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

[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.