General Chat

Just wondered if there are any ex girl guides here who can remember singing a camp song about a Kookaburra with these lyrics ~
The kookaburra has no work,
he has no work to do
but sits up in a tree all day
to catch a snake or two
and when he's cut a snake in half
he sits up in the tree to
la ha ha ha ha ha ha
he he he he he he!
I can't remember the rest this jolly song sadly, it was quite popular when I was a girl guide in the 1950s, I used to sing it to my children and grandchildren whilst out walking.

Ex girl guide here, different kookaburra song??

Kookaburra sits in the old oak tree-ee
Merry merry king of the woods is he-ee
Laugh! kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra
Gay your life must be ah ha ha
Gay your life must be ah ha ha.


edit - and of course I thought kookaburras in oak trees were a little incongruous as I typed that -- google tells me it's *gum* tree. ;) And he's king of the bush. Any Aussies around may feel free to butcher a Canuck song in revenge.


-- I googled but can't come up with any more of the lyrics than you have, and youtube is dominated by the one I know (including by someone in the US singing it with the most charming US accent ;) -- staap, kookaburra, staap, kookaburra ... ).

Iknew the google version, with the kookaburra sitting in the old gum tree, and king of the bush....


OMG this brings back some memories lol

Queen's Guide here.

Thanks janey & teresa for your reply, I/we used to sing the gum tree song also but the K song I referred to no one seems to know it isn't that strange, ooh! I've just had a thought maybe it was 'county' song if you know what I mean ie I come from Somerset and perhaps this song was familiar to this part of the country, incidentally I was a brown owl for a few years and I taught my brownies the song along with others and had great fun singing our hearts out whilst out on nature walks ~ happy days!

I've just had a good google and our song is the only kookaburra song I can find...

oops :-)


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8497433.stm

The Australian band Men at Work are facing a big legal bill after a court ruled it had plagiarised a Girl Guides' song in its 1983 hit, Down Under.

Larrikin Music had claimed the flute riff from was stolen from Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, written by Marion Sinclair in 1934.

Craftlady, if you google

"kookaburra has no work"

in quotation marks like that, there is this in the results:

http://www.penders.com/assets/instrumental-rhythmic.pdf

Collection w/Orff Instr & Repro 16141400 $15.00
Orffestrations Go ‘Round in Round Again
Linda Forrest
Songs: America, America • Are You Sleeping • Diddle Diddle Dumpling • Engine Engine Number 9 • French Cathedrals • Hey Ho! Nobody Home • >>>Kookaburra Has No Work • Music Alone Shall Live • Sweetly Sings the Donkey • Tallis Canon • Viva La Musica

It seems to be words and music for those songs, I think.

I don't know how you're supposed to order it though!

This guiding site has the song and many others

it was also known as a nursery rhyme

http://www.shropshireguiding.org.uk/page10.html

Thanks a whole bunch everyone for your kind help, I'm now going to trawl through the info' and hopefully come up with goods ~ what got me going on this was my youngest granddaughter wanting to know the lyrics ~ she's doing a project at school on 'witty ditties' and thought of this song, thanks again.

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
Gay your life must be







Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Eating all the gumdrops he can see
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
Leave some gums for me

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
That's no monkey, that's ME!!!

------------------------------------------------------
The Kookaburra does no work,
He has no work to do,
He sits upon a tree all day,
And has a snake or two,
And when he's cut that snake in half,
He sits upon a tree to
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
He he he he he he

Kookaburra sits on the electric wire
Tears in his eyes and his pants on fire
Ouch Kookaburra, Ouch Kookaburra
Hot your tail must be.

Susan# - I'd checked that one - only has what Craftlady already has, unfortunately. ;)

Mau - is it actually part and parcel of the same song??

Hi everyone who offered their kind help in pointing me in the right direction re kookaburra song ~ have found exactly what I was looking for ~ I'm so happy ~ an so is my lovely granddaughter ~ many, many thanks again.

Craftlady - won't you direct us to where you found it (and what it is) so we're not left in the same dark you were in?! ;)

As someone who was expelled from the Brownies and therefore not in the Girl Guides I'm reporting this thread as Girl Guide-ist!

LOL

Isn't that the song which has just featured in a court case?
The originator sued a group (and won) for stealing it. The case was only closed this week.

Ahhh Mau- when I was a Boy Scout we sang an even less polite version-

"Kookaburra sits on the electric wire
Jumping up and down with his B***s on fire!"


xxxxxxx mick

Regarding Men at Work-

I went to Uni with Greg Ham - the flute player.

I have a photo of him playing flute in the band
backing MY singing!

(Oh what might have been - lol)

xxxxxxxx mick

When I was in the guides we used to sing this with gusto!


Ging-gang-gooly gooly gooly gotcha ging gang goo, ging gang goo.
Ging-gang-gooly gooly gooly gotcha ging gang goo, ging gang goo.
Hayla, hayla shayla, hayla shayla hayla hooooooo
Hayla, hayla shayla, hayla shayla hayla hooooooo!


What on earth was all that about??? I haven't the foggiest!


(Stupid thing will probably be in my head all day now - Grrrrr)



Cx.

Oh my word, memories are flooding back lol!

We sang those songs plus:

One Heffalump
Came out to play
Upon a spider's web one day,
He found it such
Tremendous fun
He called for another Heffalump to come.

No idea what a Heffalump is!

I was a Patrol Leader.

xxx Shimms xxx

Morning all....another ex patrol leader here :O)
Of course there was another nasty song most people remember! ....LOL MIck xx

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
I think I'll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones,
Eensie weensy squeensy ones,
See how they wiggle and squirm!

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!

I bite off the heads, and suck out the juice,
And throw the skins away!
Nobody knows how fat I grow,
On worms three times a day!

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
I think I'll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones,
Eensie weensy squeensy ones,
See how they wiggle and squirm!

Mau xx