Glory, Glory Hallelujah

Absurd conversation at the dinner table:

Someone--I don't know who--brings up John Brown, the Civil War figure.
I begin singing "John Brown's body lies a-moulderin' in the grave," and Riff says, "Hey, mom, stop singing mean songs. I'm learning about the Civil War in school right now and it's really horrible." Mr. Strega agreed. He said it was a song made up by the Confederates to celebrate Brown's execution.

"What?" I said. "If that's so mean, how come some of the lyrics are "Glory, glory hallelujah, his soul is marching on? Why, back in my day, when you went to see
the Mr. Lincoln robot guy at Disneyland, they played 'Glory, glory hallelujah' in the background at the end of the show."


NOBODY believed me until I bade them listen to the song (described, ahem, as a 'Union marching song') on the Internet. At which point, I suddenly realized that "John Brown's Body" is sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," something I had never connected. Well, it's never late to learn something new.

"You guys think you're soooo smart, but I was right," I said. At which point, Riff began to regale us with various schoolyard versions of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," (involving rotten tangerines and coconuts) and Mr. Strega, not wishing to be upstaged, found a version of the Gilligan's Island theme online by a band called Little Roger and the Goosebumps, sung to the tune of "Stairway to Heaven," and played it for us. Click on the link if you really, really must....

I think we need to watch more television.