Songs they don't teach any more

In article ,
chiam margalit wrote:

I've never heard it. I went to elementary in MA and my kids are in VT.

YOu've never heard the song, or heard kids learning the song? I find
it almost impossible to believe anyone hasn't heard the song (Chorus
is "Low Bridge, Everybody Down, Low Bridge, Cause we're Coming to a
Town, Well you'll always know your neighbor, You'll always know your
pal, if you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal." It's on about a
million PBS/History channel specials. :-)


Never heard the song. I looked up the lyrics beofre posting, and they
were totally unfamiliar to me. I'm a math/computer/science geek; I
*very* rarely watch the History channel, and what I watch on PBS is
usually scientific, not historical.

I know I'm not the only one who's never heard it, because out of
curiousity I asked around briefly to see if someone knew it so I could
learn the tune, and couldn't find anyone who knew it.

--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 21:19:24 EST, Banty wrote:
In article , Scott says...


I was amazed to learn this month that my kids (10.5 and
almost 8) have not learned the words to 'Erie Canal'.
I thought that was required learning for elementary schoolers
everywhere, but it seems I was mistaken.

Scott DD 10.5 and DS 7.9


I never heard it until I lived in Rochester, New York. I thought it was local
(Rochester is close to the canal, called the "barge canal" there), until I heard
it on a Wee Sings tape.

Fellow Rochestarians are everywhere. ;-)

One point - the Barge Canal is not the Erie canal. There are some
points where they used the same canal path, but the Erie is, for
all intents and purposes, gone. Heck, the 490 expressway was built
on top of the Erie Canal bed - you can still see one of the old
locks near the Culver Road exit.

That being said - I know we were singing the song since
pre-school, at least.

"Iowacookiemom" wrote in message
...
I grew up in WI and didn't learn "Erie Canal," but I vividly remember that
it
seemed like the whole curriculum for 4th grade music consisted of us
singing
"Red River Valley."

I wonder if it is more a generational thing -- after all, those of us who
are in our 40's now were schoolchildren in the late 60's - early 70s when
folk music was coming to the forefront of the American musical scene, and
with it, an interest in early Americana folk songs.

The music books we had in 3rd-5th grade (1968-71) were full of songs like
'Erie Canal', 'Shenandoah' (probably sp), 'Red River Valley', 'Kumbaya', 'Go
Down Moses' (I specifically remember singing this as a solo during class
when I was in 3rd grade), 'Go Tell Aunt Rhody', 'Skye Boat Song', 'Where
Have All the Flowers Gone', 'This Land is Your Land', 'Kukaburra', 'Waltzing
Matilda' and the ilk. Yes, I know these aren't all American folk songs, but
there was a definite trend towards the study of *folk* music during that
time.

Leah



-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 11

(Iowacookiemom) wrote in message ...
I grew up in WI and didn't learn "Erie Canal," but I vividly remember that it
seemed like the whole curriculum for 4th grade music consisted of us singing
"Red River Valley."

I grew up in Indiana and we sang "Erie Canal," but my kids living in
Central NY only learned in their private piano lessons. I, too,
remember "Red River Valley," "Oh Susannah," "Ol' Betsy from Pike" and
"Home on the Range" as the elementary school standards (in the
1960s)--I guess westward expansion was the theme of the day!

Chris

In ,
Leah Adezio wrote:

*I wonder if it is more a generational thing -- after all, those of us who
*are in our 40's now were schoolchildren in the late 60's - early 70s when
*folk music was coming to the forefront of the American musical scene, and
*with it, an interest in early Americana folk songs.

Well, I'm 33 (34 next month!).

*The music books we had in 3rd-5th grade (1968-71) were full of songs like
*'Erie Canal', 'Shenandoah' (probably sp), 'Red River Valley', 'Kumbaya', 'Go
*Down Moses' (I specifically remember singing this as a solo during class
*when I was in 3rd grade), 'Go Tell Aunt Rhody', 'Skye Boat Song', 'Where
*Have All the Flowers Gone', 'This Land is Your Land', 'Kukaburra', 'Waltzing
*Matilda' and the ilk. Yes, I know these aren't all American folk songs, but

We had Shenandoah, Kumbaya, Go Down Moses, Where Have all the Flowers
Gone, This Land is Your Land, Kookaburra, and Waltzing Mathilda, for sure.
Definitely not those other ones, though

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large

"Leah Adezio" wrote in message
...

