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Come By Yuh/Come By Here/Kum Ba Ya
Traditional Spiritual
ARTIST: Spiritual from Carolina Low-Country Society for the Preservation of Spirituals 1931.
SHEET MUSIC: http://books.google.com/books?id=db45ki7aA3UC&pg=PA266&dq=%22come+by+yuh%22&cd=5#v=onepage&q=%22come%20by%20yuh%22&f=false
YOUTUBE:
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel
DATE: probably 1800s; Collected 1920s. Published: Carolina Low-Country Society for the Preservation of Spirituals 1931.
RECORDING INFO: Come By Here - Frey, Marvin V./Traditional
Rt - Kumbaya/Kumbayah
Uf - Kumbaya/Kumbayah
Carawan, Guy & Candie / Sing for Freedom, Sing Out, sof (1990), p 87
Freedom Singers. Freedom Singers Sing of Freedom Now, Mercury MG 20924, LP (1964), trk# A.05
Kumbaya/Kumbayah
Rt - Come By Here
Snyder, Jerry (arr.) / Golden Guitar Folk Sing Book, Hansen, Fol (1972), p 75
Winds of the People, Sing Out, Sof (1982), p 56
Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof (1959), 3, p24
Gearhart, Livingston (ed.) / Gentlemen Songsters, Shawnee, sof (1959), p59 (Koom Ba Yah)
Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Hootenanny Tonight!, Gold Medal Books, sof (1964), p 39 (Kum Ba Ya)
Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1992/1989), p133
Luboff, Norman; and Win Stracke (eds.) / Songs of Man, Prentice-Hall, Bk (1966), p343 (Kum Ba Ya)
Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Folk Song Abecedary, Bonanza, Bk (1966), p209
Herder, Ronald (ed.) / 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics, Dover dn500/500, Sof (1998), p192
Abe and Malka. Mandelblatt, Abe & Malka A. / 100 Guitar Accompanyments, Amsco, Sof (1974), p163
Baez, Joan. Joan Baez in Concert, Vanguard VRS 9112, LP (196?), trk# A.04
Baez, Joan. Siegmeister, Elie (arr.) / Joan Baez Song Book, Ryerson Music, Sof (1971/1964), p130
Brown, Walt; and Bill Collins. Walt Brown Show with Bill Collins, Warner W 1568, LP (1967/1964), trk# B.07a
Bugg, June. Hootenanny Folk Festival, Palace 757, LP (1964), trk# A.06
Folksmiths. We've Got Some Singing to Do, Folkways FA 2407, LP (1958), trk# B.04 (Kum Ba Ya)
Halifax Three. Halifax Three, Epic BN 26038, LP (1963), trk# A.06 (Come on By)
Hammond, Lorraine Lee. Dulcimer Players News, DPN, Ser, 17/3, p33(1991) (Kum Ba Ya)
Lewis, Don. Don Lewis Live at the "Three Star", Flight 7, LP (197?), trk# B.03
MacNeil, Madeline. Dulcimer Players News, DPN, Ser, 8/2, p35(1982)
New Seekers. New Seekers, Capitol T 2319, LP (196?), trk# B.02
Reagon, Bernice (Johnson). Folk Songs: the South, Folkways FA 2457, LP (197?), trk# B.04 (Come By Here)
Seeger, Pete. Pete Seeger and Sonny Terry, Folkways FA 2412, LP (1958), trk# A.01b
Seekers. Seekers, Pickwick SPC-3068, LP (197?), trk# A.03
Sweet Honey in the Rock. All for Freedom, Music for Little People 9 42505-2, CD (1992/1989), trk# 2 (Cumbayah My Lord, Cumbayah)
Villagers. We Give a Hoot! Live Hootenanny at the Ice House in Pasadena, RCA (Victor) LSP-2821, LP (1963), trk# B.05 (Kum Ba Ya)
Weavers. Travelling on with the Weavers, Vanguard VSD-2022, LP (195?), trk# 10
Weavers. Gilbert, Ronnie, et.al (ed.) / Weavers' Song Book, Harper & Row, Sof (1960), p156
OTHER NAMES: "Kumbaya," "Come by Here"
RELATED TO:
SOURCES: Mudcat; 2006 newspaper article [How did 'Kumbaya' become a mocking metaphor?] Sunday, November 12, 2006 By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News (Lum Chee-Hoo article in Kodaly Envoy)
NOTES: "Come By Yuh" (as sung in Gullah) or "Come by Here" or "Kumbaya" is a traditional spiritual found in the Carolina Low-Country. The first published lyrics (see below) were collected between 1922-1930 and appeared in the Carolina Low-Country Society for the Preservation of Spirituals in 1931. In the same edition Robert W. Gordon wrote an article on spirituals.
