Really?

[conuly]

Now that I've already snarked some Amazon reviews I have to continue, don't I?

Here's one that just has me puzzled:

Unless your child is taking advanced music classes, it is unlikely they know these tunes: "The Blue-Tail Fly," "Red River Valley," "The Mexican Hat Dance," "Alouette" and "America the Beautiful." And, without familiarity of these songs, the "silly dilly" gimmick falls flat. As a parent, I found the lyrics better described as gross instead of silly. (Judging from an earlier paragraph, "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" is probably in his list too.)

Seriously? I remember very clearly singing America the Beautiful in every assembly ever in elementary school, and the rest of them certainly made their rounds in music class or kindergarten music/dance/free time somewhere. Are they really that unusual nowadays? This guy is in the US, so let's have a US only poll!

[Poll #1378059]

Comments

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I know all but the fly one. I did not know any of these out of Elementary school because at that time, I wasn't in America, but I learned them all pretty fast as soon as I got here. I put there is more music education for kids because of all the little singing and musical toys the kids have, so they are often exposed without anyone trying to teach them. For instance, we have a toy piano that plays alouette and a mixture of some classical songs, so the kids will bust out humming the tune or singing the words (if the song has words: alouette does but other songs on that piano don't).

[conuly]

Blue-tail Fly is one of those songs that's almost certainly not PC nowadays, though I always interpreted it as a slave getting away with murder because everybody stereotypes him as being to stupid to do so, which - as he's defying stereotype - probably isn't that racist after all. Maybe.

You might know it under the name Jimmy Crack Corn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Tail_Fly
http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=759

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do know it then. That's the only one I HAVE known from childhood, because my mom always tells how when she was little she thought it was "kitty cat corn."

[leora.livejournal.com]

I have trouble answering, because degree of familiarity wasn't specified. America the Beautiful I know fairly well and I may have been taught it in school. I definitely had the sheet music to it in one of my songbooks.

Michael Row Your Boat Ashore I've definitely heard sung, probably at camp or on TV. I'm fairly familiar with it, but am not sure when that happened. I don't think of it as a song I sing, but as a song other people sing. But that's probably partly because it's a religious song, afaik.

The Blue-Tail Fly I definitely know and probably heard around the house.
The Mexican Hat Dance and Alouette I definitely heard parodies of at a young age. I would be familiar with both of the tunes. I have probably heard them parodied or simply taken from and used more than I have heard the songs themselves. And this was true in childhood.

Red River Valley sounds familiar and I probably know it. but I'm not sure offhand.

However, only one of these would I expect to have gotten from school.

[conuly]

It's always you, you know? Every time it's a poll, you're the one who points out how more precise I could've been.

Which is a good thing, because then you make a nice informative comment which is better than a poll could be, but why you? There should be some form of rotation.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Because I'm the person who collapses under normal social situations. Someone says, Hi my name is Mary. What's your name?

And I think... Well, ummm, do you mean the name that I am legally recognized by or what my friends call me?

Then they say, How are you?

And I go .... ahhhh, I can't answer that!

Then they say, so, what do you do?

And if I can possibly get away with it, I point at corpsefairy who is my designated social explainer of what I do. But she's not always about.

I am constantly hearing questions that people expect to be simple and thinking of oodles of aspects about the question that leads to too many possible answers, most of them far too long and detailed.

I try to avoid talking to strangers; it's just easier.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

We knew and sang every one of those except for "Michael Row Your Boat" before getting to kindergarten. I used to know all the verses to America the Beautiful. Red River Valley was the first song I learned to play on the guitar.

They used to put them out on kids' records besides being on the radio and TV (kids' shows and musical variety shows). There was a lot of popularity of folk songs at the time. I got "Michael Row Your Boat" in I think about 66 off the radio, as done by the Kingston Trio.

In music education at school we did get a few of those but the only one I actually remember us learning at school is "Simple Gifts" which is one of my sister's favorites along with "Glad That I Live Am I".

There is less music ed. in schools now because the money has to go for sports and phys ed. This has been true for many years now.

On television the Smothers Bros used to do Bluetail Fly like this:

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care
I don't care, I don't care --

- That's not the way it goes.

I don't care.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

There's something awesome about a question that has the possible answers of "yes" "no" or "I'm American"

[pne.livejournal.com]

My answer for the last one would have been "I have no idea what the state of kids' musical education is these days, so I couldn't possibly comment".

[conuly]

Isn't Amy in school? Basic music education (singing, fingerplays and game songs, using rhythm sticks and the like) was a huge part of our kindergarten education when I was growing up, and it's a big part of preschool here still.

Well, not that it matters, you'd still know about music education at her school, not in the US.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Isn't Amy in school?

In kindergarten. (Not sure whether you're counting that under "school".)

