Song: Down by the Bay
Artist: Raffi and Various
Year: Written 1914 - 1916, Raffi 1976
Album: Singable Songs for the Very young
Language Feature: Rhyming Pronunciation
Episode Description
In each season, we have to include at least one fun, silly traditional folk song that might be considered a “children’s song,” but is actually for everyone! The traditional folk song, “Down by the Bay,” was recorded by the children’s artist, Raffi, in the 1970’s. People of all ages can enjoy creating rhyming lyrics of their own.
For example, Ece came up with, “Have you ever seen Heather, enjoying cold weather?” (No, nobody has ever seen this!) Heather’s lyrics were, “Have you ever seen a teacher chasing a creature?” (No, but we’ve seen several creatures chasing teachers!) We hope you have fun inventing your own lyrics to this singalong song!!
Episode Transcript
<Intro>
H: Hi! I’m Heather.
E: And I’m Ece. We’re co-hosts of the podcast, “English as a Singing Language.”
H: We take songs from different genres and time periods, and we talk about the language features in the song that can help people to learn or teach English.
E: We sure do. We have a lot of fun discussing the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary in a variety of songs.
H: This week we’re talking about pronunciation, right?
E: That’s right. We have a fun traditional folk song that became a popular children’s song in the 1970s.
H: Oh! We had so much fun last time we did a children’s folk song. Do you remember?
E: Of course I do! That was Season 1, Episode 14.
H: We talked about consonant clusters in the song, “The Green Grass Grows All Around.”
H + E: “And the green grass grows all around, all around, and the green grass grows all around.”
E: That’s a great song!
H: If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, you should definitely go back and check it out!
E: And this week’s song is really fun, too. I can’t wait!
H: Me neither. Let’s get started!
<end intro>
E: (humming, “Down by the Bay”)
H: Hi Ece! What song is that? It sounds so familiar!
E: It’s a traditional folk song called, “Down by the Bay.”
H: My children listened to that song when they were little. They loved it!
E: My daughter loves it, too. We were listening to it last night and now it’s stuck in my head.
H: That happens to me all the time. So, where did “Down by the Bay” come from?
E: Supposedly, it was written in England during the first World War, in 1914 - 1916, around then.
H: Wow! That is old!
E: But it has the same melody, meaning the same tune, as an old Ionian Cantada from the 1800’s.
H: A what?
E: An Ionian Cantada is a style of folk music that started in the Ionian Islands of Greece, and then became popular on the Greek mainland in the late 1800’s.
H: Wow! That’s cool. I didn’t know that.
E: Yeah, the original title of the song in Greek is, “Gialo, gialo” and “gialo” means “bay.” A “bay” is where the coast curves inward into a circle so that the sea is surrounded by land.
H: So, if it is a traditional song, who sings it?
E: The song, “Down by the Bay,” was made famous in the 1970’s by the Canadian singer, Raffi.
H: I’ve heard of him. He sings children’s songs, right? Songs like, “Baby Beluga” and “Bananaphone.”
E: Yes! That’s him. His full name is Raffi Cavoukian, but professionally he just uses his first name, Raffi. He was an extremely popular singer and entertainer for children from the 1970s through the 1990s. He has said, “Love for children is the enormous untapped power that can wake us up to the profound changes we need to make if we’re to have a future worth living.”
H: I really like that. Children are extremely important.
E: And children’s songs are really important!
H: And they’re not just for children.
E: That’s right. Children’s songs are for everybody.
H: They can be especially good for learning English, too.
E: The songs are usually short, and there’s a lot of repetition.
H: And in the case of this song, there is a lot of fun rhyming.
E: We’ve talked about rhyming before, haven’t we?
H: A lot of songs have rhyming, when two words have the same ending and a different beginning sound, like “cat” and “hat.”
E: Or, “mouse” and “house.”
H: Right. Remember Season 1, Episode 6? The Temptations song, “The Way You Do the Things You Do”?
E: Yes! There are a lot of great rhymes in that song.
H: There are! And the focus of the song in this episode is rhyming words, too.
E: Ok, so the song starts out, “Down by the Bay”
H: “Where the Watermelons grow,”
E: “Back to my home,”
H: “I dare not go.”
E: So, “grow” and “go” both end in the same [o] sound.
H: Those two words rhyme, but what does, “back to my home, I dare not go.” mean?
E: In conversational English, we would probably say, “I’m afraid to return to my house.”
