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I just wanted to know if your camps have banned any camp songs or not and which ones they have banned. I'm just curious and thought this would be a fun topic.

The only songs I know they have banned at my camp is this one song, I'm not sure what it's called but it talks about beating up the devil. The other one I remember is brown squirel (since shove a peanut up your nose is kinda too violent or some reason like that).

This weekend I went on my outdoor rec. trip for first year and we sang tons of songs that I'm not sure would be appropiate for kids or not, like ride the pony (but I really enjoyed the songs none the less). Perhaps I have just been working at a christian camp for too long.

I had some beef about this subject summer '02.

Now let me first mention that I am NOT anti-feminism nor anti-women. That being said we had a girl who some would say is a (and I don't like the term much for a multitude of reasons, but to let you understand her) "fem-Nazi".

I don't work on girls side of camp and I must admit I am not up to date on everything that goes on over there, however I do know that they had a campfire song dating back to the beginning of our camp in 1924. The song originally went something like this: "She gets the highest marks in class by kissing the teachers..." to "She gets the highest marks in class by not sittin' on her..."

Now I understand that things and times have changed and such and that women should not need to kiss someones rear to get ahead. But come on its a camp song dating over 75 years. Isn't camp about tradition. True it is also about advancement, but by making the argument it is setting ladies behind is questionable.

Anyway, perhaps I was more bitter because the counselor that changed it was a 1st year counselor and hesitated to learn about camp tradition. Maybe I am being picky or close-minded but nevertheless thats my opinion.

We also changed our grace at the meal from one saying "We thank thee o' lord for this our daily bread" to "We are thankful for the food we are about to eat." Again, I can understand this, but I don't know, perhaps I am too much of a traditionalist. I don't like to change things that have been at camp for nearly a century unless of course they are detremental to a childs or staff members health (mental or physical).

What do you all think.

Djramey, I agree that maybe banning the song was a little extreme. I guess it depends. Was the song traditionally sung by both genders? Did anyone else have a problem w/ it? Like I said, I think banning a song that is so old and represented a long standing tradition is extreme (especially if she was the only one opposed to it). However, times have changed and I can see her point (being that I am female).

I don't know of any camp songs that are banned at my camp.

We always sing "Put a nut between your toes, crinkle up your little nose"...

LOL, we sing the same in words in the other order as GS, my guess is "shove a peanut up your nose" is a line created by the campers somewhere back that noone could get them to change. Like the jingle bells, batman smells song we used to sing in school. Anyhow, I've seen several songs banned. Ravioli, because the counselors were using to describe inappropriate behaviors from thier weekend (yea for maturity- ugh) Father Abraham, and silly willy because they may poke fun at the disabled. gotta run, more later. -Neb

lets see...at one point we banned the buffalo song... but now we can sing it again. I think there were more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

we did have to change the words in some of the graces we sing. First we were supposed to change them to words other than god, to keep it from being religous or something. But then, because words like 'lord' and 'father' apply only to the christian god, so the next year we were supposed to change all the words to god (becaue the word god is non-denominational?), so some of our graces have...changed over time. we're a girl scout camp, btw.

Does the Buffalo song talk about his dead brother? We have that song at our camp, its not banned but its not really popular either. We had a song named Little Willy banned cause it was sung in the manner of a child with a stutter and i guess kinda was a mockery of it. We did have children at camp that stuttered so I didnt have a problem with its banning. Thats all I can think of.

