Um, Matt? "The Eyes of Texas" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" have always had the same tune.

--BGA

I guess my point was really "this song EXISTS" rather than "it's sung to tune X".

Maybe you were thinking of "The Yellow Nose of Texas"? Or maybe "Lemmin' Time" (Oh My Darlin')?

Just a thought. (Coffee, coffee, woof woof!)

Heh, I was just reading this Punch article by Alex Atkinson called "The eyes of Texas are upon you". Sort of a travelogue kinda thing. Very amusing. "Perhaps I can best give you some idea of the extent of Texas if I tell you that it is very considerably smaller than Australia and British Somaliland put together. As things stand at present there is nothing much the Texans can do about this, and I noticed that they are inclined to shy away from the subject in ordinary conversation, muttering defensively about the size of oranges."Lovely.

So everyone knew about this song already? Oh.

...

...

I've only heard it once. So, really, this was very nearly news to me.

After I posted, I realized that the point was the creepiness of the song in general instead of the tune; I first assumed that you were disturbed by the appropriation of a beloved childhood tune. I suppose being American gave me the unfair advantage of having known about the song for years (I think it might have even been mentioned in an Encyclopedia Brown story).

You don't even have to leave the US to give Texans an inferiority complex; I normally just point out that if Alaska were divided in half, it would knock Texas down to the *third* largest state.

--BGA

Hey, long time reader, first time caller (unless I've commented before). I actually am a student at the University of Texas -- "The Eyes of Texas" is the University song.

When I first went to UT to check out the campus, I was pretty sure I didn't want to go there (I grew up in TX, and wanted to get OUT). When we all sang the song in unison, I was frightened that I would "never get away." Turns out...I couldn't (granted, I ended up consciously choosing the school, but still...)

Anyways, as a little bonus about UT, remember last year at Bush's inauguration ball, when Jenna Bush or one of the Bushes did some hand signal and lots of Europeans freaked out because it's the sign of Satan (or something like that) in some European countries (Scandinavian, as I recall). Well, that's actually UT's hand sign.

There is no link between the hand sign and Satan -- ours is supposed to look like a longhorn, our mascot.

Thanks! I think I read that somewhere before. I prefer to believe that the Bush twins are hardcore metal, though.