H: It would seem very formal to use, “I dare not” in conversation.
E: It would sound pretty funny to hear someone say, “I dare not turn in my homework late, or my teacher will be angry.”
H: That does sound funny. So, why does the singer dare not go home? Or, why is he afraid to go home?
E: The next part is, “for if I do, my mother will say…”
H: Ah-ha. If the singer returns home, his mother will say something very silly to him. Apparently, his mother says things that don’t make sense.
E: This is where the fun and the rhyming practice comes in.
H: Ok. So, what does the mother say?
E: In Raffi’s version, he uses, “Did you ever…,” but in general we use the present perfect, “Have you ever,” to ask if someone has had a specific experience.
H: That means in some versions of the song we’ll hear, “Did you ever” and in some we’ll hear, “Have you ever.” Is that right?
E: Yes. so the examples we’ll give here will all use, “Have you ever…”
H: That sounds good. So what is the sentence in the song?
E: The sentence structure is, “Have you ever seen a [blank] [blanking] a [blank], down by the bay?”
H: Hmm, ok. I think you’re going to have to give me an example.
E: So the first example Raffi gives is, “Have you ever seen a goose kissing a moose, down by the bay?”
H: That is extremely silly. I can see how children would love these lyrics.
E: Absolutely. So, “goose” a kind of bird, and “moose” a large mammal kind of like a deer. Both of them rhyme and why would the goose kiss a moose??
H: And the next one is “Have you ever seen a whale with a polka dot tail, down by the bay?”
E: There’s no -ing verb in that one, just a description of a whale who has polka dots, or spots on its tail. That’s very funny.
H: It sure is. The next verse does have an -ing verb, “Have you ever seen a fly wearing a tie, down by the bay?”
E: Can you imagine a tiny fly wearing a teeny tiny tie?
H: Or how about, “Have you ever seen a bear combing its hair, down by the bay?”
E: I think it's interesting to point out that words can rhyme and be spelled completely differently. Like, “fly” f-l-y and “tie” t-i-e.
H: And, “bear” b-e-a-r and “hair” h-a-i-r.
E: English spelling is pretty crazy sometimes.
H: Agree. But not as crazy as the next lines in the song. “Have you ever seen a llama eating pajamas, down by the bay?”
E: I think that has to be the silliest one so far. A llama is an animal kind of like a camel. I don’t know why it would be eating pajamas!
H: I don’t know either!
E: In Raffi’s last verse, he sings, "Did you ever have a time when you couldn't make a rhyme?"
H: I think he’s encouraging us to make up our own verses. In his live concerts, he would add additional silly rhymes to the song.
E: This is the best part of this song. You can make up an infinite number of verses using words that rhyme and crazy ideas.
H: The crazier, the better.
E: How about, “Have you ever seen Heather enjoying cold weather, down by the bay?”
H: That’s a good one! Or, “Have you ever seen a teacher chasing a creature, down by the bay?”
E: We’re teachers! I hope we don’t have to chase any creatures!
H: Me too! I prefer teaching grammar and creating this podcast!
E: Well, I think we’re ready to sing!
H: I think so, too. There’s a link to Raffi’s version of “Down by the Bay” in the episode notes.
E: Don’t forget to sing out loud.
H: And try to think of more verses to practice your rhyming words!
E + H: "Did you ever have a time when you couldn't make a rhyme, down by the bay.”
<outtro>
H: I can see why your daughter loves, “Down by the Bay” so much.
E: It’s a very fun and very catchy song.
H: I feel like I’m going to be singing it for days now!
E: I hope our listeners will be, too!
H: I hope they will check out our YouTube channel! You can now listen to, “English as a Singing Language” on YouTube.
E: We’re in the process of putting all of our episodes up on YouTube.
H: We know that’s a convenient way for you to enjoy the podcast.
E: Be sure to like and subscribe while you’re there!
H: Of course you can always listen on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
E: And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, @singinglanguages
H: Until next time, have fun and…
H + E: … just keep singing!
Official YouTube Video
Complete Lyrics
Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever you ever see a goose
kissing a moose?"
Down by the bay
Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a whale
With a polka dot tail?"
Down by the bay
Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a fly
Wearing a tie?"
Down by the bay
Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a bear
Combing his hair?"
Down by the bay
Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a llama
Eating pajamas?"
Down by the bay
Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever have a time
When you couldn't make a rhyme?"
Down by the bay
Comments