But I don't know how much music plays a part in their daily routine -- I confess I have little idea exactly what they do between being dropped off and picked up again.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I know all but the fly one. I did not know any of these out of Elementary school because at that time, I wasn't in America, but I learned them all pretty fast as soon as I got here. I put there is more music education for kids because of all the little singing and musical toys the kids have, so they are often exposed without anyone trying to teach them. For instance, we have a toy piano that plays alouette and a mixture of some classical songs, so the kids will bust out humming the tune or singing the words (if the song has words: alouette does but other songs on that piano don't).

[conuly]

Blue-tail Fly is one of those songs that's almost certainly not PC nowadays, though I always interpreted it as a slave getting away with murder because everybody stereotypes him as being to stupid to do so, which - as he's defying stereotype - probably isn't that racist after all. Maybe.

You might know it under the name Jimmy Crack Corn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Tail_Fly
http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=759

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do know it then. That's the only one I HAVE known from childhood, because my mom always tells how when she was little she thought it was "kitty cat corn."

[leora.livejournal.com]

I have trouble answering, because degree of familiarity wasn't specified. America the Beautiful I know fairly well and I may have been taught it in school. I definitely had the sheet music to it in one of my songbooks.

Michael Row Your Boat Ashore I've definitely heard sung, probably at camp or on TV. I'm fairly familiar with it, but am not sure when that happened. I don't think of it as a song I sing, but as a song other people sing. But that's probably partly because it's a religious song, afaik.

The Blue-Tail Fly I definitely know and probably heard around the house.
The Mexican Hat Dance and Alouette I definitely heard parodies of at a young age. I would be familiar with both of the tunes. I have probably heard them parodied or simply taken from and used more than I have heard the songs themselves. And this was true in childhood.

Red River Valley sounds familiar and I probably know it. but I'm not sure offhand.

However, only one of these would I expect to have gotten from school.

[conuly]

It's always you, you know? Every time it's a poll, you're the one who points out how more precise I could've been.

Which is a good thing, because then you make a nice informative comment which is better than a poll could be, but why you? There should be some form of rotation.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Because I'm the person who collapses under normal social situations. Someone says, Hi my name is Mary. What's your name?

And I think... Well, ummm, do you mean the name that I am legally recognized by or what my friends call me?

Then they say, How are you?

And I go .... ahhhh, I can't answer that!

Then they say, so, what do you do?

And if I can possibly get away with it, I point at corpsefairy who is my designated social explainer of what I do. But she's not always about.

I am constantly hearing questions that people expect to be simple and thinking of oodles of aspects about the question that leads to too many possible answers, most of them far too long and detailed.

I try to avoid talking to strangers; it's just easier.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

We knew and sang every one of those except for "Michael Row Your Boat" before getting to kindergarten. I used to know all the verses to America the Beautiful. Red River Valley was the first song I learned to play on the guitar.

They used to put them out on kids' records besides being on the radio and TV (kids' shows and musical variety shows). There was a lot of popularity of folk songs at the time. I got "Michael Row Your Boat" in I think about 66 off the radio, as done by the Kingston Trio.

In music education at school we did get a few of those but the only one I actually remember us learning at school is "Simple Gifts" which is one of my sister's favorites along with "Glad That I Live Am I".

There is less music ed. in schools now because the money has to go for sports and phys ed. This has been true for many years now.

On television the Smothers Bros used to do Bluetail Fly like this:

Jimmy crack corn and I don't care
Jimmy crack corn and I don't care
I don't care, I don't care --

- That's not the way it goes.

I don't care.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

There's something awesome about a question that has the possible answers of "yes" "no" or "I'm American"

[pne.livejournal.com]

My answer for the last one would have been "I have no idea what the state of kids' musical education is these days, so I couldn't possibly comment".

[conuly]

Isn't Amy in school? Basic music education (singing, fingerplays and game songs, using rhythm sticks and the like) was a huge part of our kindergarten education when I was growing up, and it's a big part of preschool here still.

Well, not that it matters, you'd still know about music education at her school, not in the US.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Isn't Amy in school?

In kindergarten. (Not sure whether you're counting that under "school".)

But I don't know how much music plays a part in their daily routine -- I confess I have little idea exactly what they do between being dropped off and picked up again.

[pthalo]

I consider myself more Hungarian than American (dual citizen), but I lived in America from preschool until I finished high school (late 80's to 2001), so I took your poll. The only one of those songs I know is America the Beautiful, though it's possible I may have heard some others without knowing their names.

[conuly]

If you don't recognize the names then it's a moot point - the guy's argument is that the songs are unsingable if you don't know the correct melody to attach to the names, and you therefore don't.

[pthalo]

well, now that I know that one of those songs is Jimmy Crack Corn, I know that one too, but only the chorus. If there's a different tune to the verses then I don't know it.

And now that I've heard the mexican hat dance on youtube, I've definitely heard it before.


Songs I actually remember from elementary school:

star spangled banner
america the beautiful
50 nifty united states
this land is your land
you're a grand old flag
the farmer in the dell (preschool)
the battle hymn of the republic
clementine (i still know all the verses)
she'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes.


i also did not comment on the state of music education today, because i don't have children and know nothing of the state of music education today, in america or elsewhere