to be totally flabberghasted at the change in words to this song

[squimlet]

what shall we do with the surley pirate?
rather than
what shall we do with the drunken sailor?

I mean...why?? ITs surely not that offensive is it? or perhaps it is and I am naieve

nope YABU

sing original words as often as possible, pref on long car journeys with captive audience

proper words to songs like this are part of oral history IMO, and v important to maintain

What's wrong with "drunken sailor", fgs?!

Drinking!!! I'm shocked.

oh heavens

FGS
That is just plain stupid.
Do 'they' think that singing the original will cause a generation of chidren to become alcoholic stowaways??

It's like those ridiculous PC re-writes of fairy tales. Grrrrr

choosyflossy why am I being unreasonable in thinking that its ridiculus to change the words from the original. I think they were fine the way they were

Binge drinking. or robbing at swordpoint.

'Surly pirate' is an improvement on our library's version - 'what shall we do with the lazy lucy?'

do you remember that fab thread title about the drunken horse book?

well i suppose the song is just not terribly wholesome

if you were singing it to young children they may well ask 'what is drunken'? and you may not really want to explain

what did the change the "put him in the long boat til he's sober" to?

I honestly dont know. she is only 4 and could only remember the first line..lol

if they don't like it then why sing it at all?
can't stand this sort of thing, makes me really cross.

I'd be more concerned about how to explain the process of "Keel Haul and up-he-rises" without causing nightmares and a suffocation phobia (or fetish, if you listen to Freud)

Windy Miller drinks too much strong cider and falls asleep in Trumpton or whichever one it is he's in. My lo knows this and seems fine about it. I have not yet caught him with a can of Strongbow.

YANBU!

ah the backyardigans makes sense. I bet she heard it there too

What about 'Do your ears hang low?'? DS came home singing this from school - the original is certainly not ears. I had a hard time not rolling around on the floor laughing....
It became his favourite song for several months, with me trying desperately to keep a straight face.

I notice that when they play The Farmer wants a wife these days, it ends with We all PAT the bone, rather than the more riotous We all EAT the bone that we used to play. Another sad loss to our cultural history methinks.

We always did 'PAT the bone". Usually ended up in a free for all to wallop the daylights out of the child in the middle. That was over 40y ago.

Colditz - we always sang 'Heave ho, and up she rises'. I was told it referred to the sailors hauling on ropes to raise the sails.

Ooops, no it wasn't.
It was 'Hooray and up she rises'. Just sung it to myself. Still the same reason though, for raising the sail.

Bloodthirsty, Colditz! Our version was "heave ho and up she rises" while simultaneously crushing round one volunteer and pushing her up in the air. Though I don't think the actions were sanctioned by the teachers LOL! The 'heave ho' is from sailors pulling (heaving) on ropes to raise the sails, I think.

Hmm, you may be right, Juules. I think we did sing 'hooray' at first. I wonder where we got the 'heave ho' from?

Not sure

Oh FGS!

Juuuuuule I remember the PAT the dog wallopping. That was fun.

At my kids pre school they were taught to sing 'one for the master and one for the dame and one for the little girl who lives down the lane.' I mean FFS! That's just being awkward surely.