songs from Myers Elementary in the early ’80s
October 29th, 2007 | by Brian |I attended Myers Elementary School (suburban Philadelphia). from first grade through fourth grade - autumn 1981 through fall of 1985. I recall our music classes singing some tunes I would not expect to find in the, err, “syllabus,” for such a class. Robert Goltz and Jan Goltz taught the classes I was in. I compile the songs can I remember here:
“Pick a Bail of Cotton”: Video (1945) by Leadbelly:
Yes, a slave song (see bottom of this page). Skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan has a version here.
“Hill and Gully Rider” (version of “Banana Boat Song”?)
- lyrics of Brothers Four version
- child plays it on the cello with backing violin:
“What do we do with a drunken sailor”
- Wikipedia entry.
- one rendition by the Chieftains:
- version my Mike Settle:
There others I can recall, such as this one about an old car, and this one about, um, being crazy. Others I cannot find references to. Two of them have such nonsense lyrics that without documentation on a web page, I’m embarrassed to reveal what my memories hold. Eric S. remembered one of these - so my memory is proven correct in this case. I found referenced to versions of it here and here. A reference to the another song with nonsense lyrics is here.
These are camp songs and children’s songs - what you’d expect mostly white upper-middle class suburban kids to sing in elementary school music classes.
That is, I wouldn’t expect songs about slaves and lower-class laborers, drunken sailors - especially without historical context. Ahh, the days before political correctness!
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