If old hymns you like

Just speculating that perhaps "old hymns" may refer to the reported use of drinking song melodies in a number of hymns. That would match up with the sense of the other lines that refer to "party-time" behavior.

Some other famous songs have a documented origin in secular songs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Anacreon_in_Heaven
"The Anacreontic Song", was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London.
Francis Scott Key "The Star-Spangled Banner" adopted as the national anthem of the United States of America, in 1931.

The whole song is an ode to contrarian behavior.

Hymnals only last a limited time before they start to look shabby.  The various publishing houses produce a new hymnal about every two decades.  They include popular new song intended to thrill choir directors and organists, so that churches will choose their hymnal rather than somebody else's.

As my mother was organist not only of our own Methodist church, but also at times, the Disciples of Christ or the Presbyterian churches a block away (and one summer, for all three - she was a very popular organist, and churches would change their worship times to get her), I ended up overhearing many discussions and rants about the new hymnals.  She ended up creating a looseleaf hymnal containing beloved old hyns that people would request for weddings, funerals, offertories, preludes and postludes.  If the congregation was to sing the hymn, of course, they had to be songs in the current hymnal, but soloists weren't so constrained.  All I can say is that when "The Old Rugged Cross" disappeared, there was a minor crisis, and if Be Still My Soul (Finlandia) or Holy, Holy, Holy were to go pffft, thre would be riots.  In fact, one pastor requested Finlandia be played as the offertory at least once a month; he swore it led to fatter piles in the collection plates.

George and Ira were known for their senses of humor, and I think they thought liking old hymns - songs that no longer were in the hymnals - was at least as antisocial as enjoying clothing malfunctions.  But these days, anything goes!  In the 1960s, going braless or wearing short skirts was considered extremely lewd, but these days, we see starlets getting out on the red carpet in a manner that we can see whether the carpet matches the drapes, and wearing yoga pants that mimic the toes of camels.  As one guy on Facebook said last week, he can't wait to see what women are wearing in 2040!

So I followed up on cjacobs1066's thought and looked at the association between drinking songs and "old hymns," and I think you've got it. People claim the practice goes back to Martin Luther and Charles Wesley, but it's pretty certain that Francis Crosby and William Booth used barroom songs.

I see some hymnals from the 1930s that talk about re-writing some of the tunes of the songs to no longer sound like drinking songs.

Another way this might be code for drinking is that Anything Goes hit Broadway in 1934 and prohibition had just been lifted at the end of 1933. The temperance movement had their own anti-drinking hymns that were not that popular despite the movements efforts. Many people did prefer the old hymns to these, and prohibition was repealed. (Maybe a stretch.)

Nice work, betaray!

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