Nebit, that stinks...Ravioli is fun!!

yeah, the buffalo and his dead brother. And apparently the word 'amen' we sing at the end of the song, too. we rather like that song. all the more because we couldn't sing it for a while, i think

I'm trying to think of any songs we banned....
the second verse to thte little green frog song was banned from my 4-H camp YEARS back
"honk honk went the big mack truck one day, split, splat went the little green frog" that entire verse got taken out....
HOWEVER I can remember as a 4-H camper and even as a counselor every night we had rec time which was a big red-neck square/line dance LOL, and we definitely played and did the line dance to "I'm Too Sexy"
One camp I went to was pretty liberal, LOL, even though it was a Y camp. Somehow one of the immature JC's got it in her head that she could teach the traditional campers (the 8-12yr olds!) the first part of "Killing Me Softly" that pop song!!! AND NONE of the other traditional counsleors would say anythign b/c this girl had been comming to the camp forever or somethig... that girl... if I never see her again LOL
I think that's it though...
Jiff

i don't really think there are any songs banned at my camp...
we do grey squirrel instead of brown.. lol and the verse we use is "put a nut between your toes, crinkle up your little nose"...
and the buffalo song is one of our favorites

a few summers back my last year as a camper we didn't really sing a song.. the chesse song.. because the chorus was "rolling over the billows, rolling over the seas, rolling over the billows and the deep blue seas..." but because some inapropriatness between 2 staff memebers the words were sometimes said "rolling over the pillows, rolling over the sheets, rolling over the pillows and the deep blue sheets..." and some campers kinda picked it up... but we sing it now..
a funny thing is some of the girl scout weekends at my camp we do campfires and we lead songs for the girls and help make smores.. but this one town's leader told us not to sing songs about death.. so we were like ahhh!! all of our favorite songs are about dying..

I don't think we have any banned songs, I wouldn't go putting your brand new Outkast in the CD player. Boss man, the guy that signs the paychecks is liable to remove it until the end of camp.

But back to the real sung camp songs. There are times when I have to regulate to make songs safe. One time that pops into my head is around a camp fire that a woodsie built a little two well. I can just see kids falling into it.

Another time was in the dinning hall. I don?t know how you sing Father Abraham, but in our version there is a lot of "fast walking / hopping" around the dinning hall. Throw in a bit of spilled water or bug juice, and you got a broken arm just itching to happen....

Um, well a few years ago a staff member got in trouble for teaching the "beaver song" it went a little something like this...
I'm a beaver, you're a beaver we're a beaver all!! and when we get together we do the beaver call!!!!
raaaanh raaanh rannh rahn ... etc ..
come to think of it it was more a a cheer and to a sick mind I can see how it can be miscontrued... however we just substituted our camp mascot for beaver, and all was well.

LOL Yoda, there is a song a friend of mine used to sing at football games. The Beaver Song...something like "Beaver one, Beaver all, let't all do the beaver call, Reh reh reh etc, Beaver two, Beaver three, let's all climb the beaver tree..." It goes on and on. It was completely innocent coming from here but of course some of the guys started joking around taking it another way.

hmmm... we had a song that talked about some girl going around and shooting the men who didn't please her on a date... I think it was caled ms. Effie... yeah that one definitely belongs in the no-go pile, although, it is one of my first memories of camp (singing that song) and I miss it.

other banned songs... um, I think we might have banned this one song called "city girls." only cause it got too annoying for the staff!!!!!! LOL.

I do remember another one!
"One Tin Soldier" I think this song is pretty popular with the girl scouts. And apparently, at my camp they used to sing it at chaple (YMCA) but this year the director said somethign about not singing it b/c the chorus has the line "On the bloody morning after"
anyone else had that problem?
Jiff

We banned this song called "the wee wee song" which was too bad because i loved it! It was a song about a baby who pees his pants all the time and there was this one verse that said something like

'picked me up from my wee wet spot and spanked me on my wee wee spot that just shows that when you're hot you really shouldn't drink a lot'

i can understand why they banned it but the song was classic.... and i never even thought about the violent issue...... i dont know :p

So many camp songs are out there that reinforce racial stereotypes, particularly about American Indians (or Native Americans, if you prefer) and I really do not think those should be sung at camp. Same with songs that are blatantly sexist--even if they've been a tradition for eighty years. If your camp had a tradition that girls weren't allowed to do certain things the boys were allowed to do, wouldn't you want that changed? A lot of people will say about any song that they don't see why it's offensive--whether it's a racist or sexist issue--but it always depends on where you're coming from. We want camp to be comfortable for all children and staff members.

