Canon

The Canon is a list of songs that are traditional and played at each dance (or every other dance, etc.). The list varies by site.

Sites not listed below may or may not have well-defined Canons. If you know yours, add it! However, American Pie is played last at every CTY dance at nearly every site, except for a new tradition at Skidmore Session 1.

Lancaster

At Lancaster, the Canon is divided into two sections: the "Upper Canon," (aka "High Holy") which is played at every dance, and the "Lower Canon," half of which is played at each dance (though the Lower Canon is generally not played at the final dance, but is instead played during lunch and dinner (usually a 5/4 split) the day of the final dance). Since Lancaster holds dances every Friday and Saturday, as well as the final Thursday, this means that each Lower Canon song is heard once each weekend.

The Upper Canon songs are generally played (not consecutively) in the reverse of the order shown here (i.e. Bizarre Love Triangle is first). The last four songs of the dance are (in order): Stairway to Heaven, a non-Canon song, Forever Young and American Pie.

Upper Canon:

• American Pie - Don McLean
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
• Nightswimming - R.E.M.
• Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order

Lower Canon:

• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
• Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
• Oh L'Amour - Erasure
• Rock Lobster - The B-52's
• James Brown is Dead - LA Style
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• Tunak Tunak Tun - Daler Mehndi
• The Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Sweet Transvestite - The Rocky Horror Picture Show (follows The Time Warp, only on Second Saturday)

History of the Canon

The first definitive Lancaster Canon had come into existence by 1987, defined as the songs Rock Lobster, Oh L'Amour, Bizarre Love Triangle, Time Warp, Forever Young, and American Pie. The name of "Canon" had not yet been applied. By 1989, all of these songs were being consistently played.

In 93.1, the RA DJs screwed things up by omitting some important songs at a dance on the first weekend. The following Monday, students circulated a petition demanding that the DJs play Bizarre Love Triangle, Rock Lobster, It's the End of the World As We Know It, Forever Young, and American Pie at every remaining dance, without fail. The word "Canon" was still not applied to this list.

Between 1994 and 1995, the Digiclan and LLRT, after lengthy online discussions, finalized the Canon, cutting it down from a list of over 50 songs. During 1996, all of the fourteen modern Canon songs had appeared, all but Tunak Tunak Tun.

Every few years, there is a vote at Lancaster to put more songs on the Canon. Recent votes (in 2000 and 2003) did not add any new songs, though the High/Low status of some songs slightly changed. A vote 05.2 decided to keep "James Brown Is Dead" as part of the canon and add Daler Mehndi's "Tunak Tunak Tun" to the canon one year after kids from First Dietz Hall made a CTY-Lancaster-specific dance (modeled after Daler Mehndi's music video).

Other Songs

Raving is very popular at Lancaster. Aside from James Brown is Dead, at least one techno/raving song is played at each dance, usually Darude's "Sandstorm". During 06.2, a new rule was instated at Lancaster that banned string raving (and also lying on the ground after dark). This angered some students, especially since nobody was officially told that the PDA rule on hand-holding from the previous session had been lifted. Protests were planned; however, Rachel (Jesus) worked with Alexa, a onemore, to work with the site director to lift the ban. String raving is now still allowed, with the restriction that it is only done during designated raving songs, and only on the hardtop in front of the speakers.

Aside from the Canon, commonly played songs/dances include the CTY Shuffle, the Numa Numa Song (Dragosta Din Tei), Cotton-Eyed Joe, the Cha-Cha Slide, and Sandstorm.

For many years, beginning with Amish Dan, and later encouraged by Nixon, Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl" was proposed as a canon song, but this vein of thought quickly died after Nixon's departure.

Completely unrelated to Canon, but also very important, is the song The End of the Tour which is always the last song played at the Electric Tree after the Passionfruit.

Protest Example (05.1)

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/ctylan20051/3f03c748.jpg

Carlisle

The Canon at Carlisle is over four hours long, and therefore is never played in its entirety. The songs are arranged in order of holiness.

The full list is too long to place here. See Canon:CAR.

Skidmore

I would appreciate it if someone would contact the copyright owner for this page and ask for permission to appropriate the material. Otherwise, we could just paraphrase the information ourselves. Also, perhaps someone should verify to see if the information is current.

This list was primarily compiled by Jon Good ('97-'00), a cult figure among Skidmore CTY students.

