I always wondered what a “shamenno” was, too.

arJ — While you’re teaching your kids that they don’t have to save their allowance to buy that shalmannow, tell ‘em not to worry that their snugly-and-tight-folded hands are “too small” and that they won’t grow third and fourth legs (feet) in order to get called on missions. Poor body image!

I was a religious little girl, getting up and trudging off to whatever church was closest to our house on Sunday, often shoeless and uncombed (isn’t that just so sad? You guys can send me presents if you feel sorry enough for me).

Sometimes we had “church” at our house. I was the oldest, so I could force my sisters to participate. The only song we knew was Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam. I was the minister and the chorister.

One time we had a funeral for a rattlesnake my dad killed (that’s a good story). We were properly somber and mournful.

The song I remember loving the most is The Old Rugged Cross. I learned it at an evangelical church I attended in Goldfield, Nevada. I loved that song.

danithew has pointed out to me that mp3s of all the primary songs are available at this website. You can all search for the shalmannow online! Actually, listening to the song, it seems that the music really contributes to the misunderstanding. Most of the words in the song have distinct breaks in the music between them, and then there is the shalmannow part that comes across as hurried and slurred, or as just another single word.

To help out the non-reading children in the Primary of my childhood, our ward had cue cards written with the lyrics, including pictures for some of the words. An example: for the lyrics ‘With parents kind and dear…’, a picture of a DEER was put in place of the word DEAR on the cue card. To this day, that song makes me think of Bambi.

Not a primary song, but when I first learned the alphabet song I was sure it went like this,

…h, i, j, k, elemeno, p…

Anna,

I nearly added that one to the list, for exactly the reasons you mention. I have never seen a meadow of clover. My brother has a video of his daughter singing that song to a tune all her own, which always gets a laugh.

I actually found a person who did her Master’s thesis on the evolution of Primary songs. I was so inspired, I went on Ebay and bought copies of the two previous editions of the children’s songbook (which had a different name each time.) Most of the things people are complaining about above are either intentional diversions from previous practices (there are far fewer complex metaphors in the older books,) or things that Primary workers are specifically told not to do (I hear or read “don’t use non-literal or nonsensical rhebuses” messages at least a few times a year.) I can’t find the website I got it from, and the .pdf was HUGE - she interviewed kids and parents to find out what their favorite songs were, charting which ones chose which songs (the little kids preferred “Sunbeam,” the older ones liked “Scripture Power.”) The author isn’t LDS, but if I recall correctly, her husband was raised in the Church.

I didn’t attend Primary very much when I was a kid, but I’ve found myself, as a CTR-8 teacher, giving the kids vocabulary reviews and flat-out using spare lessons to talk about what the songs actually mean. Last year there was so much difficult vocabulary I made my class a booklet, with the words to the songs in the beginning and a kid-friendly glossary in the back. This year’s songs are more familiar, and frankly easier, so I haven’t bothered with the booklets.

I honestly think the best thing for kids, when it comes to the hymns/children’s songs, is to try to get them to read as soon as possible. Poetry and songs are almost invariably nonsense until I’ve read them, even today. On the other hand, I enjoy all kinds of songs I’d probably have to hate if only I knew the lyrics, so…

Re: I Hope They Call Me on a Mission,

I was confused by the way I heard the next line: “…when I have grown a footer, too.” (And, no, I was too young to think of it in that way)

The other song I remember is “The Still Small Voice” (link). The music and the words (eg. “…the evil I may see.”) creeped me out like a Halloween haunted house.

I was never really confused by the primary music, but I found some of the adult songs baffling.

In the pre-1985 hymn book, the hymn “How Firm a Foundation” used to go, “You, who unto Jesus”, which sounded like “Yoo-hoo unto Jesus,” as though the congregation were calling at Christ from across a grocery store.

Moreover, I always wondered who this Judea was who owned all the planes, and why they were full of shepherds singing praises to Jesus.

Also, in the hymn “Ere you left your room this morning,” I thought that “Ere” was a noun of direct address. So that it was this song about this guy, and it was saying, “Hey Ere. You left your room this morning. Did you think to pray?” This struck me as a bit abrasive, and I felt bad for Ere.

Lastly, here’s one that doesn’t have anything to do with misinterpreted lyrics, but it’s definitely the worst hymn gaffe of all time: the pre-1985 hymn book has the 1st three verses of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” in the music, and the last two following the music. It is not the tradition to sing the “extra” verses that follow the music, which meant that when singing “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” wards would very frequently end on the third verse. Normally this would be fine, but the third verse of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” goes like this:

And in despair I bowed my head. “There is no peace on Earth,” I said. For hate is strong and mocks the song of “Peace on Earth, good will to men.”

Kind of a downer.

Anyway, when I was young, we actually sang this song (the first three verses, anyway) as the closing song in sacrament meeting, after which, we went home. I remember thinking, “Wow. That’s intense.”

