Gonna Be An Engineer

This Peggy Seeger number is a bit of a marathon! It tells the story of a girl who hopes to become and engineer, but is told by everyone that she needs to be a ‘lady’ instead. Page 85 in the songbook.

Guitar chords and lyrics can be found here

 

This Land is Your Land

According to Wikipedia, This Land is Your Land is a 1940s American folk song by Woodie Guthrie, written as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”.  Interestingly, Billy Bragg wrote a UK version of this song which you can listen to here.

Guitar tabs can be found on Songsterr here and chords on GuitareTAB here.

Bandiera Rossa

A song from the Italian labour movement

Chords from Cambridge Woodcraft Folk’s Pioneer Songs with Guitar Chords 

Shoals of Herring

This is a folk song by Ewan MacColl that tells the story of a cabin boy and his journey to becoming a fisherman, fishing for the “shoals of herring” in the title.

The chords can be found here.

Worm Song

A favourite for all ages…but for Elfins especially.

Here’s Hounslow Woodcraft’s audio clip.

Does anyone know the chords?

The Last Thing On My Mind

The Last Thing On My Mind is a folk song by Tom Paxton – are there any groups out there who like to sing this one around the campfire?

The chords are here (found on ultimate-guitar.com):

Verse 1:
|D |G |D |D
It’s a lesson too late for the learning,
|A |A |D |D
made of sand, made of sand.
|D |G |D |D
In the wink of an eye my soul is turning
|A |A |D |D
In your hand, in your hand.

Refrain:
|A |A |G |G
Are you going away with no word of farewell,
|D |D |A |A
Will there be not a trace left behind?
|D |G |A |F#m
I could have loved you better, I didn’t mean to be unkind
|G |G |D
That was the last thing on my mind.

The Mighty Song of Peace

Another song where I can’t find from where it originates simply by googling. Does anybody know?
This is a song that adds words as you go along, and it’s quite long. A good one for hikes. In the video there’s just the final verse (as the song in its entirety would make for a very long video), so to sing the first verse, just take out WOODCRAFT, freedom, friendship, justice and unity and you’ve got it.

The mighty song of peace will soon be ringing
Soon be ringing, soon be ringing. 

The mighty song of peace will soon be ringing
All over this land.

All over this land, this land.
All over this land, this land.
The mighty song of peace will soon be ringing
All over this land.

The mighty song of unity and peace will soon be ringing
Soon be ringing, soon be ringing.
The mighty song of unity and peace will soon be ringing
All over this land.

All over this land, this land.
All over this land, this land. 

The mighty song of unity and peace will soon be ringing
All over this land.

The mighty song of justice, unity and peace will soon be ringing 

Soon be ringing, soon be ringing….

All over this land, this land …

The mighty song of friendship, justice, unity and peace will soon be ringing 

Soon be ringing, soon be ringing…

All over this land, this land ….

The mighty song of freedom, friendship, justice, unity and peace will soon be ringing
Soon be ringing, soon be ringing…

All over this land, this land ….

The mighty song of WOODCRAFT, freedom, friendship, justice, unity and peace will soon be ringing
Soon be ringing, soon be ringing…

All over this land, this land ….

 

 

Back Of The Bus

If You Miss Me At The Back Of The Bus, is a song from the American Civil Rights Movement, originally performed by Pete Seeger.

“The song was written in response to attempts to desegregate a public swimming pool in Cairo, Illinois after a young African-American man drowned while swimming in a local river due to the pool not allowing any African-Americans to use it. The song depicts attitude of the African American community towards civil rights during the 1960s. In his book Everybody Says Freedom with Bob Reiser, Seeger commented that people would improvise new lyrics to the song to comment on various situations. The song’s popularity grew after it began to be used as one of the anthems for the Civil rights movement” – Wikipedia.

The videos below are of it being sung around a campfire (the first line has been cut off by the recording) and of the Pete Seeger original.

If you miss me at the back of the bus
And you can’t find me nowhere
Come on over to the front of the bus
And I’ll be riding up there

If you miss me in the Mississippi mud
And you can’t find me nowhere
Come on over to the swimming pool
And I’ll be swimming right there.

If you miss me in the cotton fields
And you can’t find me nowhere
Come on over to the courthouse
And I’ll be voting right there.

If you miss me on the picket line
And you can’t find me nowhere
come on over to the city jail
And I’ll be rooming right there.

If you miss me at the back of the bus
And you can’t find me nowhere
Come on over to the front of the bus
And I’ll be riding up there

Wouldn’t it be a Wondrous Thing

Casual googling has provided me with no answers as to the origins of this song. Does anyone know? Was it perhaps a song created for an International Camp, or maybe by Leslie Paul?

Anyway, it’s lovely a lovely round that can go in two or four parts. You can also fit it together with Building Bridges, but you have to sing the latter quite fast to make it work.

Wouldn’t it be a wondrous thing
If the children of the world
Could live together
In peace

Dorcas

Dorcas ate some marmalade and
Dorcas ate some jam
Dorcas ate some potted meat and
Dorcas ate some spam
Dorcas ate some lemonade and then some ginger beer
and the Dorcas wondered why Dorcas felt so queer

Whoops came the marmalade and
Whoops came the jam
Whoops came the potted meat and
Whoops came the spam
Whoops came the lemonade and then the ginger beer
and then Dorcas knew why Dorcas felt so queer