Posted by Adam Quinan on August 08, 1997 at 02:23:05:
In Reply to: Re: Nice Sailors and Naughty Songs (WAS 'The Maid of Amsterdam') posted by Terence McManus on August 08, 1997 at 01:37:43:
I also remember a fairly innocuous version of A'Roving which we had on an old record of sea shanties. Certainly at the age of 10 or 11 I didn't pick up any salacious meanings and I doubt that the Walkers or Blacketts would have.
I suspect that there are a number of cleaned up versions of old songs around. There are a trio of Canadian children's entertainers who sing a song called "Do your ears hang low!" Not quite the original words that I remember being sung at engineering sing songs at Leeds University in the early 1970's! My children also count out "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo. Catch a Tiger by the toe! I don't recall that one from my youth either.