Songs Your Mother Sang to You

Subject: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: mousethief
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 03:45 AM

What songs did your mother sing to you when you were little? Or your father, or uncle, or grandmother, or whoever it was that first sang those songs to you?

I remember "All the pretty little ponies" and "Go get an axe there's a flea in Lilly's ear" and a real hound that went

The horse walked around with its foot on the ground
The horse walked around with its foot on the ground
The horse walked around with its foot on the ground
The horse walked around with its foot on the ground
spoken: Second verse, same as the first,
Ohhhhhh...
(repeat)

Also "Ooka tooka my soda cracker, does your mama chaw tobaccer?"

And something that went:
My momma done told me
When I was in pigtails
A man is a two-face...

And a real silly one that went:
Go for a ride in the car, car
Go for a ride in the car, car
Go for a ride in the car, car
Vroom, vroom, vroom.

What did you get sung to you at your earliest remembery of music?

Alex

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: mousethief
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 12:23 PM

Oh come on, this is part of the Folk Process! This is on topic for crying out loud! Surely SOMEBODY has something to add?

Alex

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 12:36 PM

Alex, you'll find some answers on this recent thread, too.

Irish Lullaby, Prairie Lullaby, I'm a little teapot, there are so many, because ours was such a musical family. She knew scads of songs and sang to us a lot.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: chip a
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 12:48 PM

Alex,

I don't remember being sung to. My dad could tell stories and we heard lots of them. Most he'd make up. Some were traditional. I always sang Guthrie's Hobo's Lullaby to mine at bedtime. Just a week ago, one of my daughters said she has been singing it to her six week old.

Chip

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: kendall
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 12:57 PM

Oh, I had a little chicken and it wouldn't lay an egg
I rubbed hot water up and down its leg
The little chicken hollered and the little chicken begged
and the same little chicken laid a hard boiled egg.

a fly flew into a grocery store
He flew and he flew and he flew some more
He piddled in the pickles and honkered on the ham
Cause he didn't give a damn for the grocery ma.

the old cat shit in the shavings
" " "
" " "
The night before the 4th.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 01:11 PM

This is not about what my mother sang to me, because I don't remember. But when my oldest son was a baby, I'd sing to him:

Rock-a-bye Teddy, you are a beaut!
You'll fill your pants, a rooty-toot-toot!
You'll fill your pants, and wet them also

And into the pail the diaper will go!

Rock-a-bye Teddy, in the white chair
When you are hungry, mommy is there.
When you've got pants-full, she'll be there too!
When there's diaper rash, she'll Vaseline you!

Both Theodore his younger sister Monika are adopted, and in equity I had to do something just for her, as follows:

Rock-a-bye Monika, you are a queen!
When you joined our family, we thought it was keen!
When we picked you up, little Teddy went too,
Now there's daddy and mommy, Teddy and you!

When, late and unlooked for, our son Hans was born to us, I had run out of rock-a-bye variations, but surely there had to be a song for him. He was breast-fed, and I sang him this. I don't have a way to pass the tune I wrote to you, but you have my (im)modest assurance that it's a lovely, haunting melody.

Go to sleep, my little boy.
Dream about a milk-filled booby!
Mama nurse you in a while,
When your time has come.

When your time has come, my boy,
Mama-milk there'll be in plenty
When your mama has let down,
And nursin' time has come.

When nursin' time has come, my boy,
Mama-milk will fill your tummy.
With the nipple in your mouth
You'll never need your thumb!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Hollowfox
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 01:19 PM

Greensleeves, Amsterdam Maid, Streets of Laredo, Di Te Moi (from South Pacific, and (with me) an English translation of the jailhouse duet between Alfred and Frosch in the third act of Die Fledermaus.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MMario
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 01:22 PM

I was child number six. I truly don't remember my mother singing songs to me at all - though music was a constant - and we often sang in the car - or while doing chores, Dad whistled a lot, and mom hummed. Plus records to fall asleep by every evening.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: TamthebamfraeScotland
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 01:24 PM

I remeber my mother singing me a song called Coulter's candy.

This was about a man who went around the border towns of Scotland selling his wares. His name was Robert Coultart.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,_Jande at the Vestal (really!) Library
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 03:15 PM

Alex,

My mum didn't sing much at all (thank heavens!)but my dad had a typical Welsh tenor voice. Beautiful timbre! He sang all the mournful songs of the "olde Countrye" when I was growing up. My favourite was Danny Boy.

