Green Oak Tree! Rocky'o (1922) / Green Green Rocky Road (1950) / Ackabacka (1920's) / Icka backa / Hooka Tooka / Green Rocky Road (1961) / Promenade In Green (1963) / London Town (1964)

"Green Rocky Road" is a song "written" (copyrighted) by Greenwich Village regulars Len Chandler and Robert Kaufman in 1961, but apparently has its origins in a black children’s folk song from Alabama.

In 1950 Harold Courlander, assisted by Ruby Pickens Tartt, recorded a group of children from Lilly's Chapel School in York, Alabama, singing this ring game song.

It was also contained on page 277 of Harold Courlander's songbook "Negro Folk Music U.S.A.", published in 1963 by Columbia Univ. Press,

"Negro Folk Music U.S.A."

http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/CNFM154.html

http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S236879

Green, Green Rocky Road

Some Lady's green rocky road

Tell me who you love, rocky road

Tell me who you love, rocky road

Dear Miss Minnie your name's names been called

Come take a seat beside the wall

Give her a kiss & let her go

She'll never sit in that chair no more.

etc etc ...

In 1953 that version was released on the next album:

Ring Games: Line Games And Play Party Songs Of Alabama (1953, Vinyl) | Discogs

Here are the liner-notes of that album

http://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW07004.pdf

(o) Children of Lilly's Chapel School, York, Alabama (1953) (as "Green Green Rocky Road")

Recorded 1950 in York, Alabama.

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The song was previously collected by Ruby Pickens Tartt in the 1930's

http://cdm17066.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p17066coll3/id/2560/rv/singleitem/rec/1

Ruby Pickens Tartt Collection

But a dance song, "Green Oak Tree! Rocky'o", published in 1922 in Thomas W. Talley's "Negro Folk Rhymes",may have been the original source of "Green Green Rocky Road"

Negro folk rhymes : wise and otherwise : Talley, Thomas Washington : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This game song was also collected and recorded by Herbert Halpert in May 1939, sung by three children in Tupelo, Mississippi

Green-a tree, rocky road | Library of Congress

Ruby T. Lomax collected and recorded this game song on May 15, 1939 in Merryville, Louisiana, sung by Ruthie May Farr and Wilford Jerome Fisher.

1939 Southern Recording Trip Fieldnotes | Library of Congress

Green Old Tree, Old Rocky Row | Library of Congress

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In 1961 Dave Van Ronk was working with poet Robert "Bob" Kaufman, who sang a song to him. Dave couldn't make anything of it, but Len Chandler made an arrangement of the song.

And it was on July 29, 1961 that Dave Van Ronk was singing "Green Green Rocky Road" in Riverside Church in New York. This was broadcast on WRVR in New York ("Saturday Of Folk Music").

http://folkarchivist.blogspot.nl/2011/11/various-artists-saturday-of-folk-music.html

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Sometime later "new" lyrics were added ("Hooka Tooka Soda Cracka") which is probably an adaptation of the UK children's counting out rhyme "Icka Backa (or Acka Backa / Ikka Bokka) Soda Cracker" 

My mother, your mother live across the way.

Every night they have a fight and this is what they say:

'Icka backa soda cracker, icka backa boo.

Icka backa soda cracker, out goes you!'

Maybe the first officialy recorded version (with the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics), was by a duo consisting of Leroy Inman and Ira Rogers.

(o) Inman and Ira (1963) (as "Green Green Rocky Road")

It was released in January 1963 on the next album.

Inman And Ira - Singing Spokesmen For The New Generation (1963, Vinyl) | Discogs

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In 1963 Karen Dalton recorded a version of "Green Rocky Road" (without the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics), which she might have heard around 1961 while she was a Greenwich Village regular.

(c) Karen Dalton (1963) (as "Green Rocky Road")

Recorded March 1963 in Pine Street, Boulder, Colorado by Joe Loop;

Karen Dalton, voc, 12-str. g; bj;  Richard Tucker, g; Joe Loop. dr;

This version was finally released in 2008 on the next album

http://www.delmorerecordings.com/products/green-rocky-road

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In 1966 Karen Dalton re-recorded "Green Rocky Road" and this time she incorporated the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics.

This version was finally released in 2012 on the next album:

Delmore Recordings

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(c) Goldcoast Singers (1963)  (as "Hooka Tooka")

Goldcoast Singers = Ed Rush and George Cromarty

Released in April 1963 on the next 45:

http://www.45cat.com/record/nc431795us

(c) Judy Henske (1963)  (as "Hooka Tooka")

Henske's version has both the Hooka Tooka verses and the Green Rocky Road verses.

Released in April 1963 on the next album:

Vinyl Album - Judy Henske - Miss Judy Henske - Elektra - USA

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(c) Willie Wright (1963) (as "Promenade in Green")

(with the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

Recorded February 25/26, 1963 in Chicago Ill.

Released in June 1963 on the next album

Willie Wright - I'm On My Way (1963, Vinyl) | Discogs

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(c) Paul Clayton (1963)  (as "Green Rocky Road")

(without the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

Recorded February 1963 in Nashville TN

Released in July 1963 on the next 45:

http://www.45cat.com/record/nc740487us

Listen here:

Or here:

(c) Dave Van Ronk (1963)  (as "Green Rocky Road")

Recorded July 11, 1963.

Released August 1963 on the album "In The Tradition" (Prestige Folklore ‎– FL 14001).

