Lyr Req: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, HI

Subject: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: Charles Colyer
Date: 17 Mar 98 - 06:26 PM

Does anyone have the lyrics or a midi site for this tune? I remember hearing Arthur Godfrey sing it on his show some years ago.

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: dwditty
Date: 17 Mar 98 - 09:31 PM

I just tried to transcribe the lyrics from a Dave Van Ronk album entitled "Songs for Aging Children." I'll have to keep working on it. There are way to many words that relay on a working vocabulary of Hawaiian. The album is circa 1973 (Cadet).

Subject: Lyr Add: MY LITTLE GRASS SHACK IN KEALAKEKUA, HI
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Mar 98 - 09:39 PM

Are you sure you want to do that, dwditty? You're a glutton for punishment. I found it somewhere a while back - and I didn't have to do the typing.
-Joe Offer-

MY LITTLE GRASS SHACK IN KE-A-LA-KE-KUA, HAWAII Words and music by Bill Cogswell, Tommy Harrison and Johnny Noble

I want to go back to my little grass shack in Ke-a-la-ke-kua, Hawaii.
I want to be with all the ka-nes and wa-hi-nes that I knew long ago.
I can hear old guitars a-playing, on the beach at Ho-o-nau-nau
I can hear the Hawaiians saying,
"Ko-mo-mai no-ka-u-a i-ka ha-le we-la-ka-hao."

It won't be long 'til my ship will be sailing back to Kona
A grand old place that's always fair to see.
I'm just a little Hawaiian and a homesick island boy,
I want to go back to my fish and poi,

I want to go back to my little grass shack in Ke-a-la-ke-kua, Hawaii.
Where the hu-mu-hu-mu-nu-ku-nu-ku-a-pu-a'a goes swimming by.
Where the hu-mu-hu-mu-nu-ku-nu-ku-a-pu-a'a goes swimming by.

---

Added to DT Oct 1998.

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: Barry Finn
Date: 17 Mar 98 - 11:15 PM

Kanes-boys
wahines-girls
Ko-mo-mai no-ka-u-a i-ka ha-le we-la-ka-hao - some kind of greating, I think, number one hello
Kona #1 town on the Big Island (Hawaii)
poi- staple food made from the ground up root of the taruo (sp?) plant, very blue in color
Hu-mu-hu-mu-nu-ku-nu-ku, may be the ono or the flying fish?

Mahalo, Barry

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: Charles Colyer
Date: 18 Mar 98 - 12:30 AM

Thanks, dwditty, for the kind attempt at ttranscribing. Thanks, Joe, for the lyrics. And thanks, Barry, for the translations to complete the picture. All your efforts are appreciated.

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: Ferrara
Date: 28 Mar 98 - 01:51 PM

Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apua-a is a kind of triggerfish. You can see them in aquarium stores some times. Ugly thing with a crescent tail, pouty mouth and a wedge-shaped head. I kind of like them because of the song.

The name means, more or less, "fish that swims along and grunts like a pig." I've never heard one grunt. Maybe they never grunt in captivity.

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: chet w
Date: 28 Mar 98 - 07:32 PM

Anybody know "Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian" which I believe was co-written by two of my favorite songwriters whose names I can't remember right this minute (Wait, one of them is Fred Koller).

Chet W.

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: Frank Phillips
Date: 28 Mar 98 - 08:20 PM

According to page 40 of "Goin' Gone : A Fred Koller Songbook" the words and music to Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian are by Fred Koller and John Prine. Sort of figures if you think about it eh?

Frank Phillips

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: barstow
Date: 29 Mar 98 - 04:51 PM

In a somewhat similar Tropical Island motif, do any of you out there know the words to "Where did Ribinson Carusoe go with Friday on Saturday Night?

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Apr 98 - 01:48 AM

Chet, would you believe that Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian is in the database?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From:
Date: 02 Apr 98 - 08:23 PM

By Golly, I recall when Arthur Godfrey used to sing that song.

Speaking of Hawiian songs, I would like to re-ask a question I posed some time ago. I am looking for the lyrics to "The Princess Poply has plenty of papaya". It was sung by various people including Apaka.

Murray

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From:
Date: 14 Dec 98 - 04:09 AM

Does anyone know what happened to Tommy Harrison?

Subject: RE: My Little Grass Shack In Kealekekua, Hawaii
From: sam
Date: 19 Nov 99 - 11:58 PM

I was born and raised in Hawaii and I'm sorry, but I kinda giggled when I read some of the "translations" as to what some of the words meant. Humuhumunukunukuapua'a means "pig-snouted fish." If you ever saw one, you would know because they actually do look like they have a pig nose. Also, Komo mai no kaua i ka hale wela kahao means something more along the lines of "welcome to the two of us into the house that is hot." As you can kinda see, it's got a double entendre that is common in Hawaiian music.It's called the kaona, the hidden meaning.Just thought that I'd clear that up a little. I hope it enlightens.