We All Got a Place in the Choir

/ Garrulous Gwendoline

Line Dance: All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir

I must confess to not doing much exercise these days. It’s not as if my little peepers fly open in the morning and I am filled with the urge to spring out of bed and walk / swim / gym / bicycle (actually, I can’t even do that last one). In fact, I can only remember one occasion when my little peepers flew open, and that was about fifty years ago. My morning routine consists of dragging myself out of dreams – I go a long way away in my sleep – and staggering to my favourite armchair, where Bill brings me a cup of coffee because I can’t be trusted with boiling water at this stage, then, after some time of Wordle, News and Facebook, I can string an entire sentence together. It’s about then my day gets started, but the process can take up to an hour.

Except Mondays. Mondays I line dance. I’ve been line dancing for about ten years and can confidently say my proficiency is steadily dropping. The thing is, the moment you think you remember the steps, your mind wanders, and suddenly you have turned in the wrong direction and are facing the rest of the class (I’m always in the last row. Remember in school? That was where the naughty kids sat).

Anyway, there I was this morning, dancing to one of my favourite music pieces, and my mind well and truly wandered (but this time my feet were on auto pilot). And what was the piece? All God’s Creatures Have a Place in the Choir. And what was I thinking of? Why – my fellow bloggers of course.

There was Paol Soren (aka John) whose tales of inclusion keep us all entranced. Charlotte Hoather, our beloved up-and-coming opera singer, whom I sure would have loved to sing this song when performing for her neighbours and their children from her balcony during Covid lockdown, Derrick Knight whose gorgeous great-granddaughter Ellie (a namesake and doppleganger of my own of the same age) is learning the magic of song and dance, Little Miss Traveller, Marion, who recently visited Australia and saw two Echidnas! (like a porcupine). Look, the list could go on. So at the top of this post, I have attached a video, which I hope will play for you, which shows the steps we dance. It goes on, and on, (have pity on me dancing), so feel free to bail out when you’ve seen enough. If it won’t play, try looking on Youtube for “Paddy’s Choir (Line Dance)”.

And here are the lyrics.

All God’s creatures got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher,
Some sing out loud on the telephone wires,
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they
Got now

repeat

Listen to the top where the little birds sing
On the melodies with the high notes ringing,
The hoot owl hollers over everything
And the blackbird disagrees.

Singin’ in the night time, singing in the day,
The little duck quacks, then he’s on his way.
And the otter hasn’t got much to say
And the porcupine, well he talks to himself

Chorus

Dogs and the cats they take up the middle
While the honeybee hums and the cricket fiddles,
The donkey brays and the pony neighs
And the old grey badger sighs.

Listen to the bass, it’s the one on the bottom
Where the bullfrog croaks and the hippopotamus
Moans and groans with a big t’do
And the old cow just goes moo.

Chorus

It’s a simple song of living sung everywhere
By the ox and the fox and the grizzly gear,
The dopey alligator and the the hawk above,
The sly old weasel and the turtle dove.

Chorus

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat

Listen to the top where the little birds sing
On the melodies with the high notes ringing,
The hoot owl hollers over everything
And the blackbird disagrees.

Singin’ in the night time, singing in the day,
The little duck quacks, then he’s on his way.
And the otter hasn’t got much to say
And the porcupine talks to himself

Chorus

Dogs and the cats they take up the middle
While the honeybee hums and the cricket fiddles,
The donkey brays and the pony neighs
And the old grey badger sighs.

Listen to the bass, it’s the one on the bottom
Where the bullfrog croaks and the hippopotamus
Moans and groans with a big t’do
And the old cow just goes moo.

Chorus

It’s a simple song of living sung everywhere
By the ox and the fox and the grizzly gear,
The dopey alligator and the the hawk above,
The sly old weasel and the turtle dove.

Chorus

Repeat

All God’s creatures got a place in the choir

Songwriters: Bill Staines, Janet Wheeler. For non-commercial use only.

38 thoughts on “We All Got a Place in the Choir”

  2. Hah, this is cute and so is your storytelling! But LINE DANCING! Wow, that is so ambitious. No way could I remember the choreography. It was hard for me at 40 and 45 when I did jazz dancing to remember the choreography. To remember it I used to inadvertently hang my tongue out of my mouth and my kids would laugh.

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    • Naughty spam captured this comment and I only just found it. Yes! Remembering the choreography is one of the “good” things about line dancing as it exercises the brain. But just to be sure, our leader usually does a quick recap before each number; and usually, as soon as the music starts, there is a collective “ahhhh, THAT one”. On occasions though, at the end, our leader says, shaking her head, “Ten years, ladies. Ten years. Just saying…”

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  4. Gwen, How jealous I am that you can do line dancing. I tried for about 8 months and know I was truly hopeless. It had been my dream to start when I got home from Africa but I just can’t. Yes Wordle. Good. Have you tried Connections? John/Paol’s daughters put me on to it. Hard, but fun. I get about 1 out of 3 correct.

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  6. Love this post Gwendoline. I have an American friend visiting me at the moment and we were talking about activities we’d like to do. Line dancing is one we both like to do. I have taught myself some line dancing through YouTube and really enjoyed it but I haven’t got to a line-dancing class yet.

    By the way, I’m one of those people who goes nowhere in my sleep, at least as far as I know. My peepers open immediately, and I’m ready to go, usually though that’s a quiet yoga session in my own house rather than heading off to exercise.

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    • I’m so envious of those who wake “good to go”, but as I said to Jolandi, “we must all dance to the biorhythm we have been allotted.” 🙂 I do wonder, though, if one of these I simply won’t return from my dream wanderings…

      Is line dancing popular in the state your American friend is from? We’re learning a new one at the moment, choreographed to Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ’em”. The opening line is, “This ain’t Texas”…

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  7. What a catchy tune, Gwen. I love it, and can see how much fun line dancing to it would be. Unlike you, I love mornings. Early mornings to be precise that start long before sunrise, when the world is quiet. On the other hand, to stay awake after 8pm is a real challenge to me. 😅

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  15. Loved this blog Gwen! For someone who has been unable to line dance ‘cos of various surgeries, it made me realise what I’m missing but, I’ll just get on with my Stretchies & be grateful for that.

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