What was that Sousa parody that had "and that duck was your mother" or something?

[El Supremo]

Skitch Henderson?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Be kind to your web-footed friends

For a duck may be somebody's mother,
Be kind to your friends in the swamp
Where the weather is very, very damp.

And that's all I remember.

[MrMickeysMom]

3. Thou you may think that this is the end….

Well, it ISN'T!

Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody's mother (you get the idea… it never ends!)

[mucifer]

15. it's the vegan rendition.

[ailsagirl]

21. Then I think it goes on...

Well you may think that this is the end.
Well it is.

I never knew it was good ol' Mitch Miller that did that-- nor did I ever get what the point was!!

Imagine, staying in my memory all these years.

[KamaAina]

22. The weather is cold and damp

and 'damp' rhymes with 'swamp'.

[3catwoman3]

2. Here you go...

...

[El Supremo]

4. That's it! Thanks!

Mitch Miller.

I think of it every Independence Day.

[calimary]

6. That's the one! Mitch Miller!

Ahhh, back in the day! I was very young. Barely remember, but that one I remember.

[El Supremo]

5. The Stars and Stripes Forever. Our official national march:

[3catwoman3]

7. I played that piccolo part in...

...high school, and it always make me tear up to hear it/watch it.

[Tanuki]

26. I love the piccolo part! It sounds like little birds singing along.

I used to live in Boston, and when the Boston Pops played it the audience would go nuts at that part. The piccolo section would stand up in unison and then sit back down in unision, at the end of their part but still in the middle of the song, to acknowledge the massive applause.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

23. I notice that there was a tuba section

They should be playing Sousaphones.

There was a brilliant rendition of Stars And Stripes Forever on the Farewell Show of A Prairie Home Companion in 1987, unfortunately it does not appear to be on-line.

[lululu]

8. right up there and appealing to the same age range

as I see England, I see France.

[3catwoman3]

9. No matter how old you are...

...have you ever heard/read that chant and NOT been compelled to finish it in your mind?

[pipi_k]

10. Hee hee...

My shamelessly juvenile mind always wants to finish all those chants...

Nothing I can do to stop it, either


"Finish that chant or suffer the consequences! Muwahahahahaha!!!!!"

[HERVEPA]

11. This is a fuller one, and the one I knew growing up

CRAZY MIXED UP SONG (Grean / Joan Javits) Billy Cotton & His Band

‘Twas midnight on the ocean not a streetcar was in sight
The sun was shining brightly in the middle of the night
A barefoot boy with shoes on stood there sitting in a tree
And when I put my glasses on I heard this melody

Be kind to your web footed friends
For a duck may be somebody’s mother
Be kind to the denizen of the swamp
She’s a dilly through and through
You may think that this is the end
Well it isn’t ‘cos there is another chorus.

‘Twas midnight on the ocean when the rain began to snow
He hurried to me slowly ‘cos the time had come to go
I said I’d wait forever if it wouldn’t take too long
And silently we harmonized this crazy mixed up song

Be kind to your web footed friends
For a duck may be somebody’s mother
Be kind to the denizen of the swamp
She’s a dilly through and through
You may think that this is the end
Well it isn’t ‘cos there is another chorus.

‘Twas midnight on the ocean on the day I married him
I didn’t know his name was Jack that’s why I called him Jim
We settled down in London, France, beside the pyramids
And raised a little family of crazy mixed up kids

Be kind to your web footed friends
For a duck may be somebody’s mother
Be kind to the denizen of the swamp
She’s a dilly through and through
You may think that this is the end
Well it is!

[csziggy]

12. Here's that version!

Maybe with some embellishment.

[kwassa]

13. Homer and Jethro! "The Battle of Kookamonga"!

the predecessors of Wild Al Yankovich. I had this song memorized as a kid. They did musical satires, much as Wild Al did more recently.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. we're the boys from Camp Kookamonga

our mothers sent us here for to learn nature's ways
we learned to make fire rubbing two sticks together
and when we find some girls we will set the woods ablaze

they ran through the briars and ran through the brambles
ran through the bushes where we wouldn't go
ran so fast that we couldn't catch em

[HERVEPA]

16. Somewhat different, but still pretty cool. Thanks!

[trof]

14. Oh Suzanna

It rained all night the day I left
The weather it was dry
The sun so hot, I froze to death
Susannah, don't you cry.

[antiquie]

18. My parents sang this on our many NY->CA drives.

‘Twas midnight on the ocean not a streetcar was in sight
I stopped into a drugstore for to get myself a light.
The man behind the counter was a woman old and gray,
who used to peddle shoestrings on the Road to Mandalay.
Ain't we crazy, ain't we crazy, this is the way we pass the time away...

My grandkids think *I* made it up.

[yellowdogintexas]

25. yet another version of the verse:

it was midnight on the ocean not a streetcar was in sight
the sun was shining brightly in the middle of the night
we'll sail along the Nile among the ancient pyramids
raising lots of nanny goats and crazy mixed up kids.....

oh be kind..etc

[raccoon]

17. Do "swamp" and "damp" rhyme where you live? Because to me they don't.

But then, I can't hear any difference between "pen" and "pin."

[meti57b]

20. They don't rhyme where I live, but we always made them rhyme in this little song.

[madamesilverspurs]

19. My poor parents!

There was a summer back in the 1950s when my older brother and I had gone to separate camps in the same week. That was the song my brother learned at camp. Once they picked me up from my camp, parents had to listen to his song and then mine ("Doodle de doo&quot , alllll the way home. I think Mom still remembers that afternoon as the longest three days of her life.