Ging Gang Goolie or Ging Gang Gooli is a
gibberish scouting song, said to be written by Robert Baden-Powell during the
1st World Scout Jamboree. It is popular among the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.
Origin
During the Second Boer War, Baden Powell
listened to songs in African languages. The nonsense lyrics of "Ging Gang
Goolie" might have been inspired by these songs. Baden-Powell is said to
have written this song during the 1st World Scout Jamboree in 1920. The song
used gibberish to ensure that children from different countries could sing the
song irrespective of what their mother tongue is. The tune is based on an
extract from Mozart's Symphony No.1, composed when he was eight years old.
Dorothy Unterschutz, a Canadian Scout
Leader from Edmonton , later invented a story as an explanation for the song's lyrics.
The story "The Great Grey Ghost Elephant" was published in Scouts
Canada's "The Leader" magazine in 1991 (June–July issue, Page 7). The
story talks of a "Great Grey Ghost Elephant", who wanders in the
African lands every year, after the rains. The villagers believed that if it
went round their village, the village would have a prosperous year, and if it
went through it, there would be drought. The elephant had been going through
the village of Wat-Cha for the past three years, and therefore the villagers decided to
come up with a plan to deter it from entering their village. It was decided
that the village leader Ging-Gang and his men would frighten the elephant by
standing in its path and shaking their shields and spears. The medicine man
Shayla and his men would cast magic spells, and frighten the elephant by
producing the "Shally wally" sound by shaking their magical
equipment. When the elephant arrived, the villagers gathered started shouting
the names of their leaders. They were successful in their plan, and the
elephant went around the village, making the sound "Oompah, oompah".
The villagers celebrated by singing the song "Ging Gang…". Around the
campfire the scouts can be divided into section and the song is sung in rounds.
It makes for a tremendous rousing experience.
The lyrics of the
song are as follows:
Ging gang goolie goolie
goolie goolie watcha,
Ging gang goo, ging gang
goo.
Ging gang goolie goolie
goolie goolie watcha,
Ging gang goo, ging gang
goo.
Hayla,
hayla shayla, hayla shayla, shayla, oh-ho,
Hayla,
hayla shayla, hayla shayla, shayla, oh.
Shally wally,
shally wally, shally wally, shally wally
Oompah, oompah,
oompah, oompah
Parodies
Dutch
German
The tune is based on Mozart's Symphony No. 1 - I. Molto allegro
Dutch
The tune is based on Mozart's Symphony No. 1 - I. Molto allegro
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