Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: open mike
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 03:49 PM

this says "Lyric add" but i do not believe the lyrics have been added to the D.T.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk?)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:44 PM

The Jolly Boys version of "Big Bamboo" is available on the album "Pop 'n' Mento.
Does anyone have it?

Subject: RE: Origins: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk?)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:37 PM

The notes for the "Dip and Fall Back" set suggest that "Big Bamboo" is an urbanized version of 'an often recorded song,' whose origin is Trinidadian but which entered the mento tradition.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk?)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:06 PM

Big Bamboo by Lord Jellicoe is on disc 2 of "Dip and Fall Back," a recent release by Trojan. The set has many mento from the 1950's.

The relationships of the 'bamboo' versions are not known to me, but Jamaican mento and one of these songs seems to have been the origin of the van Ronk song.

Subject: RE: Origins: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk?)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:47 AM

The website with the Jolly Boys version is dead.
Can anyone post their lyrics?

Subject: Origins: bamboo
From: treesa
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 11:18 AM

Hi to all,
I have returned after a time away because my life has been too full for the last couple years.
I am American, though I am disgusted with our idiot government, and do what I can to protest and change it!
I am posting to ask if anyone knows the true origins of the song "Bamboo", credited to Dave VanRonk. I just can't believe it's not a traditional song. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate your info. I have searched the web but found nothing.
By the way, I think there is a significant number of 20-something-aged people who are fairly turned on to folk, via Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco, Amy Washburn, The Mammals,and also the parents who brought them up in the folk world. My 22-yr-old daughter grew up as part of the volunteer crews of the Eighth Step Coffeehouse in Albany, NY, Caffee Lena's in Saratoga, the annual Dance Flurry here, and the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. She used to and still does perform with me occasionally, and even incorporates folk into some of her modern dances, which is her primary art. I have been excited to see the young folks turn out for concerts of people doing contemporary folk, with a little trad mixed in. The times they are a-changin', but there is some impressive music being created from the seeds!
Thanks for being there.

---

Message moved to the previous thread on this song, to continue the discussion.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Bamboo
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 May 04 - 10:28 PM

"Old Hannah" in GO DOWN, OLD HANNAH obviously means the sun, but....

Subject: Bamboo
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 15 May 04 - 04:42 PM

In this Dave van Ronk song, who/what is "Hanaah"? Thank you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 13 May 04 - 06:48 PM

Sorry, I meant "Hanaah".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 13 May 04 - 06:46 PM

In each verse, the first three lines end in "river," and that last line "water," but who/what is "Hannah"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: James Fryer
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 06:28 AM

There's a full version of this song by the Jolly Boys here:


http://www.cookingvinyl.com/the_jolly_boys/index.php


The 'bamboo' lyrics come in at the very end. It's not as good as the Jellico version in my opinion.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: James Fryer
Date: 18 Apr 04 - 07:14 AM

That's interesting. It's a version of the mento I have, with a reggae beat.

The lyrics in the Jellicoe version are related to the Van Ronk version. E.g. the verse about 'Me take stick of bamboo' appears in the Jellicoe version.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Apr 04 - 05:17 PM

Irving Burgie, also known as Lord Burgess, wrote and recorded a calypso song called RIVER COME DOWN. From the sound sample found at Barnes & Noble, it seems unrelated to Van Ronk's song.

I found a reference to a recording by the mento group The Jolly Boys of a song called RIVER COME DOWN. I didn't find a sound sample or any attribution, but I'm guessing it's probably Burgie's song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: James Fryer
Date: 16 Apr 04 - 12:43 PM

It's originally a mento, I have a version by Jellicoe Barker from the mid-50s I would guess. The tune is much like "Lion Sleeps Tonight".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: Stefan Wirz
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 01:51 PM

