen vergehn." Hmmm. I am guessing it means "must vanish" but let me try another online translator... and I get "Heaven and Earth must pass away." Which sounds more like "perish" than "vanish." Not that it really matters.

A performance of Wha Saw the 42nd

2010-10-26T20:52:00.004-04:00

If you go back to my post about song # 20, you will see a new comment from "anonymous." It mentions a youtube clip featuring two singers performing Wha Saw. Their names are Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor. Here it is:

Pretty rousing! And no bagpipe to be heard. So who are Robin and Jimmie? They were a Scottish folk music duo who were very popular in the UK in the 1960s and 70s, often on the radio. I'd never heard of them before, but am glad to have been led to them. Here's another song (but not one we sang at Camp Ajawah):

I Love The Flowers - Song #34

2010-09-13T15:48:00.002-04:00

I initially had "I Love The Flowers" (aka "I Love The Mountains" or "Boomdiada," etc.) on my list of rounds two posts ago. But then I realized it wasn't one - it's not sung in a chain reaction with an unlimited number of groups able to take part.

No, it belongs to a unique subgroup of songs in which the singers at some point split into two halves, each singing something different. In this case, the verse and chorus are sung once through by all, then one half repeats the "boomdiada" refrain while the other signs the verse. Then the two sides reverse roles and finish the song.

Here is an example from Sweden:

I previously posted twice about the use of the song in Discovery Channel promos:

http://whenwesing.blogspot.com/2008/04/another-commercial-use-of-camp-song.html

http://whenwesing.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-boomdiada.html

Now, when looking for performances or other info online, it's amazing to see how many people now know this not as a camp or school song, but as 'that Discovery song." The power of television advertising.

It's been hard tracking down the origins of the lyrics. But the music almost certainly was modeled after Hoagy Carmichael's tin pan alley classic of 1939, "Heart and Soul," which has been recorded many times in many genres and is a famously easy two-person piano piece. See the two following videos to see what I mean.

When You Hear a Cannon - song #33

2010-09-11T17:12:00.005-04:00

Making the rounds with rounds... one of the songs I mentioned in my last post is a good example of why rounds are useful for group singing: they're easy to learn. Due to the repetitive nature of these songs, you only need to learn one chorus. You sing it over and over. Three times is the norm. And the melodies are likewise generally easy to pick up.

And WYHAC takes simple lyrics to an extreme:

When you hear a cannon it goes bang bang

When you hear a cannon it goes bang bang bang bang

Bang bang bang bang bang

The percussive sound of all those "bangs" is fun to sing. And as the subgroups finish one by one, the sound gradually transforms from raucous to simple.

A funny thing happened when I googled "When you hear a Cannon" - the only references I can find online are from Camp Ajawah related posts, other than one from the Delhi Girl Scouts. Is it really that obscure? I tried searching various permutations and still found nothing.

The origins of who taught any given song and when at Ajawah can be lost to the fog of time, since the camp has been around 80+ years and has distinct girls' and boys' halves. So if anyone reading this knows the song but is not from Camp Ajawah, please let me know in the comments.

Of, if you are from Ajawah and know anything about the origins of "When You Hear A Cannon," I would love to hear from you as well.

Rounds

2010-08-31T22:00:00.004-04:00

I thought I would start posting lists occasionally, breaking down the big list of camp songs into smaller groupings. This could be useful if someone's looking for a specific type of song. Let's get right to it with our first list: rounds.

A round is a song that can overlap with itself and create interesting rhythms and harmony.

Chairs to Mend

Donkeys are in Love with Carrots

Hi Ho (Nobody Home)

Kookaburra

Little Tommy Tinker

Make New Friends

Music Alone

Oh How Lovely is the Evening

One Dark Night

Our Paddles

Rose

To Stop the Train

Wha' Saw the 42nd

When You Hear a Cannon

Did I forget any? Are there any that you like that are not part of the Camp Ajawah list on the home page?

Edelweiss - Song # 32

2010-08-29T20:07:00.003-04:00

No doubt most people are familiar with "Edelweiss" from the classic musical, "The Sound of Music." Richard Rodgers composed a brilliantly simple melody for Oscar Hammerstein II's lovely lyrics. If you didn't know better, you might believe it to be a old Austrian folk song. And thus it works very well as a summer camp song - more for the evening campfire than for the rowdier post-meal sing-a-longs in the mess hall.

It was the last song Rodgers and Hammerstein composed together. It appears twice in the film; near the end when the Von Trapp family sings it at the festival as a patriotic hymn, rousing the audience to join them. Good as that scene is, I prefer the first time it appears - when the children learn that their father knows how to play the guitar. He simply strums a few chords and tenderly sings to the children.

So - how about a few other versions of the song? Here is one by a popular Iranian singer who performs it as a protest against the current regime, just as Georg sang it to protest the Nazis:

And here is a link to a young girl who sang it on Britain's Got Talent and broke down in the middle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2SxoBTkfNQ

She did get a second chance - thanks to none other than Simon Cowell himself...

More sloop

2010-05-29T10:50:00.003-04:00

The Sloop John B has had a fine run in pop music, as evidenced by my previous post. But it's a traditional song - and from the Caribbean, which is less common for songs we sang at Camp Ajawah. Nassau town refers to the Bahamas, of course. My main question - was there a real Sheriff John Stone?

The song worked at camp for a number of reasons. The melody is catchy and the lyrics easy to learn. "I want to go home" resonates with the homesickness most campers feel from time to time. The captain's trunk is mentioned, and most campers brought their clothes to camp in a trunk. And who can't help but think of the camp's cook while singing "The poor cook he had fits, ate up all of my grits, then he took and he at up all of my corn." Never had grits at camp, but we did have plenty of corn.

I did find this parody online:

SLOOP JOHN A

We looked for the Sloop John A; We looked for it all day;
Round Nassau Town we did roam,
A man on the pier, Said it wasn't here;
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

Where can the John A be? Maybe the A's at sea;
We had a good look round, Then we went home.
Then we went home, We had to go home.
We didn't find it And then we went home.

The first mate was not there, Maybe he was elsewhere;
Maybe he was on board the Sloop John A;
Wherever he was, We didn't meet him because
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

Where can the John A be? Maybe the A's at sea;
We had a good look round, Then we went home,
Then we went home, We had to go home.
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

The day was a non-event, It seemed the A had went;
Then they told us that there's another called B.
B was OK; I had my heart set on A;
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

Where can the John A be? Maybe the A's at sea;
We had a good look round, Then we went home
Then we went home, We had to go home. I wanna go home.
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

Lyrics: Les Barker, published in 'Sitting With My Dog On Display'.
Recorded by David Knutsen on Tubular Dogs (catalogue no: Dog013)"

Back to the actual song, Carl Sandberg wrote that he was told the "weathered ribs of the historic craft lie imbedded in the sand at Governor's Harbor" in Nassau. Already by 1927 "Time and usage have given this song almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau."

Another interesting tidbit: "I've heard from one knowledgeable source that the bad things that happen on that sloop are all the result of naming the boat "John B." In Afro-Caribbean culture, nobody with a surname beginning with "B" (supposedly) will name a son "John," because the result ("John B." sounds too much like "jumby" -- a west African (Wolof/Bambera) term referring to this undead thing we've anglicized to "zombie" -- apparently it won't do to mention these creatures; "speak of the devil," and all that."

