Kumbaya

:"This article is about the song. For the town in Ecuador, see Cumbayá."

"Kumbaya" (also spelled Kum Ba Yah) is a 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 sarcastically to connote a blandly pious and naively optimistic view of the world and human nature.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
url = http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/DN-kumbaya_11rel.ART0.State.Edition1.3e6da2d.html
accessdate = 2008-07-17]

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 collection 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; 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. In Gullah, "Kumbaya" means "Come by here", so the lyric could be translated as "Come by here, my lord, come by here." [cite web |title=Mama Lisa'a World-Kumbaya |url=http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=108&c=23 |accessdate=2008-01-11] Another version 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, Florida.

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. [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] 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. It is a standard campfire song in Scouting, YMCA, the Indian Guides, and others. It was also commonly used in Catholic and "folk" masses of the 1970s. Fact|date=March 2008

Lyrics

Recordings

Infobox Song
Name=Kum Ba Ya


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=Hold On (Keep Your Hand On the Plow)
prev_no=11
next=Wade in the Water
next_no=13
Misc=Roud 11924The 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 "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, Guadalcanal Diary, recorded a 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 of "Kumbaya" called "Kumba yo!" and made a music video. The "Kumba yo!"
single came out in 2001.

References in politics/popular culture

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?"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]

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 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".

In October 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. [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]

On the Fox Kids animated show, "Eek! The Cat", the title character, Eek exclaims "Kumbaya!" whenever seeing something that amazes him.

Notes

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?] at Straight Dope
* Michael E. Ross: [http://www.theroot.com/id/48398 Oh, Lord, Kumbaya. How an innocent campfire song got warped by the cynicism of our times] The Root, October 2008
* [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]