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

LOL F and Z

we find the horse issue so imporant and emotive an issue in our house

MB it has haunted me for weeks since MN drew it to my attention

I'll get you some tea, dear, do you want to sit down and talk it through with me....?

Donk - I'm 30 odd and the original WAS "Do your ears hang low" - what was your version?

Sorry to be the one to break it to you nervousal

Oooh dear, PC not too high on our agenda here. I love it when the dcs do 'I was drunk last night dear mother' (from Meet Me in St Louis) especially when they do it with weird accents.

noo - "up she rises" is the anchor, not the sails - it's all hands to the capstan, hugely hard & miserable drudgery to heave up the chain. On a big sailing boat, you drop the sails from where they're bound round the horizontal bits - er, yardarms? not sure. Anyway, pulling sails up is what you do on a frippery little yacht.

Speaking of changing words, or not changing - was anyone just a weeny bit taken aback by seeing the old cartoons of Captain Pugwash? - where they chose not to "tidy up" the first mate's name?

lol- thanks Franny - definitely a better version!

Bell bottomed trousers, as I recall, are because they're easier to roll up (for purposes of scrubbing out those scuppers etc.).

I always thought it was 'Do your balls hang low, can you swing 'em to and fro, can you tie 'em in knot, can you tie 'em in a bow?!'

We never used to sing that one sadly at the pre-school music club...

Oh Franny beat me to it. I'm going to be humming that all day now.

LOL, there are a lot worse parts to the song than 'drunken sailor'.
versions of the lyrics

Yes, Bink, but what's FILTHY about the bell bottomed trousers, that's what I want to know! VictorianSqualor, lovely link but that doesn't explain it either.

'Do your Ears hang low' is a lot older than 30 years - it must go back at least to the Napoleonic wars as a marching song. The original (AFAIK) was 'do your balls hang low?' - which makes much better sense of the line 'can you semaphore your neighbour with a minimum of labour'

We've got a book and tape about the song

"We're going this way that way
Portwards Starboard over the deep blue sea"

and they've removed

"A bottle of rum to fill my tum
And that's the life for me"

• they sing the first two lines again instead

I like having a roomful of toddler singing about the joys of having a tummy full of rum, it's rather sweet

My children are well aware that 'drunk' means you've had too much wine and are being silly

This is because I need some explanation for the personal items including underwear that appear over our garden hedge every weekend

I never heard "Do your ears (balls) hang low" until DD1 watched it on Barney. How funny.