Row, Row, Row Your Boat

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
Nursery rhyme
Published 1852

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is an English language nursery rhyme and a popular children's song. It can also be an "action" nursery rhyme, whose singers sit opposite one another and "row" forwards and backwards with joined hands. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19236.

Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961). Crosby also used the song as part of a round with his family during his concert at the London Palladium in 1976. The performance was captured on the album Bing Crosby Live at the London Palladium.

Lyrics

The most common modern version is often sung as a round for four voice parts ( play ). A possible arrangement for SATB is as follows:

Soprano Contralto Tenor Bass
Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream. Row, row, row your boat,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Gently down the stream. Row, row, row your boat,
Life is but a dream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Gently down the stream. Row, row, row your boat,
Life is but a dream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Gently down the stream.
Life is but a dream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
The text above is often sung multiple times in succession to allow for the different voices to interweave with each other, forming four-part harmony.

Origins

It has been suggested that the song may have originally arisen out of American minstrelsy. The earliest printing of the song is from 1852, when the lyrics were published with similar lyrics to those used today, but with a very different tune. It was reprinted again two years later with the same lyrics and another tune. The modern tune was first recorded with the lyrics in 1881, mentioning Eliphalet Oram Lyte in The Franklin Square Song Collection but not making it clear whether he was the composer or adapter.[1]

Additional or alternative verses

People often add additional verses, a form of children's street culture, with the intent of either extending the song or (especially in the case of more irreverent versions) to make it funny, parody it, or substitute another sensibility for the perceived innocent one of the original. In Bean, Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) and Peter MacNicol (David Langley) also used this parody singing in the film.[2] Don Music, a muppet character in Sesame Street, changed the lyrics to feature a car instead of a boat.[3][4][5]

Versions include:

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
If you see a crocodile,
Don't forget to scream.

And:

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Try to make it back to shore
Before your boat sinks.[6]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Studwell, S. M. (1997). The Americana Song Reader. New York: Haworth Press. p. 82. ISBN 0-7890-0150-0.
  2. ↑ Johnson, B. & Cloonan, M. (2009). Dark Side of the Tune: Popular Music and Violence. Aldershot: Ashgate. p. 98. ISBN 1-4094-0049-2.
  3. ↑ "10 Muppets Kicked Off Sesame Street". BuzzFeed Community. November 30, 2010. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  4. ↑ "What Ever Happened to Don Music?The Sesame Workshop Blog". www.sesameworkshop.org. Sesame Workshop. April 8, 2013. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  5. ↑ Reeseman, Bryan (August 21, 2012). "Sesame Street's Don Music: The Original Headbanger – Attention Deficit Delirium". www.bryanreesman.com. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  6. ↑ Lightfoot, C. (1997). The Culture of Adolescent Risk-Taking Culture and Human Development. New York: Guilford Press. p. 78. ISBN 1-57230-232-1.
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