Waterboy (song)

"Waterboy" (a.k.a. "The Water Boy") is an American traditional folk song. It is built on the call "Water boy, where are you hidin'?"[1] The call is one of several water boy calls in cotton plantation folk tradition.[2]

"Waterboy" / "Water Boy"
Cover of sheet music to a piano version of the "negro convict song" arranged by Avery Robinson for singer Roland Hayes, 1950
Song
Published1922
GenreJazz, Folk, Blues
LengthTypically 3-4 mins
Composer(s)Avery Robinson (arr.)
Lyricist(s)Traditional

Numerous artists have written and/or recorded their own versions of this African-American traditional song, including Jacques Wolfe, a Romanian immigrant, and Avery Robinson[3] who popularized "Water Boy" as a jazz song in the 1920s. From 1949 onwards, many blues and folk artists have performed their own arrangements of it.

The opening call to the "water boy" has been said to bear a resemblance to melodies found in classical works by Cui, Tchaikovsky, and Liszt, as well as a Jewish marriage song and a Native American tune.[4] The first melody of the subsequent refrain is similar to the old German tune "Mendebras," used for the hymn "Oh Day of Rest and Gladness."[4][5][6]

Versions

References
  1. Boyle, Sheila Tully; Buni, Andrew (2005). Paul Robeson: The Years of Promise And Achievement. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 147. The work song, 'Water Boy', is built around the cry for water of a gang of condemned and laboring men. Robeson sang the refrain (the water cry itself, 'Water boy, where are you hidin'?') a cappella and very softly, and the verses themselves ...
  2. Courlander, Harold (1963). Negro Folk Music U.S.A. Columbia University Press. p. 86. In the cotton fields and the cornfields of the present time, as on the old plantations, the water carrier is in constant demand. The call for the water boy (or girl), in one or another of ... Some water calls such as 'Water Boy, Where Are You Hidin'?' have come to be regarded as true songs, and may be heard on phonograph recordings.
  3. "Songs composed by Avery Robinson". AllMusic.
  4. Spaeth, Sigmund (1927). Read 'Em and Weep. The Songs you Forgot to Remember. Halcyon House. p. 40. Retrieved 24 July 2023 – via Google Books.
  5. Bordman, Gerald (1980). Jerome Kern: His Life and Music. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 146.
  6. A sample of "Mendebras" is available online at CCEH: Tunes: "Mendebras".
  7. The Black Perspective in Music, "Isaac Hayes in London" retrieved April 25, 2008
  8. Fats Waller - In London, AMG
  9. Fats Waller - 1938, AMG
  10. "'Water Boy' by Paul Robeson". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  11. "Edrig Conner of Serenade In Sepia". 1947. Retrieved 23 July 2023 – via British Pathé.
  12. John Lee Hooker - "Water Boy", AMG
  13. Odetta - "I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain/Water Boy", AMG
  14. A Gift of Laughter by Allan Sherman (1965)
  15. Cohen, Mark (2013). Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman. UPNE. p. 131. Retrieved 23 July 2023 – via Google Books.
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