The lyrics in versions in the first part of the 20th Century are fairly close to the Beach Boys' version, with slight variations here and there. The Weavers had a hit with the song in the early 1950s. Some versions say "Mr. Johnstone" rather than "Sheriff Johnstone," so it seems unlikely there was really a lawman of that name.

Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" seems distantly related - both songs are from the Caribbean, feature someone's travails, and have a sheriff. Loose thread, I know...

Sloop John B - Song #31

2010-04-29T00:56:00.004-04:00

From trains (last posts) to boats. Here are four pop versions, all of them good, demonstrating the Sloop John B's enduring allure:

Can't you hear the captain shouting?

2010-04-27T19:57:00.001-04:00

Maybe you can't hear the captain shouting, but here you can hear three very different versions of "I've Been Working on the Railroad."

I've Been Working on the Railroad - Song #30

2010-04-25T19:14:00.004-04:00

IBWOTR is one of those songs that everyone, even if they have never gone to summer camp or been a member of a youth group, etc. seems to know at least in part. Maybe they learned it in elementary school or heard it in old cartoons. But it's a song everyone seems to sing exactly the same, unlike many songs I've blogged about.

Train songs have a rich tradition and we sang a number of them at Camp Ajawah - at least the boys did.

I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away

Can't you hear the whistle blowing
Rise up so early in the morn
Can't you hear the captain shouting
Dinah, blow your horn

Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone's in the kitchen I know
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Strumming on the old banjo, and singing

Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Strumming on the old banjo

I have two questions: who is Dinah? And is this song indeed from the 1800s? Did rail workers sing it? Is it of African American origins? Or was it a commercial composition?

Yes, that's more than two questions, but the last three are variations on the second questions. I just want to find the origins.

Dinah - there is speculation that it's "diner" with a southern accent. Dinah blowing her horn = dining car calling workers to lunch. Or maybe Dinah was the cook. Or "dinner." Maybe blowing her horn was a variation of Gabriel blowing his horn (from The Eyes of Texas are Upon You, which has the same melody as the first part of IBWOTR).

Gargoyle at mudcat.org writes:

"Dinah - short for dynamite.

Kitchen - the engineer's cab of a steam locomotive

Banjo - short handled shovel"

Origins - First appeared in print in 1894 at Princeton, but otherwise the roots are somewhat murky, which is not unusual for folk music. It is likely two or three songs combined - a variation of "I've Been Working on the Levee" and "Dinah."

Strumming on the old banjo may mean stirring food in the frying pan.

Doodle Doo Doo - Song #29

2010-04-12T23:44:00.003-04:00

Another girls camp song I had not remembered until recently, Doodle Doo Doo is one that seemed not to be a folk song, as it had more of a 1920s love song air, at least to me. The way we sung it, there were hand motions... something like clapping both hands twice on one's thighs, followed by two hand claps, a couple of finger snaps interspersed with claps, and then some twirling of the hands around each other. Not the most masculine thing to do - nor is the song in the vein of murder, train crashes, and marching to war - so maybe that's why it never crossed over to boys camp. But it's a nice enough melody.

At Camp Ajawah, it was pronounced "Doodle-ee Doo," but a little research turned up the correct title, as indeed my hunch that it's not a traditional song was right.

From 1924 (we only sang the chorus):

Writers: Art Kassel & Mel Stitzel

I've just heard a melody
That is always haunting me
Funny little strain
Running thru my brain
It's as sweet as can be
It has such a pleading way
Tho' it's with me night an day
When I hear someone playing
I walk right up an say

CHORUS
Please play for me
That sweet melody
Called doo-dle doo-doo
doo-dle doo-doo
I like the rest
But what I like best
Is doo-dle doo-doo doo-dle doo-doo
Simplest thing
There's nothing much to it
Don't have to sing it
Just doo-dle doo-doo it
I love it so
Wherever I go
I doo-dle doo
doo-dle doo doo doo

I've heard all the melodies
From the blues to rhapsodies
They all come and go
But there's one I know
That'll linger and tease
I've found all the blues a pest
Rhapsodies to me a jest
So if you want to please me
Just take this one request

More L'Amour

2010-03-30T00:36:00.003-04:00

A few more words on the song from the previous post, known variously as "Viva L'Amour" or "Vive La Compagnie." When I first learned the song at age 9 - and for a few summers after - I thought the phrase was "Viva La Moore," because the Camp Director was (and still is) Dave Moore. Naturally, I thought it was an homage to him.

Here are the lyrics as Camp Ajawah knows them - you can see that while they differ quite a bit from the 1844 version posted earlier, one begat the other:

Let every good fellow now join in this song,

Vive la compagnie!

Success to each other and pass it along,

Vive la compagnie!

(Chorus)

Vive la, vive la, vive l'amour

Vive l'amour, vive l'amour,

Vive la compagnie!

A friend on your left and a friend on your right,

Vive la compagnie!

In love and good fellowship let us unite,

Vive la compagnie!

(Chorus)

Now wider and wider our circle expands,

Vive la compagnie!

We sing to our comrades in far away lands,

Vive la compagnie!

(Chorus)

That's it. A lively song of comradeship, easy to learn, easy to sing. I will end with an amusing clip of the song being sung:

Viva L'Amour - Song #28

2010-03-25T23:31:00.003-04:00

I was looking up the origins of the song we knew as Viva L'Amour at boys' camp and found that it's more often titled Vive La Compagnie. Oddly enough, it appears to be a British song and sung often in America, but no trace of it ever having been French. Well, only the chorus is in that language, so maybe that does make sense.

Here is an old version of the lyrics, quite different from the one most Boy Scouts know:

VIVE LA COMPAGNIE
Published by F. D. Benteen, Baltimore, 1844.

Let Bacchus to Venus libations pour forth, Vive la compagnie!
And let us make use of our time while it lasts. Vive la compagnie!

CHORUS: Vive la, vive la, vive l'amour!
Vive la, vive la, vive l'amour!
Vive l'amour, vive l'amour,
Vive la compagnie!

Let ev'ry old bachelor fill up his glass, Vive la compagnie!
And drink to the health of his favorite lass. Vive la compagnie! CHORUS

Let ev'ry married man drink to his wife, Vive la compagnie!
The friend of his bosom and comfort of life. Vive la compagnie! CHORUS

Come fill up your glasses—I'll give you a toast, Vive la compagnie!
Here's a health to our friend—our kind worthy host. Vive la compagnie! CHORUS

Since all with good humor, I've toasted so free, Vive la compagnie!
I hope it will please you to drink now with me. Vive la compagnie! CHORUS

More Castle

2010-03-23T01:05:00.003-04:00

A little follow up to my last post:

1 - The original sheet music is available on UCLA's database of American Popular Music:

http://digital.library.ucla.edu/apam/librarian?VIEWPDF=SY108087PDF'

2 - The song has its origins in African American vaudeville at the turn of the century. It was part of a show called "In Dahomey" in 1900. As is often the case with summer camp songs, there is terrific information at mudcat.org. Here is the link to a discussion about "My Castle on the Nile."

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=27210

My Castle on the Nile - Song #27

2010-03-21T20:10:00.003-04:00

I crosschecked the lists of songs at the links below and found perhaps a dozen that were missing from my long list on the left side of this page. There are a few I did not add, as they have been added to the tradition since my last summer at Camp Ajawah, so I do not feel "qualified" to comment on them. But check out:

http://www.ajawah.org/boysongs.html

http://www.ajawah.org/girlsongs.html

You will find links there to register for summer 2010 girls' sessions and boys' sessions for kids from 8-15. Sign up soon!