You’ll notice that in the post-1985 hymn book “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is the only hymn in the hymn book where there are 5 verses shown in the music. In every other 5 verse him, 3 verses are in the music, and 2 verses follow the music. Every other song with all the lyrics in the music is 1, 2, 3, or 4 verses long.

Around here, Popcorn Popping is a source of some contention. For decades, it has been sung, “Popcorn Popping on the Dogwood Tree.” That’s because we have dogwoods, not apricots. I think the current songbook even specifies that these words should be altered for local botany.

Some folks from Utah resent this. They resist the change even when it is explained to them, or they complain about the lost culture their poor child is experiencing.

Too bad. They chose to move to Rome, and when in Rome….

For all that, this past spring my family went to Utah for spring break, and my children were amazed at the flowering apricot trees, which they think look much more like popcorn than dogwoods ever do:)

Sarah,

Wow. If you could find that I’d be extremely interested. I did some quick googling and only ended up finding a thesis on the history of the MoTab Choir and how it was begun to use more secular music.

Speaking of “Popcorn Popping”, after a lifetime of singing it the wrong way, I just found out the other day that the second verse does _not_ go “popcorn popping right before my eyes”, but “BLOSSOMS popping right before my eyes”. Go figure.

The primary song I remember the most is Book Of Mormon Stories. I remember this song because of the actions. “Are about the Lamenites” at this point we’d put our fingers behind our heads like Indians. Do they still do this? I also remember everyone crossing their arms as hard as they could during “Given this land if they live RIGHTEOUSLY.” We’d get in trouble for hitting ourselves too hard. It seems to my that for the most part primary songs are to keep kids entertained. There are the simple ones that teach lessons, but for the most part, what else would we do with all those little kids for 2 hours?

I have to say that I really liked I Often Go Walking. I remember singing it on Mother’s Days. My mom loves flowers so I seriously always thougth of her during that song.

It’s pretty funny to me that while reading through these comments I had my own memory about all of these songs. I can really remember what I used to think about when I was singing them. Maybe that’s why we sing them? When we’re older we can remember some of what it felt like to be a child.

ARJ, I wouldn’t worry too much if you didn’t understand all the deep meaning of the songs, and I wouldn’t stress too much explaining them to your kids, but I think talking about them is fine. It’s fun to hear what kids have to say about songs.

One more thing, I miss primary songs because that was the only time in my life I allowed myself to sing loud. I wasn’t aware then of my lack of musical ability. Now, I whisper the words to the songs because I know my sining is pretty offensive!

arJ, may I immodestly suggest that my Dialogue article on Primary songs (Fall ‘04) is a pretty good primer (and possibly a more fun read than a masters’thesis) on the history of Primary songs?

I laughed so hard that I cried. Never having been in Primary myself, it’s hilarious to read what my own kids might someday think about the songs we sing.

26 and 27, my sister-in-law and I had a fight (a REAL fight) about “blossoms popping.” She sang the song incorrectly while on a road trip and when I corrected her, she was offended. She maintained that since SHE was raised in the church and I was not, she was correct. I maintained that since I was the one of us who had been active as an adult (and having always served in Primary), I was correct. Good times.

As for the feathers behind the head, it’s how my kids were taught to sing the song by my mother-in-law and I can’t remember seeing anything different in my Primary experiences as an adult.

“I Am a Child of God”, as I recall, never gave me any trouble until it reached the line, “Teach me all that I must do”, which, and tell me it doesn’t sound like this, I naturally always thought was “Teach me all that I’m a stew”. I was a rational enough child to know what a stew was, and that I was not one, and also that the word “all” seemed extraneous, but I never asked for any explanation.

I did learn a lesson from the song “Revently, Quietly”, but it wasn’t about being reverent. I learned not to be too judgmental of others. It’s true. I thought we were singing about the man who lived next-door to me, whose first name was Lee, and who didn’t come to church very often like we “normal” people did. So when we sang “Reverent Lee, Quiet Lee, lovingly we think of Lee”, I thought, “Well, I must have been wrong about Lee. He’s apparently much more pious than I realized, if we’re dedicating a whole song to him.” OK, I didn’t verbalize it quite that way in my head at that time, but you get the idea.

It dawned on me yesterday, before finding this website that pounding, into a child’s head, repeatedly, “FOLLOW THE PROPHET” with a catchy rythmn kind works like brainwashing??? Am I crazy? LIke I always told my bishop, when asked if I follow the prophet, “sure, as long as he does what is right” Am I crazy?

When I was young and in Primary, I always wondered why we were singing about naughty pretty flower…”In my pretty garden, the flowers are ‘naughty’. It wasn’t until I was teaching the songs in Primary as an adult that I realized that the flowers were nodding, not naughty. I made sure I taught the primary children the difference so that they wouldn’t grow up so bothered by that double standard as I was!