Dennis Heaton wrote asking for help with a song that’s possibly Native American. It’s possibly it’s an American counting-out song for choosing who’s It in a game. It has that kind of rhythm. Here’s his email, followed by the lyrics and a YouTube of his relatives singing the song…
“I’m searching around trying to find the meaning of an old song that a relative used to sing in the 1920’s and 1930’s to children. It’s possible it is in Choctaw or Cherokee, but I believe the lyrics are actually phonics and not the real words. I wasn’t around until a long time later, but I’m trying to help a distant cousin figure out the translation of the song. They sang it at our reunion recently.”
Here are the lyrics:
Ratta botta rigdom kind bo
Kind bo neyro
Captain Kayro
Kind baneyro kind bo
Sim a nicker
Bom a nicker
Ratta botta Rigdom
Rigdom, rigdom
Ratta botta rigdom
Bom a nichie kind bo.
Here’s the video…
If anyone can help with this song, if you’re familiar with it in any way, please share any info you might have. Thanks in advance!
-Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Thursday, October 31st, 2019 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Mama Lisa, Native American Indian Songs, Questions, Readers Questions, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
January 23rd, 2020 at 5:49 pm
My grandmother taught me a song very similar to the one you sing in your video. It has some of the same gibberish words in it. She was born in 1894, so I know it’s been around at least 126 years. At least her version has been.
She was born in Texas and lived there all of her life.
September 24th, 2024 at 3:54 am
It sounds awfully familiar to the nonsense syllables in the Froggy Went A’Courtin’ song. I’ve just guessed at the spelling, but when you hear him singing it, it’s similar in ways to the song video above. I’d love to hear more of what people shared about that family story! > Lisa
Froggy went a’ courtin’ and he did ride…
Rinktum bottie minchy cambo
Sword and buckler by his side
Rinktum bottie minchy cambo
Ky-ma-neero, down to Cairo
Ky-ma-neero, Ky-ay-roh
Ratta batta batta badda body badda rinktum
Rinktum bottie minchy cambo.
It’s in a recording by John McCutcheon How Can I Keep From Singing album 1975