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Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' Related threads: (origins) Origins: Kumbaya (106) How Do You Pronounce 'Kumbaya'? (13) Do you still sing Kumbaya (16) (origins) Lyr Add: Come By Yuh (Spiritual) (18) Why is Kumbaya a dirty word? (115) (origins) Composer: Kumb Bah Yah (19) Lyr Req: Kumbaya / Kum Ba Yah (10) |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: GUEST,jimmiejazz Date: 31 Mar 08 - 09:22 AM Now I know why I had no idea of the meaning of Kumbaya in the context of political discussions. I hated the 60s and I particularly hated folk music and still do. And yes, I'm an aging cynic. Not that there's anything wrong in that, of course. |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: GUEST,Peter Gozinya Date: 31 Aug 10 - 06:48 PM Yea, I was forced to hold hands around a campfire and sing that crap at least 4 times a summer, over 5 years in a row. It's not a good song, very basic, catchy at best. Thats why malnurished, stoned hippies, who don't know how to sing or play guitar, force it upon the young; strumming and swaying away, looking and sounding like morons all the while. I really really hate that song, Kumbayuck! MY LORD! |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: GUEST Date: 31 Aug 10 - 07:32 PM I don't remember holding hands when this was sung at Methodist youth events and church camp worship services... we were too busy doing the ASL (American Sign Language) version as we sang (when singing it slow) or punctuating the song with handclaps (when singing a syncopated faster version I came to prefer). The faster variant--which uses a different tune altogether--had words something like these: "Somebody's praying, Lord, Kumbaya (clap-clap) Somebody's praying, Lord, Kumbaya (clap-clap) Somebody's praying, Lord, Kumbaya (clap-clap) Rain, Storm, Fire, Wind, Kumbaya Chorus: Kumbayah, kumbayah (clap-clap) Kumbayah, kumbayah (clap-clap) Kumbayah, kumbayah (clap-clap) Rain, Storm, Fire, Wind, Kumbaya" The chorus had some great harmonies--different parts for male & female voices. We threw ourselves into singing them with all the unrestrained, marginally innocent enthusiasm of, well, teenagers at a Methodist church camp. Cynicism is easy and cheap. Innocent joy in the newly-discovered thrill of informal part-singing is harder to come by...here. --Cuilionn, who misses those innocent summers of song |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Suffet Date: 01 Sep 10 - 11:12 AM They have it all wrong! You are supposed to hold hands and sing We Shall Overcome, not Kumbaya. This photo proves it. --- Steve |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: olddude Date: 01 Sep 10 - 11:21 AM What Joe said, remember my girls when they were at scout camp. It was very cute .. anyone after the age of 11 ... it is kinda creepy .. LOL |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Jack Campin Date: 21 Mar 17 - 11:21 AM Holding hands and singing Kumbaya in a social science research paper... what people will do at the end of the world |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Jeri Date: 21 Mar 17 - 12:33 PM 10-year-old thread, but... I was in one of those Girl Scout camps, but we just sat on our logs in a circle around the campfire and sang it. The hand-holding isn't that much different from putting arms around each other and singing "Seamen's Hymn" at the close of a session. Singing and group bonding. I'm not a gamer. I think I'd paint when the world ended. It works on the right parts of my brain, and encourages good neurotransmitters. I wouldn't be with other people, because I'm not around humans about 99.5% of the time anyway. Or I'd grab my towel, go to a bar, and wait for Ford Prefect. |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Senoufou Date: 21 Mar 17 - 01:55 PM I don't think many Brits of my generation would feel at all happy 'holding hands' with folk on either side while singing. I remember the poor Queen singing Auld Lang Syne with Tony Blair (!!) at her side at the Millennium. She wouldn't cross her arms to hold his hand, and just extended a paw rather reluctantly, looking terribly ill-at-ease. I always think the tune is such a dragging thing. It needs to be sung by true Africans, with 'open voices' and a lot of harmonies. Zulus for example, or Ladysmith Black Mambazo. But not earnest hippies swaying around and looking 'moved'. Yuk! (I sang it as a Brownie in the early fifties, and hated the blooming thing even then!) |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: The Sandman Date: 21 Mar 17 - 02:17 PM Holding hands is great, its good in a circle, a good way of promoting a one feeling. i remember a festival that was run by maggie starkey. stanford arms. this was 30 years ago, everybody was going to join me in singing a song with joined hands Sadly Ian Woods refused to sing and hold hands. Ian was a pleasant