In certain Antipodean choral groups - those belonging to the mysterious organisation "AICSA" - I learned of a well established birthday tradition. A harmonious and varied rendition of the conventional "Happy Birthday" will be swiftly followed by a rather different "Happy Birthday", generally led off by the bass section. This version is sung to a bastardised version of the tune of "The Volga Boatmen" punctuated with a regular thump of feet, with dozens of verses passed on by oral tradition. The first verse is always the same, and there are a handful of well established verses that are almost always sung for verses two through six. Generally, no more than 8 or 10 verses are sung before the song peters out into people trying to remember the rather clever verse they heard the other year, and the birthday celebrant escapes.
I have since learned that this birthday tradition is well established in other groups (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/birthday-dirge-faq/), and has been around since at least the early 80s. Given the amount of crossover between choristers, SF fandom and the SCA, I am not surprised this particular meme has spread.
I should note, though, that the invarying first verse in the AICSA version is: Happy Birthday, *thud* Happy Birthday, *thud* Death, destruction and despair, People dying everywhere, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-16 10:34 pm (UTC)In certain Antipodean choral groups - those belonging to the mysterious organisation "AICSA" - I learned of a well established birthday tradition.
A harmonious and varied rendition of the conventional "Happy Birthday" will be swiftly followed by a rather different "Happy Birthday", generally led off by the bass section.
This version is sung to a bastardised version of the tune of "The Volga Boatmen" punctuated with a regular thump of feet, with dozens of verses passed on by oral tradition. The first verse is always the same, and there are a handful of well established verses that are almost always sung for verses two through six. Generally, no more than 8 or 10 verses are sung before the song peters out into people trying to remember the rather clever verse they heard the other year, and the birthday celebrant escapes.
I have since learned that this birthday tradition is well established in other groups (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/birthday-dirge-faq/), and has been around since at least the early 80s. Given the amount of crossover between choristers, SF fandom and the SCA, I am not surprised this particular meme has spread.
I should note, though, that the invarying first verse in the AICSA version is:
Happy Birthday, *thud*
Happy Birthday, *thud*
Death, destruction and despair,
People dying everywhere,
Happy Birthday,
Happy Birthday,
... etc
Happy birthday, basement cat.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-17 12:04 am (UTC)(Slightly different)