What are these l brackets for

[Chickendoodle]

For some reason a song we sang at Junior school came into my head the other day. I can''t believe how morality has changed though the decades. It was a song called The Titanic and it was sung to a very cheery little tune - it went like this

 

Oh they built the ship titanic to sail the ocean blue

And they thought they had a ship that the water would never go through

But the Lord's almightly hand knew that ship would never land

It was sad when that great ship went down

 

It was sad, os so sad, it was sad, oh so sad

It was sad when that great ship went down

Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives

It was sad when that great ship went down

 

How could we have thought in the 1960's that it was OK to sing a cheery song about people dying? It's almost like singing a cheery song about 9/11!

 

Was it something to do with the aftermath of the war do you think. When the song was written the Titanic disaster was still well in living memory, being only 45 years or so previously.

 

How strange that should be one of the songs that I can't seem to get out of my head (along with one about Jesse James that I can't quite remember past the first few words!)

[debbier]

The words don't sound at all cheery, though the tune may have been!

[Chickendoodle]

I know - it would almost make it OK if the tune had been suitably solemn but I can assure you it was sort of Irish jiggy!!!

[Busybird]

The cheery campfire songs that my children come back singing after Scout camp are generally about people being horribly ill, suffering brutal injuries or meeting an untimely end in some avoidable accident. They find them hilarious

 

I suppose the big difference is that they don't relate to anything that actually happened. Children seem to have a fairly macabre sense of humour but generally have no experience of tragedy so cannot relate to it.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'm sure I recognise that song . I can't think of the tune though (wonder if it's on YouTube ).

 

EDIT: would you believe it

[majorbloodnock]

Mind you, it's not so different from singing "Ring-a-ring-a-roses". Ah, look at all those lovely little toddlers; let's teach them a song about bubonic plague.....

 

I think it's a natural self defence mechanism in most people to joke about unpleasant and/or fearful things. The first joke about the Challenger shuttle disaster was allegedly made up in the control room whilst the debris was still landing, but I don't seriously believe any of those present was trying to trivialise the event. In fact, far better that (in my opinion) than the mawkish breast-beating and public wailing after Princess Diana's death that threatened to overshadow the tragedy of the event itself.

 

I have a fairly clear idea of what I believe is and is not appropriate, and I'm certain that neither grief overdone nor dismissing the patently important are good demonstrations of respect.

 

OK, I'm on my soapbox again, so I'll get off.

[Chickendoodle]

I'm sure I recognise that song . I can't think of the tune though (wonder if it's on YouTube ).

 

EDIT: would you believe it

 

Golly the rest of the words are even worse!

[Valkyrie]

We used to sing a song about (I think it was Napoleon Bonaparte) someone - very marchy type tune and that ended up with him dying and us singing slow and quiet - to finish with a shouting chorus of

 

Boney was a warrior

Way ay yarrr

Boney was a warrior

?????

 

And something French at the end - and none of us knew what it was.

[Valkyrie]

Good tune! Oh dear those words!

[Valkyrie]

Good spot - this is ours (so much for the French bit - Jean Francois )

 

http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/shanty/boneywas.htm

 

We had a shortened version!

[majorbloodnock]

...Boney was a warrior

Way ay yarrr

Boney was a warrior

?????

 

And something French at the end - and none of us knew what it was.

 

"Shantyman: Boney was a warrior,

 

All: Way, hey, ya!

 

Shantyman: A warrior and a tarrier,

 

All: Jean-François! "

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_shanty

[Chickendoodle]

Wonder who Jean-Francois was? Or am I just showing my ignorance

[Valkyrie]

Thanks Major. I see there are also different versions of tunes too!

 

Chickendoodle - Je ne sais pas - aussi!

 

 

Another one that we used to dislike with a passion had

 

Where are the snowdrops said the sun

Dead said the frost buried and lost every one.

 

Cheerful weren't we in those days.

[Chickendoodle]

I went to school in Aldershot Koojie - maybe its a Hampshire thing to be miserable (or miserable and strangely joyful about tragedies )

[Valkyrie]

They seem to be shanties - perhaps it's the Pompey lads spreading it around.

I'd better stop reminiscing - I do remember lots of childhood things - can't remember when to take food out of the freezer though.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Anyone remember My Grandfather's Clock?

 

This is what I remember (without looking it up on Google ):

My grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf

So it stood ninety years on the floor

It was taller by far than the old man himself

But it weighed not a pennyweight more

 

(can't remember the next bit, but "pride" is in there somewhere )

 

But it stopped dead, never to go again

When the old man died

 

The rest will probably come back to me in the middle of the night .

[Chickendoodle]

It was (something) on the morn of the day that he was born

It was always his (something) and his pride

But it stopped short etc etc

 

Now we can tell how old people are by the songs at school

[Ain't Nobody Here]

"bought on the morn" ?

 

"joy and pride" ?

 

I think we've got it .

[Chickendoodle]

Think it might be his pleasure and his pride?

[Valkyrie]

Remember the tune and the chorus but not the verses.

[Alis girls]

Ilkey moor bar tat - the words arent much better - worms eating you up. My husband said the Titanic song was sang with real gusto at his school. I loved "my grandfathers clock". Could've been a post war thing. Quite macabre in some ways

[Chickendoodle]

We sang it with gusto as well and I think there were some actions - heaven knows what they would have been!

[Alis girls]

ES came back from cub camp (some yrs back ) singing "a zombie comes to tea" complete with actions one of which seemed to be him singing like his tongue had been removed all at the dinner table. i must say we were trying not to laugh albeit also shocked as it seemed quite gruesome for 8- 9 yr old boys. In Girls Brigade we used to sing somehting called "down yonder green valley" I think that was about death or loss of a lover.

[Charlottechicken]

I remember the Grandfather's clock song! I didn't go to school in the 60's though!

 

Here it is:

 

Grandfather's Clock

(Henry Clay Work)

 

My grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf

So it stood ninety years on the floor

It was taller by half than the old man himself

But it weighed not a pennyweight more

 

It was bought on the morn on the day that he was born

It was always his treasure and pride

But it stopped, short, never to go again

When the old man died

 

Ninety years without slumbering

Tic toc tic toc

His life's seconds numbering

Tic toc tic toc

It stopped, short, never to go again

When the old man died.

 

In watching its pendulum swing to and fro

Many hours he had spent when a boy

And through childhood and manhood, the clock seemed to know

And to share both his grief and his joy

 

For it struck 24 when he entered at the door

With a blooming and beautiful bride,

But it stopped, short, never to go again

When the old man died

 

CHORUS

 

My grandfather said that of those he could hire

Not a servant so faithful he'd found,

For it kept perfect time and it had one desire

At the close of each day to be wound

 

At it kept to its place, not a frown upon its face

At its hands never hung by its side

But it stopped, short, never to go again

When the old man died

 

CHORUS

 

It rang an alarm in the still of the night,

An alarm that for years had been dumb

And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight

That his hour of departure had come

 

Still the clock kept the time

With a soft and muffled chime

As we silently stood by his side

But it stopped, short, never to go again

When the old man died

 

I found it ***here***

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Used to sing "My Grandfather's clock"...though not all the verses....to my children when they were tiny..........always raised a little tear with me

 

"he jumped from 40,000 ft without a parachute" amongst others were favoured by our scout group

 

Sha x