If you can speak, you can sing!

May 3, 2007 2:42 AM

Hitchhiking songs?

I do a lot of hitchhiking in countries where I don't speak the language fluently. As exhausting as dictionary-aided chatting can be, the people I'm riding with often start singing local songs and ask me to take a turn; this happens particularly often where I am now, in the Tibetan regions of China. Chinese and Tibetan people both love to sing (there's a Tibetan saying: "if you can speak, you can sing; if you can walk, you can dance") and hearing their traditional songs is a great pleasure that I'd like to repay, though I find myself drawing a complete blank when I'm asked to sing something myself.

So, any recommendations? American folk tunes, less-offensive pop music, campfire songs that I'll probably realize I know once my memory is jogged? I'm up for learning to sing anything except "My Heart Will Go On" (something every foreigner travelling in China will be forced to sing in a karaoke bar once, if not a dozen times).

posted by xanthippe to society & culture (26 answers total)

- Take Me Home, Country Road.
- American Pie
- Joni Mitchell's California
- Joe Walsh - Life's been Good
- Uptown Girl
- Beach Boys - Be True to your School
- Rolling Stones - Start Me Up or Ruby Tuesday
- Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
- Like a Rolling Stone
posted by devilsbrigade at 3:06 AM on May 3, 2007

This is more of a "teach a man to fish" sort of answer, but if it's American folk tunes you're looking for, you might want to try to scam a copy of the Harry Smith Anthology from somebody. [info] Also: the recordings of Alan Lomax (or his father, John), and/or the Library of Congress's Folk Music of the United States series.

Happily, a huge swath of (DRM-free!) similar work is available on eMusic: Smithsonian Folkways. Yazoo Records. Music of the National Recording Registry. Go nuts!
posted by mykescipark at 3:09 AM on May 3, 2007

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Let it Be
Your Song

Not all American, but good for a cappella, I think.
posted by moonshine at 3:21 AM on May 3, 2007

Some time honored crowd pleasers, that have brought grins from lots of people I've sung for, in exchange for a ride...

I'm sure they were all grinning at the songs, not the singer!

Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag, and Smile! Smile! Smile!
Over There!
Oh, Susannah!
Daisy Bell
She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain, When She Comes
Casey Jones (Warning: embedded sound file)
John Henry
Yankee Doodle
Chattanooga Choo Choo

Really, the trick with social singing is to sing easy, familiar tunes, and to know more of the "words" than anyone else. People respond well to people that know the words to tunes they've heard before, for some reason.

I remember a car trip from Madrid to Hamburg with 2 Spaniards, who were fascinated with "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and demanded I teach them the lyrics on that car ride. Much giggling from grown men ensued...
posted by paulsc at 5:13 AM on May 3, 2007

Try church hymns, if you know them, and Christmas songs.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:14 AM on May 3, 2007

House of the Rising Sun. Don't ever go anywhere without this song. There is other American roots music. But the House of the Rising Sun has the spirit and power of them all.

After that, roughly grouped by essential American folkiness:

Shenandoah.
Wayfaring Stranger.
Summertime.
Amazing Grace. (Originally British. So what?)
You Are My Sunshine.

(You Got to Walk That) Lonesome Valley.
Wade in the Water.
This Land Is Your Land. Bonus points for learning and singing the more protesty verses.

Blowing in the Wind.
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.
John Henry. On preview, jinx.
(If There's) One More Town (I'll Be Going).
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off.

(Maybe you don't know this one, but) Gypsy Davy. (Classic ballad; I like the recording by Doc Watson and his grandson Richard.)

(Terribly maudlin, but) Seasons in the Sun. (My EFL students know this one! Some Taiwanese boy band covered it. Go figure.)

Across the pond (it's still your culture, just not your land): Hey Jude. Yesterday. My students also seem to like Daniel Powter's song 'Bad Day,' but that's because they have heard the single; without accompaniment it's quite blah.

And I'll second the nominations of Take Me Home, Country Roads and Daisy Bell.
posted by eritain at 5:32 AM on May 3, 2007

The two local flavor songs I remember my grandparents and parents playing and loving all the time were
King of the Road by Roger Miller and Witchita Lineman by Glen Campbell.
posted by iconomy at 6:34 AM on May 3, 2007

Night Rider's Lament.

