Down by the Bay

"Down by the Bay" is a traditional children's song of uncertain origin.

"Down by the Bay"
Traditional folk song
Genre	Children's song
Written	Unknown
Published	Greece or England

Origin

The actual origin of "Down by the Bay" is uncertain as it shares the melody with other songs. One of these is a Greek folk song called "Γιαλό, γιαλό" ("γιαλό" meaning "bay" or "seaside") exists with this same melody.^[1] It is an Ionian Cantada, a style of folk music that originated in the late 19th century.^[1] In the modern era, this song may be best attributed to Armenian-Canadian singer-lyricist Raffi, and appears on his 1976 album Singable Songs for the Very Young as his signature song. In an interview with the Vulture Newsletter, Raffi described it as being "An old, old song", saying that "It may have been a World War I song ... It came from England."^[2]

It has gained popularity as a campfire song among the Scouting Movement in Britain. Another version of the song is "Down by the Sea". The chorus from this was used by the folk band, Fiddler's Dram, in their song "Johnny John".^[3]

Lyrics

The song lyrics are usually as follows:

Down by the bay,
Where the watermelons grow,
Back to my home,
I dare not go,
For if I do,
My mother will say:

Usually, the insertion lyrics follow some kind of variation of the question "Did/(Have) you ever see(n) a _____ _____ing a _____?", with the first and last blank rhyming. For example:

• "Did you ever see a moose kissing a goose?" (or "goose kissing a moose")
• "Did you ever see a whale with a polka dot tail?"
• "Did you ever see a fly wearing a tie?"
• "Did you ever see a bear combing his hair?"
• "Did you ever see llamas eating their pajamas?"
• "Did you ever see a goat rowing a boat?"
• "Did you ever see a dragon pulling a wagon?"
• "Did you ever see a fox putting on socks?"
• "Did you ever see a fish doing hula on a dish?"
• "Did you ever see a parrot eating a carrot?"
• "Did you ever see a cat wearing a hat?"
• "Did you ever see a rhino kissing a dino?"
• "Did you ever see an octopus dancing with a platypus?"

The song can be ended with the following line:

• "Did you ever have a time when you couldn't make a rhyme?"

Each of the rhyming lines is followed by the ending line:

• "Down by the bay?"