Church Camp Songs

Camp songs

A friend’s son recently went away to summer camp for the first time, and on a recent hike he entertained us by singing camp songs and telling camp stories. I spent many years at camp, both as a camper and a counselor, and my friend wanted to know what songs I had sung at my camp.

“‘If I Had a Hammer,’” I said.

My friend burst out laughing. I had no idea what was so funny. I mean, I can see where the song might seem dated, an earnest relic of the 1970s folk scene. But it seemed like exactly the sort of thing you’d sing at a United Church of Christ youth camp. I tried to remember some of the other songs we sang, but it was a struggle. I listed the ones that came to mind: “‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ ‘They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,’ ‘Rock My Soul.’” And of course I remembered the most popular camp song of all time: “One Tin Soldier.”

Kids absolutely love “One Tin Soldier,” most likely because it tells a vivid story. In fact, the song opens by telling you you’re about to hear a story: “Listen children, to a story that was written long ago/’Bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below/On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone/And the valley people swore they’d have it for their very own.” Then the angry, self-righteous refrain: “Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend./Do it in the name of heaven. You can justify it in the end./There won’t be any trumpets blowin’ come the judgment day/On bloody morning after ONE TIN SOLDIER rides away.”

“One Tin Soldier” is a war song, with the people of the valley demanding the buried treasure, and the wise mountain folk offering to share it. A battle ensues, the mountain people are killed and when the valley people go to claim their treasure, all they find is a message: Peace on Earth.

“One Tin Soldier” is a violent song, and the camp briefly banned it from the songbooks, despite its closing call for a more peaceful world. But a passionate outcry from campers and volunteers brought “One Tin Soldier” back. The real problem with the song, in my mind, was that the campers loved it so much: When I worked at camp, we tried to limit the singing of “One Tin Soldier” to once or twice a week. In any case, you can imagine how delighted I was when I stumbled upon a punk cover of “One Tin Soldier” by the band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

I flipped through my old camp songbook to remember some of the other songs we sang. Songs by a singer-songwriter named Jim Manley were popular (I can’t find any information about this guy on the web — if you know anything about him, send me an email): “The Raggedy Band,” “Dance,” and Spirit.” We also liked “Lord of the Dance,” two songs with fire imagery, “Don’t Let the Light Go Out” and Pass it On,” “Song of the Soul,” and a lovely call and response song called “Hosea.” Another favorite was “On the Loose,” which sums up the UCC camping mindset as well as anything: “On the loose to climb a mountain/on the loose where I am free/on the loose to live my life/the way I think my life should be/I’ll only have a moment/and the whole world left to see/I’ll be searching for tomorrow/on the loose.

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