Follow the Drinking Gourd song

[Laurence Horn]

>I wonder how old and widespread is the folklore motif of a song
>specially composed to impart coded information. (The Thompson Index
>isn't handy at the moment.)
>
>In the late '50s TV series "The Adventures of Robin Hood,"
>Alan-a-Dale the minstrel was a minor character, but ISTR that he
>traveled the countryside singing coded songs to alert the
>beleaguered poor of Robin Hood's intentions.  And then there was the
>seemingly innocent Beatles song announcing when played backwards
>that "Paul Is Dead!" followed by any number of later recordings with
>even scarier messages which could only be understood by the teens
>who "knew the code" (i.e., to play the record backwards, or to bring
>out the background noises).
>
Hey, watch who you're calling a teen!  Some of us "teens" were
pushing 30 at the time.  Or maybe it was 25; the mind was fuzzy
now--and fuzzy then, if for different reasons.

larry,