[Cover title] L.R.Y. Sing by [COUNTERCULTURE] GREATER WASHINGTON AREA FEDERATION OF LIBERAL RELIGIOUS YOUTH - 1962

Washington, DC: Greater Washington Area Federation of Liberal Religious Youth, 1962. First Thus. Quarto (28cm.); publisher's pictorial mimeographed staplebound self-wrappers; [4],29pp.; text printed from typescript in double columns. Some wear from handling, including finger soil and several short closed tears, none approaching text. Near Very Good overall. Collection of lyrics of religious, labor, and popular songs, issued by the LRY, the youth branch of the Unitarian Universalist Association, formed in 1953 by combining the American Unitarian Youth and the Universalist Youth Fellowship. The LRY's involvement in countercultural politics would eventually cause tention between the youthful organization, whose leadership was exclusively comprised of its young members, and the UUA. Indeed, the title at hand bears the mark of youthful editorship, made most noticeable by the struggle with Roman numerals (1962 appears as both MCLXII and MCVXII). The present collection includes such favorites as "Clementine," "Erie Canal," and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," as well as lesser known hits like "The CIO's Dixie," "I Want a Beer," and "The Pig Song," which begins "T'was an evening in October / I was feeling far from sober..." Most striking of all, however, is the rather crude cartoon which adorns the rear wrapper, an attack on the radical white supremacist John Birch Society, nick-named here "The Society for the Preservation of Wooden Toilet Seats," below which is depicted a toilet made of birch: "This is a john, color it birch." This edition not in OCLC as of December, 2018, though we find a similar item, "L.R.Y. Sings" (96pp., 1960) (Harvard, Brown, and U. British Columbia only).