Listen to the children while they play
He was 13 years old in 1968 when Henson Cargill, a relatively unknown name in country music, topped the country charts with the Jack Moran and Glenn Tubb-penned classic “Skip a Rope.”
I was getting into music in a new way. And the music was changing in a major way. Pop music was becoming more politically and socially conscious. In a few short years we had gone from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “All Watchtower Time”.
Country music was also changing. One more year, Kenny Rogers would triumph with “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town”, inspired by Vietnam by Mel Tillis. On all fronts of popular music, social commentary was on the rise.
“Skip a Rope” was another early country entry in the “all we need is love” musical movement.
In those days, teen music magazines would print the lyrics to the best songs on the back of the magazine. I was getting fascinated by songwriting: who wrote the song, what the words “really” mean, etc.
“Skip a Rope” was one of those songs that I found the lyrics for. As a child experiencing major family problems, the lyrics were particularly meaningful and moving for me.
“Skip a Rope” tackled it all: family discord, racial discrimination, greed… and it still wasn’t too far from literally jumping rope on the playground and hearing the kind of petty things kids might say, often just repeating what they had heard at home. The song rang “true” to me, and I suppose to many others as well.
Over the years, I have often thought of “Skip a Rope” and hummed it to myself. I didn’t remember who wrote or recorded the song, until I learned that Henson Cargill passed away at the age of 66 on March 24, 2007. The news brought back a flood of memories.
jump rope lyrics
(Word and music by Jack Moran and Glenn Tubb)
Oh, listen to the children while they play,
Now isn’t it kind of funny what the kids say?
Jump a rope.
Dad hates mom, mom hates dad,
Last night you should have heard the fight they had,
gave the little sister another bad dream,
He woke us all up with a terrible scream.
(CHORUS)
Cheat on your taxes, don’t be silly,
Now what was that they said about a rule of thumb?
Don’t care about the rules, just play to win
and you will hate your neighbor because of the shade of his skin.
(CHORUS)
Stab ’em in the back, that’s the name of the game
And mommy and daddy are to blame.
Jump rope, jump rope,
Just listen to your children while they play,
It’s really not very funny, what the children say,
Jump a rope, jump a rope.