Category Archives: Musical

Camp Cheley Songs

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Connecticut
Performance Date: April 20, 2015
Primary Language: English

There are 3 songs we sing each night at Camp Cheley. Every unit sings different songs and you just kind of hear everyone else and pick it up. And then…you want me to just tell you the three songs my unit sang everyday at camp?

SONG 1:

“Peace I ask of thee o River

Peace, Peace,  Peace

When I learn to live serenely

Cares will cease

from the hills I gather courage

visions of the days to be

Strength to lead and faith to follow

all are given unto thee

peace I ask of you oh river

Peace, peace, peace”

SONG 2: We call this one the Chipeta Call.

If you listen one and all

you can hear the chipeta call

you can feel the spirit rise

wheree’er you go may you never forget

that glad day

when we met

and those dear old chipeta girls

we love

so well.

 

Song 3: The last one we sing every night is Taps…You probably know it?

Day is done, gone the sun

From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky

All is well, safely rest

God is nigh

 

Context of the performance:

The informant shared these camp songs with a table of friends, among them the collector, during a Monday night dinner.

Thoughts on the performance:

It is interesting how the song “Taps” has become such a part of their camp folklore that the informant was almost a little surprised when others at the table indicated recognition.

Also it is interesting that she spoke these traditions in present tense, i.e. “the last one we sing every night”, because she is too old to return as a camper, demonstrates the cyclical nature of these camp songs and rituals.

Variation on Popular Music in Elementary School Kids

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Laguna Niguel
Performance Date: 04/25/15
Primary Language: English
Language: spanish

The informant is a 23-year old Narrative Studies major at USC. He is from Laguna Niguel and attended primary and secondary school there, before attending USC.

 

Informant: “I used to babysit several kids from the local elementary schools by where I live. I remember several of them walking around their houses singing this variation of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” [a popular pop song] along with variations of other popular songs like it. I mean there were other ones too, like parodies of other songs.,They were always really, like, childish—really PG. Never like Weird Al Yankovic style. So the Taio Cruz one, for example, went like, ‘I walked up to a/the subway guy/ He said Ay yo, don’t forget the mayo.’ I always thought it was really hilarious—these super popular, often inappropriate songs that the kids I babysat would hear and then spin into their own context.”

 

Thoughts:

It is logical that these elementary school students take what they hear around them and integrate it into their own context. To use this specific instance, the boy my informant babysat had heard the song “Dynamite” played and by some means—whether repeating it wrong, repeating it from a friend who had changed the lyrics, changing the lyrics as a sort of game, or by some other means—changed the song to pertain to things he could relate to. This song is a parody; it takes imitates and exaggerates the original, presumably for a comic effect. I’ve been parodying songs since I was in elementary school. Last class we watched clips of parodies and mash ups that have literally influenced revolutions (“Zenga, zenga” comes to mind). The influence of folklore, that often goes overlooked by society’s understanding of the word, is baffling.

“The Bagel Song” at Camp

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Illinois
Performance Date: 04/25/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant is a 20-year old college sophomore at University of Michigan majoring in industrial and systems engineering. She went to sleep-away camp for several years and was excited to share some of her fond memories of it with me. One such memory is “the Bagel Song.”

 

“Bagels, doo doo doo

Bagels, doo doo doo

 

Bagels on Mars, Bagels on Venus

I got bagels in my…..

NOSE!

 

Bagels, doo doo doo

Bagels, doo doo doo

 

Bagels on the pier, bagels on the dock

I got bagels on my….

NOSE!

 

Bagels, doo doo doo

Bagels, doo doo doo

(The next person makes up a stanza similar to the first two, with provocative lyrics that make the listener think of something dirty, but that ends in NOSE”

 

Interviewer: “Where did you learn the Bagel Song?”

Informant: “I remember my counselor one year teaching it to me and a few other campers. We thought it was totally hilarious. When I was a counselor a few years ago, I taught it to my campers too.”

Interviewer: “Where would you guys sing the song?”

Informant: “Oh gosh, all the time. Um, we would sing it when camp songs were song. Like at bonfires and before mealtimes when everyone was together waiting to eat. We would tease the cute male counselors with it too…”

Interviewer: “Did your counselor who taught you the song say where she learned it?”

Informant: “No. We never asked. But I do have a friend who went to an all-boys camp in Wisconsin who told me they had a variation of the song they would sing.

Interviewer: “Do you remember how the variation went?”

