Remember Our Music
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Marie Cahil is the vaudeville singer who is heard in this sound file performing "Under The Bamboo Tree" on August 29, 1902. Marie Cahill was the daughter of Irish immigrants to the United States.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest revision - September 13, 2022
This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series about English language camp songs and English language hand clap rhymes that have their source in Black American composer Bob Cole's 1902 song "Under The Bamboo Tree".
This post presents information about the song "Under The Bamboo Tree" that was composed by Black Americans Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson.
This post also showcase two YouTube sound files of Under The Bamboo Tree" and a 1944 video and a text version of that song from the 1944 American movie Meet Me In St. Louis.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-cannibal-king-also-known-as-zulu.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a video of the song "The Cannibal King" (also known as "The Zulu King"). That post also includes several text (word only) examples of the "The Cannibal King" song.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/09/under-bram-bush-or-similar-titles-hand.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post showcases two videos of the hand clap rhyme "Under The Brambush" (or similar titles) and presents several text (word only) examples of that rhyme.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Bob Cole and J Rosamond Johnson for their musical and cultural legacies. Thanks to all those who were associated with this song files and this video. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these sound files on YouTube.
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INFORMATION ABOUT "UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Bamboo_Tree
"Under the Bamboo Tree is a song composed by Robert Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson. J. W. Stern & Co. published it in 1902.[1] A ragtime hit, it sold over 400,000 copies.[2]
History
The song was first composed by Robert Cole and J. Rosamond
Johnson while they were still performing as the vaudeville act Cole and
Johnson. They had intended it for a "comic opera" they called Toloso;
the opera was never produced.[3] After a performance, they were discussing the
couplet "If you like me, like I like you, No knife can cut our life in
two," and Cole suggested they use the idea for a new song.[4] Cole stated
he took inspiration from a soldier's story he heard, of a romance he had under
a bamboo tree with a Red Cross nurse.[5] At Johnson's insistence, Cole used the
melody of the spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" as the
basis for the song.[6][3]
After writing the words and music, Cole and Johnson sent the song to James Weldon Johnson who made changes to the song. Johnson forwarded the song to a music publisher under the name If You Lak-a-Me, Lak I Lak-a-You. The publisher changed the name to Under the Bamboo Tree, taken from the final line in the song's chorus.[4]
A month later, Cole and Johnson performed the song at party hosted by George W. Lederer. There, Marie Cahill took a liking to the song, and campaigned against producer Ludwig Englander for its incorporation in the Broadway production of Sally in Our Alley, of which she starred. The song premiered in this musical on August 29, 1902, and it helped make the play successful.[4][7] Cahill included it in [ the Broadway production of] Nancy Brown the next season. It went on to become one of two songs that Cahill would commonly interpolate into her own performances per request.[7][3]
Over the course of six months, 400,000 copies of the song were sold.[2] It became a popular and well-known song in the United States, and further spread to England and India.[5][8]
Arthur Collins recorded it for Edison Records.[9] Judy
Garland and Margaret O'Brien perform the song in the 1944 musical film Meet Me
in St. Louis[10][11] and it was included in the retrospective MGM film That's
Entertainment!.[12] It was later used in the stage musical Meet Me in St.
Louis.[13]
-snip-
With the exception of this song's composers, all of the other people who are named in this Wikipedia article were White Americans.
ORIGINAL LYRICS - "UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE"
Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, James Weldon Johnson)
VERSE 1
Down in the jungles lived a maid
Of royal blood though dusky shade,
A marked impression once she made
Upon a Zulu from Matabooloo;
And ev’ry morning he would be
Down underneath a bam boo tree,
Awaiting there, his love to see
And then to her he’d sing:
CHORUS
If you lak a me, lak I lak a you,
And we lak a both the same,
I lak a say, this very day,
I lak a change your name;
‘Cause I love a you and love a you true
And if you a love a me,
One live as two, two live as one
Under the bamboo tree.
If tree.
VERSE 2
And in this simple jungle way,
He wooed the maiden ev’ry day,
By singing what he had to say;
One day he seized her and gently squeezed her;
And then beneath the bamboo green,
He begged her to become his queen;
The dusky maiden blushed unseen
And joined him in his song.
CHORUS
VERSE 3
This little story strange but true,
Is often told in Mataboo,
Of how this Zulu tried to woo
His jungle lady in tropics shady;
Although the scene was miles away,
Right here at home I dare to say,
You’ll hear some Zulu ev’ry day,
Gush out this soft refrain:
CHORUS
Source: https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/sheetmusic/1701/
A VERSION OF THE CAMP SONG LYRICS FOR "UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE
(based on the 1902 song by Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson)
Down in the jungles lived a maid,
Of royal blood though dusky shade,
A marked impression once she made,
Upon a Zulu from Matabooloo;
And ev'ry morning he would be
Down underneath the bamboo tree,
Awaiting there his love to see
And then to her he'd sing:
If you lak-a-me lak I lak-a-you
And we lak-a-both the same,
I lak-a-say,
This very day,
I lak-a change your name;
'Cause I love-a-you and love-a you true
And if you-a love-a me.
One live as two, two live as one,
Under the bamboo tree.
And in this simple jungle way,
He wooed the maiden ev'ry day,
By singing what he had to say;
One day he seized her
And gently squeezed her.
And then beneath the bamboo green,
He begged her to become his queen;
The dusky maiden blushed unseen
And joined him in his song.
If you lak-a-me lak I lak-a-you
And we lak-a-both the same,
I lak-a-say,
This very day,
I lak-a change your name;
'Cause I love-a-you and love-a you true
And if you-a love-a me.
One live as two, two live as one,
Under the bamboo tree.
This little story strange but true,
Is often told in Mataboo,
Of how this Zulu tried to woo
His jungle lady
In tropics shady;
Although the scene was miles away,
Right here at home I dare to say,
You'll hear some Zulu ev'ry day,
Gush out this soft refrain:
If you lak-a-me lak I lak-a-you
And we lak-a-both the same,
I lak-a-say,
This very day,
I lak-a change your name;
'Cause I love-a-you and love-a you true
And if you-a love-a me.
One live as two, two live as one,
Under the bamboo tree.
Source: https://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/u/underthebambootree.html (Contributed by Mel - June 2004)
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SHOWCASE SOUND FILE #2 - "UNDER THE BAMBOO TREE"
Paragon Ragtime Orchestra - Topic, Feb. 10, 2015
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SHOWCASE VIDEO:
-snip-
Here's the lyrics for that song that was posted in this video's discussion thread by Lydia McGowan, 2020. [Pancocojams Editor's Note: The character names in upper case letters indicate who sings those lyrics. "Esther" was played by Judy Garland and Tootie was played by Margaret O'Brian.]
Down in the jungles lived a maid
Of royal blood though dusky shade
TOOTIE
A marked impression once she made
Upon a Zulu
ESTHER
From Matabooloo
TOOTIE
And every morning he would be
Down underneath the bamboo tree
ESTHER
A Waitin' there his love to see
TOOTIE
And then to her he's sing
BOTH
To her he'd sing
If you like-a me, like I like-a you and we like-a both the
same
I like-a say this very day, I like-a change your name.
'Cause I love-a you and lov-a you true and if you-a love-a
me
One live as two, two live as one
Under the bamboo tree
This concludes Part I of this three part pancocojams series.
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