But he also sang:

Ride a cock horse
from Banbury Cross
to see a fine Lady
upon a White Horse.

With rings on her fingers
and Bells on her toooooooes!

She shall have music
Wherever she goes!

And their favourite chant where I was concerned was:

There was a little girl
who had a little curl
right in the middle
of her forehead.

When she was good
She was very very good!
But when she was bad
she was horrid!

~ Jande of the straight black hair LOL!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: chip a
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 03:30 PM

Guest Jande,

I didn't remember any singing 'till I read your post. Now I can remember my daddy singing both of those to me when I was very small. Thanks for a memory of him!

Peace,

Chip

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 03:47 PM

Tam the Bam - there was a recent mention of Coulter's Candy; don't remember whether the name was part of the title, but you should be able to track it down
Jande, I remember my mum singing those two rhymes to me.
As the eldest of six, with a Mum who sang all the time, I suppose I got a really good grounding in songs. I remember 'Raggle Taggle Gypsies','Three Little Fishes', a host of nursery rhymes, music hall songs from Granny's days. Mudcat posters keep refreshing my memory; the mention of 'In and out the Dusty Bluebells' on a recent thread, for instance.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 03:51 PM

Jande! My mom used to do both of those, too! I'd forgotten them. She read a lot to us. I also remember Little Miss Tuffet.

When I was about a year old, I fell against the piano leg and knocked out my two top front teeth. I remember hearing All I want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, for several years after.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Clifton53
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 04:46 PM

The Momper would always launch into "Make The World Go Away" while busy in the kitchen and with us lounging about watching The Three Stooges or Soupy Sales, cackling like magpies as we bonked each other on the skull, or imitated Soupy's many hand puppet voices. She had a good voice too, and whenever we asked for something impractical she would sing, "That'll Be The Day", by Buddy Holly. I'd give my arm to hear it again.

Clifton53

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: harpmolly
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 05:31 PM

My mom didn't sing much :) but my dad used to play slack key Hawaiian guitar for me. Still does, when I can coax him.

Oddly enough, my grandmother used to sing "Bushel and a Peck", which was always a song I loved, and then I discovered "Guys and Dolls" and had a whole new context for it! :D

Also, my mom's had Danny Doyle's "Twenty Years A'Growin'" album for ages and ages, so I grew up listening to those songs, and they're some of my favorites to this day.

M

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Seth from China
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 06:24 PM

I don't remember what my mother sang, but this has prompted me to ring up my brothers and sister to find out what the remember before we all to old to remember much of anything. I know I was glued to the radio from an early age(beforeTV. THe first song I can remember thinking was really great was Abba Dabba Honeymoon, and my dad singing Open the Door Richard. Mostly, if I think of my mom singing, it was hymns in Latin at church. I didn't have a clue as to what she was sing- oh, now I remember, a Catholic hymn "Tantum Ergo", but I would just scat along at the top of my voice like Eddie JEfferson or King Pleasure might have done in the same situation. Thanks for the thread. I'll be back after I send out some e-mails. Seth from China

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: BRG
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 06:51 PM

Excellent question. My mother was not a singer but my father often (too often, as we got older) sang to us, along with his guitar and his array of one and two finger chords.

"Old Rugged Cross", "Let the rest of the world go by", "Oh you can't get to Heaven", "When the Saints..." all pop into mind.

He passed away in '79. Thanks for triggering some pleasant memories.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Ma Fazoo
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 07:05 PM

There were lots of lulabies which would make me afraid to go to sleep!
"there;s a big bear in the shed, poking out his ugly head,
It's three weeks since he's been fed, you;d be safer, dear in bed.
Boogie man's outside the door, he's been out there twice before,
If he hears a good girl snore, he'll go 'way and come no more.

There was, howerver a beauiful song, and I think its about a constellation. I've never heard anyone from outside my family sing it so if anyone knows it, I'd be glad for news.

Five little fiddlers lived by the sea,
Long John, Ginger John, and Pepper Johns' three
They went to the mill on a very fine night,
Stole a bag of barley and they hurried out of sight.
But the miller he caught them, mad as he could be,
Tied them in a great big sack and sent them out to sea,
So they all clung together and they sang a litttle tune,
And it busted all to pieces and it sent them to the moon.
Now if you'll take the trouble on a very fine night ,
To look up in the heavens when the moon is shining bright
Those Five Little Fiddlers you are very sure to see,
Long John, Ginger John and Pepper Johns' three.