I wonder if it is more a generational thing -- after all, those of us who
are in our 40's now were schoolchildren in the late 60's - early 70s when
folk music was coming to the forefront of the American musical scene, and
with it, an interest in early Americana folk songs.

I really think this is it, although I'd identify that revival happening
earlier than late 1960s -- more like getting started in the mid/late 1950s.
By the early 70s the folk revival was pretty much played out, as many of
those popular musicians who had been singing "true" folk music got absorbed
into the larger, commercial pop scene. It's our younger teachers, who would
have been in college perhaps at the time of the revival and thus were
exposed to it, who then in turn taught these songs to us in the mid to late
1960s (and later).

Pete Seeger sang a version of Erie Canal on the album, "Traveling On with
The Weavers", which came out in 1963. That I should have learned it in first
grade in 1966 is not that surprising. Many of the folk songs we learned in
elementary school came out of the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s,
such as: Michael Row The Boat Ashore, If I Had A Hammer, Tom Dooley, Drill
Ye Tarriers, man, a little walk down memory lane -- I could go on and on.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky
My bookshelf: http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Cpetersky

Fellow Rochestarians are everywhere. ;-)


would it be within charter to see how many of us are here?

For all I know I see you guys at daycare pickup and don't even know it!

wrote:

Many of the folk songs we learned in
elementary school came out of the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s,
such as: Michael Row The Boat Ashore, If I Had A Hammer, Tom Dooley, Drill
Ye Tarriers, man, a little walk down memory lane -- I could go on and on.

Your list made me recall that one of the songs I came home from kindergarten
singing was "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." I don't know if I learned it from the
teacher or another child, though! Probably the latter.

--Helen

In article ,
Hillary Israeli wrote:
In ,
Leah Adezio wrote:

*I wonder if it is more a generational thing -- after all, those of us who
*are in our 40's now were schoolchildren in the late 60's - early 70s when
*folk music was coming to the forefront of the American musical scene, and
*with it, an interest in early Americana folk songs.

Well, I'm 33 (34 next month!).

*The music books we had in 3rd-5th grade (1968-71) were full of songs like
*'Erie Canal', 'Shenandoah' (probably sp), 'Red River Valley', 'Kumbaya', 'Go
*Down Moses' (I specifically remember singing this as a solo during class
*when I was in 3rd grade), 'Go Tell Aunt Rhody', 'Skye Boat Song', 'Where
*Have All the Flowers Gone', 'This Land is Your Land', 'Kukaburra', 'Waltzing
*Matilda' and the ilk. Yes, I know these aren't all American folk songs, but

We had Shenandoah, Kumbaya, Go Down Moses, Where Have all the Flowers
Gone, This Land is Your Land, Kookaburra, and Waltzing Mathilda, for sure.
Definitely not those other ones, though


I'm a little older than Hillary; not yet in my 40's. Of these, the songs
I learned as a child we

Red River Valley, Kumbaya, Go Down Moses, Go Tell Aunt Rhody, Where Have
All the Flowers Gone, This Land is Your Land, Kukaburra, Waltzing Matilda.

But only This Land is Your Land and Waltzing Matilda were from school.
Others were from camp, Sunday school, etc. and Kukaburra was from when
my baby brother learned it in school

--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)

In pACPb.98454$sv6.407562@attbi_s52,
Claire Petersky wrote:

*elementary school came out of the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s,
*such as: Michael Row The Boat Ashore, If I Had A Hammer, Tom Dooley, Drill
*Ye Tarriers, man, a little walk down memory lane -- I could go on and on.

Oooh, we did the first three of those too
I didn't sleep well for days after we learned Tom Dooley. What a stupid
song to teach a bunch of third graders!

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large