Kookaburra

DESCRIPTION: "Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree, Merry merry king of the bush is he." The bird is told to laugh; "Gay your life must be."
AUTHOR: Marion Sinclair (1896-1988) (Source: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, , Davey/Seal, WIkipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (date of composition, according to Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad food campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 119-121, 130, 133, 134, 175, 346, 347, 348, 432, 438, 447, 500-501, 528, "Kookaburra" (notes, with 3 texts on pp. 119-121; bibliography on pp. 650-654)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 413, "Kookaburra" (1 text)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, p. 148, "Kookaburra" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 38, "Kookaburra" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, p. 57, "Kookaburra" (1 short text plus a German translation; 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Kookaburra" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, p. 44) (12th edition, p. 38)
48MuchLovedFolkSongs, p. 5, "Kookaburra" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 201, "(Kookaburra)" (1 short text)
Roud #36114
NOTES [358 words]: Although all seem to agree that Marion Sinclair was responsible for the first verse of this, most other verses are probably by others. E.g. the version I seem to remember learning, which resembles those in Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, mentions the kookaburra eating up gumdrops. But gum trees (eucalyptus), although they emit a resin called gum drops, do not produce the sort of gumdrops eaten by humans! (Or by kookaburras, in fact.) Such verses are surely American.
According to Andrew and Nancy Learmonth, Encyclopedia of Australia, 2nd edition, Warne & Co, 1973, p. 296, "Kookaburra, Laughing Jackass, or Great Brown Kingfisher is "The world's largest kingfisher... well-known from its chattering call like mocking human laughter." It is native to eastern Australia but was introduced into the west and Tasmania, so most Australians would know it. Like most kingfishers, it eats crabs and small fish, but also insects and small land mammals, birds, and reptiles -- so while it lives among eucalyptus, it does not use them for food. "It is off-white, with brown back, eye-bar and black-bared tail, with a flash of pale blue on the wing."
There is an interesting and rather unpleasant footnote to the history of this song, according to the podcast "Cautionary Tales" with Tim Harford, episode "The Nursery Rhyme That Ruined a Rock Band." Marion Sinclair wrote other, more serious songs, all mercifully forgotten, and apparently didn't take this one too seriously. She didn't even copyright it until 1975. Somehow, the copyright then passed to Larrikin Music Publishing. Which had bought the rights for the specific purpose of collecting back royalties. There are a lot of publishers of scouting songbooks which could be in a lot of trouble, but the biggest case was apparently a song called "Down Under" by a group called "Men at Work," which used something vaguely Kookaburra-like as part of the accompaniment, and got sued for it. So be careful with this song, at least as long as copyright laws are as broken as they are now. (When I heard about this, I changed the description of the song slightly so that I wasn't quoting the whole text!) - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: FSWB413B

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