Wednesday, October 24, 2012

T-99 : Incessant Melodies

In my quest of counting down from 365 blog posts -- though it's taking me more than a year to complete -- I've finally reached 99.  It doesn't seem like I can pass up this opportunity to pay homage to one of my favorite childhood songs.  Here's the scoop from Wikipedia:
"99 Bottles of Beer" is an anonymous United States folk song dating to the mid-20th century. It is a traditional song in both the United States and Canada. It is popular to sing on long trips, as it has a very repetitive format which is easy to memorize, and can take a long time to sing. In particular the song is frequently sung by children on long bus trips, such as class field trips, or on Scout and/or Girl Guide outings. The song is derived from the English "Ten Green Bottles".
The song's simple lyrics are as follows:[1][2]
Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, Ninety-nine bottles of beer.
Take one down, pass it around, Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall.
Alternate line:
If one of those bottles should happen to fall, Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall.
The same verse is repeated, each time with one bottle less. The song is completed when the singer or singers reach zero. Variations on the last verse following the last bottle going down include lines such as "No more bottles of beer on the wall, no more bottles of beer. Go to the store and buy some more, 99 bottles of beer on the wall." and simply "If that one bottle should happen to fall, what a waste of alcohol!". It takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes to sing all 100 verses.
Sometimes, the word "beer" is replaced by the word "Coke" or "milk" when being sung by groups (such as religious groups) that consider the consumption of alcohol to be inappropriate.
I don't know if I ever recall singing much more than about 10 verses.  How about you?  Would you rather sing the 12 Days of Christmas or The Song That Never Ends?  Or do you have a "favorite" that I'm forgetting?

2 comments:

halothair said...

The Song That Never Ends has to be one of my favorites!

Unknown said...

...it just goes on and on, my friend!