First reviewed as New Album in Billboard on page 26 of the Dec 7, 1963 issue.

This was in fact Van Ronk's first officially released version.

This version doesn't contain the Hooka Tooka verse, which Dave did incorporate in later recorded versions.

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(c) Chubby Checker (1963) (as "Hooka Tooka")

Chubby Checker was smart enough to make his "own" arrangement of the song and  achieve a Top 20 US Hit. Checker's version has only the Hooka Tooka verses.

The other side of Chubby's 45 ("Loddy Lo") was also an arrangement of a children's song, which also became a US Top 20 Hit.

http://www.45cat.com/record/p890us

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(c) Peter, Paul & Mary (1963)  (as "Rocky Road")

In 1963 Peter Yarrow and Noel (Paul) Stookey made their "own" arrangement of "Green Rocky Road" (without the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics) included it on the In The Wind album.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Wind

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(c) Casey Anderson (1963) (as "Green Rocky Road")

(with the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

Recorded September 19, 1963

Released November 1963 on the next 45

http://www.45cat.com/record/456279

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(c) Len Chandler (1963) (as "Green Green Rocky Road")

The "author's" version was released October 1963 on A Rootin' Tootin' Hootenanny

A Rootin' Tootin' Hootenanny (1964, Vinyl) | Discogs

http://www.wirz.de/music/chandfrm.htm

(c) Terry Callier (1964) (as "Promenade in Green")

(with the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

Recorded July 29, 1964 in Chicago, Ill

But it was not released until 1968

The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier - Wikipedia

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A version of "Green Green Rocky Road" was also published in September 1964 in "Sing Out" magazine

vol.14...#4 ... page.40

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=59549



(c) Jim Helms (1964)  (as "Hooka Tooka")
Released on the album 5-String Banjo Greats, Liberty LST 7357 

5-String Banjo Greats (1964, Vinyl) | Discogs

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(c) Chambers Brothers (1965) (as "Hooka Tooka")
(with the Green Rocky Road lyrics)
Recorded August 7, 1964 live in the Ash Grove, Los Angeles, CA

The Chambers Brothers - People Get Ready (1966, Vinyl) | Discogs

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(c) Kathy & Carol (1965) (as "Green Rocky Road")
(without the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

http://www.discogs.com/Kathy-Carol-Kathy-Carol/release/3462773

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(c) Highwaymen (1965) (as "Green Rocky Road")
(without the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

http://www.discogs.com/Highwaymen-Stop-Look-Listen/release/3032346

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(c) Tim Hardin (1966)  (as "Green Rocky Road")
(with the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hardin_1

http://www.discogs.com/Tim-Hardin-Tim-Hardin-1/release/4913956

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(c) Fred Neil (1966)  (as "Green Rocky Road")
(without the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

Fred Neil (album) - Wikipedia

http://www.fredneil.com/lyrics-fred-neil/

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(c) Rick Nelson (1967) (as "Promenade In Green")
(without the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

http://www.rickynelson.co.uk/anotherside.html

http://www.rickynelson.co.uk/promenadelyrics.html

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Arlo Guthrie reworked the "Green Rocky Road" to his "Motorcycle Song".

(c) Arlo Guthrie (1967) (as "Motorcycle Song")

http://www.discogs.com/Arlo-Guthrie-Alices-Restaurant/release/3691533

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_(album)

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(c) Oscar Isaac (2013)  (as "Green Green Rocky Road")
(with the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

Oscar sang this version in the movie "Inside Llewyn Davis". The soundtrack features folk music by Dave Van Ronk, the Greenwich Village folk artist whose story served as the basis for the movie.

Here's a clip from the movie:



And here's the soundtrack version by Oscar Isaac.




A 1993 live version (with the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics) by Dave Van Ronk is also included as the last song on the soundtrack of the movie.

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(c) Emmylou Harris & Kate & Anna McGarrigle (2010)
 (as "Green Green Rocky Road") (with the "Hooka Tooka" lyrics)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_McGarrigle_Hour

http://www.mcgarrigles.com/music/the-mcgarrigle-hour/green-green-rocky-road

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Or here:






In 1964 Michael "Mick" Taylor "wrote" a song called "London Town", which also incorporated the lyrics of the "Green Green Rocky Road" children's game song, with a different melody.
Mick Taylor's version was produced by Peter Eden, who was also the producer of Donovan.
Taylor's version was completed and finally released in June 1965 on the next 45:

(c) Mick Taylor (1964) (as "London Town")

45cat - Mick Taylor - London Town / Hoboin' - CBS - UK - 201770

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As I said above, Peter Eden was also the producer of Donovan, and in the summer of 1964 he presented the song to him. Donovan liked it and did a demo of it but it was never officially released until 1992 on the CD album "Troubadour - The Definitive Collection 1964-1976"

(c) Donovan (1964) (as "London Town")

Donovan Unofficial - Troubadour: The Definitive Collection 1964–1976

Donovan Unofficial - London Town

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Bryan Morrison was a friend of Peter Eden and managed The Pretty Things. He heard the song and got them to release it on their Get the Picture? album.

(c) Pretty Things (1965)  (as "London Town")

Vinyl Album - The Pretty Things - Get The Picture? - Fontana - UK

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(c) Johnny Kongos (1965)  (as "London Town")

45cat - Johnny Kongos - London Town / Everybody Knows - RCA Victor - South Africa - 41.819

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