Row, Row, Row Your Boat

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"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is an English nursery rhyme, and a popular children's song/proverb, often sung as a round. It can also be an 'action' nursery rhyme where singers sit opposite one another and 'row' forwards and backwards with joined hands. The tune is credited to Eliphalet Oram Lyte in the publication The Franklin Square Song Collection (1881, New York) which also indicates that he adapted the lyric:

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Contents 1 Meaning 2 Additional verses 3 Alternate lyrics 4 Other languages 5 In popular culture 6 References

[edit] Meaning

The lyrics have often been used as a metaphor for life's difficult choices, and many see the boat as referring to one's self or a group with which one identifies.^[1] Rowing is a skillful, if tedious, practice that takes perfection but also directs the vessel.^[2] When sung as a group, the act of rowing becomes a unifier, as oars must be in sync in a rowboat. The idea that man travels along a certain stream, suggests boundaries in the path of choices and in free will.^[3] The third line recommends that challenges should be greeted in stride while open to joy with a smile.^[4] The final line, life is but a dream, is perhaps the most meaningful. With a religious point of view, life and the physical plane may be regarded as having equivalent value as that of a dream, such that troubles are seen in the context of a lesser reality once one has awakened.^[5] Conversely, the line can just as equally convey nihilist sentiments on the meaninglessness of man's actions. The line is also commonly sung as "life is like a dream" rather than "life is but a dream", possibly to sound happier, less meaningful, and more appropriate for its audience of young children.

[edit] Additional verses

Row, row, row the boat

Gently down the stream

If you see a waterfall

Don't forget to scream

Row, row, row the boat

Gently down the river

If you see a polar bear

Don't forget to shiver

Row, row, row the boat

Gently to the shore

If you see a lion

Don't forget to roar

Row, row, row the boat

Gently in the bath

If you see a spider

Don't forget to laugh

Row, row, row the boat

Gently as can be

'Cause if you're not careful

You'll fall into the sea!

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the lake

Don't stand up and rock the boat

That's a big mistake!

[edit] Alternate lyrics

There are alternate versions to the original verse, mostly less pleasant. One well known version amongst British and American schoolchildren is as follows:

Row, row, row the boat

Gently down the stream

Throw your teachers overboard

And listen to them scream!

Another version goes:

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream. or Underneath the stream."

Ha! Ha! Fool'd ya all!

I'm a submarine.

Mister Rogers version:

Propel, propel, propel your craft,

Unforcefully down the liquid solution.

Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically,

Existence is merely an illusion.

Don Music from Sesame Street eventually came up with these lyrics (see below):

Drive, drive, drive your car,

Gently down the street.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a treat.

Mr. Bean in Bean (film) variated the lyrics while drunk:

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream.

If you see a crocodile,

Don't forget to scream.

Argh!

Wow version

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream.

If you see a Naga Siren,

Don't forget to scream.

Tre Cool's druggie version

Roll, roll, roll a joint,

Twist it in the end.

Light it up and take a puff,

and pass it to your friends.

[edit] Other languages

A Danish version goes like this:

Ro, ro, ro din båt

Tag din åre fat

Vuggende, vuggende, vuggende, vuggende

Over Kattegat

Translated: Row, row, row your boat, take a grab of your oar, rocking, rocking, rocking, rocking over Kattegat.

A Turkish version goes like this:

Sür, sür arabanı

Gez sokakları

Neşeli, keyifli, tasasız

Çıkar hayatın tadını

Translated: Drive, drive, drive your car, wander the streets, merrily , cheerily, easily, enjoy the life.

A Spanish version goes like this:

Vamos a pasear

en un botecito

rápido,rápido,rápido,rápido,

en un botecito

Translated: "Let's go sail; in a little boat; fast, fast, fast, fast; in a little boat"

There is also a Hungarian version, which is practically the translated version of the original English one.

Szaladj, szaladj csónakom

túl a kis tavon

vígan, vígan, vígan

az élet egy álom

A Norwegian version goes like this:

Ro, ro, ro din båt

Ta din åre fatt

Vuggeti, vuggeti, vuggeti, vuggeti

Over Kattegat

Translated: Row, row, row your boat, take hold of your oar, rocking, rocking, rocking, rocking over Kattegat.

