Down by the Riverside: Sharing Music I Like

(Sharing Music I Like)

Several few years ago, I was covering a class, and was assigned to teach a rather dry reading lesson about the UN from a mandatory textbook.

I tried to make the best I could of it by searching for some sort of fun video about the UN, and found this one by the Animaniacs

Animaniacs - U. N. Me

I composed a gapfill song sheet to go with it. Available HERE.  

(The Animaniacs were - always - good - for a funny introduction to serious subjects)

...anyway, if you watch that U.N. Me song, you'll notice it's a lot of fun.  And, as the kids would say, it really bops.  (Is that what the kids are saying nowadays?)

The tune that they're riffing off of, "Down by the Riverside", struck me as vaguely reminiscent in the same way I suspect it strikes you.  Like, I'm sure I had heard it before somewhere.  I recognized it as an old gospel song.  It wasn't particularly popular at my church growing up, but I might have heard it once or twice at a Bible camp or something.

I eventually decided to check it out on Wikipedia, and found the history of the song interesting:

"Down by the Riverside" (also known as "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" and "Gonna lay down my burden") is an African-American spiritual. Its roots date back to before the American Civil War,^[1] though it was first published in 1918 in Plantation Melodies: A Collection of Modern, Popular and Old-time Negro-Songs of the Southland, Chicago, the Rodeheaver Company.^[2] The song has alternatively been known as "Ain' go'n' to study war no mo'", "Ain't Gwine to Study War No More", "Down by de Ribberside", "Going to Pull My War-Clothes" and "Study war no more". The song was first recorded by the Fisk University jubilee quartet in 1920 (published by Columbia in 1922), and there are at least 14 black gospel recordings before World War II.^[3]

Because of its pacifistic imagery, "Down by the Riverside" has also been used as an anti-war protest song, especially during the Vietnam War.^[1] The song is also included in collections of socialist and labor songs.^[4]

There are, as you would expect, a lot of different versions of this song on Youtube.  And I must confess, I haven't listened to them all.  But this is my favorite so far:

Down By the Riverside feat. Grandpa Elliott | Playing For Change | Song Around The World

Give it a listen.  I think you're agree, it's a lot of fun.

This song has become standard listening in our apartment.  (The kids really love it as well.)

And by all means, if you have another version of this song to recommend to me, let me know in the comments.