Kids Sing Along Songs: Harmless Or Clever Ruses?
Name that tune
I know lots of you dads are subjected to the endless cds of kids sing along songs while driving in the car. Some of the most annoying ones are John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, Six Little Ducks, She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain, The Green Grass Grew All Around, and of course The Song That Doesn’t End. If you are really unlucky, your wife might even play these in the house.
I’ve recently been spending more time in the car with the kids and have noticed several things about these songs. First, many have a religious tone. I was surprised to see Battle Hymn of the Republic on a ton of kids cds. I think that can be a good thing. Second, there are a lot about men. You should search it if you don’t believe me. I think I’ve found at least 15 with some guy’s name in the title. I guess that’s not too bad, but I’ve also noticed a third thing: they seem to be laced with double meanings and weird messages. Some are less obvious than others but trust me on this too. I want to focus on a song that involves the second and third realizations I’ve just discovered.
The song is called John Brown’s Baby. There are only two lines in the entire song, but like most of these songs, kids sing the lines over and over again which causes the adult mind to tune out the lyrics while innocent children are brainwashed. The lines are:
John Brown’s baby had a cold upon his chest
So they rubbed it with camphorated oil.
That’s not too bad, but after these lines are sung several times the children are encouraged to remove a word and replace it with a silly sound effect. Typically the first word removed is ‘baby.’ On our cd the word is replaced with a noise that sounds like a penny whistle. Kids sing the lines a few times and then remove a second word which is usually ‘cold.’ This is also replaced with a strange sound effect. At this point there are now two words which are replaced by sounds. This continues until you hear this:
John Brown’s (blank) had a (blank) upon its (blank)
So they (blanked) it with (blank) oil.
I don’t think I would have caught this clever deception if it weren’t for the weird penny whistle sound that immediately followed John Brown’s name. Come on. Am I to really believe that this song wasn’t made up by a bunch of inmates during recess time on the shanking field? This had to be the strangest thing I have ever heard in my life, and my wife was supporting the entire thing! I guess I’m no longer the number one offender for letting kids watch/listen to questionable material.
(NOTE: I tried to find a link so you could hear the song about John Brown’s blank and judge for yourself, but I can only find sites that require a download and don’t want to promote them. Maybe someone can find it for everyone else.)
4 Responses to “Kids Sing Along Songs: Harmless Or Clever Ruses?”
Can I really resist commenting on how a dirty mind thinks dirty things? …Nope. Apparently not.
By Nancy Sabina on Aug 3, 2010
Our Dad taught us this, and we remember it fondly, though some in the extended family have banned it as too scary. Might turn kids into vegetarians, though. It’s called, Mr. Johnny Burbeck – he invents a machine that turns all the neighbors cats and dogs into something edible, so that a boy buys sausages, whistles a tune, and the sausages begin to dance. There’s more… we would never harm an animal, it was just a song, but I think what we liked was the grossness and scariness of it. Had a campfire recently, and though we are by no means young, we had to sing the song and fondly remember our Dad.
By Pat on Aug 28, 2010
Oh wait, it’s been mentioned that it reminds one of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Anyone know if it may have grown out of that or the issues The Jungle describes? Thx.
By Pat on Aug 28, 2010
I’ve previously wondered where some kids songs and nursery rhymes come from. One such rhyme that stuck with me goes “Rock a bye baby, on the treetop,when the wind blows, the cradle will rock, when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and all” It seemed a bit sadistic to me :/
By Corragh on Dec 11, 2011