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Old School songs and did they affect you in any way?

197 replies

Deathraystare · 29/10/2021 17:08

For some reason the same bloody song from school keeps going around in my head. I hated it! Basically it quite angers me! Yes I suppose that sounds hard but it must have stirred some early feminist feelings.

Basically it went "Oh Soldier, Soldier won't you marry me with your musket, fife and drum?" "Oh no sweet maid I cannot marry you for I have no xxx of my own" "So off she goes to her Grandfather's chest and gets him a xxx of the very, very best and the Soldier puts them on".

Of course at the very end after the bastard has sponged off her he tells her he cannot marry her as he has a wife of his own. Everyone else thought this was funny. I did not, I thought it was terrible!

Another song was about "Go and tell Aunt Nancy the old grey goose is dead" this upset me cos I was (still am) soft over animals.

OP posts:
Bumpsadaisie · 29/10/2021 21:52

@HollysBush

Oh god yes, Puff the magic dragon! I’m early 40’s and I always had to stare at a fixed point away from the projected words in assembly to stop from actually crying 😂
A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Bumpsadaisie · 29/10/2021 21:54

Anyone remember

Red and yellow black and white
All are precious in his sight
Jesus died for all the children in the world!

Even in 1978 I knew some very odd racial stereotyping was afoot! 🤣 and wondered who the red and yellow children were.

VienneseWhirligig · 29/10/2021 21:54

Also just remembered we sang Lily the Pink at primary school assembly. Bit inappropriate really when you think of it!

HollysBush · 29/10/2021 21:55

I remember knowing they would make us sing ‘one more step along the world I go’
at our leavers assembly at Primary school and that I would cry. They did and I did- I wasn’t the only one!
‘and it’s from the old I travel to the new, keeeep me travelling along with you’

eddiemairswife · 29/10/2021 21:55

'David the bard on his bed of death lies' from the National Song Book. I liked 'Hearts of Oak' and 'Men of Harlech'.

HollysBush · 29/10/2021 21:57

Bumps you’ve set me off I’ve got a lump in my throat now!

niceupthedanceagain · 29/10/2021 21:58

Michael Finnrgan - who terrible things happened to and then he had to begin again. My dad was called Michael and he had just split up with my mum and left when we learned this song in infants 😭

niceupthedanceagain · 29/10/2021 21:58

Finnegan

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 29/10/2021 21:58

The only version of Puff I can remember is one my friend sang me from his Jewish youth songbook, so as far as I am concerned he lived in Palestine/and frolicked in the synagogue and drank Israeli wine.

There isn’t a sad ending, he gets told off for eating pork but that’s about it.

SkyLarkDescending · 29/10/2021 21:58

@DementedPanda

I thought my grandfathers clock was sad.
I used to feel real despair every time I had to sing this in school. My DGD actually has a grandfather clock in his house and I think I have been terrified since being a small child that he will die on the day he turns 90 and the clock will 'stop dead, never to go again...'. Sad
HollysBush · 29/10/2021 22:01

‘Autumn Days’ (when the grass is jewelled) as mentioned upthread has always made me so happy and cosy. I used sing it on my walk to school. It taught me to be grateful for the simple things.

OnTheBenchOfDoom · 29/10/2021 22:03

The "When Jonah sank into the sea he closed his eyes and prayed" we even had that in a school play, I was dressed as part of the sea, blue leotard and crepe paper ribbons in blue and green hanging from our waists, burned into my memory.

Also Streets of London, awful.

Ducksurprise · 29/10/2021 22:04

I love grandfather's clock. I think it tells a love story of a long life. Also love colours of day, will also want this at my funeral.

But fuck me, Puff is heartbreaking, 'not so little boys' leaking eyes just writing that.

My mumma told me about a dolly and kissing a solider always made me sad.

OnTheBenchOfDoom · 29/10/2021 22:07

Just remembered "Down by the riverside" about laying down your sword and not fighting in a war anymore.

Colours of Day, Morning has Broken, Autumn Days all lovely songs.

hellsbells329 · 29/10/2021 22:08

Some of these bring back memories!

Agree with Puff the magic dragon. I never understood the lyrics as a child but I still knew it was sad.

Autumn Days still takes me back to my old school hall and the smells, sights and sounds of autumn.

TheWordOfBagheera · 29/10/2021 22:09

Where have all the flowers gone - just so sad and melancholy.

Ducksurprise · 29/10/2021 22:11

Sidetracked but 'you don't buy me flowers' Sad

Echobelly · 29/10/2021 22:13

I remember being annoyed by the increasing use of the new trendy hymn book with ones like 'We are climbing Jesus' ladder' over the older one with lovely tunes like 'I vow to thee my country'

I'm Jewish but I liked singing hymns with good tunes!

PumpkinSpiceGirl · 29/10/2021 22:20

Wow some memories here, loved Autumn Days and all the ones in the blue Songs of Praise (I think) book

@HollysBush One More Step was sung at my daughter’s leavers assembly, had me in floods and still does 😢

eddiemairswife · 29/10/2021 22:24

My Grandma had an old Ancient and Modern hymn book (now in my possession). When I slept there on a Sunday evening she would get it out and we would listen to Sunday Half Hour and join in.

katystar · 29/10/2021 22:24

If anyone can tell me what hymn this is Id be so pleased I don’t think i remember it properly but I’ll give it a go… by the blood of the lambs we shall overcome like victors in the sky (sky song high) some other lyrics are, thunder in the sky. I sang it at primary school and can not figure out what hymn it is, I hum it all the time and feel bad as it is a really horrific song for kids to be singing but it’s a total ear worm!

katystar · 29/10/2021 22:27

See the accuser thrown down like thunder in the sky. Was possibly the whole line.

PiddleOfPuppies · 29/10/2021 22:27

The opening bars of Puff the Magic Dragon have me in tears. I had to be taken to the nurse's room to calm down the first time I heard it in Reception class. My teacher played the guitar and the TA sang, and I was hysterical by the end.

HelplessProcrastinator · 29/10/2021 22:28

We sang a lot of folk songs with a book for each term around a theme. One term it was sea shanty type things and I remember The Leaving of Liverpool and Old Swansea Town made me feel for the men who went to sea and the girls they left behind, the 'floating hell' in Leaving of Liverpool seemed an odd choice for primary children.

And as previously mentioned Streets of London always made for a fun assembly.

Eggsley · 29/10/2021 22:30

I love Colours of Day and was speaking to my family recently saying I want that at my funeral when the time comes. My auntie and my dad both pointed out the line "so light up the fire and let the flame burn..." Shock

Puff the magic dragon still makes me cry. And Streets of London with the old man outside the Seaman's Mission like a pp said.

We also learnt a Christmas song called Christmas is Joyful and some of the words were "love to the poor ones, love to the sick in bed, love to the homeless and all who are unfed" along with "love to the sad at heart, love to the people whose friends are far apart". It made me cry when we'd moved 50 miles from my hometown when I was 6, and left all my friends behind Sad