performed by Dave Van Ronk
key: A mixolydian
mode: A B C# D E F# G
melody: R F s l t d r
form: verse-chorus
meter: duple
English function names: tonic subtonic
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: T dP
Scale degrees: I VII
Chords: A G
verse:
A G
|:/ / / / |/ / / / |
A G
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
A G
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
A
|/ / / / |/ / / / :|
chorus:
A
|:/ / / / |/ / / / |
G
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
A
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
A
|/ / / / |/ / / / :|
Unfortunately this is one of those recordings where the pitch is microtonally off. It's a little closer to A than to Ab, and I'm guessing that it's probably in A. Van Ronk's delivery is part of what we are after here, no matter what the tuning is like. The Peter, Paul, and Mary version below is too straight-laced for my tastes, and yet its square, calypso-esque beat actually points toward something else.
If you look at the songwriting credits on Spotify it gets interesting.1 The Journeymen credit J. Phillips and R. Weissman who are members of the group and probably arranged the song. Beth Orton credits Dave Van Ronk and Herbert Haufrecht.2 Peter, Paul, & Mary credit Dave Van Ronk alone. Dave Van Ronk credits no one on the album it originally appears on. Is the song somehow related to a mento song by Irving Burgie, aka Lord Burgess? I'm having a hard time thinking that a British person or someone in Appalachia writing about bamboo, because there isn't really any bamboo in Europe or America. The word itself is a Dutch bastardization of a Malay word. But then there isn't really bamboo in Jamaica, either. Is it possible that all reed-like plants became bamboo colloquially? The liner notes to Van Ronk's second record, written by fellow folk-revivalist Eric Von Schmidt, refer to the song as "a bit of Caribbean Haiku," which may mean my hunch is right, despite the fact that it doesn't sound much like this:
It gets better: Van Ronk then says that he did, in fact, write the song on a compilation recording on Folkways, based on something that Dick Weissman from The Journeymen wrote. So what was Von Schmidt talking about with his Caribbean Haiku quip? Is it possible that Van Ronk knew the mento tune, but forgot that's where he got his "nonsensical doggerel" from? Is it folk music when we know who wrote it? Do we know who wrote it? Does it matter?
other recordings:
Peter, Paul, and Mary, Peter Paul and Mary, Warner Records. E mixolydian.
The Journeymen, The Journeymen, Capitol Records. A mixolydian.
Beth Orton, Son of Rogues Gallery, Epitaph. B mixolydian.
Not that Spotify metadata is a reliable source, but that perhaps makes it more, not less, interesting.
A folklorist — I guess that's what they were called before Ethnomusicology was a thing? Did he know Van Ronk? Or did Orton do some research in his collection at the NYPL?