12/12/2021

The prompt from Jim:

This week the theme is songs that include nonsense lyrics suggested by Amy Braun, ai love music aisasami.

I am bending the rules a little perhaps, but gobbledygook is anything we do not recognize as our language. All the lyrics in this song are in plain English, but the enunciation fools the ear.

“Send Me On My Way” was written and recorded by the band Rusted Root. In an interview with Songfacts writer Carl Wiser, singer songwriter (and Rusted Root founder) explains how the song came about:

Songfacts: In some of your songs, especially the early ones, you’re doing some sort of chanting. I’m wondering if there are times that you are coming out with these lyrics and either they’re not real words or you don’t even know what they mean. Does that ever happen?

Glabicki: Sure.

Songfacts: What are some examples?

Glabicki: Well, our most popular song ever, “Send Me On My Way,” there’s a word in there that doesn’t make any rational sense. I think it’s “oombayseeyou.” And then the melody, “seemoobadeeyah.” I was in the process of coming up with lyrics, and it just sounded so good and felt so right that it had a meaning of its own that you couldn’t make better by making it a word. So I left it.

Songfacts: How did you start writing that song?

Glabicki: I spend a lot of time writing alone, and I remember just walking right into our studio during the day. I remember it being very sunny. We had these big windows in this warehouse and the sun was shining in, and as soon as I walked in I picked up the guitar and just started writing it. It was just a very, very happy feeling. You could feel that there was a lot of happiness in the room. Whether that was an extension of me or something else in there that was very happy, you just felt it. Just like a super happy feeling.

I was listening to a lot of Toni Childs at the time, a vocalist that was very African influenced. She might have opened up a doorway for me that I could tap into and draw from.

All the band members are credited on this song. It was released in 1992 and then re-released in 1994. It only reached #72 on the charts but later garnered more commercial success when used as tracks in movies like “Ice Age” and “Matilda”. It was also used as the wakeup song for the Mars Exploration Rover – Opportunity.

“Send Me On My Way”
Lyrics from Songfacts.com

(On my way, on my way)
(On my way, on my way)

I would like to reach out my hand
I may see you, I may tell you to run (on my way, on my way)
You know what they say about the young

Well pick me up with golden hand
I may see you, I may tell you to run (on my way, on my way)
You know what they say about the young

Well, I would like to hold my little hand
And we will run, we will, we will crawl, we will
I would like to hold my little hand
And we will run, we will, we will crawl

Send me on my way (on my way)
Send me on my way (on my way)
Send me on my way (on my way)
Send me on my way (on my way)
Send me on my way (on my way)
Send me on my way (on my way)
Send me on my way (on my way)
Mm hmm (on my way)

I would like to reach out my hand
I may see you, I may tell you to run (on my way, on my way)
You know what they say about the young

Now pick me up with golden hand
I may see you, I may tell you to run (on my way, on my way)
You know what they say about the young

Well, I would like to hold my little hand
And we will run, we will, we will crawl, we will
I would like to hold my little hand
And we will run, we will, we will crawl

Send me on my way
Send me on my way
Send me on my way
On my way
Send me on my way
Send me on my way

Oh oh oh (way)
Send me on my way
Oh oh oh (way)
Send me on my way

I would like to reach out my hand
I may see you, I may tell you to run (on my way, on my way)
You know what they say about the young

Writer/s: JAMES DI SPIRITO, JAMES DONOVAN, JENN WERTZ, JIM DISPIRITO, JIM DONOVAN, JOHN BUYNAK, LIZ BERLIN, MICHAEL GLABICKI, PATRICK NORMAN
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

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