What Shall We Do With the Grumpy Pirate?

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'What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor?' lyrics changed to remove alcohol references

A  bloggers reaction to a news article.

Madness!  Madness I call it!  Stupidity in fact.  I've just read this article in the Telegraph online.

In the UK, Bookstart, a national programme to encourage children to read, has amended the words of the song, penned in 1891, from "drunken sailor" to "grumpy pirate".  The sobered-down version of the rhyme has been criticised by the Campaign for Real Education (CfRE), which believes children should hear full version.

The new version, What Shall We Do With the Grumpy Pirate?, was written for council-run "baby bounce and rhyme" sessions put on for parents and children.  Lines removed from the original ditty include "Put him in the brig until he's sober", "Keelhaul him and pass the bottle", "Round with the rum and scotch and whiskey".  The politically correct version instead has lines like "Do a little jig and make him smile", "Make him walk the plank till he starts to wobble" and "Tickle him till he starts to giggle".

So, tell us - what do you think?  Is it political correctness gone mad?  Should we be holding on to (and enjoying) a traditional song that's been around over a hundred years?  Or do children need to be protected from words like rum, scotch and sober?


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[Cobaltblu]

I don't see any problem with it.

There are always different versions of songs or stories shown to different age children and are even entirely different songs sung to the same rhythm of other songs.

Explaining or presenting reality to children in an age-appropriate manner is nothing new.

I would have a problem with it if the UK edited or banned books which had the original lyrics...but have no problem if they make a child's book or song specifically with more tame lyrics.

Regards,

CB

[anne of oaktower]

Well, I can see using the newer version for little ones - newborn to around five or six years old - as long as they don't try to completely ban the original.  It kind of sounds like a great skit idea for Sesame Street or (I can't believe I'm going to say this...) Barney.

[Anna Iram]

Seriously, I think it's silly. You go to Pirate of the Carribbean at Walt Disney World and guess what? The pirates are drinking and some are even drunk. Are the Disney artists going to have to go around painting "milk" on all the bottles?  "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" being changed to bottle of pepsi free? 100 bottles of beer on the wall now 100 bottle of artesian spring water? It's just silly.

[lilaney]

I think the Backyardigans have a version called
"What do you do with a Scurvy Pirate"
Answer: make'em walk the plank.

I would say make'em brush his teeth; but, I doubt they got approval from the ADA to use that particular catch-phrase.

For adults to sing that, there must be mass quantities of libations.

For us to sing "drunken sailor" seems fine; for a three year old? Not sure that would be above boards.

[Capt Robertsgrave Thighbiter]

Just one more example of the PC, sanitized for your protection world we are busy creating.

Like Sparrah said, "The world's not smaller, there's just less in it".

[Welsh Wench]

Some things should be left alone.

It's like putting a jock strap on the Statue of David.

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

Some things should be left alone.

It's like putting a jock strap on the Statue of David.

Shhhh!  That might happen next the way things are headed!

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

My kids, when young, knew the words to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Eight Miles High, Timothy Leary's Dead, and many other songs like that.

They're grown up now, and not drug addicts.  I don't think lyrics to songs are going to shape a kid's personality. 

Or if you think they might, don't sing it to them.  There's certainly enough other songs around.

[Blue66669]

*wonders if they left "put him in the bed with the captain's daughter"...*

[Anna Iram]

Got something against nappy time Blue?   

[Blue66669]

Only if the pirate hasn't washed his backside, m'dear!

[Blackjack Roberts]

*wonders if they left "put him in the bed with the captain's daughter"...*

Probably not, M'Lady, considering they wouldn't know it refers to being lashed instead of what flies to mind nowadays.

And we all know that violence if far less obscene than *shudder* sexual innuendo. 

[Lady Amy of York]

Gosh I guess I am a bad mom.  My son is  only  five  years  old, but he  knows    the  words  to the  original version of  " Drunken  Sailor ."     I'm a proud  pirate mom !

[Dance_Dance]

What shall we do with PC madness?
What shall we do with PC madness?
What shall we do with PC madness?
Early in the morning

Way hay and don't say that
Way hay and don't say that
Way hay and don't say that
Early in the morning

Point and laugh at the uptight folks
Point and laugh at the uptight folks
Point and laugh at the uptight folks
Early in the morning

Thank the skies you're much saner
Thank the skies you're much saner
Thank the skies you're much saner
Early in the morning

Put 'em in the room with the grumpy pirate
Put 'em in the room with the grumpy pirate
Put 'em in the room with the grumpy pirate
Early in the morning

Cover their ears and curse like heck
Cover their ears and curse like heck
Cover their ears and curse like heck
Early in the morning

That's what you do with PC madness
That's what you do with PC madness
That's what you do with PC madness
Early in the morning

(Seriously, I think that children don't need to know about everything, but come on.  If there's truth that songs can influence you such a degree, then I should have killed my parents a long time ago.  The Lizzy Borden rhyme was one of my favorites growing up.)

[Rani Zemirah]

My daughter has been sung to sleep with, among others, the original version of Jimmy Buffet's A Pirate Looks at Forty since the day she was born... complete with references to living with women, running grass, being drunk for two weeks and pi$$ing away money...

She also knows these alternative words to "Drunken Sailor", and knows the details of what they refer to...

What do you do with a drunken sailor
Put 'im in charge of an Exxon tanker
Drink up boys, we'll make the water
Oily in the morning!!!

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

This is PC gone too far, once again.  For all my years of researching pirates and piracy, it has yet to turn me into a drunken sot or a violent criminal.  I only play one at faire. 

It boils down to this: protect a person from everything, and they will be prepared for NOTHING.

[RumbaRue]

Here is an original song by Steve Palacious written when Disneyland changed the Pirates ride with the men chasing the women, to vice-versa. Written back in the mid 1990's when Michael Eisner was still in charge.


Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life are we
We can't chase the women
We're after the food
Drink up me hearties yo ho
We can't be fierce an now we're just rude!
Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life are we!

Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we
We're allowed only tea
Can't get the good rum
Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we
Shake our fists when we're angry
But can't use a gun
Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we.

Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we
Can't shoot a Spaniard,
Or grab at a wench
Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we
The men stay alive
The girls keep their clothes
Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we.

Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we
A sorry tale
You'll have to agree
Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we
Mr Eisner wants money
So we go P.C.!!
Yo ho yo ho a pathetic pirate's life for we.

[Captain Kilian]

The sad fact is that pirates are just the new big commercialized thing, and as such, nothing is sacred in pursuit of that $$$. Not to say a song, which has been re-invented hundreds of times by the very folks that used it, is scared, but i think its less about being PC and more about tossing more crap at kids as a marketing ploy to get the parents to buy more useless shiner bock.

And of course, you can't offend the parents by first being not PC in the manner in which you do this. I mean look here, we have a children's show with "Captain feather sword" - you you freaking kidding me? Feather sword...wtf kinda pirate it that?

Its not about education, its about ratings, money, and that's it. It not even the romanticized version of pirates, living 'wild and free' on the high seas, its just a dumb icon now.