L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Songs of My Homeland

June 8, 2009 on 9:54 pm | | In General Musing, Music

Suppose you were a stranger in a strange land - a visitor to a culture that had little or no exposure to American culture. And suppose, sitting around after dinner, they asked you to share a song that was representative of your homeland. What song would you sing?

My friend Dreah asked me this hypothetical question this morning and I’ve been mulling it all day. I have been there and done that, but more about that later.

There are three requirements: One is what song you think fits the bill. Two is what song do you actually know well enough to sing at least one verse and chorus? And three, of the intersection of those two categories, what song can you actually bring to mind on the spot.

We don’t sing much for personal entertainment any more. When I was a kid in girl scout camp, we knew hundreds of songs. We sang at dinner, we sang on hikes. We had a song for every occasion. We’d do these challenges where we divided into two teams and picked a theme and then trade songs back and forth on the theme until one side was stumped.

Now, we never lack access to professional, produced music. It’s everywhere - in every elevator or store. Even in the wilderness, every other hiker you pass has earbuds tuck into ears. The songs we hear on the radio are unsingable without acompaniment. How can amateur, a capella vocals measure up?

I mulled this question over all day: what song would I sing? What is the iconic American classic? I polled my friends and got a gratifyingly long list, though some of the choices I might question. My friends swear they can sing the them.

• This Land Is Your Land
• Home on the Range
• Clementine
• American Pie
• Born in the USA
• Row, row, row your boat
• Louie Louie
• I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
• Paradise by the Dashboard Lights
• American Tune
• America the Beautiful
• Simple Gifts
• The Battle Hymn of the Republic
• When Johnny Comes Marching Home
• Drunken Sailor
• Michael, Row the Boat Ashore
• I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
• Skip to my Lou
• Yankee Doodle
• All the Pretty Little Horses
• The Dodger
• Shall We Gather at the River
• Zion’s Walls
• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
• There is a Balm in Gilead
• I’m gonna ride the chariot
• Proud to be an American
• Star Spangled Banner
• On Top of Old Smokey
• Good Night, Irene
• Purple People Eater
• Puff, the Magic Dragon
• Blowin’ in the Wind
• Red River Valley
• Do Your Ears Hang Low
• Oh, Suzannah

What have we missed?

Now for my story. It involves the critical third element: What song can you think of on the spot?

My husband and I were visiting my Indian friend, Latha Sambamurthi for the celebration of Navrathri. She showed us in to admire her shrine, daubed my forehead with turmuric and vermillion, got out the video camera and told us that it was traditional for visitors to share a song of their own culture.

All those songs - the songs of my youth - evaporated. We fumbled and hrmmed and stalled but we could only think of one song we actually knew the words to and it seemed wildly inappropriate. But we had to sing something. So we did. In my family, my parents sang to us on car trips. But basically, all they knew was old college drinking songs, so that’s what we learned. And this was what we sang before the pantheon of Indian gods and goddesses:

The California Drinking Song

Oh, they had to carry Harry to the ferry,
And the ferry carried Harry to the shore;
And the reason that they had to carry Harry to the ferry
Was that Harry couldn’t carry any more.

California, for California,
The hills send back the cry,
We’re out to do or die,
California, for California,
We’ll win the game or know the reason why.

And when the game is over, we will buy a keg of booze,
And drink to California ’till we wobble in our shoes.

So drink, tra la la,
Drink, tra la la,
Drink, drank, drunk last night,
Drunk the night before;
Gonna get drunk tonight
Like I never got drunk before;
For when I’m drunk, I’m as happy as can be
For I am member of the Souse family.

Now the Souse family is the best family
That ever came over from old Germany.
There’s the Highland Dutch, and the Lowland Dutch,
The Rotterdam Dutch, and the Irish.

Sing glorious, victorious,
One keg of beer for the four of us.
Sing glory be to God that there are no more of us,
For one of us could drink it all alone. Damn near.
Here’s to the Irish, dead drunk. The lucky stiffs….

Thanks, mom and dad. Just, thanks.

See more like that one:

• Sibling Revelry
• Boomerang Boys
• The Bonehead of the Opera
• Mixed Reality Music
• Perfect Imperfection on V-Day