Development of Cups (When I'm Gone)

Anna Kendrick's “Cups (Pitch Perfect's ‘When I'm Gone’)” is currently getting a lot of airplay. The repetitiveness made me curious if I could create an interesting flowchart/syntax diagram of the song. It turns out I could:

Larger text indicates that the lyric is repeated more; the font size is the square root of the relative frequency. Wider arrows indicate that a particular path is followed more often; the width scales linearly with the relative frequency.

In the process of creating that diagram, I learned that the song dates back to at least 1931, and maybe 1928, that the cup-based percussion probably originated in the 1980s, and that the two were fused in a pair of viral videos in 2009 and 2011. Here's what I learned, along with lyrics and syntax diagrams for various versions.

“Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?” (1929) as performed by Carter Family

The Carter Family's 1928 or 1929 “Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?“ is a weak link in the chain. There are strong echoes of what will come, but their “When I'm Gone“ may not be a direct descendent.

“When I'm Gone” (1931) as performed by Carter Family

“When I'm Gone” is now clearly the same song Kendrik is singing. This is the origin. The song was written by Alvin Pleasant “A.P.” Carter and performed by Alvin, his wife Sara Dougherty Carter, and his sister-in-lw Maybelle Addington Carter.

“Miss Me When I'm Gone” (1937) as performed by J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers

Mainer's performance is lyrically essentially identical to the 1931 original. He does change “prayers” to “prayer” fixing the rhyme with “everywhere.”

“You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone” (1945?) as performed by Charlie Monroe

First recorded in 1938, this version is from the mid-1940s. The song is essentially identical lyrically to the Carter's 1931 version, although Charlie omitted to “Oh”s before each “I know you will miss me.”

“Screen Door” (1987) as performed by Rich Mullins

The next version, Lulu and the Lampshade's 2009 version, adds cup percussion. The specific rhythm predates that version by at more than two decades. The origin is unclear, but it certainly existed by 1987 when Rich Mullin used it for his sone “Screen Door”. The technique and rhythm may have been popularized by a 1999ish segment from PBS's Zoom, uploaded to YouTube in 2008.

“You're Gonna Miss Me” (2009) as performed by Lulu and the Lampshades

Lulu and the Lampshades make two major contributions. First, they replacing all of the instruments with percussion using cups. Second, they add two verses. What were formerly verses become part of the chorus. The former verses are slightly reorganized.

“You're Gonna Miss Me (Cups)” (2011) as performed by Anna Burden

Anna Burden created a relatively straightforward cover of Lulu and the lampshades version. There are some minor changes to the phrasing, but most significant change is the move to a single singer and thus the removal of the background “When I'm gone&rdqou; echoing the lead singer. Burden's version went viral, and is likely how the variation was discovered for Pitch Perfect.

“Cups (From Pitch Perfect)” (2012) as performed by Anna Kendrick

Kendrick's 2012 version is from the movie Pitch Perfect. It's much shorter, capturing a single verse and instance of the chorus. Like Burden's version, it is for a single singer and omits the chorus echo. Otherwise, it matches the Lulu and the Lampshades version.

“Cups (You're Gonna Miss Me) (Studio Version)” (2009) as performed by Lulu and the Lampshades

Presumably to take advantage of the popularity of Kendrik's version, Lulu and the Lampshades record another version. The biggest change is the addition of a third verse. This is the only version that replaces “sights” with “woods.”

“Cups (Pitch Perfect's ‘When I'm Gone")” (2013) as performed by Anna Kendrick

Presumably also interested in capitalizing on the movie, Kendrick records a longer version, adding back the second verse. This version repeats chorus several times; the repetitiveness that caught my attention in the first place. Instruments beyond the cup also return.