Tag Archives: song

Hearse Song

Nationality: White
Age: 22
Occupation: Screenwriter
Residence: Los Angeles (from Glendale, CA)
Performance Date: April 24, 2012
Primary Language: English

Hearse Song

Did you ever think when a hearse goes by, that some day you are gonna die?

They’ll wrap you up in a big white sheet and throw you down about 500 feet.

The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play peaknuckle on your snout.

And after a while, the snot comes out, and you spread it on bread, cuz that’s what you eat, when you’re dead!

 

My informant remembered this song, which she described as “a classic, grim piece of oral tradition,” and said that it brought back a lot of memories from her childhood. When she was little, the informant’s mother would sing this song whenever they passed a hearse, and the informant said it was always a very visceral for her, and that ‘the part about the snot coming out and eating it really disgusted me’. She learned it from her mom, and she thinks her grandfather used to sing it, because her mother said that it reminded her of her dad whenever a hearse drove by.

 

As my informant stated, this song is a ‘classic, grim piece of oral tradition,’ but also a particularly interesting one. Not only is it a song sung in America that openly addresses mortality and the fact that death is inevitable, but the intended audience is children. America is one of the countries that shuns, fears, and stigmatizes death the most—possibly why horror movies are one of the topmost grossing genres of film in the US—so it’s interesting that this song is a non-romanticized and very explicit recounting of what happens when you die (no heaven or angels here). Further, the lyrics and the major key of the song makes light of death altogether, making jovial and silly what Americans consider one of the most sorrowful and somber occasions ever. What else is interesting about this song, which coincides with the lyrics and the major key, is that the song is targeted for children. The song, which sounds very much like a camp song children would sing to laugh and gross each other out about a particularly macabre subject, could have been used as a fun and entertaining way to let children participate in something seemingly transgressive while also familiarizing them with the concept of death.

Song about Catholic Schools

Nationality: Latino
Age: 86
Occupation: Retired marriage and family therapist
Residence: Santa Barbara, California
Performance Date: March 14, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“The dearest spot in Phoenix,

Here in the Golden West,

Is our old dear St. Mary’s.

The school we love the best.

Hurrah for St. Mary’s,

The school we love the best,

(repeat these two lines.)

 

We are proud of our schools

And our unbroken rules,

Obedience to God and our country.

Since this nation took birth

Catholic schools have proved their worth,

Always first in American teaching.”

My informant reports that this song was customarily sung in his school when he grew up. Somewhat cynical about his Catholic upbringing, he postulates that Catholic schools invented songs such as this one in order “to justify their existence.”

This song seems intended to foster school spirit and strengthen the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, however, the song also intertwines Catholic and American identities to fashion a new, Catholic-American identity; it teaches children that they should be proud both to be Catholic and to be American. In this way, the song is both religious and patriotic. Children are taught to be obedient both “to God and our country,” although it should be noted that the song places obedience to God before obedience to the United States.

“It’s a Hard Knock Bootcamp…..”

Nationality: American
Age: 25
Occupation: National Guard
Residence: Savannah, Georgia
Performance Date: March 13, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: spanish

My cousin in Military bootcamp for the National Guard in Fort Leonardwood, MO wrote me a letter, and in it she wrote the lyrics to a song that they had made-up in the camp, including her little annotations in parentheses:

(“It’s a Hard Knock Life” melody)

 

Hot guys we never see

Ice cream we don’t get to eat

Mountain climbers, 30x a day (an exercise that sucks)

Then it’s back to scrubbing this bay…

-It’s a hard knock life-

Have to hold our cups to our chests

Always told we look a mess

Holy crap private, front leaning rest (down to pushup position)

You’ll never pass your PT test..

-It’s a hard knock life-

Army Greens and MRE’s (“meal ready to eat”-packaged food you take camping)

5 minute showers and 2 second pees

Trail mix is always gone

Our bunks are always wrong…

-It’s a hard knock life-

We used to play beer pong

Now we march all day long

We always avoid going to the pit (where you get “smoked” with PT)

In formation we aren’t allowed to spit…

-It’s a hard knock life-

I used to do my hair

Now I don’t even care

We used to shave our legs

Gunna throw-up if we have to eat more eggs..

-It’s a hard knock life-

Stand in the freezing rain

Get frostbite, feel the pain

Fingers are broken and I wanna cry

‘cuz I gotta write a 5,000 word RBI (paper you have to write when in trouble)

-It’s a hard knock life-

I really hate to pack

My entire life in that small rucksack (nothing ever fits)

For breakfast we eat lots of cake (drill sgts call pancakes, waffles, and biscuits “cake”)

After a 20 minute run, it clearly was a mistake…

-It’s a hard knock life-

Ask a male to hold my gun

Then we had to drop as one (pushups- “can’t” talk to boys)

I tried to plead my case

But all I got was a “half right face” (position you move to before getting smoked)

-It’s a hard knock life-

People eating candy

Playing pool and watching tv

Boy I can’t wait until that’s me

Living life at AIT! (2nd part-advanced individual training)

-It’s a hard knock life-

 

The informant enjoys singing this song because it helps pass the time and it lightens the mood of bootcamp and brings everyone closer.

A Grandpa Song

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 25th, 2012
Primary Language: English

The following is a song that the source’s Grandfather used to sing to her when she was a kid. She originally thought that he wrote the song just for her, but really he took the song “Daisy Bell” a very popular and famous American song, and substituted “Daisy” with the source’s name, Maisie. The clip below has the source first sing the original song, and then her Grandfather’s version.

Grandpa song

“He sang that song to me when I was little and he was, dandling? Is that the right word? Bouncing me on his knee”

 

The song really accomplishes two things. First, it helps the source’s Grandfather expose her to a song that he knows, and shares a piece of his generation with her. Also it created a special connection between Maisie and her Grandpa.

“He was my favorite Grandpa” she said.

Morning Song

Nationality: American
Age: 58
Occupation: Physical Therapist
Residence: Portland, OR
Performance Date: 4/12/12
Primary Language: English

I had always remembered my mother noting a song that her father sang to her and her sister every morning to get them up and out of bed. When I asked for more details, she immediately groaned and grimly stated “trust me, after I moved out of home I never wanted to think about that song again. My dad would always sing it so loudly and so early”. She said the song went as follows:

“It’s time to get up, it’s time to get up, it’s time to get up in the mooorning”

She stated that he would repeat this over and over again until both girls finally popped out of bed simply from dreading hearing another verse. She noted that this was one of the few songs that my grandfather knew, because he went deaf at age twelve due to medical complications. He had heard it from his Swedish parents and remembered the tune to sing to his children years after losing his hearing. Perhaps, my mother said, this was why he would sing it so loud in the morning!

Fortunately, my mother never sang that song to my sister or I when we were growing up, and I have a feeling that it has to do with her not liking it when she was young. Because of this, the song will likely not be carried on in family tradition, and I bet each generation will be thankful of that. I believe that this song must have originated from a ‘morning person’ who would be up and cheery and singing in the morning. They must have taken a simple phrase like this and sang it until the tune caught on with their kids and their kids after that.