Thankful for the War Chant

Despite having spent 40 years of my life in one area of New Jersey or another, and despite having gone into New York City many times, I’ve never seen the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade live.

Oh, it’s been tempting, all right. I do like going to parades — something about them, their not-quite-cheesy sentimentality, their infectious mass giddiness, the tinniness of the music and the general professionalism but occasional ineptitude of the performers, something about them always manages to stir my blood. (This would be blood shared with my late drum-and-bugle-corps Dad and erstwhile drum-majorette Mom, so perhaps it’s not just coincidence.)

But the Macy’s Parade — like Times Square on New Year’s Eve — just seems one of those crowd experiences enjoyed better from the comfort of one’s living room. The views are better. The sound is better. In recent years, with the advent of closed captioning, even more esoteric rewards can be found in the commentary and lyrics previously only guessed at.

My friend and apparently now former fellow blogger over at the A Dog Starv’d blog, for instance, is like me hearing impaired; and so, like me, he has become an aficionado of captioning. This is from a post of his from around a year ago, commenting on the popularity of Broadway show tunes, no matter how godawful, as set pieces during the parade:

…Yes, yes, I know. The Macy’s parade isn’t where you should expect to find extremely clever, baroquely interwoven lyrics. But really now.

One of the acts (and God and the families of all these young people please forgive me) in particular made me stop and stare at the lower half of the screen, unable to believe that the captions really said this:

We’re… making magic!
Making magic!
Making magic!
We’re making magic!

I kid you not… Lerner and Loewe must be spinning in their graves.

In today’s parade, I didn’t encounter anything quite that awful. But it did have at least one double-take moment.

One of the dancing troupes was from Hawaii. Per the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:

The dancers [from the Polynesian Dance Ensemble of Hawaii], under the direction of John Riggle and [Iwalani] Tseu, will dance to “Hawaiian War Chant,” as recorded specifically for the parade by Na Leo Pilimehana.

They’ll be dressed in red and yellow, colors linked to feathered capes worn by Hawaiian royalty. And, underneath the sway of the pa’u, ti leaf and Tahitian skirts will be layers of thermal underwear, flesh-tone unitards, heavy socks and nude shoes.

The dancers shimmied and swayed there at the main performing area outside Macy’s, and Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera were nattering on, as the parade encourages commentators to do. But all I could think of was, Waitaminnit. Hawaiian WAR chant?!? On THANKSGIVING? Of course the lyrics were in Hawaiian, and of course (I guess) the dancers were all smiling and beckoning quasi-seductively, so I had no idea what was actually being sung. But, well… WAR chant?

Of course, as it turns out, it’s not that simple.

The tune to what we now know as the “Hawaiian War Chant” was originally composed in the 1860s (!) by the Hawaiian Prince Leleiohoku, when it was called”Kaua i ka Huahua’i”: that is, “We Two in the Spray”. Here’s what is supposedly a translation of the key first verse:

We two in the spray
Oh joy two together
Embracing tightly in the coolness
Breathing deep of palai fern.

Here, however, are the complete lyrics (mixed Hawaiian and English) of the most popular version — the one called “Hawaiian War Chant.” Lyrics relevant to the title are emphasized:

There’s a sunny little, funny little melody
That was started by a native down in Waikiki
He would gather a crowd down beside the sea
And together they’d play his gay Hawaiin Chant

Soon the other little natives started singin’ it
And the hula hula maidens starting swingin’ it
Like a tropical storm that’s the way it hit
Funny little gay Hawaiian chant

Ow way tah
Tualan
Me big bad
Fightin’ man

Tho it started on an island down Hawaii way
It’s as popular in Tennessee or Ioway
If you wander into any cabaret
You will hear this gay Hawaiian chant

Ow way tah
Tualan
Me big bad
Fightin’ man

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Au we ta huala
Au we ta huala

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Tahuwai la a tahuwai wai la
Ehu hene la a pili koo lua la
Pututui lu a ite toe la
Hanu lipo ita paalai

Au we ta huala
Au we ta huala

No, don’t worry. I don’t get it either. Gotta love pop culture, though.

P.S. For those of you who, regrettably, missed the parade today, here’s the “War Chant” presented in a slightly different non-Thanksgiving context.

P.P.S. To add to the confusion, the original song — according to Wikipedia — is “used by the Hawaiian sovereignty movent.” This appears to be a loose coalition of organizations seeking greater self-rule for Hawaii — in which case, “Let’s cuddle up under the palm trees” doesn’t sound like a real, y’know, cry for independence.