Kumbaya 316062 224891717 2008-07-10T21:37:19Z 173.6.233.226 /* Recordings */ {{Infobox Song |Name=Kum Ba Ya |Cover= |Caption= |Type= |Artist=''The Folksmiths'' including [[Joe Hickerson]] |alt_artist= |Album='We've Got Some Singing To Do' |Published= |Released= |track_no=12 |Recorded=August 1957 |Genre= |Length=2:09 |Writer= |Composer= |Label=[[Folkways Records]] F-2407 |Producer= |Tracks= |prev=[[Gospel Plow|Hold On (Keep Your Hand On the Plow)]] |prev_no=11 |next=[[Wade in the Water]] |next_no=13 |Misc=[[Roud Folk Song Index|Roud]] 11924}} :''This article is about the song. For the town in Ecuador, see [[Cumbayá]].'' '''"Kumbaya"''' (also spelled '''Kum Ba Yah''') is a [[Spiritual (music)|spiritual]] song from the 1930s. It enjoyed newfound popularity during the [[folk revival]] of the 1960s and became a standard campfire song in [[Scouting]] and other camping organizations. The song was originally associated with unity and closeness, but more recently is also alluded to [[Sarcasm|sarcastically]] to connote a blandly pious and naively optimistic view of the world and human nature.{{Fact|date=June 2008}} ==Origins== The origins of the song are disputed. Reverend Marvin V. Frey (1918–1992) claimed to have written the song in the 1930s under the title "Come By Here". It first appeared in a collected by [[Robert Winslow Gordon]] in 1936 and in "Revival Choruses of Marvin V. Frey", a lyric sheet printed in [[Portland, Oregon]] in 1939. The change of the title to "Kum Ba Yah" came about in 1946, when the song returned from Africa with a missionary family, who toured America singing the song with the text "Kum Ba Yah".{{Fact|date=January 2008}} There is debate about the truth of Frey's authorship claim;<ref>{{cite web | last = Jeffery | first = Weiss | authorlink = | title = 'Kumbaya': How did a sweet simple song become a mocking metaphor? | publisher = The Dallas Morning News | date = November 12, 2006 <!-- dead link --> | url = http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/DN-kumbaya_11rel.ART0.State.Edition1.3e6da2d.html | accessdate = 2007-11-16}}</ref> 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 (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. In Gullah, "Kumbaya" means "Come by here", so the lyric could be translated as "Come by here, my lord, come by here."<ref>{{cite web |title=Mama Lisa'a World-Kumbaya |url=http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=108&c=23 |accessdate=2008-01-11}}</ref> Another version was preserved on a [[Phonograph cylinder| 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, Florida]]. An intriguing [[etymology]] is that Kumbaya is derived from an [[Aramaic]] phrase, ''Qum bi haya, Eli'' ("Rise with Life, oh my God!") ==Further history== [[Joe Hickerson]], one of the Folksmiths, recorded the song in 1957, as did [[Pete Seeger]] in 1958. Joe Hickerson later succeeded Gordon at the American Folklife Center.<ref>{{cite web |last=Zorn |first=Eric|title=Someone's dissin', Lord, kumbaya |publisher=[[Chicago Tribune]]|url=http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2006/08/someones_dissin.html|accessdate=2008-01-11}}</ref> 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 [[African-American Civil Rights Movement|Civil Rights Movement]] of that decade. It is a standard campfire song in [[Scouting]], [[YMCA]], the [[Indian Guides]], and others. It was also commonly used in Catholic "folk" masses of the 1970s. {{Fact|date=March 2008}} ==Lyrics== {| class="wikitable" width="750" !align="center" width="100"|Most common version: !align="center" width="120"|Another version of the song: |- |align="center" |Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya<br> Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya<br> Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya<br> O Lord, kumbaya |align="center" |Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah<br> Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah<br> Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah<br> Oh Lord, kum ba yah |- |align="center" |Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya<br> Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya<br> Someone’s laughing, Lord, kumbaya<br> O Lord, kumbaya |align="center" |Hear me crying, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Hear me crying, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Hear me crying, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Oh Lord, kum ba yah |- |align="center" |Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya<br> Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya<br> Someone’s crying, Lord, kumbaya<br> O Lord, kumbaya |align="center" |Hear me singing, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Hear me singing, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Hear me singing, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Oh Lord, kum ba yah |- |align="center" |Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya<br> Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya<br> Someone’s