Thread: Tell me this isn't 'Auld Lang Syne'!

I started listening to that and thought "You know, that's kind of catchy. I kind of like it......... um.........it sort of sounds like Scottish bagpipes.......wait a sec, do I know this?........WTH???"

I like the overall concept though and could see my troupe parking the two kids who dance with us in center stage with some fake flutes or pipes. One adult dancer under a veil in front of them who starts moving when the music (whatever we picked; not 'Auld Lang Syne'!) starts. Other dancers enter the stage and sashay around us, and at some point the "snake" under the veil is revealed and after a few serpentine moves joins the dance.

I was poking around looking for that old, classic, "Ali Baba" tune that we all heard as kids. "Na na na na na, na na nanananana" to use in something upbeat and humorous. Like this song, so if any of you can tell me where to find that or other versions I'm all ears:


Don't think I'll go with 'Auld Lang Syne" though!

Wow. Really cool, but I'm baffled as to why they're playing Auld Lang Syne.

Wikipedia to the rescue! Auld Lang Syne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The song is played at the Passing Out Parade of Young Officers in the Royal Navy as they march up the steps of the Britannia Royal Naval College [...]. This custom is also followed in [...] the National Defence Academy (India),[17] the Indian Military Academy, the Officers Training Academy(India), the Pakistan Military Academy, and at the equivalent colleges in Burma and Nigeria.
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In India and Bangladesh, the melody was the direct inspiration for the popular Bengali song "Purano shei diner kotha" (Memories of the Good Old Days) composed by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and forms one of the more recognisable tunes in Rabindra Sangeet (Rabindra's Songs), a body of work of 2,230 songs and lyrical poems that form the backbone of Bengali music.

In other words, the sun didn't sit on the British Empire, and snakes apparently have strange taste in music.

Originally Posted by Darbla

I was poking around looking for that old, classic, "Ali Baba" tune that we all heard as kids. "Na na na na na, na na nanananana" to use in something upbeat and humorous. Like this song, so if any of you can tell me where to find that or other versions I'm all ears:

I think this is actually a different song that just sounds a bit like it. AFAIK, the question of how those notes made their way into a Western song has not been definitively answered, but there are Indian and Arabic musical structures that sound similar enough that someone could have subconsciously or on purpose borrowed them. In terms of versions of the song, the best one I know of is on the out-of-print Oasis CD "Evolution." There may still be a few vendors selling it or another dancer who would sell you their copy if you poke around.

Too cool. The education we get just because we are bellydancers.

Still don't think I could convince my American audience I'm not dancing to 'Auld Lang Syne' because I didn't know better, but that is a great tidbit to know.