Talk:Kookaburra (song)

Copyright problems

The lyrics of the song are present in all versions of this article, however the song is still under copyright, and listing them here is a violation of that copyright. I have rewritten the article at Talk:Kookaburra (song)/Temp, please replace this article with the temp version after purging the edit history of the lyrics. --Canley 04:35, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Everyone knows the real version, anyway. :) Marnanel 18:37, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that one of the lines is "Gay you're life must be"! I hope they haven't changed that line due to it being un-PC!!! N.B., very interesting to note that the "Kookaburra" tune was adapted into a Welsh folk song, obviously it has had a larger cultural impact than I realised! :D

- What is the basis for the Welsh claim? The midi file on the linked page and 'Kookaburra sound nothing alike to me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.127.28.3 (talk) 02:52, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

They used to make us sing both "Kookaburra" and "Wele ti'n eistedd aderyn du?" in my school... Great tune! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.63.116.72 (talk) 12:53, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Other countries

Not just the US and UK, weirdly enough enough this song is taught in Singaporean schools too and I've heard it being played at Toys R Us in Singapore too! --116.197.245.103 (talk) 05:52, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm in the US, and grew up on Long Island. We learned the song in Music class, but with a variant lyric on the second line. That went "eating all the gumdrops he can see-ee." I didn't even know it had a different version until now. I suspect that's true of most Americans. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.102.231.183 (talk) 20:53, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

Also from the US, and learned the song in music class in elementary school. The line "eating all the gumdrops he can see" is from the second verse, after which the line "Stop, Kookaburra, stop, Kookaburra leave some drops for me" (or simliar) ends the refrain. Lime in the Coconut 16:41, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm also in America, and I grew up in Indiana, and we learned this song in music class also. It was a class favorite, despite not knowing what a kookaburra was. The lyrics we learned are the same as the ones in the composition section. Are their any citations for how the song arrived in the U.S.?76.217.119.159 (talk) 01:34, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Song origins

This content is getting removed: The tune is taken from the Welsh folk song "A Ei Di'r 'Deryn Du" or "Dacw ti yn eistedd, y 'deryn du" (English translation "There you are sitting, black bird."). The syllables and themes are almost identical in pattern to those in "Kookaburra". ref http://www.artsconnection.org.uk/acdownloads/lyrics.pdf /ref ChildofMidnight (talk) 04:32, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I'm inclined to say I agree with the removal. The reference is a sheet of the lyrics to 38 Welsh nursery rhymes. There is no notation of the tune or music for the song, so there's no way to tell if "Kookaburra" was based on it. The other link is a MIDI file of the actual tune, however to say it is "almost identical" is original research. One problem is that neither reference dates "A Ei Di'r 'Deryn Du", so while it can be shown that the songs are similar, there is no reliable reference for which pre-dated which, or that Sinclair had heard or influenced by the Welsh folk song. Yes, it's a folk song so it probably is pretty old but there's no way to tell. So to sum up, unless a reliable reference can be found that states that Sinclair based her song on the Welsh one, or perhaps a musicologist testifying to their undeniable similarity, I think the text should be removed from the article. --Canley (talk) 05:41, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Welsh Myth

A link from the 'Down Under (song)' page suggests a possible origin of this myth

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=90351

Taken at face value this appears to suggest that Sony/EMI were looking for prior art some time ago. I would be interested in hearing that such a thing exists especially as they seem to have drawn a blank. The Midi file linked to before is absolutely not the Kookaburra I grew up with. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.171.102.79 (talk) 11:28, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

From this link:

‘’Subject: RE: Origins: Kookaburra - possible copyright info. From: sian, west wales Date: 03 Jan 08 - 06:13 AM

I looked this thread up as we've had an enquiry re: Kookaburra copyright here at trac. I see that 'GUEST,boborch' mentioned a possible Welsh connections, and it may be that s/he had been reading a rather wobbly Wikipedia entry on the subject.

Dr Rhidian Griffiths at the National Library of Wales says that the Welsh words were only published to the tune in 1989. If the words are old (and they don't sound as if they are) they wouldn't have been sung to that tune. One of our best musicologists, Phyllis Kinney, says, "I suspect that the Welsh words were written to fit the tune rather than the other way around --- the metre is not a typical Welsh folksong metre and the 'Kookaburra' lines with their masculine endings are quite the opposite of Welsh traditional verse."

It's been recorded at least twice.

I actually used to work for someone in the 1980s who, with several friends, wrote Welsh words to a number of popular English-language 'campfire songs' for use with Welsh young people. I don't know if the Welsh version of Kookaburra is 'one of theirs'.

sian ‘’

Dear Mr Price,

Why does a reference to this song belong in this article? If it was the origin of the tune it most certainly would, it seems there is no reason to think this is so. Are you saying the phrasing and topical similarities alone merit its inclusion? Are you able to read the Welsh when stating they are "almost identical" or are you looking at the English translation?

The first time I heard of the Welsh song was in 1996 when I was 16. I'm very keen on Welsh history, culture, etc., and I was taught the song by my 'A'-level teacher, who I am still in contact with. She said the Welsh variant is not a nonsense poem that she knows of (I've never heard of it either), and she said it was just a verse made up to fit the Kookaburra tune, it had nothing to do with Urdd Gobaith Cymru as far as she is aware (and she had been actively involved with the Urdd for many years), and the version she introduced to me was a variant of the song she learned a year or two earlier. I'm not convinced about the claims of "Aderyn Du" being a Welsh Folk Song are kosher at all —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.63.116.72 (talk) 14:41, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

I've never commented on wikipedia before but I just happened to be reading this and I had no idea people regarded the kookaburra song as the original! I learned it from my grandparents in the early 80, and there is at least one recording from the 70s: https://www.discogs.com/master/2551625-Dafydd-Iwan-ac-Edward-Fuoch-Chi-Rioed-Yn-Morio so at the very least the claim it was only written in 1989 is absolute nonsense.

Given the sad state of the Welsh language in the early 20th century after being systematically suppressed by the English, it's not at all surprising that there aren't any earlier recordings, there was very little music recorded in Welsh at all until relatively recently. And given the strong connection between Wales and Australia, there isn't enough evidence to dismiss the idea that the Kookaburra song was a re write of a much older folk song. 185.77.56.153 (talk) 15:11, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Larrakin or Larrikin?

Both spellings are used in the article. I'm fairly sure the -i- spelling is the correct one, but not 100%. Koro Neil (talk) 23:39, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

You're right, the company is called "Larrikin Music". --Canley (talk) 00:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

Lyrics

So, is there a particular reason that it was felt necessary to list a verse of the lyrics of a Welsh song set to the same tune as "Kookaburra", but no actually any of the lyrics of the song in question? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.62.253.125 (talk) 14:54, 15 July 2013 (UTC)

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Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Kookaburra (song)/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Start class: info supplied; needs: infobox, in-line refs and combination of short sentences into paragraphs; could be C-class with these changes and further expansion.Shaidar cuebiyar (talk) 09:08, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Last edited at 09:08, 27 July 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 21:22, 29 April 2016 (UTC)