The Eton Boating Song is the best known of the school songs associated with Eton College that are sung at the end of year concert and on other important occasions. Eton College, or just Eton, is a world-famous British Independent school for boys founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. It is also played during the procession of boats. The words of the song were written by William Johnson Cory, an influential Master at the school. William Johnson Cory (1823 - 1892 born William Johnson was a talented educator and Poet, born at Torrington, and educated at Eton, where he was afterwards The melody was composed by an Old Etonian and former pupil of Cory, Capt. Algernon Drummond and transcribed by T. L. Mitchell-Innes. The piano accompaniment was written by Evelyn Wodehouse. [1] It was first performed on 4 June 1863. Events 781 BC - The first historic Solar eclipse is recorded in China. Year 1863 ( MDCCCLXIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Contrary to popular belief however, it is not the school song, that being Carmen Etonense. Carmen Etonense is the School song of Eton College. It is sung in Latin at the end of each year in the school concert
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Lyrics
Ordinarily only the first, sixth, seventh and eighth stanzas are sung (as shown here):
- 1.
- Jolly boating weather,
- And a hay harvest breeze,
- Blade on the feather,
- Shade off the trees,
- Swing swing together,
- With your bodies between your knees,
- Swing swing together,
- With your bodies between your knees.
- 2.
- Rugby may be more clever,
- Harrow may make more row,
- But we'll row for ever,
- Steady from stroke to bow,
- And nothing in life shall sever,
- The chain that is round us now,
- And nothing in life shall sever,
- The chain that is round us now.
- 3.
- Others will fill our places,
- Dressed in the old light blue,
- We'll recollect our races,
- We'll to the flag be true,
- And youth will be still in our faces,
- When we cheer for an Eton crew,
- And youth will be still in our faces,
- When we cheer for an Eton crew.
- 4.
- Twenty years hence this weather,
- May tempt us from office stools,
- We may be slow on the feather,
- And seem to the boys old fools,
- But we'll still swing together,
- And swear by the best of schools,
- But we'll still swing together,
- And swear by the best of schools.
Cachet
The traditional status of Eton as the training grounds for Britain's wealthy elite endowed the song with a peculiar cultural cachet. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located For instance, writer George Orwell, an Old Etonian himself, wrote in his famous autobiographical essay 'Such, Such Were the Joys' that:
- From the whole decade before 1914 there seems to breathe forth a smell of the more vulgar, un-grown-up kind of luxury, a smell of brilliantine and crème-de-menthe and soft-centred chocolates — an atmosphere, as it were, of eating everlasting strawberry ices on green lawns to the tune of the Eton Boating Song. Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950 who used the Pseudonym George Orwell, was an English writer "Such Such Were the Joys" is a long autobiographical Essay by English writer George Orwell, written in the 1940's but not published
Other uses
In 1939 the tune (at a higher than usual tempo) was used as the theme for the film A Yank at Eton. A Yank at Eton was the 1942 sequel to the 1938 A Yank at Oxford. In the 1960s, the tune was adopted by Coventry City as their club anthem. Coventry City Football Club, otherwise known as the Sky Blues owing to the traditional colour of their strip is an association football club based in Coventry, The lyrics were rewritten by Jimmy Hill and Derrick Robbins in order to be relevant to the club, and the song is still regularly sung by City fans today. James William Thomas "Jimmy" Hill OBE (born 22 July 1928 is an English football personality In an interview on Bravo, Hugh Laurie, a graduate from Eton sang, with great embarrassment, the first verse of the Eton Boating Song. James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE (born June 11, 1959) is an English Actor, Comedian, Writer and Musician He also dryly commented on the homoeroticism of the phrase 'With your bodies between your knees. '[1]
See also
References
- ^ British Library Catalogue
"A. Eton College, or just Eton, is a world-famous British Independent school for boys founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. D. E. W. " The Eton Boating Song London: Robert W. Ollivier 1878 & J Roberts & Co 1920. Both 9 pp folio.
External links
- The Eton Boating Song Eton College
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