On subversive performativity within gendered working-class urban vernacular occupational subcultures

[muckefuck]

A couple weeks back, I was passing three workers up on scaffolds doing façade work. One was singing a capella in Spanish. I couldn't quite figure out the words, but from his inflection and body language, I deduced that he was teasing on of his co-workers.

It caused me to reflect on the death of the work song. In time past, people engaged in manual labour often sang to relieve the monotony. With the advent of the portable radio and the wide availability of recorded music, a whole chunk of the tranditional American repertoire was consigned to folklore archives at best and, at worst, oblivion.

But then yesterday, I ran into a colleague as he was watching the curious antics of three women outside the front of the building and he told me a story from his days working for a contractor. His gang was sent into suburban homes "so we couldn't listen to Howard Stern." Instead, they were forced to play easy-listening music. The only way they surived was by making up lyrics--doubtless obnoxious and obscene--to sing over the tunes. "Once a homeowner walked in while we were singing about her. It's a good thing her husband wasn't home!"

It was a possibility I had never considered: Taking existing melodies (much as folk performers have always done) and fitting new lyrics to them in a creative and spontaneous way. How common is this? I wondered. And how long until some local ethnomusicologist who just can't face the steaming jungles of New Guinea or the dusty plains of Mauritania blows the lid on it?

Edit: To clarify, I was wondering how common such practices were as a continuation of the work-song tradition. I think there's a significant difference between this and other performative contexts, especially those where the performer is also the only audience.

Comments

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I've done it as a game, certainly -- we always used to do this in the speech club in high school. It was a good exercise for the folks who liked the Extemporaneous categories, and an excellent way to pass the time.

Also, do filkers count, or is that scripted and not spontaneous enough?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Count for what? I'm more intrigued by extemporaneous performances from actual blue-collar types. Song parodies scripted by college grads (or dropouts) are already extremely familiar to me.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Oh, dude. You should talk to thefirethorn. I couldn't say from construction workers spontaneously generating new lyrics for existing songs, but 'Thorn's been doing it since she was about six. It's pretty common in our family, really — especially the spontaneous burst of random song, often with lyrics for the occasion.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I do that all the time.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

You sing along as you work?

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Yup. I sing songs about what crackheads my colleagues are and how I hate authors. I sing all the time. I sing about dinner, and about burning my hand. I have a song called "The Shut Up Song" that's to the tune of "Blue Moon."

A frequent piece in my repetoire is the Starving to Death Song, which is to the tune of "High-Diddle-Ee-Dee! An Actor's Life for me!" from Pinocchio.

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

I think *kids* do it all the time-- we used to do it way too often in the car on the way home from church-- but I don't know about adults, who are a more interesting case therefor.

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

As a child I did this all the time, as indeed did most of my friends and classmates.

Are you familiar with the Dutch phenomenon of Sinterklaas?
If so, you may know that children sing special Sinterklaas songs before Sinterklaas is due to arrive -- rather like Christmas carols, but more cheerful. Anyhow, one famous Sinterklaas song officially opens as follows:

Sinterklaas is jarig
'k Zet mijn schoen vast klaar.
Wellicht dat hij hem vol doet
Met -- ja, wist ik het maar! [1]

When I was young, though, it was usually sung as follows:

Sinterklaas is jarig
Zet hem op de pot
Laat 'm lekker stinken
Doe de deur op slot [2]

Which is rather less... formal.

I sung the "dirty" version so many times as a child that I had a hard time remembering the official lyrics the last time I had to sing Sinterklaas songs.

Anyway, knowing these lyrics will greatly boost your status amongst Dutch speakers, so your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to learn them by heart. :-)

----------

[1}
It's St Nicholas' birthday
I'll get my shoe ready now
Perhaps he'll put something into it
If only I knew what!

[2]
It's St Nicholas' birthday
Put him on the bog
Let him spend some time stinking there
Make sure you lock the door behind him!

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

I *sang* the "dirty" version so many times.

Aaaargh.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

As niemandsrose points out, this seems to be a common phenomenon among children everywhere. The cartoonist Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) even dedicated several weeks of his once-brilliant comic strip Life in Hell to "Kids' Greatest Hits", which featured any number of schoolyard rhymes. For instance, to the tune of "Whistle While You Work" (from Disney's Snow White):

Whistle while you work
Hitler is a jerk
Mussolini bit his weenie
Now it doesn't work
[repeat until spanked]

However, what comes as news to me is the possibility of a community of adults who engage in this orally and creatively. It may bear a superficial resemblance to filking, but the circumstances, themes, and performers are all very different.

[keystroke.livejournal.com]

Like caitalainn above, I still do this as an adult. I only sing my songs at home though.

I have a "Where is my X" song that I sing to a tune from a children's show. The first line begins with the thing I've lost (often my keys or wallet), and the remaining lines are extemporized to rhyme with the missing item until I find it.

There are several other songs that I do this with, though few of them immediately come to mind. Usually they are pop songs with repetitive rhyme schemes.

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

I used to do that at work -- after I realized I misheard one lyric as something dirty ("Getting head is really something" instead of "Jellyhead, you've really done it" over our PA system), a coworker and I spontaneously made up other fitting lyrics.

With the door closed, of course.

[teapot-farm.livejournal.com]

I often used to sing while doing hotel cleaning, or, oddly, while waiting for things to titrate in the little cold-room-trailer in the chemistry lab. Though there's a problem with running out of breath, if you're cleaning baths and suchlike. Never got anyone else to join in though... I don't know if there's really a shared body of songs that people can use any more. I mean, my grandma (and many other people's grandmas, no doubt) used to sing hymns when she worked, and my mum would wander around singing folk songs, so I usually revert to one of those, but I don't know that that any of my coworkers would have known the words (and I generally only knew a few lines myself).
And people don't half look at you funny when they catch you singing. It's a shame.

[pne.livejournal.com]

In time past, people engaged in manual labour often sang to relieve the monotony.

I thought that, at least for some professions, they also served to give a uniform rhythm (e.g. people rowing) or to help you breathe out propery during hard work (e.g. shanties for sailors).