[Callers] Politically Correct?

Don Veino sharedweight_net at veino.com
Sat Mar 24 23:07:46 PDT 2018


I've started doing singing squares over the past year and have been making
adjustments to lyrics for each one I do. So far the changes have been
relatively easy - mostly eliminating explicit gender and talking to
everyone whenever possible vs. a "talk to the (assumed) lead" focus.

There are real challenges for me in some popular ones - for example,
despite the fun of the sequence, Smoke on the Water's
https://squaredancehistory.org/items/show/1383 refrain's primary phrase
essentially amounts to "we'll kill 'em all" - as it's taken from a 1944
WWII song. I'm personally not ready to call that knowing the meaning and a
significant re-wording of the key refrain is not likely to go over well
with fans of the dance.

On Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 1:39 AM, Alexandra Deis-Lauby via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> People are not things. I don’t think it’s appropriate for any crowd.
> Try your hand at some new lyrics!
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Mar 25, 2018, at 1:12 AM, Rich Sbardella via Callers <
> callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
> Hello folks,
>
> I have been calling singing squares for years, and there is one I love by
> Dick Leger titled Billy Boy.  The tag line that is sung during the
> Promenade is "She's a young thing, that cannot leave her mother."
>
> Here is a link to a version of the full song, not within a square.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKRJuLHU3Qo
>
> My question is, is this song appropriate for the contra dance crowd with
> the tag line above?  (The tag line is the only line that is sung.)
>
> Any Thoughts?
>
> Rich
> Stafford, CT
>
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