Kumbayah

I don't want to sound smug, or overbearing about it, but you know that song "Kumbayah"?  "Someone's singing, Lord, kumbayah...", and so forth?


"Kumbayah" isn't a West African term/phrase -- its just a rendering of an accented "Come by here".  I forget when I first learned this, but I was really surprised; its both obvious, but because of the context, and presentation (when we learned it in school, we'd always be told the word was not in English -- and also, the concept of a "creole" was probably too advanced for 7-year-olds, heh.)


When I think about the origins of "Kumbayah", I picture sort of Afro-Caribbean people sitting on a beach, somewhere tropical, and they...wait, this is where the imagery breaks up, because it doesn't square with reality.  Specifically: "Kumbayah" is pretty-much always played on a guitar, right?  Afro-Caribbeans of the 17th (let's say, for example) century didn't use guitars...in fact, the modern "Classical" guitar dates from the mid-19th century, I'm pretty sure.


What's my point?  That this is another blow against the perceived "authenticity" of the song, "Kumbayah". Because the song is always heard on an acoustic guitar (or, admittedly, other modern musical instruments), it seems unlikely that it is much older than the acoustic guitar.


Still a good song, that said, and whats authenticity?  Nuffin!


Wait, wait.  It's not a good song, come to think of it -- its trite!


Aww, screw it.  "Getdeefukout".