I added a song that I have not thought of in years -- but was able to pluck from the depths of my gray matter. My Castle On The Nile is the title. A search for video did turn up someone singing it with hand motions similar to those used at Ajawah:

The melody is close enough for rock and roll... or camp music. The lyrics:

I'm gonna build my castle on the Nile,

So I can live in elegant style.

Inlaid diamonds on the floor

A bamboo butler at my door.

I'm gonna marry prince Alaboo,

My blood will change from red to blue,

Entertaining royalty all the while,

In my castle, castle, castle on the river Nile

....the river Nile.

One Meatball video

2010-03-18T21:52:00.003-04:00

A while back I posted about the song known as One Meatball or The Little Man. Still have not found any performances with the melody we used at camp. Most are the bluesy take that was a hit for the Andrews Sisters. Anyway, I came across this yesterday, a short film from the 1940s that was a precursor to the modern music video:

McNamara's Band - Song #26

2010-03-17T23:36:00.002-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all. I thought I had already posted an entry or two on McNamara's band, but it looks like I haven't. So I will go with the Irish theme of today's holiday and write about a song I always liked a lot. At Camp Ajawah -- boys' camp only -- this was a song we never sang so often that it got tiresome, nor was it one that would go forgotten for ages. It's a short song -- also a plus -- and has a fun part where we would divide the Mess Hall into two parts, one singing "da da da da" and the other responding "boom boom!"

Wikipedia has a good summary of the song's origins - it's not an old folk song, it's was composed for commercial purposes and was a hit for Bing Crosby in the 1940's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNamara's_Band

More James James Morrison Morrison

2010-03-14T13:27:00.002-04:00

Further research on the subject of my last post confirms that it was indeed Chad Mitchell who set A A Milne's poem "Disobedience" to music. His trio, by the way, was where in 1965 John Denver got his start. He replaced Chad, who left to go solo. Oddly enough, the group dropped "Chad" but not "Mitchell" from its name.

A few years later, there were no original members left in the trio, so the name became Denver, Boise, and Johnson. Michael Johnson later went on to have a few pop hits in the 1980s, including "Bluer than Blue,) which is very much soft rock AC radio cheese - but I always loved it anyway. He sings the catchy melody convincingly:

Denver and the original trio performed a few times together in 1987. The Chad Mitchell trio still performs. Based in Seattle, they played for President Obama in DC last year. They were first to record "Blowing in the Wind," but their label objected to the lyrics, so Peter Paul & Mary's version was released first and the rest is history.

Here is a link to the CMT's website: http://www.chadmitchelltrio.com/

Unfortunately, JJMM is not on iTunes at all, by anyone. So if you want the original, buy through the trio's website. On Lala (a great music site), the only version I found is this one:

James James Morrison Morrison ...

What do Winnie the Pooh and The Doors have in common? - Song #25

2010-03-13T16:11:00.003-05:00

The answer: James Morrison. You probably know that Jim Morrison was lead singer and songwriter for The Doors, but did you know that Winnie the Pooh's creator, A. A. Milne, wrote a poem titled "James James Morrison Morrison"? Actually, I just learned that's not correct - the title of the poem is "Disobedience." He wrote it in 1924 as part of the book "When We Were Young." It's a fun inversion of the usual mother/child relationship and very British

JAMES JAMES MORRISON MORRISON

James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George DuPree
Took great care of his mother though he was only three
James James said to his mother:
"Mother," he said, said he
"You must never go down to the end of the town,
if you don't go down with me.
Don't ever go down to the end of the town,
if you don't go down with me."

James James Morrison's mother put on her golden gown
James James Morrison's mother, she drove to the end of the town
James James Morrison's mother
She said to herself, said she
"Well, I can get down to the end of the town
And be back in time for tea.
Well, I can get down to the end of the town
And be back in time for tea."
King John put up a notice: "Lost, stolen or strayed,
James James Morrison's mother,
She seems to have been mislaid
Wandering vaguely all about quite of her own accord
She tried to get down to the end of the town--
Forty shillings reward.
She tried to get down to the end of the town--
Forty shillings reward.

James James Morrison Morrison, commonly known as "Jim"
Said to his other relations not to go blaming him
For James James said to his mother
"Mother", he said, said he
"Don't ever go down to the end of the town,
If you don't go down with me.
You must never go down to the end of the town,
If you don't go down with me."

Now James James Morrison's mother,
She hasn't been heard of since,
King John sent down to give his regrets,
And so did the queen and the prince,
King John, somebody told me,
Said to a man he knew,
"If people go down to the end of the town,
Well what can anyone do?
If people go down to the end of the town,
Well what can anyone do?"

I am not sure who set the words to music, but looks like it may be Chad Mitchell, who recorded the song with his folk trio in the early 1960s.

Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound

2010-02-26T13:26:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note that there is another posthumous album from Johnny Cash out as of three days ago. If you like his later years, singing old songs with just a guitar and his distinctive voice, check it out. And one of the cuts is the Camp Ajawah favorite, Tom Paxton's "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound." Cash sings it close to the original melody. As I pointed out in an earlier post, we always sang it to the melody of Blowing In The Wind.

Camp Ajawah Reunion - August 14-16

2009-05-12T18:41:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-05T20:57:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-01-07T19:07:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-02T21:37:00.001-04:00

From 35 years ago, courtesy of YouTube:

Granny's in the Cellar - Song #24

2008-09-30T21:38:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-25T16:16:00.001-04:00

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

Lisa Loeb's new album

2008-09-16T09:07:00.002-04:00

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...

Third and final cat post

2008-09-12T19:59:00.001-04:00

There is an excellent wikipedia entry on "The Cat Came Back." Here is the cover of the sheet music (1893):

And here is another video of the song being sung, this time by Boy Scouts around a campfire, so closer to approximating the summer camp experience...

More Cats

2008-09-11T19:54:00.001-04:00

Following up on my last post, perhaps some of you may remember this National Film Board of Canada animated version of The Cat Came Back. Or, if not, check it out anyway...

The Cat Came Back - thanks to technology

2008-09-10T19:33:00.002-04:00

Yahoo's homepage features this story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080910/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_cat

And even had a link to search for the song "The Cat Came Back." The song was (is?) sung at Camp Ajawah, but never became a Top 40 hit, so to speak. To me, while the lyrics are quite fun, the melody was neither easy nor memorable enough. The chorus is okay, but to this day the tune for the verses is hard to recall - a vaguely monotonous rush of words.

One version I like listening to is Garrison Keillor's. He grew up in Anoka, not far from Ajawah. Perhaps we are Camp Woebegone? I can't find a link to the version of TCCB that I know, but he did a version on his CD "Songs of the Cat."

Joe Swift Messing Around

2008-09-03T14:11:00.000-04:00

That's the title of this youtube clip.

But, no, it's not me.

Ain't Gonna Grieve - Song #23

2008-08-19T19:23:00.003-04:00

Continuing on the religious theme (very loosely), this next song starts "Oh the Deacon went down to the cellar to pray." But then things take a subversive turn: "But he got drunk and stayed all day." In these days of political correctness, perhaps this is not something that would be easy to introduce, but as far as I know this song like many others was de facto "grandfathered in."

Which is a good thing. A little good natured humor about anything never hurt anyone.

So those are the first two lines, which are sung in call and response fashion by the song leader. Then the verse is repeated without the call and response, followed by "I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more." Then that line is repeated three times to the same melody, with a nice drawn out "grieeeeeeeve."