I'm of Welsh, Irish, and English descent, but have no idea wherre this song comes from. It has a very beautiful tune, and is a sure-fire lullaby-works every time.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 07:32 PM

My mom sang goodnight songs to all five of her children. Most were the usual ones but one of my brothers insisted his song to be "Jingle Bells" EVERY night of the year. I can still remember lying in my bed after a blissful 4th of July celebration and hearing her voicing from my brother's room, "Jingle bell, jingle bells, jingle all the way..." She never let him down!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: vindelis
Date: 12 Apr 01 - 07:38 PM

When my sister and I were small the main ones were lullabies. Either 'rockaby baby', or my favorite, which was 'Go to sleep my baby close your weary eyes Angels up above you Peeping at you deary from the skies Great big moon is shining Stars begin to peep So close your eyes my picaninie And go to sleep.'

My brother always asked for 'Soldier, soldier, won't you marry me with your musket fife and drum?'

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Jimmy C
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 12:04 AM

My mother and father would sing a lot around the house, . My mother's songs included. " The Doffin Mistress", My Aunt Jane (I'll tell me ma"} - Let Him Go Let Him Tarry - and a little rocking song called Bangor Boats Away, this one she rocked us on her knee and then let you sort of drop back off her knees at the end. My father had a wealth of songs and could really sing as well. Some of his favourites were " The Green Bushes" - "Nut Brown Maiden" "Mountains of Pomeroy" " Eileen Alannah" - The Boston BUrglar" and one called " and others too many to list. They are both deceased now but I still think of them when I sing any one of the songs. This is a nice thread.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 09:24 AM

My mum used to sing :

I wish I was a jelly fish who could not fall down stairs Of all the wishes I could wish I wish I were a jelly fish Who wouldn't even have to wish I wish I was a jelly fish who could not fall down stairs

and

There was a little puffa train That puffed across the desert plain It went as far as Zanzibar And then came puffing back again

Then there was some awful traumatic one about a monkey of which snatches are

There was a mother monkey Who lived in a tall tall tree She had a little monkey boy as happy as can be Then one day when she went walking ......????? He fell into a pail

Then there's some bit in the middle but the ending is...

But putting on her bonnet She ran to the shops so fast And bought another monkey boy Exactly like the last

This used to scare me and particularly my little brother into thinking we could be replaced as easily if we were'nt good !!! If anyone can supply the missing lines or the origin of any of these I'd like to know

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 12:27 PM

Lily Marlene was one of my mother's favourites and also various lullabies most of which I have forgotten save a few lines eg "Lullu lullu lullu lullu labyby Do you want the moon to play with or the stars to run away with" Sadly my favourite and therefore the one I remember best is totally non PC with references to Mammy and her curly headed picaninny which I was unaware caused so much offence until reading the current thread on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Margo
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 12:50 PM

Mousethief: The "go for a ride in the car car" song is a Woody Guthrie song. I have it on a video with animation. It's a great video for kids - heck, I enjoy it. It's all Woody Guthrie songs.

My mom has a tin ear and can't carry a tune, but she did sing to us. There is one song I hope maybe someone will fill in the lyrics to:

Old folks, young folks, everybody come
come along to Sunday school and make yourselves at home
leave all your children and your pistols at the door,
and I'll tell you bible stories like you've never heard before!

Then each subsequent verse tells about Jonah, Daniel, and others but with a funny twist, like Daniel being a dentist and pulling all the lion's teeth out. Anyone know?

Margo

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 02:22 PM

Mrs Duck
A lulla, lulla, lulla lulla bye bye
Baby wants the moon to play with
stars to run away with
They'll come if you don't cry
A luula, lulla, lulla, lulla, bye bye
In Mammy's arms a creepin
So close your eyes and go to sleep
My lulla, lulla, lulla, lulla bye

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Matt_R
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 02:28 PM

My mom didn't sing to me either.

But I grow up learning all the words to Hank Williams Jr. songs...

