It took me years to find the lyrics to the Oleanna song I learned in elementary school in Los Angeles. Wanted to find it because I couldn’t remember the first verse just the last 3. Anyhow, I think it’s the version you learned in San Diego.
Chorus: Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole Ole, Ole, Ole, Oleana O that is where I’d like to be There where the land is free Wheat and corn they grow so high The tassels dusting off the sky
Chorus The hens lay eggs as big as rocks Roosters crow like eight-day clocks Roasted pigs run all about With knives and forks stuck in their snouts
Chorus The salmon leap so high up there Hold your kettle in the air They’ll jump in, pull on the lid And cook themselves to look like squid
Chorus O come and bring your fiddle Dance to the middle Ole with his violin Will help us make a merry din
Note: This song was originally Norwegian.
Maybe after 24 years you will find Oleana peace.
FYI: The chorus here is slightly different from what I was taught. But, hey, the verses are the same. Woohoo!
I never heard of Oleana, but the sentiment – about a land where the good livin’ in free – dates back before “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”. You can see it in the painting (and engraving) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder The Land of Cockaigne(1567). In the background on the right you can see a pig with a knife stuck through its flesh (no fork, and not in the snout), and with a big chunk taken out of its back. In the foreground, though, an eggshell wanders by on a pair of legs with a fork in it. To the left of the pig a bird obligingly lays down on a plate to be eaten. In the left background a knight in a structure with pancakes on the roof accepts a goose flying into his mouth (not clearly visible in the painting, but it is in the engraving)
It was a poke at the utopianism intended to entice people to move to North America. Cf. misrepresentations such as “Greenland” (so very not green) and pitches to US east coast folks to go homestead with the promise of rich land.
ETA: I know it from Pete Seeger, hence I learned it with the verse extolling the beer.