High Holy Canon

• American Pie - Don McLean
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• I'll Make a Man Out of You - Mulan (SESSION 1 ONLY)

Canon

• It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• My Sharona - The Knack
• Blister in the Sun - The Violent Femmes
• Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
• Nightswimming - R.E.M.
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
• The Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkel
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
• Tunak Tunak Tun - Daler Mendhi
• Love Shack - The B-52's
• American Music - The Violent Femmes
• Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
• Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
• U Can't Touch This - MC Hammer
• Copacabana - Barry Manilow
• YMCA - The Village People
• Cotton-Eyed Joe - Rednex
• Build Me Up, Buttercup - The Foundations
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
• Sandstorm - Darude
• I Don't Want To Miss A Thing - AeroSmith

New addition 06.1 - I'll Make a Man Out of You. Is considered to be the only song that is High Holy Canon AND an Afterdance. Applies to Session 1 only.

New addition 06.1 - Let it Be. However, instead of singing "let it be", you sing "synergy", in honor of Bill. (This song is under heavy debate whether or not this will be a Canon. While it is a great song, Site Director Bill had only been present at CTY for less than 2 weeks. It is unkown at the moment whether or not this canon will continue into a third year.)

Siena

Note: If someone could sort out the ones that aren't played second session, that'd be great.

"OFFICIAL CANON" by RA Brendan (Loudonville 2006 Session 1 and 2)

As RAs, we got official CTY Canon CDs from ResLife to play at the dances. This is what was on them, for the curious (note that it's slightly different from the (I would assume) student-compiled list).

Official Canon (every dance)

Same as the list below, except that "Hallelujah", "Sandstorm", and "Buddy Holly" aren't on there.

Played at every dance/official real canon:

• Blister in the Sun - The Violent Femmes
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants (banned 2005.1 because running around holding hands is too dangerous)
• Buddy Holly - Weezer (not played second session)
• Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-a-lot
• Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
• Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• Sandstorm - Da Rude
• Like A Prayer - Madonna
• I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
• Love Shack - The B-52's
• The Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison

In particular these last four played in this order as the last four songs:

• Nightswimming - R.E.M.
• It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• American Pie - Don McLean

Lower Canon (on a 2nd CD, RAs had the option of playing some or all of these songs, but they weren't required)

• Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
• Sandstorm - Da Rude (de facto Canon)
• Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
• Dragosta Din Tei - O-Zone (de-facto Canon)
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
• Sell Out - Reel Big Fish
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• Piano Man - Billy Joel
• I Want You To Want Me - Cheap Trick
• Cotton-Eyed Joe - Red-Nex
• Heaven - DJ Sammy
• It's Raining Men - The Weather Girls
• Don't Stop Belivin' - Journey
• Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkel
• Buttercup - The Foundations
• Buddy Holly - Weezer

These are other people's incomplete lists, could be cleaned up or compiled into something:

Other

Canon but not always played:

• Wonderwall - Oasis
• In My Life - The Beatles

Traditions but not Canon:

• The Freshmen - The Verve Pipe
• Leaving on a Jet Plane - Peter, Paul, and Mary
• One More Chorus - Battlefield Band

Other:

• Fight For Your Right - The Beastie Boys
• Origin of Love - Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• I Touch Myself - Divynls (not played LOU 05.1)
• Here's to the Night - Eve 6
• I'm the Only Gay Eskimo - Corky and the Juice Pigs
• Paradise City - Guns N' Roses
• It's My Life - Jon Bon Jovi
• Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) - Green Day

Notes:

• Buddy Holly in LOU 05.1 was revived at the last dance, but was not very popular
• Sandstorm is, in the opinion of the Law and Politics B Session 2 2006, Fast-Paced High School Chemistry Session 1 2006, and Mathematical Logic Session 2 2006 classes, Canon.
• Baby Got Back may not be true Canon.
• Thank you to everyone continuing One More Chorus. I was afraid it died after 2005.
• Siena is the only site where people do not chant "Die, Die, Die, Die, Live, Live, Live, Live..." during American Pie.

Los Angeles

Played at every dance:

• American Pie - Don McLean
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• The Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• It's the End of the World (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
• Sandstorm - Darude
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel (edited from "some songs")
• Dragostea Din Tei - O-Zone

Some of these songs are played at some dances and not others:

• Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
• Cotton-Eyed Joe - Rednex
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing - Aerosmith
• Baby Got Back - Sir Mixalot
• Don't Stop Believing - Journey
• Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
• You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
• I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
• I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
• YMCA - The Police
• Tunak Tunak Tun
• Love Shack - B-52's
• Nightswimming - REM
• Kernkraft 400 - Zombie Nation
• Cha Cha Slide - Casper

Interestingly, some of the High Canon songs at other sites are not played here.