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: KathWestra
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 03:30 PM

Both my mom (no longer with us, alas) and my dad (still here, but struggling with Alzheimer's) were wonderful singers, who loved to sing in the car and at home around the piano. Dad is still a wonderful singer, and remembers song words even though his short-term memory is unreliable. The earliest song I remember my dad singing was "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," a particularly rambunctious rendition to accompany a wild ride for me (and later my little brother) on his bouncing knees.

He and my mom would sing sentimental old songs together, songs like "Let the Rest of the World Go By." (I still know all the words, which I learned by osmosis.) He recently performed "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen," at his assisted living center's Valentine's party. It was his first public singing performance ever -- at 78. He remembered all the words.

Driving home to Grand Rapids, Mich., after a long car trip to Ann Arbor or Detroit, we would always sing one particular song. It was the closing theme for a folk-music radio show out of the University of Michigan (in the mid 1950s) called Festival of Song. I still associate this song with sleepy comfort -- and with my late mom's voice:

Sing your way home, at the close of the day;
Sing your way home, drive the shadows away.
Smile every mile, for wherever you roam,
It will brighten your road, it will lighten your load
If you sing your way home.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,djh
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 03:45 PM

My Mom liked the song Danny Boy so much she named me after it. She sang it to me maybe 1000000000000000000 times, maybe a few less zeros. I used to HATE the song. Now I really like it. no one in my family ever played music. I am the first named after a song and the first to play. THANKS MA.
My sister in-law is pregnant with my first nephew/niece I got Elizabeth Cotton's SUGAREE all polished up for the little one.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Luke
Date: 13 Apr 01 - 08:09 PM

This is the kind of thread with which you could make a very snuggly blanket.

I grew up youngest. Still am. Everyone was singing three older brothers mom and dad just singing all the time. There were lots of songs my brothers sang that were sort of racey Barnacle Bill and like that. I wanted to learn them all even as a wee boy. But when it came official time to settle and get to bed Mom would hold me in her lap and sing.

Rockabye a baby, Mommy is a lady, Daddy is a gentleman, and Bobby is a coffee can.

This was the official mom loves me connection. No other song would do. If she started out singing anything else I would squirm and cry.

Over and over until I was butter in her arms and really to big to be there anymore. She would let me crawl up there and she would rock and sing. When I had my babies she would do the same. At family gatherings when we all had our small chidren, we would all be giving each other the look when mom would pick up one of the younguns and start into the rocking and singing. Calm then, real calm would settle all through the house and being alive was more than enough to make us all happy and thankful.

Luke

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: lady penelope
Date: 14 Apr 01 - 05:11 AM

My mum would sing, but not very often. It's my dad I remember singing to us and always the strangest of songs. Does any one recognise this ( I apologise if some words are wrong I'm remembering this from when I was five-ish)

Down by the river kipowea Empties its water to the seas Down where the bear in his lair Doesn't care if it rains or shines or snows An indian squaw sang to a baby on a straw mat And she hummed as she crooned as she sang him this lullaby "oh please don't cry................... (memory now fails me)

Some people I know will recognise this one and possilbly curse, but I assure you it's my dad's fault.

Bluebells are bluebells Bluebells are blue Bluebells are bluebells 'cos Bluebells are blue

2nd verse

Bluebells are bluebells......ad nauseum.........

And there was one he would only sing whilst working (he's a chippie)

If I had a nail and a hammer And a picture to hang on the wall......

But he says he can't remeber it now, does anyone else?

TTFN M'lady P.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Nathan in Texas
Date: 14 Apr 01 - 12:03 PM

Jesus bids us shine with a clear pure light
Like a little candle burning in the night
In this world of darkness we must shine
You in your small corner, an I in mine.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Mudlark
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 01:49 AM

Both my m. and d. sang a lot....I used to plead with my m. to sing The Organ Grinder Song and cry my eyes out every time ("....oh, please sir don't cry, she's going to die, just play her your serenade...") Lullabies "That Sly Old Gentleman, from featherbed lane" and " Little man you've had a busy day" (a fav. despite the gender problem), and "the Old Lamplighter (He makes the night a little brighter, wherever he may go....), and another tearjerker I loved "2 Babes in the Wood"......and The Gypsy's Warning.

Gay 90's (grandma was in the music hall) Ta Ra and BOOMP se daisy, I like a bussle that bends, On the Boardwalk ("one said 2 dollars, I said 3, he took out the sox, gave the box to me....It's the box you've bought, not the sox, said he...I'll never go there any more!), Oh Didn't He Ramble. ...

