It was definitely a Scout song from at least the early 1940s, using “ears.” I can find this in a newspaper from 1945.
If anyone can find an earlier cite showing any other version, please post it. I doubt if you can.
do your chain hang low
When I was a kid it was tits. And it was a regimental soldier.
Since this is GQ, the straight answer to the OP is that the “real lyrics” are:
http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/turkeyinthestraw.htm
No fun in that though.
+1
Do your boobs hang low
Can you tie 'em in a bow
(There was more but I don’t recall the rest)
Is that the song you wanted to link?
I’ve also heard that Do Your Ears Hang Low = Turkey In The Straw. I guess those people must have different tunes, because they don’t sound anything alike to me.
I think it’s the refrain part.
ETA man that guy’s a good trumpet player!
That song didn’t contain anything with the phrase hang low.
Everybody got your cigarette lighters ready?
When we sang this in the army all those yeas ago, it definitely was balls. Looking at the link to the lyrics, I notice it omitted a second verse we sang:
Is your cock in line, with the center of your spine,
Is it long, is it short, is it little like mine?
Do your balls hang low?
People are assuming that a song about testicles was converted to a silly children’s song? (“I know, let’s teach Timmy and Jane that ‘balls’ song, but we’d better substitue, I dunno, ears for balls.”) Doesn’t it seem more likely that people took a silly children’s song and gave it the “dirty” lyrics it was crying out for? I always assumed that that was the origin of the “tits” version I’ve heard.
Good observation! Almost certainly it went from “children’s song-ears” to all the other “dirty” versions.
…can you tie them in a knot? can you tie them in a bow?..:eek:
Am I wrong to take “continental soldier” as suggesting a British origin? Brits use “continental” to refer to continental Europe as opposed to insular Britain. We Americans don’t do that so much (“continental breakfast” doesn’t really count).
Yup, “Turkey In The Straw” is the source of the tune.
+2, that won’t keep me from linking to the commercial for Hanes briefs.
In that case please point me to the line saying hang low. I’m serious. I can’t find it.
Yeah, that seems pretty plausible to me: Daddy comes home from the war where he heard the “balls” version, and his kid asks him what that song is he’s humming. “Oh, it’s ‘Do your… um… ears hang low’.”
EDIT: Turkey in the Straw has a very similar (though not quite the same) tune, not similar lyrics. It doesn’t say anything about anything hanging low.
No, I don’t think so. Think “Continental Congress” and “Continental Army” - referring to the continent of North America.