[edit] In popular culture

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In "Manos" The Hands Of Fate, the vacationing family sing the song before the movie's intended opening credit sequence.
• In the Spongebob Squarepants episode "Jellyfish Jam", Squidward plays the song very loudly on his clarinet to annoy the wild jellyfish who are partying in Spongebob's house - with disastrous results.
• In an episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, Lt. George and General Melchett sing an old Cambridge drinking song to the tune of Row Row Row Your Boat, the last two lines are replaced with "Belts off, trousers down, isn't life a scream".
• It was sung in the cult Disney Halloween-themed blockbuster Hocus Pocus by Jay and I.C.E., two lads held by three witches (the Sanderson sisters) in their torture-cage.
• It was sung by the main character Jamey Meadows, played by Jon Bon Jovi, in the film Row Your Boat.
• Also sung by Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy at the beginning of the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Unfortunately, they could not quite get Mr. Spock to join in, because the Vulcan was "trying to comprehend the words".
• It appears in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
• In Bean, the first Mr. Bean movie, Bean and Langley sing the song while drunk before Langley's wife confronts the boozers.
• It is named in A Series of Unfortunate Events as Violet Baudelaire's least favorite song. Lemony Snicket describes it as "a well known hymn of naval disaster".
• A fragment is sung by Lo Wang in the first level of Shadow Warrior.
• A fragment is sung by the virus during the attack on the Ellingson Mineral Corporation mainframe in the film Hackers
• In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Robolympics", Sonic sings his version of the song.
• In the Stargate SG-1 series, in episode Urgo all members of SG-1 team sing the song.
• In the pilot episode of CBS's night-time soap, Knots Landing, Diana (Claudia Lonow) and her step-sister, Annie (Karen Allen) drive drunk in the car singing the chorus.
• In The Backyardigans episode, "The Yeti", sung with modified lyrics.
• In the film Dante's Peak, the main characters sing it in a round to calm the children down while they are navigating the acidic lake.
• It appears in The Simpsons episode The Wettest Stories Ever Told, during the Mutiny on the Bounty story. It is sung as a round by the crew of the Bounty and then, after the mutiny, by Groundskeeper Willie on his own, although still attempting to sing a round.
• The song is quoted in the Tool song Third Eye.
• The song occurs as part of a fragment of Home by Alexi Murdoch, as the accompaniment to the gravity-aided demise of Charles "Haywire" Patoshik, a lunatic escapee in the TV series Prison Break.
• Tom Waits seemingly pays tribute to the nursury rhyme in "Misery is the River of the World" on his Blood Money album. He exclaims "Everybody Row! Everybody Row!"
• Comedian Redd Foxx would often try to get the crowd singing along in various ways during his stand-up shows. Dennis Miller also sang it during the encore of his first HBO special.
• The rendition from Don Music on Sesame Street was decided when Don couldn't remember the last word, then decided on "treat", to which Kermit told Don that "treat" didn't rhyme with "stream", then Don decided to rhyme a word with "treat" rather than "stream", and eventually the lyrics above were born.
• On The Alvin Show, Alvin and the Chipmunks sang a version with the words merrily, happily, happily, merrily. The song also contained new verses.
• In Fallout 2 a trio of street singers in New Reno sing it.
• In Dirty Harry the bad guy makes the children in the bus sing it, before Clint Eastwood saves the day.
• In the film Vanilla Sky, it is the ringtone on Julianna Gianni's cellular phone, one of many references in that film to life being a dream.

• In the 9th episode of season 2 of Country Fried Home Videos on CMT Handini is shown playing the song on "The Hands".
• At the end of the 2nd episode of season 1 of Deadwood, Calamity Jane and Charlie Utter sing the song, in 1876, 5 years before its publication in 1881.
• In the 1075th strip of Questionable Content, Hannelore sings it in a karaoke bar on her birthday.
• The Pacific Coast Band made Sunset Strip history in June 2008 by dividing their audience into three sections and chanting this song at the legendary Rainbow room. The punk rockers outside were astonished and stayed for the rest of the show.

[edit] References