{"id":99,"date":"2003-10-15T16:41:56","date_gmt":"2003-10-15T20:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/?p=99"},"modified":"2011-11-03T16:44:03","modified_gmt":"2011-11-03T20:44:03","slug":"issue-19-special-songs-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/2003\/10\/issue-19-special-songs-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Issue 19 – Special Songs Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTHE DAY THE MUSIC DIED\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what day it was, or even whether it happened on a single day or not. But, somewhere, somehow, the music died.<\/p>\n

My \u201cScouting career\u201d spans more than 50 years \u2013 but there\u2019s a \u201chole\u201d in the middle of more than twenty years between when I joined as a fresh, new Cub Scout and today.<\/p>\n

In our Pack, we sang. We sang at Pack meetings. We sang when we took our annual trips to the circus and to the rodeo. Silly songs, happy songs, and, yes, patriotic songs. Action songs, quiet songs, and sometimes even a song from the hymnal of the church that sponsored us. Of course, this was nothing unusual, because, in school, we sang \u201cAmerica,\u201d or \u201cAmerica The Beautiful,\u201d or (we called it) \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d every morning following a Bible reading from Psalms and the Pledge of Allegiance to our Flag.<\/p>\n

When I became a Boy Scout, no campfire was complete if we hadn\u2019t sung \u201cThe Grand Old Duke Of York\u201d to warm us up, \u201cThe Paddle Song,\u201d and \u201cScout Vespers\u201d to bring the evening to a quiet close. We sang \u201cWe\u2019re On The Upward Trail\u201d and \u201cTrail The Eagle.\u201d We sang \u201cThe Quartermaster\u2019s Store\u201d \u2013 with the chorus in harmony. We sang \u201cThe Titanic\u201d and \u201cHyro Gerum.\u201d We sang rounds and \u201cfollow-me\u2019s\u201d and a host of others, and we learned them all without song books or copied pages or sheet music. We sang because we learned, in Scouts, to love singing. We sang when we hiked, and when we gathered in our Patrols around our Patrol campfires the first night out, and at our Troop campfire on the second night. We sang at our \u201cScout\u2019s Own Service\u201d regardless of our individual faiths or denominations.<\/p>\n

Later as a summer camp staffer, we learned how to lead songs, and we sang after breakfast and after lunch, and two songs after dinner. And even when my fellow staffers and I took a day off to go to the beach with our dates for the day, we sang in the drive to the beach, and on the way home again. My wife, as a teenaged girl in the car with us while we sang, came to love me in part because I sang.<\/p>\n

No, I haven\u2019t an operatic voice, or even what\u2019s called a \u201csolo-quality\u201d voice. I had enthusiasm, though, and a love of singing. Especially with other guys who considered this absolutely normal \u2013 this is what you do when you\u2019re a Scout. This is one of those things that Scouting taught by simply doing, and being. Scouting was a place to sing, and no one ever felt like a sissy or weird in any way.<\/p>\n

But, somewhere along the way, somehow, the music died.<\/p>\n

Today, the best you\u2019ll get at a campfire is some sort of rap-like chant, if you get anything at all. And these are mostly of the follow-me type, because Scouts simply don\u2019t know the \u201cstandards\u201d anymore. \u201cScout Vespers\u201d? Gone. \u201cTrail The Eagle\u201d? Never heard of it! \u201cThe Titanic\u201d? Ancient history… or just a movie.<\/p>\n

The loss is greater than we can imagine, because we Scouts who sang learned life lessons through the songs we sang. \u201cThe Titanic\u201d taught us \u2013 without a \u201cclassroom\u201d \u2013 that, rich or poor, we need to pull together. The message in \u201cTrail The Eagle\u201d was to stay on the path to advancement. \u201cThe Paddle Song\u201d showed us the dignity of the people who first filled this great land of ours. \u201cScout Vespers\u201d asked us if we had \u201cdone and dared everything to Be Prepared.\u201d \u201cThis Land Is Your Land\u201d taught us just that. \u201cThe Happy Wanderer\u201d affirmed our love of the outdoor life every time we sang it. And even \u201cThe Grand Old Duke Of York\u201d taught us to follow our leaders.<\/p>\n

What lessons or ideals do the songs Scouts sing \u2013 if they sing at all \u2013 affirm or teach or reinforce today? Patriotism? Loyalty? Improving oneself? Being Prepared? Love of the outdoors? The lessons have been lost with the words and the melodies. In their place, we have raucousness and nonsense. Or worse, nothing at all.<\/p>\n

Little Leaguers don\u2019t sing; neither do soccer teams, or swim clubs or outward bound or other groups purporting to develop our country\u2019s youth. Grammar school classes no longer begin each day with an ode to America. Now Scouting has joined this silent majority.<\/p>\n

And more is the pity.<\/p>\n

Happy Scouting!<\/p>\n

Andy<\/h3>\n

Have a question or problem? Got an idea that will help others? Send an email to <\/em>AskAndyBSA@yahoo.com<\/span><\/a><\/span> <\/span>– be sure to let me know your Scouting position, town, state, and council!<\/span><\/p>\n

(Special Songs Issue 2003)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTHE DAY THE MUSIC DIED\u201d I\u2019m not sure what day it was, or even whether it happened on a single day or not. But, somewhere, somehow, the music died. My \u201cScouting career\u201d spans more than 50 years \u2013 but there\u2019s a \u201chole\u201d in the middle of more than twenty years between when I joined as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-13"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}