Then anyone can raise his (this was a boys' camp song) hand and the song leader points to one of the handraisers, who then leads the call and response with an original (or not) joke. The one I remember best is "Oh you can't get to Heaven with (insert name)'s shoes, 'cause (insert name)'s shoes are big as canoes." Then the usual chorus followed by someone else's joke. They always began with "Oh you can't get to Heaven with..." Good way to tease a counselor or make fun of the food or the weather, etc.

Swing Low - Song #22

2008-08-12T23:01:00.003-04:00

For some reason I felt like singing in the shower this morning and the first song that popped into my head was Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, for no apparent reason. It's a good tune for the resonant surfaces of a bathroom, given its slow and simple melody.

Camp Ajawah was founded by a Boy Scout troop and sponsored by Minneapolis's big downtown Presbyterian church, but is not a "church camp" as some might understand the term. Always inclusive of children of any or no faith, Ajawah has always had a strong spiritual element that is best emphasized as "love thy neighbor as thyself."

And so there are a handful of songs that have some religious element, but not a majority of the songs by any stretch. And Swing Low is among the best known.

A 2000s version, then one from the 1960s:

But I prefer this version (from one half of the Righteous Brothers):

Take Me Out to the Ballgame - song #21

2008-07-16T19:24:00.003-04:00

In honor of yesterday's All Star Game, I turn my attention now to the unofficial baseball anthem, Take Me Out to the Ballgame. At camp we would sing it occasionally. For many years there was a traditional game of softball one of the last days of each session, pitting the staff versus the "all stars" campers from the softball league that played games during morning swims.

I believe that all may have transitioned to soccer - don't get me started on that - but back in the day we sang TMOTTB, which perhaps many already knew from the 7th inning stretch at Twins' games.

So, here are three sites about the song:

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Me_Out_to_the_Ball_Game
Now we know that this is the 100th anniversary of the song's debut as a pop music hit. And that it is the third most commonly sung song in America.

2 http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1556376&vid=141873
A Minnesota indie band (now based in Brooklyn) covers the song for the Twins (do they now play this at the Metrodome??)

3 http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/notebook?page=bbtn/takemeout
Nine popular acts record versions for an ESPN battle of the bands.

More "Wha Saw"

2008-07-02T21:19:00.002-04:00

Here is a link with a few of the traditional versions of the lyrics as well as the sheet music. As you can see, it's from a bagpipe site. Whenever I think of what a bagpiper usually plays, it's something along the lines of "Wha Saw."

http://usahpd.com/tunes/whasaw42.htm

When sung as a round, starting a new group every two beats, it makes for a fun ending as the droning, steady rhythm gives way to an increasingly clear "bramble briar... bramble briar... bramble briar."

Here is a link to a midi file of the bagpipe version - chose the third medley down:

http://www.electricscotland.com/music/medleys.htm

Not really finding any sung version on iTunes, etc. Anyone?

Warsaw/Wausau/Wha Saw? - Song #20

2008-06-30T20:52:00.004-04:00

Mack reminded me of another song I can't believe I forgot, as most of the ones falling into that category are ones I never particularly liked. But "Wausau the 42nd" (as I recall it) was an old workhorse of a round, a dependable, lively and easily sung tune.

As I sang it, the words were:

Wausau the 42nd
Wausau gone to war
Wausau the 42nd
Marching through the bramble briar

Zoom diddy boom diddy
boots and stockings
Zoom diddy boom diddy
Lay et twa
Zoom diddy boom diddy
boots and stockings
matching through the bramble briar

I was never sure if it was supposed to be "Warsaw" or "Wausau" or some other place; what war; and the second verse doesn't make any sense - is "lay et twa" French? Or did I have the words wrong? Etc.

So my first look into this turns up not a lot, but it did turn up these Scottish lyrics:

Wha saw the forty-second,/ Wha saw them gang awa',/ Wha saw the forty-second,/ Mairchin' doon the Broomielaw. / Some o' them had buits an' stockins,/ some o' them had nane at a',/ Some o' them had umberellas [4 syllables!]/ Mairchin' doon the Broomielaw

I like that; makes a litle more sense and evokes a vivid picture. And who doesn't like a Scottish brogue?

More to come in my next post...

Boy(s) Meet Girl(s)?

2008-06-25T20:11:00.003-04:00

I was doing some research on a round sung at the girls' sessions at Camp Ajawah titled "Rose, Rose." A slow, haunting tune seemingly about a medieval young woman's betrothal plans, but it turns out no one has been able to trace it back any further than the 1900s.

But I learned a lot of camps and groups sing it along with a song we sing at the boys' sessions, "Hey Ho, Nobody Home," which indeed has a similar melody. We always sung it as if we were hiking.

So maybe at Ajawah this summer they should try the combo platter - here is one version I found, along with another verse or two thrown in from elsewhere:

rose, rose, rose, rose,
will I ever see thee wed?
I shall marry at my will,
sire, at my will.

ding, dong, ding, dong,
wedding bells on an April morning,
carve thy name on a moss-covered stone,
on a moss-covered stone.

Hey ho, nobody's home,
meat nor drink nor money have I none,
still I will be very merry,
hey ho, nobody's home.

Mother, Father, dig my grave,
dig it with a golden spade,
bring some friends and a morning dove,
to show my die for love.

Au poor bird,
take thy flight,
high above the sorrows,
of this cruel dark night.

Should make the campers all cheerful for bedtime, eh? And a note: many of the versions of Rose have the line as "at thy will" instead of "at my will." I seem to remember our version being "as I will" which sounds better, I think (as well as being more feminist than "at thy will").

More Boomdiada

2008-06-23T20:17:00.002-04:00

Or Boom Dee A Da... or whatever spelling you prefer.

I posted a while back about how Discovery Channel had co-opted this song as the centerpiece of their multi-million dollar rebranding around the silly tag line "The world is just awesome." Now they are having contests for people to submit their own versions of the song, etc.

While looking into that, I came across this - just a handful of teenage girls in someone's home, singing the song correctly, if not harmoniously:

The Austrian Song: Song #19

2008-06-19T21:07:00.003-04:00

I got an email from Mack asking me about the Austrian Song, along with some lyrics he'd remembered. It didn't ring a bell immediately but then started coming back to me, especially as I did a little research on it. What threw me off, I think, is that I only recall it as a Girls Camp song and Mack only went to Boys Camp.

Looking for an audio file to jog my memory, I stumbled across something interesting or perhaps a little bizarre: a "virtual karaoke" site where people can post their Sims version of songs. There are a few for the Austrian Song. Check this one out - it also links to others:

http://thesimsonstage.ea.com/playPerformance.html?performanceId=Cpsh6W12poM%3D&play=Y

John Brown's still a-mouldering

2008-06-05T19:46:00.002-04:00

Here is a link to the original song, a Civil War tune about the famed abolitionist, using a tune that had arisen earlier in the century:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21566/21566-h/images/johnbrown.pdf

Of course, this tune was then used as the basis for the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Not finding much online about the origins of the nonsensical version we sing at Ajawah. There is another Civil War song to the same tune that begins "Hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree, down went McGinty to the bottom of the sea..."

John Brown's Body - Song #18

2008-06-02T19:43:00.003-04:00

A few posts ago I wrote about a song used to dismiss campers from the Mess Hall after meals (Tramp, Tramp, Tramp). Another one was suggested to me by my friend Mack:

John Brown's Body lies a'molding in the grave
Down with McGinty to the bottom of the sea
She's my Nellie
I'm her Joe
So listen to my tail of... woe

Any ice today ladies?

