Kumbaya
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Kumbaya" (also spelled Kum Ba Yah) is a song claimed to have been composed by Reverend Marvin V. Frey (1918 – 1992) in the 1930s in New York City. Originally titled "Come By Here", it first appeared in "Revival Choruses of Marvin V. Frey", a lyric sheet printed in Portland, Oregon, in 1939. In 1946, the song returned from Africa with a missionary family, who toured America singing the song with its now world famous Angolan text "Kum Ba Yah".
There is debate about the truth of Frey's authorship claim;[1] recent research has found that sometime between 1922 and 1931, members of an organization called the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals collected a song from the South Carolina coast. Come By Yuh, as they called it, was sung in Gullah, the Creole dialect spoken by the former slaves living on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. Also, there is another version which was preserved on a wax cylinder in May 1936 by Robert Winslow Gordon, founder of what became the American Folklife Center. Gordon discovered a woman named Ethel Best singing Come By Here with a group in Raiford, Fla. Various opinions on the issue can be found here. [1] The song enjoyed newfound popularity during the folk revival of the 1960s, largely due to Joan Baez's 1962 recording of the song, and became associated with the Civil Rights Movement of that decade.
The song is copyrighted material from The Croton Press, Croton-on-Hudson.
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[edit] Lyrics
- Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!
- Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!
- Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!
- O Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya!
- O Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya!
- O Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya!
- O Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya!
- Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya!
- O Lord, kumbaya!
- Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!
- Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!
- Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya!
- O Lord, kumbaya!
Another version of the song:
- Kum ba yah, my Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Kum ba yah, my Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Kum ba yah, my Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Oh Lord! Kum ba yah!
- Hear me crying, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Hear me crying, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Hear me crying, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Oh Lord! Kum ba yah!
- Hear me singing, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Hear me singing, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Hear me singing, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Oh Lord! Kum ba yah!
- Hear me praying, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Hear me praying, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Hear me praying, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Oh Lord! Kum ba yah!
- Oh I need you, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Oh I need you, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Oh I need you, Lord, Kum ba yah!
- Oh Lord! Kum ba yah!
[edit] Popular usage
It is a standard campfire song in Scouting, YMCA, the Indian Guides, and others. Though originally the song was associated with unity and closeness, it is now usually referenced with ironic intent. For example, "Although Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens will play together in 2005, don't expect them to be singing Kumbaya."
This song was once used on a Toys "R" Us commercial when "Geoffrey the Giraffe" sang it, but changed the lyrics to "Somebody's playing with toys."
Eek! the Cat often exclaimed "Kumbaya!"
In the 1989 film Troop Beverly Hills, Phyllis Nefler (played by Shelley Long) asks her troop to sing "Kumbaya" after their camping trip gets rained out, and a slip in mud causes her to drop and lose the fondue they were making on their campfire.
This was a tune commonly used in Catholic "folk" masses of the 1970's.
German rock band Guano Apes and German comedian Michael Mittermeier did a cover of "Kumbaya" called "Kumba yo!" and made a music video. The "Kumba yo!" single came out in 2001.
Reference is sometimes made to "Kumbaya" in a satirical context, to denote a blandly pious and naively optimistic view of the world and human nature, insufficiently grounded in real experience. In a satirical television spot for the 2006 Congressional elections, made by David Zucker, an actress playing Madeleine Albright serves cookies and milk to a group of terrorists: when she notices gunmen and suicide bombers emerging from the basement, her guests distract her and allay her suspicions by picking up a guitar and breaking into a chorus of "Kumbaya".
On an episode of TNA iMPACT, Kevin Nash held hands with members of the X-Division and sang Kumbaya, leading to the X-Division members leaving him.
After a private farewell dinner on December 5, 2006 at the White House for outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Secretary-General 1996 to 2006), soon to resign U.S. Ambassador John Bolton joked that "nobody sang 'Kumbaya.'" When told of Bolton's comment, Annan laughed and asked: "But does he know how to sing it?" [2]
Brad Pitt said he aced a singing test when he sang Kumbaya in the ninth grade.[citation needed]
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach sang Kumbaya in a 1962 concert, whose recording was subsequently released in 1963 on an album called Shlomo Carlebach Sings.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Jeffery, Weiss. 'Kumbaya': How did a sweet simple song become a mocking metaphor?. The Morning Call Online. Retrieved on 11-20-2006.
- ^ Goldenberg, Suzanne (2006). Annan bows out of UN with attack on Bush. December 12, 2006 : The Guardian. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