praying, Lord, kumbaya<br> O Lord, kumbaya |align="center" |Hear me praying, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Hear me praying, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Hear me praying, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Oh Lord, kum ba yah |- |align="center" |Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya<br> Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya<br> Someone’s singing, Lord, kumbaya<br> O Lord, kumbaya |align="center" |Oh I need you, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Oh I need you, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Oh I need you, Lord, kum ba yah<br> Oh Lord, kum ba yah |- |} ==Recordings== The Folksmiths including [[Joe Hickerson]] recorded the first LNP version of the song in August 1957. As this group traveled from summer camp to summer camp teaching folk songs, they may be the origin of Kumbaya around the campfire. It was recorded by [[Pete Seeger]] in 1958, and [[The Weavers]] released it on ''[[Traveling on With the Weavers]]'' in 1959. [[Joan Baez]]'s 1962 ''[[Joan Baez in Concert|In Concert, Volume 1]]'' included her version of the song. Rabbi [[Shlomo Carlebach]] also sang "Kumbaya" in a 1962 concert, a recording of which was subsequently released in 1963 on the [[album]] ''Shlomo Carlebach Sings''. [[The Seekers]] recorded it in 1963 for their first album, "Introducing the Seekers". They later re-recorded for their third album, "Hide & Seekers" (also known as "The Four & Only Seekers"); it was re-released on their 1989 album "The Very Best of the Seekers". [[Raffi]] recorded it for his ''[[Baby Beluga]]'' album. In 1984, the proto-punk band, Guadacanal Diary, based in Marietta, Georgia USA, recorded a wonderful version on their album Watusi Rodeo. [[Peter, Paul & Mary]] recorded Kumbaya on their 1998 ''Around the Campfire'' album German rock band [[Guano Apes]] and German comedian Michael Mittermeier did a [[Cover version|cover]] of "Kumbaya" called "Kumba yo!" and made a [[music video]]. The "Kumba yo!" [[Single (music)|single]] came out in 2001. ....................... ==References in politics== 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?"<ref name="Annan">{{Cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1970055,00.html|title=Annan bows out of UN with attack on Bush|accessdate=2006-12-12|year=2006|author=Goldenberg, Suzanne|work=December 12, 2006 : The Guardian}}</ref> In a [[satirical]] campaign ad by [[David Zucker]] that ran before the 2006 Congressional elections, an actress playing [[Madeleine Albright]] serves cookies and milk to a group of [[terrorist]]s; when she notices gunmen and [[suicide bomber]]s emerging from the basement, her guests distract her and allay her suspicions by picking up a [[guitar]] and breaking into a chorus of "Kumbaya". In October of 2007, Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. [[Barack Obama]] (D-Ill.), announced his new offensive strategy to distinguish policy difference between himself and his opponent and Democratic frontrunner, Sen. [[Hillary Clinton]] (D-NY). In his announcement he stated that the notion that Clinton and himself were "holding hands and singing `Kumbaya'" on every issue was completely false. In October 2007 the US president George W. Bush phoned Turkish President Abdullah Gul to tell him that the United States was willing to bomb [[PKK]] strongholds. “It's not 'Kumbaya' time any more,” said an official familiar with the conversation. In November 2007, [[Sol Trujillo]], the Chief Executive of the Australian telecommunications company [[Telstra]], mocked the proposed $4.7 billion tax payer funded public private partnership for a new national broadband network. He labeled it as some sort of "kumbaya, holding hands" theory.<ref>{{cite web | title = Telstra rejects Labor net plan | url = http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22880769-5013041,00.html | publisher = Australian IT | date = December 06, 2007}} </ref> ==Notes== <references/> ==References== *[[Roud Folk Song Index]] 11924 ==External links== * [http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=108&c=23 The history and meaning of Kumbaya, the tune and French Translation] * [http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=65010%26messages=8 Origins: Kumbaya] * [http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/english_grammar_style/kumbaya.html What does 'Kumbaya' in the song 'Kumbaya, My Lord' Mean?] * [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980911a.html What does 'Kumbaya' Mean?] * [http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=41852 Advanced piano duet] * [http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/kumbayah.htm Listen to its Short version] * [http://freekidsmusic.com/traditional/kumbaya.html Full version, with chords and mp3] [[Category:Peace]] [[Category:American folk songs]] [[Category:Christian hymns]] [[Category:Gullah]] [[de:Kumbaya]] [[es:Kumbaya]]