More about these seemingly random lyrics in my next post.

More Mr. Moon

2008-05-28T18:56:00.004-04:00

1 - At Girls' Camp we also sang the same tune with altered lyrics: Mr. Sun (not at campfire, of course, but during the day).

Oh Mister Sun, Sun, great big shining sun
won't you please shine down on me
Oh Mister Sun, Sun, great big shining sun
won't you come from behind that tree

There stands (insert name of current Beach Director) with a whistle in hand
Ready for to blow it if you warm the sand
So Sun, Sun, great big shining sun
won't you please shine down on, talk about your shining
won't you please shine down on me

2 - Bob Coltman at mudcat.org did some fine detective work and found the original version - here is the first part:

MISTER MOON: KINDLY COME OUT AND SHINE
Smith & Bowman
Boston: Walter Jacobs, 1903.

VERSE 1. Ole Parson Jones was coming home this morn twixt one and two,
When lots of boys that hangs around has nothing else to do
But interfere with people ev'ry evening when it's dark.
Last night they saw the parson coming. One made this remark:
Says, “Yonder comes the parson. Now, let's try to make him run.
He thinks he's brave. We’ll test his nerve. I'll fiah off this gun.”
And when the parson heard the shot, 'twas then he got right scared
And started running up the road and this the way he prayed:

CHORUS 1: Oh, Mister Moon, Moon, silvery moon, kindly come out and shine.
Do Mister Moon, Moon, come out soon. My home I wants to find.
I'm brave, 'tis true, was never known to run,
But the boys behind me with a Gatling gun.
Oh, Mister Moon, Moon, silvery moon, kindly come out and shine.

Read his full post at http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=44759#659308

Mr. Moon - Song #17

2008-05-22T08:49:00.003-04:00

In general, songs at Ajawah are either campfire songs (usually slower songs) and mess hall songs (usually rowdier and often involving physical action). A perfect example of the former is Mr. Moon, often sung as the first song at the evening campfire.

Oh Mr Moon, moon, great big silvery moon, won't you please shine down on me
Oh Mr Moon, moon, great big silvery moon, won't you come from behind that tree
There stands a man with a big shot gun
ready for to shoot you if you start to run
So Mr Moon, moon, won't you please shine down on - talk about your shining -
Please shine down on me

Jim Dixon posted the following on a thread at mudcat.org

"This song is oddly hard to track down. It seems like an old pop song, yet I have failed to find any web site that credits an author, or gives any specific information like a date of publication. There are a lot of variants out there. Some even change it to "Mister Sun." It is a popular kids' song, and often appears on lists of camp songs. One version appears on a Barney video. The Delta Delta Delta sorority has adapted it for their purposes. It is popular with barbershop quartets, and I have seen many ads for songbooks that include it, but no actual lyrics."

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp: Song #16

2008-05-20T20:09:00.002-04:00

How many songs from Camp Ajawah were written by members of the Songwriting Hall of Fame? Well, at least one:

http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C189?exhibitId=189

Written for the Civil War in the words of a POW awaiting rescue, it eventual was given words more appropriate for a summer camp:

Tramp Tramp Tramp the scouts are marching
Under smiling skies above (skies above!)
For the red, the white, the blue
We will stay forever true
For the glory of the country that we love
(repeat)

We used it as one of a handful of songs that served to dismiss campers after meals. The song leader would point to whichever table was singing best, indicating that they could leave the Mess Hall. Then the next best table, and so on, down to the last one. This kept the exit from becoming a riot of kids struggling to be first out the door.

The melody also has some pop music fame; it serves as the melody for the introduction to Ray Stevens' Grammy-winning #1 song from 1970, "Everything is Beautiful." George Root's melody was set to Biblically inspired words by a lyricist he knew named C. Herbert Woolston ("Jesus loves the little children") and became a Sunday school favorite for decades.

Military prison to the hiking path to church - a pretty versatile tune...

Atkins and Idol

2008-05-08T08:25:00.002-04:00

First, as a follow up to yesterday's post, here is Nicole Atkin's performing "The Way It Is" on David Letterman:

Second, as long as I am on pop music, here's an idea - why not have one episode's theme for American Idol be "summer camp songs"? They would probably never do it, but it sure could be a fun change of pace.

Nicole Atkins

2008-05-07T08:32:00.002-04:00

OK, so it would be a stretch to really tie this post to summer camp songs, but I think Nicole Atkins is such an amazing new artist that I just want to get word out. Maybe I can claim that repeated exposure to the same songs at summer camp over many summers influences all campers' musical tastes. Maybe I can say that would incline them to like some of the same pop music I like. Or maybe I can just post a link and let you decide for yourself.

My favorites: The Way It Is; Neptune City.

Sixteen Tons: Song #15

2008-05-05T22:11:00.003-04:00

I suppose I should have made this song the next one (#16), but why wait? This one was a perennial favorite at boys' camp. With the economy struggling now, the line "another day older and deeper in dept" rings a little too true.

This song originated as one of the biggest pop recordings of the 1950s. Here it is in all its glory:

Sara the Whale - Song #14

2008-05-02T10:10:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Kendra's comments to a previous post, I have added two songs to my list: Sara the Whale and My Aunt Greet. To be honest, when she brought these songs to mind I realized I was never a big fan of either, so maybe my subconscious was (not) telling me something. But Sara is a fun, silly song. A little digging finds a few variations, including it as part of a Horse Named Bill, which appears in Carl Sandburg's landmark book, American Songs.

And it turns out Burl Ives ("Frosty the Snowman") does a version of it called Whale Song. Two other Ajawah songs appear on this particular album: Mr. Rabbit (see an earlier post) and The Goat (aka Bill Grogan's Goat).

Here is the link to it on iTunes:

Taps - Song #13

2008-04-28T19:34:00.002-04:00

I don't believe the number 13 is unlucky, but since some people do I thought I would post "Taps" as my 13th song. Virtually everyone is familiar with it, even if he or she never attended summer camp:

http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/images/taps.mp3

At Camp Ajawah, the bugler would play this every night at 10 pm to signal lights out, no more talking, everyone should go to sleep. Hearing it echo across Lake Linwood and through the pines was a lovely way to end the day.

At Girls' Camp, it was also part of the medley of songs that ended each evening's campfire, where we all held hands and sung. One camper famously misconstrued the following lyrics:

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.

She thought the song began "Dave is done..." because that was (and is) the Camp Director's first name. It works.

U2's version of "Springhill Mine Disaster"

2008-04-23T22:29:00.003-04:00

Since I am in Toronto tonight I was thinking of the Canadian songs we sing at camp. One I blogged about last month is the Springhill Mine Disaster. At the time, the youtube.com clip of U2 performing this song was unavailable. Lo and behold, it is now up and running. Great stuff. Check it out at:

Camp Songs That Annoy

2008-04-21T21:54:00.004-04:00

In a comment to my previous post, Kendra reminds me of two songs we sang at Girls' Camp and not at Boys'. I also thought of a couple others and added them as well.

I will have to confess - not all camp songs are beloved. Most people have one or two - or more - that just rubs them the wrong way. Perhaps through overuse; or inane lyrics; or melodic melody. One man's meat is another man's poison.

