Mr Rabbit - Song #12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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):