It is called (spelled somewhat phonetically) "Eddie Gootchie Gatcha Gamma Toe-suh-nera Toe-suh-noka Samma Camma Wacky Brown" a great song with a wonderful melody and words that stick in your mind for (for me now) about 30 years. However, here’s a new (old) twist on this story: my father owned a record by "The Brothers Four" that had a song on it that seems to combine the two different versions. My sister had the Tikki Tikki Tembo version that is available as a video at one of the links above. I laugh now remembering the narrator, Peter Wing, explaining in very serious tones, that "that is why Chinese people have such short names, like Lee and Wu and Po, and other names that you see on Chinese laundries." Thanks for the memories. There were lots vividly descriptive, very politically incorrect, lines in the story: I can still picture Niki Niki Tembo walking down the street, with the "sweat pouring down his chins, like a cascade of waterfalls," with the village people whispering "Fat Boy very very funny. The boy’s name (phonetically) was "Niki niki tembo no so lembo oo ma muchi gamma gamma gucci." His sisters were "Humpf, Mumpf, Gumpf and Lumpf," and his younger brother was Yen. I’m sure we wore it out from overuse, and, I’m sure that I can still recite large parts of it from memory 38 years later. My four brothers, and I, also had the LP with the Story of Long-Name-No-Can-Say on it. He was brought food.and his whims were probably catered to.and then of course, there is the happy resolution. The poor overweight boy was in the well many days.
Now, when he fell into the well, they couldn’t get him out, since they had to play every time his name was said. The record has the tune repeated for our fun. On the record, the child with the long name was always accompanied by musicians who had to play this particular tune everytime his name was said. The story was of course to explain why Chinese children and families now have short names. I have seen this book, but was NEVER tempted to buy it, since the other version is the one close to our hearts.īy the way, we gave short names to our children! I venture to guess that the name change to publish the book came about, because of copyright reasons. I was written long after the record came out. There is the book that most of you remember. Oh.I re-read the last posting and it was clear as mud. That way I don’t have to reveal more than I want. You can send an e-mail through the guestbook or e-mail function. How would you get in touch? The e-address won’t be displayed when I post this. I dug the tape out a couple of years ago and my son and I enjoyed the listening. I loved listening to the story quite myself. The background "music" makes the story and the pauses and the predictable parts always warm a child’s heart. I think the storytelling is nicer than the book, except that there is a reference to the stereotype of a Chinese Laundry.
Of course, there is this sing-song lilt to the whole thing. It was tikki tikki tembo no sarembo, oh ma mu-tchi, gamma gamma gu-tchi.like you remember. I still have it, but I would have to dig for it. The storyteller was definitely comfortable with media performance. I don’t know who the narrator was, but it could have been someone like Art Linkletter. He was the one that listened to a tape of this story as a child, that I got somehow. My son forwarded this e-letter exchange to me. But there’s no mention to that in this book.ĭoes anyone have memories of this as a kid? My siblings are backing me up, but I haven’t gone to my mom’s house to dig through the records. And they called him Long-name-no-can-say in my record.
#TIKITIKITEMBO NOSAREMBO CHARI BARI RUCHI PIP PERI PEMBO HOW TO#
I am not sure how to spell my version, since its been YEARS since I listened to it, but here’s my best guess: Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-oo ma moochi-gamma gamma goochi. I *swear* that the story on my record was somewhat different! This book calls him Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. So she got me copies of 5 of E and Craig’s fav childhood books - isn’t that the sweetest?Īnyhow, so I remember having a record of Tikki tikki tembo when I was little, so I skimmed through the book.
I had told my mother-in-law that I was starting to collect some of the childhood books that I had as a kid to be able to read to my kids. One of them was the Tikki Tikki Tembo book. As I was cleaning up my room, I came across some of the Christmas presents I brought home from CA and hadn’t put away yet.
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