Hokey Cokey Controversy has sinister Canadian drug links

[CanadianGer 1]

Despite the rabid whining of elected officials and senior members of the Catholic Church about the hokey cokey, it turns out the song was not invented as a way to spread hatred of the papacy but as a fun song to cheer people up. Shocking! There we all were thinking that 'knees bend, arm stretch' was a reference to the way priests speak to altar boys but in actual fact, it was just a silly song from a party.

However, I hope the MSP and the Catholic Church will strongly condemn the drug influenced chorus. References to the drugs miners took to avoid boredom, indeed. Disgraceful. Although I'm not sure if priests know much about illicit activities with minors miners.

It’s a musical staple of nursery schools and seniors’ fitness classes throughout the English-speaking world.

But The Hokey Pokey - the right-hand-in, right-hand-out ditty that sparked a 1950s dance craze - has become the focus of a bizarre controversy in Britain that has drawn in politicians, the Catholic Church in Scotland and soccer fans accused of exploiting the song’s alleged anti-Catholic roots to taunt opposing teams.

Now, the son of the famed Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy - the man credited with penning the lyrics to one of the world’s most familiar melodies - has weighed in to the furor by revealing what he calls the true inspiration for his father’s hit: a traditional Canadian folk tune sung by miners in the early 20th century as a drug anthem celebrating the therapeutic powers of cocaine.

The song is known in Britain as The Hokey Cokey, and was originally published by Kennedy during the Second World War as The Cokey Cokey before various U.S. recordings of The Hokey Pokey gave the song and its accompanying movements global popularity.

In December, the song sparked an uproar in Scotland when fans of the Glasgow Rangers soccer team were accused of planning to sing it to insult rival Glasgow Celtic, a club with Catholic roots. A Catholic Church spokesman warned that The Hokey Cokey had centuries-old origins as a Protestant song meant to mock the words and actions of Catholic clergy presiding over the Latin mass.

“This song does have quite disturbing origins. Although apparently innocuous, it was devised as an attack on and a parody of the Catholic mass,” Peter Kearney, a spokesman for Scottish Catholic Cardinal Keith O’Brien, said at the time.

He added that soccer authorities should monitor the situation to assess “if there are moves to restore its more malevolent meaning.”

Michael Matheson, a Nationalist member of the Scottish Parliament, also issued a warning about The Hokey Cokey in December: “It is important that the police and football clubs are aware of the sinister background to this song, and take the appropriate action against individuals and groups who use it at matches or in other situations to taunt Catholics.”

But that suggestion was quickly panned by Murdo Fraser, deputy leader of the Scottish Tories: “I can’t believe Scottish children performing the Hokey Cokey are doing so in pursuit of any sort of anti-Catholic agenda,” he told reporters.

For weeks, allegations of historical bigotry behind The Hokey Pokey have been the focus of a lively debate in the letters pages and websites of British newspapers.

Now, in a letter published Tuesday in the Financial Times newspaper, Jimmy Kennedy Jr. has written that the version created by his late father - the renowned Teddy Bears’ Picnic lyricist, who died in 1984 - “was founded on a traditional Canadian song and is the one copyrighted and played and danced to all over the world - and still earns royalties.”

Kennedy Jr. then quoted his father’s own recollections about how the future children’s classic emerged from a 1942 gathering at a London nightclub where Canadian soldiers stationed in Britain were enjoying a riotous party.

“They were having a hilarious time, singing and playing games, one of which they said was a Canadian children’s game called The Cokey Cokey. I thought to myself, wouldn’t that be fun as a dance to cheer people up! So when I got back to my hotel, I wrote a chorus based on the feet and hand movements the Canadians had used, with a few adaptations. A few days later, I wrote additional lyrics to it but kept the title, Cokey Cokey, and, as everybody knows, it became a big hit.”

Kennedy Jr. said his father told him “the unusual title was to do with drugs taken by the miners in Canada to cheer themselves up in the harsh environment where they were prospecting.”

And Kennedy Jr. said his father even wrote a message about the song’s unsavoury Canadian genesis on the back of the sheet music: “The word ‘cokey’ means a dope-fiend.”