One song that I never cared for is one I just added: The Bubblegum Song. It combines inane lyrics and melodic monotony. Just looking at the always useful forums at mudcat.org leads to some interesting origins for this one, though. One discussion mentions its use as a Bazooka Bubblegum jingle year ago; and another traces it back to Dean Martin to George Gershwin to Latin American marches from a century ago and longer:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=71236#1219046

Who knew?

Mr Rabbit - Song #12

2008-04-18T12:01:00.002-04:00

Where does the time go? I have not posted for a while, but will try to get back on a more regular basis. Now, let me talk about a simple song that our Camp Director, Dave, taught us one summer. I believe it was something they used to sing at Ajawah a while back but had long disappeared from the "playlist" before Dave revived it.

While putting together the Ajawah iMix (link on the left side of this page), I found a raucous version by Paul Westerberg of Replacements fame. Since he grew up in St. Louis Park, a Twin Cities suburb which many campers have called home, I wonder if he learned it from someone who went to Ajawah. Or was it a more prevalent song in various youth groups, families, etc?

Another Camp's Song

2008-04-10T18:08:00.003-04:00

My friend Dan recently emailed me about his experiences at a Boy Scout Camp in Virginia. Here is the song unique to their camp:

" Our particular camp was Camp Bowman. Theme song was "The Yellow Rope of Bowman" sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas". It spoke of the yellow rope we used for everything onsite. Whenever I hear Yellow Rose, which isn't often, I always remember the song and those days at camp.

Oh, the yellow rope of Bowman
Is good enough for me.
And when it's very dark out
The rope you'll always see.
And when you tie a square knot
Your work will always shine.
The yellow rope of Bowman
Will melt in turpentine."

Source of this blog's title

2008-04-07T20:13:00.004-04:00

Many summer camps have their own song, consisting of unique lyrics set to a familiar tune. We have one at Camp Ajawah. I borrowed the first three words of the lyrics for the title of this blog, as it encapsulates exactly what this is all about - people singing together for pleasure rather than for performance.

So, to the tune of the Army's official song (http://www.army.mil/symbols/song.html), "The Army Goes Rolling Along," here is the Ajawah Rouser:

When we sing, when we shout
We all know what we're about
And we'll sing you a chorus or two (three, four)
You can bet we have the snap
that will put us on the map
There no reason why we should feel blue

CHORUS:
For it's hi hi hee, Camp Ajawah for me
Shout out your praises loud and strong (Ajawah!)
With all our pep
We'll make the others step
And we'll march at the head of the throng (keep on marching!)
And we'll march at the head of the throng

On the land, in the lake
Everywhere we take the cake
In whatever we're doing we shine (shine, shine)
If you want to shine with us
fall in line without a fuss
pull your belt in and straighten your spine

CHORUS

We're a bunch of husky lads
We'll be better than our dads
and our mothers will feel mighty proud (proud, proud)
We don't brag, we don't boast
We're just telling you the truth
Come on fellows, sing this chorus loud

CHORUS

Another commercial use of a camp song

2008-04-02T13:21:00.003-04:00

I worked at Discovery Networks for many years and was recently sent this link to a promo spot for Discovery Channel's new branding campaign:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1480107490/bctid1482364077

The new tag line is awful: "The World is Just Awesome." Like, totally, dude.

But the use of the song variously known as "I Love the Mountains," "I Love the Flowers," or "Boom-de-a-da" (spelled numerous ways) as the basis for what the experts sing in this spot amused me. Nothing fantastic, but mildly funny - and I am always happy to keep songs like this in the public's ears...

Sweet Violets - Song #11

2008-03-26T07:53:00.002-04:00

My long list of songs from Ajawah on the left side of this page is never finished. There are always songs that come to me as I walk along that I have forgotten to add. Today one such tune popped into my head.

We sung this one at the Girls' Camp (you can see why boys would not be into it). "Sweet Violets" is an exemplar of lyrics that mine humor from setting up expectations for "naughty" rhymes but then subverts this by going in a different direction.

I found a site that has the lyrics as well as a short snippet of a Dinah Shore version of the song: http://www.ziplo.com/violets.htm

There are also versions of this song that are more bawdy, many from the UK, many on recordings from the 1940s-1960s. Homer and Jethro, Mitch Miller and Gang, etc.

One version spent two months in the Top 40 in 1951, sung by Dinah Shore.

Springhill Mine Disaster - Song #10

2008-03-13T20:03:00.003-04:00

We sang a few mining songs at Ajawah, such as Sixteen Tons. Another is today's topic. It's sung in a minor key, befitting the vivid tale of being trapped underground among the dead and the dying.

Looking up the song I found out that U2 has performed the song in concert. Not available on iTunes, and the clips on YouTube have been retracted due to copyright. Would love to hear it.

A few years ago I was in a bookstore in the Uptown area of Minneapolis and found an excellent book on the remainders table about the disaster. Here is the author's website for her book:
http://melissafaygreene.com/pages/lastmanout.html

My only disappointment is the book didn't tell much of anything about Caleb Rushton, who "stars" in the lyrics of the song with a dramatic line: "there is no water nor hope nor bread, so we'll live on song and hope instead." Poetic license by the songwriters?

Tom Paxton

2008-03-11T18:27:00.002-04:00

An entry or two back I mentioned Tom Paxton's great song, "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound." We only sang one other Paxton song, but it was certainly another favorite for many; we even named the camp sailboat after the title, which is "Rambling Boy."

I can't get the following to play, but here is Tom playing this song with Pete Seeger (tying back to yet another recent post):

If I Had a Seeger

2008-02-29T08:52:00.002-05:00

I caught the last half of PBS's "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" the other night and need to see the first part. A traditional, laudatory bio, it captivated me. Even though there was not a lot that was new to me, it is impressive to review his impact musically and politically. A bit like Zelig or Forrest Gump - he's on the Top 40, he's banned from TV as a Communist, he's teaching MLK "We Shall Overcome," etc.

Here's a link to more:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/seeger_p.html

At camp, the Seeger songs we sing are, to the best of my knowledge:

Where Have All the Flowers Gone
If I Had a Hammer
We Shall Overcome

I don't think we ever sang "Turn, Turn, Turn," though I do remember singing it at progressive Catholic masses as a child. Not to mention "Blowing in the Wind" with that phrase changed to "the answer is living in all men," which always annoyed me - and nowadays would be considered sexist...

"Borrowed" melodies

2008-02-27T18:48:00.003-05:00

A couple of postings ago I mentioned a new CD that has a version of "The Wreck of the Old '97." The funny thing about this song is that until I had missed something obvious until I read recently the following fact: it's melody was used as the basis of the Kingston Trio's hit, "The MTA." Come to think of it, it is! How did I miss that?

But I have done that before. I did realized that "Roll On Columbia" by Woody Guthrie is a reworking of "Goodnight, Irene." This borrowing is not unusual in the folk tradition. However, at my camp we sang Tom Paxton's "Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound," which was one of my favorites. Many years after learning it at a campfire one summer, I got a hold of a Paxton album and listened to him sing it. And his melody was different - and stunk! Well, it didn't really stink, it just wasn't the one I knew. Not radically different as far as tempo and range and overall feel, but not the same.

Then someone pointed out to me that the Ajawah version of "Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound" is sung to the tune of "Blowing In the Wind" (with an additional and crucial three notes in the chorus for the second "where I'm bound."

Maybe I will investigate some day, but I wonder how this happened. Was it introduced this way? Just at Ajawah? Or from somewhere else? Or did the original tune morph over time into the more familiar one that Dylan wrote?

