I had the pleasure of listening to Prairie Home Companion over the weekend, one of my favorites on the radio, ever. Garrison Keillor sang a revised version of a traditional hymn, It Is Well with My Soul, changing the words to sing about tuna casserole (When woods in October are turning brown and gray, and winter creeps into my soul, I boil some water and I start to make tuna fish, tuna fish casserole). A lot of people would call that sacrilegious, but I had a fair chuckle over the whole thing.
When I was a kid, there was a regularly irreverent family in my very conservative church, and when no one was looking, they would sing a version of The Old Rugged Cross that always made me laugh:
On a hill far away
stood an old Chevrolet
Its tires all tattered and torn.
And I said that day to the old Chevrolet,
I'll trade you some day for a Ford.
When I brought that song home one day, my mother was very displeased. It isn't nice to mess with the sacred songs of the church, she said. She never liked that irreverent family anyway. My mother was also displeased with the version the neighbor kids sang of The Battle Hymn of the Republic:
Mine eyes have see the coming of the burning of the school
We have vanquished every teacher, we have broken every rule...
Glory, glory hallelujah.
Teacher hit me with a ruler.
Met her up in heaven back in 1327
and she ain't my teacher no more, no more.
My mother-in-law taught a hymn parody to several generations, one that catches me every time my church sings it. It's sung to the chorus of At the Cross:
At the bar, at the bar,
where I smoked my first cigar
and the nickels and the dimes rolled away.
It was there by chance that I ripped my Sunday pants,
and now I have to wear them every day.
Some traditional hymns are more special to me than others--even It Is Well with My Soul is a personal favorite because it was sung at my father's funeral. But I don't mind poking fun at a hymn for the sake of a laugh. An awful lot of them are spiritual words put to secular songs anyway, so why not reverse it once in a while? An old Chevrolet indeed--hee hee hee.
When I was a kid, there was a regularly irreverent family in my very conservative church, and when no one was looking, they would sing a version of The Old Rugged Cross that always made me laugh:
On a hill far away
stood an old Chevrolet
Its tires all tattered and torn.
And I said that day to the old Chevrolet,
I'll trade you some day for a Ford.
When I brought that song home one day, my mother was very displeased. It isn't nice to mess with the sacred songs of the church, she said. She never liked that irreverent family anyway. My mother was also displeased with the version the neighbor kids sang of The Battle Hymn of the Republic:
Mine eyes have see the coming of the burning of the school
We have vanquished every teacher, we have broken every rule...
Glory, glory hallelujah.
Teacher hit me with a ruler.
Met her up in heaven back in 1327
and she ain't my teacher no more, no more.
My mother-in-law taught a hymn parody to several generations, one that catches me every time my church sings it. It's sung to the chorus of At the Cross:
At the bar, at the bar,
where I smoked my first cigar
and the nickels and the dimes rolled away.
It was there by chance that I ripped my Sunday pants,
and now I have to wear them every day.
Some traditional hymns are more special to me than others--even It Is Well with My Soul is a personal favorite because it was sung at my father's funeral. But I don't mind poking fun at a hymn for the sake of a laugh. An awful lot of them are spiritual words put to secular songs anyway, so why not reverse it once in a while? An old Chevrolet indeed--hee hee hee.
Comments
I love Garrison Keillor.
We can only get Prairie Home Companion online over here; I do wish they'd schedule it on the radio like in the States.
As for irreverent re-workings: I remember the Glory, Glory one; it even made it over to this side of the pond.
And we used to do "The Old Rubber Cross" which once got me dragged out of assembly in front of the whole school and severely ticked off by Miss Teed.
Hee hee.
Brass players will know "My love is like a red, red rose" as "My love she has a red, red nose" and the film Brassed Off has ensured that the Rodrigo concerto is always known as "Orange Juice".
Do you think there's a teacher called Miss Deed, Dive? If not, Miss Teed is close enough.
Miss Teed was a dragon! She ruled by sheer blind terror. I still shudder just thinking of her … Brr …
Is fiat currency,
No silver and no gold,
Nor blessed charity,
Communing every hour,
O blissful irony!
The Church's one foundation,
The firstborn sons for tea.
On a hill far away stood an old Chevrolet.
It's tires were flat, it's color was gray.
Two windows were broken, the seat belts were torn,
but sweet music poured out from it's little red horn.