>>Some specific musical pieces such as -- Beethovans 5th, 2001 Theme,
>>Greensleeves, It's a Small World, Stairway to Heaven and Take Five
>>come to mind.
>
>the first 5 songs i thought of were beethovens 5th (and only the first 4
>measures of it) and stairway...
>you should think more broadly: row row row your boat, mary had a little
>lamb, this old man, the funeral durge song.... childrens songs....
Children's songs are good. How about "Ring of Roses" which is an english
kids' song dating back to (and about the symptoms of) the 17th century
Plague? It's survived pretty well I think, in spite of many people who know
the words not knowing what they're about.
Also cricket, which I've heard is a mutated form of pagan fertility
ceremonies (people running/throwing things through gate like things crops up
a lot in team sports, and there's vocabulary like wicket which is a bit like
"wicker" which links to "witch").
Two examples of things which have managed sustained cultural lineages, but
with altered meanings. Interesting, that, come to think of it: activities
are passed on, meaning is lost.