Tom Dooley - Song #9

2008-02-22T08:40:00.003-05:00

There is a lot of good information on the web for "Tom Dooley" that a simple search will turn up, so I won't go into much detail on that. But the song is based on an actual event, which always makes a tune more interesting to me. How much is fact and how much is fiction is always debatable, but something in that mix must resonate, given "Tom Dooley"s resonance through the decades.

I always noticed the unique POV - the verses are first person, the choruses second person. Can you think of any other songs that do this? And it's not like different people sing the two parts in any version I've been part of or heard.

The last verse's lines about "down in some lonesome valley, hanging from a white oak tree" calls to mind Judas Iscariot, intentionally, I presume.

In Wilkes, NC, where the murder took place, has a Tom Dooley Museum and an annual play about the love triangle. Here is a link to the theatre:
http://www.wilkesplaymakers.com/contente.asp?page_id=dooleye

Tom Dooley's last words: "“Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I never harmed a hair on Laura Foster’s head”

Excellent new album out

2008-02-21T08:32:00.003-05:00

I was on iTunes yesterday an in the new CDs section they featured "People Take Warning: Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs 1913-1938," which features 70 old time recordings. A number of songs about the Titanic, the Wreck of the Old 97, and other such cheery topics. Here is a link to a version of "Tom Dooley" which is not like the smooth, well-known Kingston Trio hit record:

Check it out... any songs stand out to you?

Group singing article in NY Times

2008-02-20T08:52:00.003-05:00

This appeared almost two weeks ago, but better late than never. It's good to see that the joy of singing these great songs in informal groups is having a revival, or at least remains strong with a niche of followers across America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/arts/music/
10ratli.html?ex=1360731600&en=656c3cb183d51449&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Blow Ye Winds - Song #8

2008-02-16T11:55:00.002-05:00

Let me pass this on from my friend, Gary, a long time camper and counselor who now lives in Fresno:

Joe,
Here are some more verses to that whaling song. At Camp Ajawah we sang only verses: #1,4,10,11,and 12. Even those verses were modified a bit. Was it to simplify the vocabulary or did the person teaching the song to camp do it by memory?

'Tis advertised in Boston,
New York and Buffalo,
Five hundred brave Americans,
A-whaling for to go, singing,

Chorus:
Blow, ye winds in the morning,
And blow, ye winds, high-o!
Clear away your running gear,
And blow, ye winds, high-o!

2. They send you to New Bedford,
That famous whaling port,
And give you some land-sharks
To board and fit you out.
Chorus:

3. They send you to a boarding house,
There for a time to dwell;
The thieves they there are thicker
Than the other side of hell!
Chorus:

4. They tell you of the clipper ships
A-going in and out,
And say you'll take five hundred sperm
Before you're six months out.
Chorus:

5. It's now we're out to sea, my boys,
The wind comes on to blow;
One half the watch is sick on deck,
The other half below.
Chorus:

6. But as for the provisions,
We don't get half enough;
A little piece of stinking beef
And a blamed small bag of duff.
Chorus:

7. Now comes that damned old compass,
It will grieve your heart full sore.
For theirs is two and thirty points
And we have forty four.
Chorus:

8. Next comes the running rigging,
Which you're all supposed to know;
'Tis "Lay aloft, you son of a gun,
Or overboard you go!"
Chorus:
9. The coopers's at the vise bench,
A-making iron poles,
And the mate's upon the main hatch
A-cursing all our souls.
Chorus:

10. The Skipper's on the quarterdeck
A-squinting at the sails,
When up aloft the lookout sights
A school of whales.
Chorus:

11. "Now clear away the boats, my boys,
And after him we'll travel,
But if you get too near his fluke,
He'll kick you to the devil!"
Chorus:

12. Now we have got him turned up,
We tow him alongside;
We over with our blubber hooks,
And rob him of his hide.
Chorus:

13. Now the boat steerer overside
The tackle overhauls,
The Skipper's in the main-chains,
So loudly does he bawl!
Chorus:

14. Next comes the stowing down, my boys,
'Twill take both night and day,
And you'll all have fifty cents apiece
On the hundred and ninetieth lay.
Chorus:

15. Now we are bound into Tonbas,
That blasted whaling port,
And if you run away, my boys,
You surely will get caught.
Chorus:

16. Now we are bound into Tuckoona,
Full more in their power,
Where the skippers can buy the Consul up
For half a barrel of flour!
Chorus:

17. But now that our old ship is full
And we don't give a damn,
We'll bend on all our stu'nsails
And sail for Yankee land.
Chorus:

18. When we get home, our ship made fast,
And we get through our sailing,
A winding glass around we'll pass
And damn this blubber whaling!
Chorus:

Johnny Appleseed - Song # 8

2008-02-13T22:35:00.003-05:00

This song appears to be sung as a grace before meals at many camps, by Girl Scouts, by church youth groups. It was one of a handful of songs we sang standing at our tables in the mess hall before eating. I thought it had probably been written by a parson or school teacher a hundred years ago and passed along.

But a quick search finds that, like yesterday's song, it was composed by professional songwriters. In this case, the team of Kim Cannon and Walter Kent wrote it for a Disney short on Johnny Appleseed in 1948.

Who knew?

Early in the Mornin' - Song #7

2008-02-12T20:55:00.000-05:00

I always liked this simple song, which begins "I remember Grandpa telling me that I was born as the sun was coming up early (pronounced "ur-lie" for some reason) in the morn." It's in the tradition of the restless rambler who comes and goes, which I guess is why I like it. Other songs in this vein include Rambling Man (both the Hank Williams and Allman Brothers songs), Please Come to Boston, I've Been Everywhere, etc.

Couldn't find a recording on iTunes, but looked it up and found that it's a Kingston Trio song, written by Randy Starr and Dick Wolf (no, not the Law & Order producer). But it's based on the old sea shanty, "What do you do with a drunken sailor," so feels older than its 1950s origins.

Of course, there are a number of Kingston Trio songs on my list - Charlie and the MTA, Tijuana Jail, Tom Dooley being the three biggies - but now I will have to track down their recording of this song as well.

One Meat Ball (The Little Man) - song #6

2008-02-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

When I searched iTunes for versions of this song, I could only find a bluesy version with modified lyrics. The way we sung this song was to sing a two-line rhyme and then repeat it. The first time through, the melody has a fun leap; the second is the same until the end, when it dips down and resolves.

It starts "The little man walked up and down, to see what he could find in to-how-hown; the little man walked up and down to see what he could find in town."

The odd story then unfolds of the little man going into a nice place, ordering a meatball, getting yelled at by the waiter when he asks for bread, and then going outside and killing himself.

The black humor always appealed to me, as did the dynamics of singing the little man's lines gently and the waiter's line gruffly. So why could I only find a version with a very different feel on iTunes?

Turns out in 1944 the original song was rewritten by two professional songwriters and eventually became a signature song for Josh White. The Andrews Sisters and Ry Cooder are among many others who have recorded this version.

But the true origins date back to the mid 19th century, when it was composed as a ditty by a Harvard professor, used in an opera buffa performed to raise money during the Civil War, and perhaps based upon a "Boston fact."

Two good links:
http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/SRW074.html
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6627

Does anyone know of a recording of this with the original melody?

Camp songs in commercials

2008-02-08T09:18:00.000-05:00

Once or twice a year I will hear a familiar tune being used by the plunderers of Madison Avenue. I don't really begrudge the commercializing of public domain songs as it's usually interesting to see how they are used.