We also don't sing songs that are considered "vulgar," which is a harder one since we all have different ideas of what constitutes unacceptable vulgarity. (I don't like songs about "bodily functions," myself.) And definitely any song that jokes about suicide (my brother learned a couple at Boy Scout camp) is OUT.

Basically, I think a good guide is to ask yourself about any questionable song, "Will their parents be pleased when they sing it at home?"

I've been more sad to stop singing and teaching certain religious songs at my non-religious camp. Many of them are really beautiful, especially the rounds, but again, I know some parents would not be happy if their daughter came home singing about Ezekiel (a Biblical figure) or the Prodigal Son. I do sometimes teach these songs to the CITs, since they're old enough to understand that we learn them for purely musical reasons.

Aww, One Tin Soldier and the Beaver Song are two of my all-time favorites... sad that they're banned, especially because they seem innocent to me. The Beaver Song is just about the ANIMAL, if you teach it to a bunch of kids they're not gonna think anything of it. And One Tin Soldier... well... I just use it as a bedtime song, don't pay too much attention to the words - it's just pretty. And isn't it about Judgement Day?

"So go ahead and hate your neighbors,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
Won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the JUDGEMENT DAY...
On the bloody morning after...
One tin soldier rides away."

Danni, some people in my youth group used to sing a song similar to that only it went like this: "When I was a little tot they put me on my wee wee pot to see if I could wee or not, wee wee, wee wee
And when they saw that I could not, they took me off my wee wee pot and then I gave it all I got, wee wee, wee wee
Wee wee, wee wee, wee wee wee wee wee wee, wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee!" Hehe, yeah excessive amounts of wees but I copied pasted. We sang "Baby Shark" a lot too. That was a fun song.

Wilderness mama" oh my goodness...i am so thrilled about the banning of City Girls! it was fun in the beginning, yes, but around the 300th time...ugh!
anyway, some of the songs that we have modified (they are not banned) are Daisy on My Toe: we had to change the part where it says "it's just a tattoo of a flower" to "It's just a PICTURE of a flower". also, in the hippo song we can't sing the second verse because it says "cake and candy that will make him fat"...apparently b/c it says fat. some of the reasoning is kinda ridiculous.

my counselor taught us "baby shark"! funny song that we ended up singing for the rest of our days as campers, haha! we also learned a new one this summer that someone learned from BBYO and taught it to her bunk- "D-I-S-C-O, don't you wanna disco" that one was cute. other than "baby shark" i haven't heard of any of the others you guys mentioned, and i think its a little annoying when the traditional songs are banned.

Texasmidnight, BABY SHARK, do-do-do-do-do-do...my camp picked that one up this summer and I'm in love with it also! Hmm...I don't think we've banned any of our songs...a favorite of the kids is called Three Jolly Fisherman...they get to yell "damn, damn, damn!" at the top of their lungs for one part...I think that's the most controversial one we've got. Although I have been known to "ban" the following few in my cabin... "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves" along with "this is the song that never ends" more then once! LOL

Looking at camper's post above, it's crazy that BabyShark and D-I-S-C-O (along with Bazooka, zooka bubblegum) were the three new ones that caught on at my camp this year.

Actually, I think the bubble gum song (We sing "Badaroo Badaroo Bada Bubblegum" instead of "bazooka zooka", but I think it is the same) was kind of banned last summer. The campers are in love with it, but we didn't sing it until the last 2 weeks because it was so overdone. Baby shark is a great traditional song of ours. During swim time we always have 5 min. of counselor swim, and during that we always have a counselor cannonball contest then sing the baby shark song while we swim.

we do the baby shark song still. It's kinda like the Lit/Cit co-ordinators job to lead it. It's not that big but it's still fun.