Informant: “Hmm. I think it was the same general principle. I think what was different was that the boys said “Bacon” instead of “bagel”? I’m not entirely sure though; it was a long time ago that I talked to my friend about it!”

 

Thoughts:

I see the Bagel song as a humorous song dealing with taboos of sex and sexuality. The song is especially funny because it makes the listener the one with the “dirty mind”, not the singer, as it is the listener who thinks the singer is going to make an obscene reference.

Oring talks about Children’s folklore (I would consider “The Bagel Song” fitting into this category) a good deal in Folk Groups and Folklore Genres. Ideas of childhood have been purified for a long time in American society, and the oppressiveness of the controlled environment in which children reside in can partially explain their dealing with the sexuality taboo, along with other taboos.

We Hate to See You Go, Goodbye Song

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, Washington
Performance Date: April 26, 2015
Primary Language: English

My informant AS shared with me a goodbye song:

 

We’re sorry you’re going away

We wish that you could stay

Our prayers will be with you

We really will miss you

We’re sorry you’re going away

 

We hate to see you go,

We hate to see you go,

We hope to heck you never come back,

We hate to see you go

 

AS explained, “The story is we moved from Charlotte, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington. We drove across the country in June of 1998. And uh, maybe July. And that first two years that we lived in Seattle literally every one of my parents—all of our family friends visited from the East Coast to Seattle. And we always gave them the same exact tour. The number of times that I had to go to Pike Place Market and the Ballard Locks.  And then we always sang that to them when they left.”

I asked AS how or where he learned the song? “Just my parents…I don’t know.  Who can say? I mean I was six or seven so I wasn’t really thinking of asking these hard hitters.”

AS learned the song from his parents.  I talked to his father about the song.  He explained that he had learned the song from his aunt and uncle when he was growing up in New Jersey.  AS mentioned that the line “our prayers will be with you” was weird to him as his family is not religious.  But his great uncle did go to a Christian high school on Long Island, so perhaps this song comes out of his uncle’s experience there.

This song was casual and comedic to AS and his family.  Interestingly, the line “we hope to heck you never come back” is the fastest line when singing the song.  I even had trouble understanding that lyric the first time AS sang the song.  It’s almost as if AS and his family were playing a little joke on their visitors.  Though, it’s not meant to be taken to heart.

Each time AS and his family performed the song, it was after another family had spent a weekend with his family, touring the city, sharing meals, etc–doing things together as families.  So it is fitting that AS and his family perform a sort of ritual goodbye to cap off a weekend of ritualized touring.

This song is important to AS because it reminds him of a time when he, his brother, sister, mom and dad were all under one roof. It was before anyone went off to college or got married.  AS explained, “It was when we were the most keyed into the five of us being a family.”

 

Scouts’ Own

Nationality: Scottish
Age: 77
Residence: San Pedro, CA
Performance Date: April 20th, 2015
Primary Language: English

My informant was the President of the Girl Scouts of America (the Los Angeles chapters) for several years in the 1990s. My mother was a Girl Scout and my informant was her troop leader all throughout her school years. She has many wonderful stories about being my mom’s troop leader.

I sat down with her the other night and asked her if she could share a custom, or ritual that the Girl Scouts have.

Informant: “We had something called a Scouts’ Own. It’s a spiritual, thoughtful ceremony. It can have any kind of theme. I remember one that was very meaningful to me… the idea in girl scouting is that each girl, through all of these things that we do, is to develop leadership… we never told them what to do but they were to be creative. This Scouts’ Own– the challenge for my junior high girls was to put on a Scouts’ Own for all the neighborhood Scouts, the younger girls. Young girls always look up to older ones…They chose the theme of friendship. That was a special one. The Scouts’ Own can happen anywhere…we’ve had them in the forest, in the desert…”

Me: “And what might happen at one? What happened at this particular one?”

Informant: “There is always a point of silence, where when everyone gathers, once they cross the point of silence, they are not to speak. You go in and are shown silently where you are meant to sit and then they begin… They had candles…I can’t remember… they had music and they all shared some important piece of friendship. The children were enthralled by these older girls sharing something important to them. When you are all through, you sing a girl scout song. There are many wonderful songs. Whatever it is, it has to be done thoughtfully. It is very meaningful. A Scouts Own is a very important part of girl scouting.”

 

I was a Girl Scout, as well, all the way until I was in 9th grade. Being Girl Scouts is always something that has brought the three of us together. We all love to camp and camping skills were one of the things we learned the most about. My informant loves and respects everything that the Girl Scouts hold dear. Since she was President of the region, she is also very knowledgable about practices and has seen many.