Problematic Memory, or Just a Bit of Fun?

When we were kids, Mom and Pop had a big 78 record of a novelty song sung by Guy Mitchell. Was it Mom's (most likely) or Pop's (an interesting proposition)? Both? It was full of humorous anachronisms (the Statue of Liberty, Rotary Club), but there was something about the refrain that was kind of haunting, almost spiritually yearning. Of course, everybody 'always know'd that the world was round' at least since Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest about 150 AD. The idea that 'everybody' including the leading authorities thought the world was flat is an idea popularized by Washington Irving in his 1828 biography of the explorer. 'Columbus's contemporary critics debated the size of the Earth, not its shape, as they correctly believed it was much larger than Columbus claimed.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RUGH_8xlm0&list=RD5RUGH_8xlm0&start_radio=1

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

(Terry Gilkyson)

Guy Mitchell

 

(Let me fly, fly, fly stormy water

Let me walk on the bottom of the rollin’ sea

Let me run, run, run around this great and fertile land

‘Cos this world ain’t big enough for me)

 

Columbus say to the Spanish King

“I’ll let you in on a mighty fine thing

I aim to prove that the world is round

United States ain’t never been found.”

(United States ain’t never been found)

 

“Now gimme ships,” old Columbus say

“I’ll sail to China the shorter way”

The king, he say “This world is flat,

Sail too far and where you at?”

 

Let me fly, fly, fly stormy water

Let me walk on the bottom of the rollin’ sea

(Let me run, run, run around this great and fertile land

‘Cos this world ain’t big enough for me, oh no)

The world ain’t big enough for me

 

Now Queen Isabella, she gave heed

Said “Go buy the ships you need

Take my jewels but travel slow

‘Cos you might fall down to the world below.”

(Might fall down to the world below)

 

Crew was a-yellin’ “Turn back home

We ain’t ready for the Kingdom Come”

Look-out hollered, “Land I see,

Why there’s the Statue of Liberty”

 

Let me fly, fly, fly stormy water

Let me walk on the bottom of the rollin’ sea

Oh, let me run, run, run around this great and fertile land

‘Cos this world ain’t big enough for me

(Oh no)

The world ain’t big enough for me

 

Now all of the Indians come out then

To welcome Chris and the hungry men

“Step right up and have a little bite

And the Rotary meets on Monday night”

(Rotary meets on a Monday night)

 

Columbus sailed right home again

Ship load of gold for the Queen of Spain

King, he say, a-kickin’ at the ground

“Always know’d that the world was round”

 

Let me fly, fly, fly stormy water

Let me walk on the bottom of the rollin’ sea

(Let me run, run, run around this great and fertile land

‘Cos this world ain’t big enough for me Oh no)

The world ain’t big enough for me.

The world … Ain’t big enough … For me!