Trying to identify song lyrics
Carol Gaupp
My daughter has been singing a song a lot lately that G'ma sings to her
periodically. I'm curious if anyone is familiar with it and what the words
are. Rumor has it that it was popular a long time ago (like 30 years ago)?
The way I've heard it so far is something like this:
Bonga bonga bonga
I don't wanna leave the jungle (my dad says this should be congo?)
No no no no
Binga banga bonga
I'm so happy in the jungle
<various indecipherable 'words'>
Civilization <...>
They have things like the atom bomb
*BLEAH* (said very loudly)
She sings it over and over. I'd like to know what the words are so I can
help her with the parts she's a little fuzzy on.
Thanks,
Carol
Mommy to Sara Rose (3 1/2)
and ? (Dec '93)
(I like her version of the three little pigs too. ;) She plays all the parts)
Cover mommy with a blanket
Say: Little pig, little pig, let me in
chi chi chi
(I'm assuming this is the 'not by the hair of my chinny chin chin')
huff puff BLOW
yank the blanket off
laugh
repeat
Suzanne Stratton Heflin
> My daughter has been singing a song a lot lately that G'ma sings to her
> periodically. I'm curious if anyone is familiar with it and what the words
> are. Rumor has it that it was popular a long time ago (like 30 years ago)?
This may seem obvious, but why not ask G'ma what the words are...
--
Suzanne Stratton Heflin |
hef...@rtsg.mot.com ---|--- Stand for something,
Cellular Infrastructure Group | or you'll fall for anything.
Motorola, Inc. |
Steven Levine
>
> My daughter has been singing a song a lot lately that G'ma sings to her
> periodically. I'm curious if anyone is familiar with it and what the words
> are. Rumor has it that it was popular a long time ago (like 30 years ago)?
It's called "Civilization." It was recorded by lots of
folks in the 1940s, including, most notably, Louis Prima
and Danny Kaye (with the Andrews Sisters).
It begins with a long verse that begins:
Each morning a missionary advertise with neon sign....
(But I don't remember the rest)
What I remember of the song:
Bongo Bongo Bongo
I don't want to leave the Congo
Oh no no no no
Bingle Bangle Bungle I'm so happy in the jungle
I refuse to go
Don't want no bright lights, ???
Noise in my ear
So no matter how you coax me,
I'll stay right here.
(There are several verse, also unremembered, about all of the
things civilization offers that have no appeal)
I think I have the sheet music buried somewhere in my
apartment. Send me email if you would like me to
dig it out.
> They have things like the atom bomb
> *BLEAH* (said very loudly)
So I think I'll stay where I ahm
--
Steven Levine
ste...@cray.com
Steven Levine
>>
>> My daughter has been singing a song a lot lately that G'ma sings to her
>> periodically. I'm curious if anyone is familiar with it and what the words
>> are. Rumor has it that it was popular a long time ago (like 30 years ago)?
>
>It's called "Civilization." It was recorded by lots of
>folks in the 1940s, including, most notably, Louis Prima
>and Danny Kaye (with the Andrews Sisters).
...
>I think I have the sheet music buried somewhere in my
>apartment. Send me email if you would like me to
>dig it out.
Here are the words. "Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)" by
Bob Hilliard and Carl Sigman, copyright 1947. Racist
implications and all, couched in terms of foolish
missionary and wise savage, but probably not something
you'd see today -- especially with the fake pidgen dialect.
-----
Each morning a missionary advertise with neon sign
He tell the native population that civilization is fine
And three educated savages holler from a bamboo tree
That civilization is the thing for me to see
But,
Bongo bongo, bongo, I don't want to leave the Congo,
Oh, no, no, no, no, no!
Bingle, bangle, bungle, I'm so happy in the jungle I refuse to go
Don't want no bright lights, false teeth
Doorbells, landlords
I make it clear
That, no matter how they coax me,
I'll stay right here!
I look through a magazine the missionary's wife conceal,
I see how people who are civilized bang you with automobile.
At the movies they have got to pay many coconuts to see
[On my Danny Kaye recording the Andrews sisters say,
in unison, "What do they see Dahn-nee?"]
Uncivilized pictures that the newsreels take of me.
So,
Bongo bongo, bongo, I don't want to leave the Congo,
Oh, no, no, no, no, no!
Bingle, bangle, bungle, I'm so happy in the jungle I refuse to go
Don't want no penthouse, bathtub
streetcars. taxis
Noise in my ear.
So, no matter how they coax me,
I'll stay right here!
They hurry like savages to get aboard an iron train
An, though it's smokey and it's crowded they're too civilized to complain.
When they've got two weeks vacation they hurry to vacation ground
They swim and they fish but that's what I do all year round.
So,
Bongo bongo, bongo, I don't want to leave the Congo,
Oh, no, no, no, no, no!
Bingle, bangle, bungle, I'm so happy in the jungle I refuse to go
Don't want no jailhouse, shotgun
fishhooks, golf clubs,
I've got my spear.
So, no matter how they coax me,
I'll stay right here!
They have things like the atom bomb,
So, I think I'll stay where I "om."
Civilization,
I'll stay right here!
--
Steven Levine
ste...@cray.com