For several weeks I'd been searching for an opportunity to engineer an entry about a popular and memorable Primary School hymn. So imagine my delight upon reading this story on the BBC website last night, it also being the main story on the evening news.
If you're not sure what I'm getting at, here's the key quote:
"An MoD spokesman added: 'As a precautionary measure air-to-air refuelling has been suspended for all Nimrod aircraft, until the results of a full investigation have been considered.' "
Wonderful. I think it's accurate to say that the air was punched when I spotted that. All of those regular discussions about the song and its apparent glaring flaw can now be binned then. That third line is not there purely because nothing else rhymes with 'jewelled'. Jet planes DO meet in the air to be refuelled, and they DO do it in autumn. Well, they did until they started breaking.
So those lyrics in full. Get out your 'Come and Praise' and turn to hymn number 4 (Emily can probably correct me on that). All together now....
Autumn days, when the grass is jewelled,
And the silk in a chestnut shell,
Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled,
All these things I love so well.
So I mustn't forget
No, I mustn't forget
To say a great big thank you
No, I mustn't forget.
Clouds that look like familiar faces
And winter's moon with frosted rings
Smell of bacon as I fasten up my laces
And the milkman sings.
Whipped-up spray that is rainbow-scattered
And a swallow curving in the sky
Shoes so comfy though they're worn out and they're battered
And the taste of apple pie.
Scent of gardens when the rain's been falling
And a minnow darting down a stream
Picked-up engine that's been stuttering and stalling
And a win for my home team*.
*This is the version that you will have had in your hymn book, but 'a win for Man City' is the more popular line that can be heard in assemblies throughout the land.
I was going to stop there but now other school hymn memories have been stirred. Similar to the altered City line in 'Autumn Days', 'When a knight won his spurs' (Come & Praise, no. 82 [if '82' is correct then that's an impressive yet weird thing to have retained]) would be reworded thus:
'When City won Spurs,
and the score was ten-nil.
David White got six,
and Stevie Redmond got four'
[All I can remember of the original version is that the first line was 'When a knight won his spurs, in the stories of old'].
The other one that I remember well is about how there is loads of stuff in this world, and it's all due to one thing:
'There are hundreds of sparrows, thousands, millions,
They're two a penny, far too many, there must be.
There are hundreds of sparrows, thousands, millions,
But God knows everyone and God knows me.'
The other verses followed this pattern, with other things substituted for sparrows. 'Planets' is the only other one that I can remember. If it was written now then perhaps 'TV channels', or 'types of Special K' would feature. I'm not sure where this blog is going anymore to be honest. I meant to go to bed ages ago.
My final school hymn memory is also probably a good illustration of an element of my personality. In particular, the tendency to be awkard purely for my own amusement. At St. Paul's we'd occasionally have classes where we'd do some singing practice (probably a teacher had to do something else so a few classes got lumped together in the Hall). We'd cover the usuals, and then Mr. Hubbold (who played the piano) would ask for requests from the hymn book. Up would go the hands and without fail this would mean an airing of 'Autumn Days' (we never tired of singing about those jet planes!) or maybe 'All things bright and beautiful'. At some point in these classes, however, I twigged that it would be more interesting to pick one from the book that we NEVER sang. Not because I was interested in hearing a new hymn, nor that I liked the words and wanted to sing them. No, I knew that if I picked an obscure one then nobody would know how it went and that would result in an awkward, stunted farce. Even better, if I was really lucky I might pick one that Mr Hubbold couldn't even play, which would be brilliant. I'm pretty sure that if I was asked to pick a hymn on one occasion, my eagerly outstretched hand was ignored every time after that. I have a vague recollection that I did try the trick a couple of times and Mr Hubbold just said no. So we sang Autumn Days again.
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8 comments:
So there is at least one thing vaguely accurate in a hymn somewhere then. I think we only had Come and Praise 1: All Things Bright and Beautiful was no. 3. It was not a popular choice. I have never heard such a supposedly happy song droned so depressingly. Perhaps because the staff leading the vocals had become resigned to their poor wages. After all, "The rich man in his castle/the poor man at his gate/God made them high and lowly/and ordered their estate". I notice that more modern versions of this hymn thankfully omit that particular verse.
"Water Water" was no. 2. Some song with a 6/8 time signature was no. 63. Or 62.
My school were only able to perform a small sample of hymns, but we did have a LIVE band and learning the entire of Come and Priase may well have been exceedingly optimistic. Needless to say I was involved for years, playing many an instrument, including the recorders (both descant and tenor), keyboard, drum machine (with 8 pads - complex), glockenspiel (poor poor bugger who had to teach primary school kids that) and the autoharp. All completely true.
I have never heard of this hymn book. At high school we never sang hymns except our own school anthem, which I couldnt find. But am willing to sing to you as I can still remember all the words.
Incidentally, in trying to find my school anthem i chanced upon this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_High_School_for_Girls
Maybe I will add to the description that every autumn the school girls were forced to perform the school anthem at the temple speech room in Rugby to celebrate foundation day. There are so many tales about the school anthem, it needs a post of its own.
Oh and the second part of the comment was that we did sing hymns (not really hymns in the traditional sense, more like born again christian anthems) in middle school but these were presented to us on acetates on the ohp rather than in book form. We did sing different lyrics to them (and the tress of the field shall clap their hands swiftly became and the trees of the field shall crap their pants) and anything that didnt scan properly was sung in such as away as to exaggerate the imperfection to impressive proportions. stop bringing up school or childhood things, I cant shut up once I've started.
I am most impressed by the paper saving techniques of Rugby schools. All very advanced.
Hymns are crap by the way. Are there any good ones at all? Ooh yes - I still sing "cross over the road my friend...", appropriately whenever I cross a road (well not every time, but quite often). That's the only good one.
"...a(r)sk the Lord his strength, to lend/His compassion has no end/Cross over the road (doo doo doo)".
Bloody hell Moon - you were a one man band!
One time I was talking to someone from another school about Founder's Day and she kept saying 'Founders Day in July? We always had it in September.'
Erm...
I didn't play them all at the same time, Prof, although I would quite like to try it (recorders can easily be played through the nose. One christmas my sister and I blessed my parents with every carol in the book, played on recorders through our noses. Nice).
Btw I believe the hymn may have been called "water of life", not "water water". My apologies. How come I remember this stuff yet can't seem to encode necessary work things?
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