guy, but I never understood what was his problem with being part of a circle holding hands. |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: GUEST,Patricia Averill Date: 27 Aug 17 - 09:20 AM Last December I went into Amazon and YouTube to find versions of "Kumbaya" and "Come by Here" and was surprised at how many existed - literally hundreds. The Kumbaya Moment may have given "Kumbaya" a bad name, but it hasn't affected its international popularity. I started a new website to describe some of these new variants. My plan is to alternate posts between the two and compare how each treats a common theme. So far I've discussed some religious uses of the songs, and how live performances differ from recordings. I'm now discussing some of the versions most widely imitated in recent years, like those of Lightnin' Hopkins and Kurt Carr. The address is easy to remember: http://www.kumbayacomebyhere.com/ |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Elmore Date: 28 Aug 17 - 01:45 PM Tony Saletan deserves the credit for resurrecting this classic. |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Big Al Whittle Date: 29 Aug 17 - 03:35 AM i was just thinking how nice it would be if all the people on this thread could hold hands. we could sing How much is that doggy in the window? if you like. I can play that one and know all the words. |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Phil Cooper Date: 29 Aug 17 - 08:56 AM I'm not that fond of Kumbaya, but understand why some people like it. I do object, when I'm sitting in an audience, when we are coerced into standing up and holding hands, or other "forced" comraderie. It's not just done with Kumbaya. I was at a house concert where the performers asked everyone to stand up and hold hands on Kate Wolf's Give yourself to Love. I like that song, I understand why the performers felt they wanted to do it, but I still only went along because I didn't want to try to explain why I would rather have stayed seated. The Revels performances where the cast tries to get the audience to join hands and circle around the theater also bothers me. I was at a holiday singalong last December where, when they did that and someone asked me to join (politely, I would add) I just said arthritic knees and they moved on. |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Joe Offer Date: 29 Aug 17 - 04:12 PM I read in the paper, Al, there are robbers, with flashlights that shine in the dark. If I had that doggie in the window, he'd scare them away with one bark. I moved away from Wisconsin in 1970, and I've spent most of my life in California since then. But I'm still a Midwestern Boy at heart, and I never got used to that shallow California huggy-kissy, handy-holdy kinda stuff. Still, I get warm, fuzzy feelings remembering campfires that we closed with Kumbaya and holding hands, especially when in the company of very sincere young women with beautiful, long hair. I learned "Kumbaya" and "Today" for the same reason - the beautiful, sincere, long-haired young women. Alas, those days are over. But I still know the songs. (and I know "Doggie in the Window," too) -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Anne Lister Date: 29 Aug 17 - 06:46 PM I have used Kumbaya in a voice workshop as it's a song that's easy to remember and add words to (which, in the context of the voice workshop, made a lot of sense). However I was stung to the quick (and reduced to helpless laughter at the same time) by a Mail on Sunday reporter who had attended the venue at which my voice workshop took place (amongst other sessions) and wrote, if I remember correctly, "Grown men wept as Anne strummed along to Kumbaya". Each individual part of that sentence might have been true (some men did shed some tears as part of the whole experience, I did have my guitar with me although my playing style isn't really strumming and we did sing Kumbaya) but put together in a sentence it didn't represent anything I recognised at all. Ah, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday - what a waste of newsprint! |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: Richard Bridge Date: 29 Aug 17 - 06:54 PM Senofou - Miss Piggy knew what was right. Bliar, a noov of the worst sort, simply presented a vulgar, vulgar distorted mirror of the Scottish tradition. |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: leeneia Date: 30 Aug 17 - 11:51 AM I'm uncomfortable with huggy-kissy stuff too. When somebody wants to hold my hand, I smile and murmur, "I've been coughing." It works every time. I like singing Kumbaya, partly because it's beautiful, and partly because of the harmonies that my friends improvise. |
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Subject: RE: Holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya' From: keberoxu Date: 30 Aug 17 - 02:16 PM Miss you Senoufou. |
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