"Come By Here" was also collected by Gordon several times around 1926. The 1926 recording has been transcribed by AFC reference librarian Todd Harvey, and is available to researchers in the AFC reading room. Two of the Gordon card catalog records, for cylinders that cannot now be played, are versions of the same song; one is called "Come by here, Lord, come by here," and the other "Somebody need you Lord, come by here."
Cards for the other early playable recordings in the archive can be found. They date from 1936 on. Between that recording and 1941, the archive recorded it several times in Mississippi, Texas, Florida and Alabama.
COME BY HERE- Ethel Best 1936 recorded by John A. Lomax for the Library of Congress. Each verse was a single line repeated 3 times, followed by "oh, Lord, come by here."
1. Come by here, my lord, come by here
Come by here, my lord, come by here
Come by here, my lord, come by here
Oh, Lord, come by here.
2. Well we down in trouble, Lord, come by here
Well we down in trouble, Lord, come by here
Well we down in trouble, Lord, come by here
Oh, Lord, come by here.
3. Well, it's somebody needs you lord, come by here (&etc.)
4. Come by here, my lord, come by here (&etc.)
5. Well it's somebody sick Lord come by here
6. Well, we need you Jesus Lord to come by here
7. Come by here, my lord, come by here
8. Somebody Moanin', Lord, come by here
Marvin V. Frey, a pastor and composer, claimed he wrote the song, inspired by a prayer he heard delivered by "Mother Duffin," a storefront evangelist in Portland, Ore.
Mr. Frey's first lines: "Come by here. Somebody needs salvation, Lord. Come by here." A lyric sheet of Mr. Frey's final version, printed in the 1939 "Revival Choruses of Marvin V. Frey," indicates it was written in 1936– well after the versions collected in the 1920s and the first published version in 1931.
Next, according to Mr. Frey, he taught the song to missionaries headed for Africa. By the late 1940s, other missionaries had returned to America from Africa singing "Kum By Yah" – with no idea where it had originated. Mr. Frey went to his grave in 1992 claiming the song was his own. In any case, by the early 1940s, Mr. Frey's copyrighted version had made it into church hymnals and onto live radio broadcasts.
Pete Seeger has a different story: "...in the Library of Congress they played a recording for me of that song sung in 1920. Marvin Frey made up the slow version about 1936-1937. He taught it to a family of missionaries that was going to Angola and there they changed 'come by here' to Kumbaya, the African pronunciation [Note- there are several linguistic groups in Angola and it is entirely possible that a 'pidgin' was used, possibly incorporating some Afrikaans words from the then Southwest Africa to the south]. Then it was brought back here."
According to "The Joan Baez Songbook," Amsco (1964, 1989): "...this song had to travel to foreign lands and be brought back to us before it achieved its rightful place in our songlore. It started as a Negro gospel song, "Come By Here, Lord," was exported to the West Indies where it was rephrased in 'pidgin-English' as 'Kumbaya,' and returned to the United States where it is now a great favorite..."
Come By Yuh- The Carolina Low Country Society for the Preservation of Spirituals, 1931
Somebody Need you, come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
Wan' tuh git tuh heben, come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
Soon een de mawnin' come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
Jesus duh call you, come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
Cyan' cross de ribbuh, come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
Yo' fadduh duh call you, come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
On duh way tuh Glory, come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
Gwine down tuh Jerdan, come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
Pain got duh body, come by yuh [X3]
Oh, Lawd, Come by yuh
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