Oh, I went to Peter’s flowing stream
Where the water’s so good
And I heard there the cuckoo
As he sang from the wood.
Chorus: Hold-di-ah....
Hold-di-ra kiki, a hol-di rah cuckoo (cuckoo) (snap fingers too)
Hold-di-ra kiki, a hol-di rah cuckoo (cuckoo)
Hold-di-ra kiki, a hol-di rah cuckoo (cuckoo)
Hold-di-ra kiki, a oh!
After Easter comes sunny days
That will melt all the snow.
Then I’ll marry my maiden fair
We’ll be happy I know.
When I marry my maiden fair
What more can I desire?
But a home for her tending
And some wood for the fire.
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Thank you for the song.
ReplyDeleteMy mother sang it to us when we were children and I never knew where it originated from. Still looking.
I learned it at vacation bible school!
ReplyDeleteThis has been an ear-worm for more than 60 years! I couldn't stand it in the 2nd grade, I can't stand it now. At least I know I'm not crazy, although my memory of the "kiki" has been coo-kee-ah. I hate this song!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha! I was singing this song to my three year old granddaughter last night. She was mesmerized and wanted to learn it! I needed to find all the (correct?) words as I learned it 55 years ago. Thankyou
ReplyDeleteI sang this song to my kid's when I was stationed in Germany! In the early seventies! Glad I found it !
ReplyDeleteLooked up the third verse here, which was dimly recalled. Sang the song sixty years ago in summer camp. Two slight differences noticed, not a big thing, simply FYI:
ReplyDeleteAs he called from the wood (not "sang" from the wood) and, After Easter come sunny days (not "comes" sunny days).
My seventh-month-old grandson loves it. Another thing, the chorus I remember also differs slightly: ho-lee-rah... ho-lee-rah-kee-kee, ho-lee-rah-koo-koo, etc. (alternating).
Oh, and the most obvious difference, nearly overlooked, is that my version was Peter's flowing spring (not "stream"). The late Frank Millet, a wonderful song leader, was the exceptionally inspiring gentleman who taught camp songs many summers in Waveland MS at Dielmann Center, which has since been washed into the Gulf of Mexico by a hurricane.
ReplyDeleteAll these songs are so great, my mom has demensia and we sing old songs like this one as we drive along on relaxing daily road trips. Good for memory and the happy songs are positive and fun! Keep them alive!
ReplyDeleteI was singing the chorus all the way home from work tonight. I googled to see if I could find the verses. I found this blog and it is fantastic. Thank you so very much. We sang this in 4-H when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteI leaned this in grade school in the early '70s. I believe the books we used in music class were full of royalty-free songs, many, I suspect, composed on commission for the book publisher (Houghton Mifflin or whoever). I long suspected such was the case with this song.
ReplyDeleteI will note that the version I learned differed from the above in that it had been neutered: "true love" instead of "maiden fair"; and the third verse dropped completely.
Can't find a good version of this on YouTube! We sang this in church camp 55 years ago. Thanks for the words, couldn't remember them!
ReplyDeleteI heard this song around 1976-1978 on a radio program for schoolchildren about singing. Flash forward to yesterday when a friend posted a performance of a Welsh song, similar chorus, almost the same tune, but completely different verses. Both songs feature an increasing number of cuckoos (or other things) during each successive chorus.
ReplyDeleteThe Welsh song:
Lyrics: https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=5706
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLXEnHkrE74
Peter's Flowing Stream
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GIWuhFQKlE
Holy Ra Cuckoo - The Bergerfolk
- Basically Peter's Flowing Stream with an extra verse written by Phoebe Lou Berger (one of the Bergerfolk I presume) and slightly different (e.g. Holy ra cuckee rather than Hold-di-ra kiki).
According to this page: https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW32417.pdf
it is from the album The Bergerfolk Sing of Sunshine and Rainbows Volume 3 (FOLKWAYS RECORDS Albwn No. FTS 32417
© 1974)
The album material on that page also says that it is 'an old Austrian "drlnklng song"'
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX90yF_WgeI
UPDATE: It was on Sing! in 1977, according to https://www.abc.net.au/tveducation/pdf/Sing!%201975-2014%20song%20index.pdf page 19
ReplyDeleteThey called the song The Cuckoo and labelled it as Traditional Australian. Also, their version mentions Peter's flowing spring.
Further reading, especially in relation to camp songs. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=-6S8AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA176&lpg=PA176&dq=peter%27s+flowing+spring&source=bl&ots=9GpnTlCni_&sig=ACfU3U25UUujIJWExtou1VpEvDATTBev0w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj24NvEmb7iAhUQ63MBHUfgD24Q6AEwEHoECDEQAQ#v=onepage&q=peter's%20flowing%20spring&f=false
ReplyDeleteNote that the Welsh version that I heard had some of these US camp gestures!