Addendum:
"The only song I ever wrote that made me any money, and I hate it. It started out as a guitar exercise, but since I usually taught songs in those days, I needed lyrics. Vaguely remembering a piece that Dick Weissman used to do on the banjo, I carelessly flung together some nonsensical doggerel and used Dick's chorus - "River, river she come down." My students seemed happy enough, and that should have been that, except that Peter, Paul & Mary, who were in the process of getting their act together, took a fancy to it. Renamed 'Bamboo,' PP&M performed it on their first album, which sold seven trillion copies. Particularly embarrassing was the way some of the pop music critics homed in on the lyrics. I cringed when they called them 'surrealist.' One erudite soul (I forget who) compared them with Garcia Lorca. Fortunately, the Muzak version was an instrumental. I shared the royalties (and the chagrin) with Dick.' (from Dave's liner notes to The Folkways Years 1969-61)

The Journeymen (John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, and Dick Weissman) recorded 'River come down' (giving credits to 'John Philips/Richard Weissman') on their 1963 debut album Capitol ST 1629 (also on 45rpm Capitol 4625). Rereleased - among others - on Rhino's CD 'Troubadours of the Folk Era Volume 3'

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: Stefan Wirz
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 11:47 AM

Dave van Ronk has recorded this song as 'River Come Down' on his 1961 Folkways album FA 2383 called 'Van Ronk Sings Earthy Ballads And Blues' (1965 reissued on Verve/Forecast FV/SVLP 9006 under the name of 'Dave Van Ronk Sings The Blues') (DvR discography)
Seems to me that the 1962 'Peter, Paul & Mary' album miscredited the song (as 'Bamboo') to DvR - as this sometimes happens ;-)
Dave's 'River Come Down' has been reissued on his 1991 Smithsonian Folkways CD 40041 'The Folkways Years, 1959 - 1961'
There are other versions by Ry Cooder (naming it 'River Come Down Aka Bamboo' - a tribute to DvR?) and under the name of 'River, she come down' by The Journeymen and Scott McKenzie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bamboo (Dave Van Ronk)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Apr 03 - 03:56 PM

I'm still looking for a way to hear the Van Ronk version of this song. Can't find it on any Van Ronk CD's I know of. I found a Vaughn Mornore recording called "Bamboo," but that's a horse of a different color (although I like Vaughn Monroe a lot).
Can anybody direct me?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Bamboo
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jan 03 - 02:11 AM

I sing this song like I learned it from the Peter, Paul and Mary recording. Every once in a while, I hear somebody sing this to a different melody, what they claim is the original tune. Anybody know where I can get a MIDI, sheet music, or recording of this version?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: BAMBOO (Dave Van Ronk)
From: Allan C.
Date: 02 Nov 98 - 11:12 AM

There's a bit more to it than that:

(I have pasted this directly from a PP&M site. Hope the line breaks come with it.)


BAMBOO
(Van Ronk)

You take a stick of bamboo,
you take a stick of bamboo,
you take a stick of bamboo,
you throw it in the water,
Oh, oh, Hanaah.

You take a stick of bamboo,
you take a stick of bamboo,
you take a stick of bamboo,
you throw it in the water,
Oh, oh, Hanaah.

River, she come down.
River, she come down.

You travel on the river,
you travel on the river,
you travel on the river,
you travel on the water,
Oh, Oh, Hanaah.

You travel on the river,
you travel on the river,
you travel on the river,
you travel on the water,
Oh, Oh, Hanaah.

River, she come down.
River, she come down.

My home's across the river,
my home's across the river.
My home's across the river,
my home's across the water.
Oh, Oh, Hanaah.

My home's across the river,
my home's across the river.
My home's across the river,
my home's across the water.
Oh, Oh, Hanaah.

River, she come down.
River, she come down.
You take a stick of bamboo,
you take a stick of bamboo,
you take a stick of bamboo,
you throw it in the water.

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: BAMBOO (Dave Van Ronk)
From:
Date: 30 Oct 98 - 10:44 PM

I did not find this in the DT.

Bamboo

    

    D                            C
  You take a stick of bamboo.  You take a stick of bamboo.
      D                           C
  You take a stick of bamboo, you throw it in the water.
  D        C        D
  Oh, oh.  Oh, oh.  Hannah!
     C             D
  River, she comes down.

  
  You travel on the river (3x)
  
  My home's across the water(3X)
  
  by Dave Van Ronk, 1962
  On the album titled "Peter, Paul, and Mary"
   

  Roger in Baltimore