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Historically, a lot has changed. Take the traditional singing square
"Marching Through Georgia." Does anyone really think the original
song is about ambling with friends along a quiet country road near
Atlanta?<br>
<br>
I have a thin 1989 book "Just One More Dance" by Carole Howard. It
lists scores of filler calls for Western Squares. A very wide range
of filler calls. Some would be great today, but others, well . . .
Some examples:<br>
<br>
"Buckskin breeches and calico dress<br>
Let's head out to the cider press."<br>
<br>
"Bite his ear and twist his tail,<br>
Swing your honey, and home you sail."<br>
<br>
"Grab that girl and kiss her twice,<br>
Hurry up boys, here comes your wife."<br>
<br>
"Promenade Rose, Promenade Myrtle,<br>
Promenade the gal with the busted girdle."<br>
<br>
"Spank them kids, listen to them squall.<br>
Swing the opposite across the hall."<br>
<br>
"Swing your partner and how-dee-do,<br>
If I had a pistol, I'd shoot you."<br>
<br>
"Allemande left like a broken hinge,<br>
Grand right and left like a drunk on a binge."<br>
<br>
"Good girls walk and bad girls ride,<br>
Come on girls, my car's outside."<br>
<br>
- - - - - - - - - - <br>
<br>
Political correctness? Hmmmm. How many of us would call these
phrases today? Times have changed a bit, and so have our cultures
and sensitivities.<br>
<br>
I agree with Tom -- call the best you can, with respect; appreciate
and respect but don't worry about the words of others. We are
artists, not plumbers.<br>
<br>
Woody<br>
<br>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/25/2018 10:36 AM, Yoyo Zhou via
Callers wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAPNCXWhX1EusPg5S_-80vZf33mh5MZFRuKewVjR9jMrUiNK_Ag@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>It looks like this is the version Rich is referring to:</div>
<div><a
href="http://www.ceder.net/recorddb/viewsingle.php?RecordId=1891"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.ceder.net/recorddb/viewsingle.php?RecordId=1891</a><br>
</div>
<div>
<div
style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><br
class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline">
More background on the English folk song / sea shanty this
American folk song is based on: <a
href="https://mainlynorfolk.info/martin.carthy/songs/billyboy.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://mainlynorfolk.info/martin.carthy/songs/billyboy.html</a></div>
<br>
</div>
In traditional songs things don't really have to work logically
- for example, in this song, there's the lyric, "She's as tall
as any pine, And as straight as a pumpkin vine." So the last
verse of the song goes,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>"How old may she be,
<div>Billy Boy, Billy Boy?</div>
<div>How old may she be,</div>
<div>Charming Billy?</div>
<div>Three times six and four times seven,</div>
<div>Twenty eight and eleven,</div>
<div>She's a young thing,</div>
<div>And cannot leave her mother."</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This, despite the questionable math, puts the refrain
into a very ironic context.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>My understanding of square dance singing calls is that
many of them were set to popular music of the time (though I
have no idea about this particular one). So if your audience
was expected to know this song and the context behind the
refrain, that would be one thing. <span
style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">Notably,
though, the square dance-edited version is missing this
context, and it adds the line</span><span
style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);float:none;display:inline"><span> </span>"Promenade
this pretty thing, won't you help me to sing" to</span><span
style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"> the
refrain, "She's a young thing, And cannot leave her
mother"! So i</span>t'd be quite something else to hear
this line on its own, which makes it sound like you should
be promenading with your underage partners/corners.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There's no universal answer to "is this acceptable"
because it depends on your "contra dance crowd" who is doing
the accepting - this can vary widely between dances, even
within the same city. You'll have to figure out if the
dancers are ok with it as is, might be ok with it if you
give them some background about the song before you do the
walkthrough, or would not be ok even with that. However, I
think you'll find a lot of other material is less
objectionable to any audience (and you already have some
intuition for this, since you asked the callers list about
this one).<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div>
<div class="gmail_signature">Yoyo Zhou</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 9:40 AM,
Darwin Gregory via Callers <span dir="ltr"><<a
href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">callers@lists.sharedweight.net</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">If you are concerned about sexism
alternate between she/her and he/his. 😎</div>
<div class="gmail-HOEnZb">
<div class="gmail-h5"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr">On Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 1:39 AM
Alexandra Deis-Lauby via Callers <<a
href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">callers@lists.sharedweight.<wbr>net</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px
0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">People are not things. I don’t
think it’s appropriate for any crowd.
<div>Try your hand at some new lyrics!
<div><br>
<div
id="gmail-m_-5330232213336773437m_-5468533612190867830AppleMailSignature">Sent
from my iPhone</div>
<div><br>
On Mar 25, 2018, at 1:12 AM, Rich
Sbardella via Callers <<a
href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">callers@lists.sharedweight.<wbr>net</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">Hello folks,
<div><br>
<div>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."</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Here is a link to a version of
the full song, not within a
square.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKRJuLHU3Qo"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr>v=cKRJuLHU3Qo</a><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>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.)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Any Thoughts?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Rich</div>
<div>Stafford, CT<br>
</div>
</div>
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