Rationale: easy to sing without accompaniment; features cowboy yodeling that will evoke US imagery and/or amusement.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 6:35 AM on May 3, 2007

If I Had A Hammer (Lee Hays and Pete Seeger)

And anything by Woody Guthrie
posted by Robert Angelo at 6:51 AM on May 3, 2007

Janis Joplin -- Me and Bobby McGee (warning: depressing, possibly hard to sing)

Anything covered by Peter, Paul, & Mary (several individual songs mentioned previously).

(And King of the Road is an excellent suggestion.)
posted by anaelith at 7:05 AM on May 3, 2007

Anaelith, Me & Bobby McGee is one of my (sadly neglected) favorites. Good ones, everyone; if I can memorize all those lyrics now...
posted by xanthippe at 7:25 AM on May 3, 2007

to me, there's nothing quite like a mournful, heartwrenching roots song - something with a gorgeous melody and lots of emotion.

for that, i'd recommend learning Omie Wise - Doc Watson played it, but it goes back further than that. lyrics and some information are here.

for a rising, everybody get up and sing sort of song, learn down by the riverside. it's got the advantage of repeating words over and over again, so might be easier to each (and sing with!) non english speakers.
posted by entropone at 7:26 AM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

"Old Home Place" Hard to point you to the best version of this. Just about every bluegrass great recorded it at one point or another.

Doc Watson's version of "Summertime"

"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" by Neil Young (a very easy tune to learn and teach)

"They All Asked For You" Traditional, but famously performed by the Meters. This is one of the great group sing-a-long songs EVER.
posted by kosem at 7:31 AM on May 3, 2007

"Sloop John B" by The Beach Boys. Beautiful, easy tune to learn.
posted by kosem at 7:39 AM on May 3, 2007

"Come As You Are" by Nirvana.




(I swear I don't have a gun).
posted by 4ster at 8:38 AM on May 3, 2007

Sweet Hitchhiker - CCR
posted by digiFramph at 8:48 AM on May 3, 2007

After my last suggestion, I should give you a better one so here it is:

"Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles
posted by 4ster at 8:51 AM on May 3, 2007

"Take It Easy" - Jackson Browne
posted by Xurando at 9:11 AM on May 3, 2007

Many TV theme songs, believe it or not, are universal. Years ago, and friend and I were taking the tram up Mt. Titlus in Switzerland. Something (motor? gears?) was making a rhythmic "chunk" noise that reminded me of The Jeffersons theme song. Rather quietly, I sang to my friend "Well, we're movin' on up...to the East Side..." as a joke. I stopped there, but a group sitting near us had started clapping and after I stopped one started gesturing and saying "More!" (Turns out they were a group from Brazil and didn't speak much English.) Somewhat embarrassed, I continued, and to my surprise, they all joined in! After we finished I was laughing at the absurdity of it, but the Brazil guy started calling out to me "More! More!" again. My friend hesitantly started singing the Flintstones theme, and we ended up spending the entire 20-minute ride in a singalong that had almost everyone in the tram clapping and singing along (even the folks that didn't speak English knew the words to the Gilligan's Island theme song.)
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:16 AM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Also: "Ramblin Boy" - Tom Paxton
posted by Xurando at 9:17 AM on May 3, 2007

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:27 AM on May 3, 2007

There's that thing about "the other day/I saw a bear" but you'll need two people who know it to get started (at which point you'll discover that you know slightly different version and you'll need to argue about it) . The Titanic song (surely people still know that one)?

"Oh My Darling Clementine", "Bingo", and maybe the old lady who swallowed a fly....

Check Stephen Foster as well - "Oh Susannah!", "Old Folks at Home", "My Old Kentucky Home", etc should be easy and inoffensive.
posted by dilettante at 10:51 AM on May 3, 2007

Oh, yeah: based on a question the other day, you might try some songs from The Wizard of Oz. (Maybe The Sound of Music, too). You probably know them better than you think.
posted by dilettante at 10:56 AM on May 3, 2007

Since Oriole Adams has brought it up, I'll go ahead and second the TV theme songs. My sister spent a semester in Paris recently, and she said her French friends thought she was just the coolest thing ever because she knew all the words to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme.
posted by natabat at 11:11 AM on May 3, 2007

Foreigners love Home on the Range. Seriously. It really is a pretty song when you just sing it normally instead of in a Wild West accent.

How about Schoolhouse Rock tunes? Some of my favorite road songs. They want to hear an American song? What's more American than the Preamble to the Constitution set to music!

Bye Bye Love

OH, I've got it! The definitive one. Cecilia.
posted by lampoil at 2:04 PM on May 3, 2007

The documentary Riding the Rails had Hobo's Lullaby over the closing credits.
posted by brujita at 9:28 PM on May 3, 2007