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Canada+Hoke...2503/story.html

[Canadaready 9,437]

LOL

[mark_ni 12]

PMSL makes the catholic church look even dumber than it already did.

[djness 0]

Knees bent, arms stretched.

raa raa raa

Ooooooh Hokey Cokey cokey........

[djness 0]

Mark, in reply to your post.

What make the Tims Faith 'even more silly' is to read the bible my friend!

I'll give you a starter for 10: the bible explains thou shall not bow to statues/figures etc.

On this vein I give you them silly Timothy's blessing themselves infront of the V Mary.

*taken that too far?*

dj.

[mark_ni 12]

Mark, in reply to your post.

What make the Tims Faith 'even more silly' is to read the bible my friend!

I'll give you a starter for 10: the bible explains thou shall not bow to statues/figures etc.

On this vein I give you them silly Timothy's blessing themselves infront of the V Mary.

*taken that too far?*

dj.

quite correct. Its amazing that a so called "christian" religion teaches so many things that A) arent in the bible and B) go totally against whats written in the bible.

[Guest Andypendek]

There was a thing in the papers here a week or so ago in which the son of a music hall star around about the time of the war (I think) claimed his Dad wrote it, partly being inspired by Italian ice-cream sellers and their 'okey-dokey' cry.

[djness 0]

Hmmm? Italian you say. That'd tie in with the anti-catholic theme yon fud of an MP tried to create.

Ha ha ha, honestly sometime I think of spiking their holy water with 'common sense'.

[Carsons Dog 9,878]

Mark, in reply to your post.

What make the Tims Faith 'even more silly' is to read the bible my friend!

I'll give you a starter for 10: the bible explains thou shall not bow to statues/figures etc.

On this vein I give you them silly Timothy's blessing themselves infront of the V Mary.

*taken that too far?*

dj.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I The Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My Commandments" (Exodus 20:4-6 KJV)

[Guest Andypendek]

Too much vengeance in there for me to follow that road.

[delparlane 5,692]

Mark, in reply to your post.

What make the Tims Faith 'even more silly' is to read the bible my friend!

I'll give you a starter for 10: the bible explains thou shall not bow to statues/figures etc.

On this vein I give you them silly Timothy's blessing themselves infront of the V Mary.

*taken that too far?*

dj.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I The Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My Commandments" (Exodus 20:4-6 KJV)

What a killjoy.

[delparlane 5,692]

There was a thing in the papers here a week or so ago in which the son of a music hall star around about the time of the war (I think) claimed his Dad wrote it, partly being inspired by Italian ice-cream sellers and their 'okey-dokey' cry.

Seems every nyaff on the planet is now taking credit penning that ditty, no?

[slimjim1690 4,534]

There was a thing in the papers here a week or so ago in which the son of a music hall star around about the time of the war (I think) claimed his Dad wrote it, partly being inspired by Italian ice-cream sellers and their 'okey-dokey' cry.

Seems every nyaff on the planet is now taking credit penning that ditty, no?

I can catagorically state that I am responsible for the creation of this little ditty, twas penned to celibrate the birth of my twin sons Hokey&Cokey.

[CanadianGer 1]

There was a thing in the papers here a week or so ago in which the son of a music hall star around about the time of the war (I think) claimed his Dad wrote it, partly being inspired by Italian ice-cream sellers and their 'okey-dokey' cry.

Seems every nyaff on the planet is now taking credit penning that ditty, no?

I can catagorically state that I am responsible for the creation of this little ditty, twas penned to celibrate the birth of my twin sons Hokey&Cokey.

what were you putting in and out to get the idea for the song?

[delparlane 5,692]

There was a thing in the papers here a week or so ago in which the son of a music hall star around about the time of the war (I think) claimed his Dad wrote it, partly being inspired by Italian ice-cream sellers and their 'okey-dokey' cry.

Seems every nyaff on the planet is now taking credit penning that ditty, no?

I can catagorically state that I am responsible for the creation of this little ditty, twas penned to celibrate the birth of my twin sons Hokey&Cokey.

Hope you're getting the royalty cheques, m8!