As a matter of fact, I recently saw a pretty creative commercial that uses "The Happy Wanderer" as its score; at the end, it turned out to be a commercial for monster.com.

Here it is:

Have you heard this one? Or any other commercial uses of a summer camp song?

iMix of 70+ songs from Camp Ajawah

2008-02-07T20:14:00.000-05:00

I've spent a fair amount of time finding which Ajawah songs are available on iTunes; some are covered a zillion times; some not at all; and some take a little research to see what various titles have been used for the same song.

In this collection, I tried to take the "best" version available, tried to choose a variety of styles, and in some cases was unable to find versions I have found elsewhere. Please send me any suggestions or comments. The link is on the top left corner of the page, in case you missed it.

Song #5 - I've Got Sixpence

2008-02-05T19:35:00.002-05:00

Back to the UK for this one. I will write more about this song some other time, but for now I just want to provide a link that gives chords and lyrics for "I've Got Sixpence," because I just discovered this useful site: http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~kristin/songbook/ForeignSongs/IveGotSixpence.html

The interesting thing about the page for this song is that it tells the origins of the song - it was sold for a pint of beer...

Song #4 - Life of a Voyageur

2008-01-31T17:30:00.000-05:00

I did a little digging on this song today, sometimes known as "Canadian Wilderness." Since Camp Ajawah is in Minnesota and canoeing is a fun part of the lakefront activities, this song always felt apropos.

It has an interesting, complex melody, the lyrics paint a vivid picture, and the theme resonates will all who love the outdoors. And it's fun to sing the parts like "smoke rising from the fire, reach for sky in a stately spire" when the melody rises in a quick, steep burst.

On iTunes, where I am compiling an iMix of Camp Ajawah songs, this was one of the few for which I could find none.

But I did find a cool site which I have yet to fully explore, but seems to include huge database of folk songs as well as good discussions of various summer camp song origins, lyrics, etc.

Find it here: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=10483&messages=13

A poster there give the song's origins:

****I learned this song in the mid-'70's at Camp Manito-Wish in northern Wisconsin. It was written by a woman affiliated with that camp, and I believe it must have dispersed from there.

It's a beautiful song and well received whenever I sing it.

Quoting from: "Songs of the Northland, Manito-Wish Song Book."

"... written in 1960 by Mary Satterfield Swanson. On the first of many trips back to the Quetico, Mary brought along her baritone ukulele, which she fondly named Sarah after her adventures on Sarah Lake as a camper in 1959. It was on Sarah Lake that the words and music to 'The Life of a Voyageur' came to her. Mary brought the song to camp with her that summer and taught it to her cabin and later to the entire camp community."***

Song #3 - Row, Row, Row

2008-01-29T08:49:00.000-05:00

Here is a song that virtually all Americans know, even if they've never been within a hundred miles of a summer camp. It's sung in preschools, families, on children's CDs, etc. The twist at Camp Ajawah is how we sung it. After singing it once through, we would sing is again but leave off the final word, "stream." Sing again, leave off the last two words, "the stream." And thus we would continue, leaving off one more word each time. We would end with the chant-like "row, row, row... row, row... row."

It's a fun variation on a familiar tune, one which require concentration. There is always someone who forgets (or pretends to) to stop and sings out a word or two solo, leading to laughter and gentle embarrassment.

It can also be sung as a round, but we never went that route.

Wikipedia has an excellent entry on this old English song: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Row%2C_Row%2C_Row_Your_Boat
Good trivia section!

Finally, this simplest of children's songs is distinctive for being so subtly complex philosophical - one could write an entire blog contemplating the line "life is but a dream."

Song #2 - To Stop The Train

2008-01-17T19:36:00.000-05:00

I may as well continue with unlikely songs from England... so I have chosen another song I remember being introduced to Camp Ajawah (unlike most songs, which had been sung long before I came along). Bruce, like Bob a great camp leader for many years and a teacher during the school years, taught us this simple song:

To stop the train in cases of emergency pull down the chain
pull down the chain
penalty for improper use: 5 Pounds

I picture some really bored songwriter riding the tube years ago, distractedly reading one of those informational signs that blend into the background in public spaces, and challenging himself to put the words to music.

A little searching on the internet turns up nothing on the songs history. Anyone?

Here is a version of it with a slightly different tune from Ajawah's version: http://www.peterandellen.com/lyrics/stop.mp3

Finally, like some of the songs at Ajawah (and more so during the girls sessions), there are physical actions that accompany this song. Waving one's hand to stop the train, pulling down the chain, wagging a finger to warn of the penalty, and ending with a five fingers held out (5 Pounds) and a palm out for money on the last two notes of the song.

Song #1 - Rule Britannia

2008-01-16T19:32:00.000-05:00

One of the things I relished at Ajawah was the very long and diverse roster of songs we sang. By the time I showed up as a nine year old, the camp had been going strong for 40 years. Also, there was a great deal of continuity of leadership and campers from year to year, so the institutional memory was terrific.

So while some may think of camp songs as being a roster of a few dozen upifting songs like "Kumbaya" (which we did sing), at Ajawah the music ranged from spiritual to nonsense, Broadway to Boy Scouts, pop charts to traditional. While we sang of peace, love and understanding, we also sang of murder, deadly disasters, and mayhem... of cowboys, sailors, soldiers... and of Irish bandleaders, Zulu warriors, and Australian sheep.

So I thought the first song I would write about is one that probably is sung at few camps: Rule Britannia. Most people would recognize the bombastic instrumental version of the chorus; the lyrics and the verses, not likely. (Hear it at http://www.farmersboys.com/music/Misc%20Rule%20Brittania.mp3)

When Bob, the Assistant Camp Director, handed out copies of the lyrics to all the tables in the Mess Hall one summer day, I was amused that he thought he could get 80 young boys to learn the complex melody and archaic language. For example, the first line of the song is "When Britain first at Heaven's command arose from out the azure main." The word "first" stretches across five notes... and "arose" over ten. Insanity!

But a funny thing happened. Bob kept leading the song and before you know it, we were all booming it out with gusto. It was - and is - a fun song. The things that make it challenging to sing also make it rewarding. And the chorus is simple and powerful enough that it's easy to sing that part while getting up to snuff on the verses.

Thus, an 18th century British anthem became a 20th century American camp song. As is often the case, Wikipedia has good information on the song, including lyrics, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_britannia

Finally, I remember a few years later, after camp had ended for the summer, a few dozen leaders were driving in the camp bus near the Minnesota-Canadian border for a canoe trip. We picked up a pair of hitchhikers who turns out to be Brits. As soon as we realized this, to the amusement and amazement of our guests, we all burst forth into "Rule Britannia."

Why "When We Sing"

2008-01-15T18:42:00.001-05:00

I would like to answer the question I pose in the title twice - why this blog? And why this title?

My intention in writing here is to share with other the lasting joy I have derived from the songs I learned over many summers at Camp Ajawah in Minnesota. By writing a little bit about each song and linking to recorded versions and other resources, I hope this blog will help spread this music to those who also enjoy the types of songs by groups around a campfire... or on a hike up a hill... or after a meal.

As for the phrase "When We Sing," it is simply the first three words of the lyrics to one of the enduring songs at my camp: "The Ajawah Rouser," which I will write about soon. These three words evoke the spirit of communal song. Works for me...

I welcome any suggestions, questions, and contributions.