And a whole raft of great 1940's pop songs...instilled me with a love of good lyrics...

Nancy

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 04:22 AM

In amongst the more normal nursery rhymes such as "See Saw, Marjory Daw", "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "Three Blind Mice" would be slightly rude numbers like:

Oh Mother, look at Uncle Jim
Lying in the piddle pot, learning how to swim
First he did the side stroke, then he did the splash
And then he did a mighty splash and out went the gas!

Another one was:

Holly-o and misletoe, Put the baby on the po! When she's done, wipe her bum With a little bit of tissue-issue paper!

Sometimes after a Xmas glass of sherry, mum and my Aunt would get through a line and a half of "It's Only Me from Over the Sea, said Bollocky Bill the Sailor" before collapsing in a giggling heap.

Mum's everdyday speech was littered with references to old songs; "Don't Do That to the Poor Puss Cat"; "Open the Door, Richard"; "You Can't Do That There 'Ere".

She also used to sing "Teddy Bear's Picnic" to our Corgi, which used to drive him crazy.

There was also "What Noise Annoys a Noisy Oyster" and any number of other old Music Hall songs.

My earliest memory is a lullaby she used to sing me in my cot; it was guaranteed to send me to sleep happy. She passed away nearly two years ago aged 83.

Happily I only have to sing one of her songs, and she's right back with me. And I don't think she's ever too far away, anyway!

Alex, thanks for this thread.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 04:37 AM

My Dad used to sing 'Young at Heart' by Frank Sinatra (bit of a crooner, my Dad). But when I couldn't sleep, my Mum used to send him in with his guitar and he'd do 'Hey Jude' at the end of my bed. I'd just be dropping off and it'd get to the 'nanananaaaaaaah' bit.......

I also got (from my Mum and my Nana) 'Oh, Oh, Antonio'. Does any one know this? It went something like:
Oh, oh, Antonio, he's gone away
Left me on my ownio, all all alonio
I'd like to meet him with his new sweetheart
And off we'll go, Antonio, in his ice-cream cart.

It's got a realy sweet tune. Makes me cry. Where does it come from? I'd love to know.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 04:52 AM

Oh! Oh! Antonio
Words and Music by CW Murphy and Dan Lipton, 1908

Chorus: Oh! Oh! Antonio
He's gone away,
Left me aloneio,
All on my ownio.
I want to meet him,
With his new sweetheart,
Then up will go Antonio
And his ice cream cart!

The verses are not terribly interesting, but tell the tale of an Italian maid searching the streets for her lover. She pines away, but her ghost still walks the streets. Sort of an Italian Molly Malone.

LFF

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 04:55 AM

My mom doesn't sing, and never did - but my father sang copnstantly, mostly all the old vocals hits of the 30's and 40's. He's 82 now, and his voice is still pretty darn good. I love to stand next to him in church and sing.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: tiggerdooley
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 05:21 AM

GUEST, thanks for the info, but could you tell me where I could get all of the lyrics, maybe a website? Is there a particular singer who made it popular? Can I hear it??

Tigger

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 06:05 AM

Tiggerdooley, GUEST was me with a crumbled cookie! Oh Oh Antonio was sung by Florrie Forde, of "Old Bull and Bush" fame.

I've had a look on Google, but I couldn't find the lyrics or the tune.

I've got the sheet music though, so watch this space and when I get a little more time I'll post the lyrics. Alternatively, I can send you a scan.

LFF

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,CeCe
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 04:21 PM

My mother sang Cha Baba, Hut Sut Song, Sleepy Lagoon, Isle of Capri, Brahms Lullaby and Inkspot songs.... Since I am the oldest of six... I heard these songs for the next 14 years... and then I sang them to my children in the early 60's... along with a lot of Buddy Holly, Penguins, Elegants, Everly Brothers and other groups from the late 50's. (Not too much Elvis, tho)

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 05:01 PM

Tellin my age and place now... I was rocked to the tunes of, House Carpenter, Lyttle Musgrave (heads get chopped off in the end), The Merry Golden Tree. Maybe because old ballads have such a good rocking rhythm. Real,"children's songs," like Dance to your Daddie, Swapping Song, etc., were bouncing or dancing songs for us. Anyway- don't get me started! Jean

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: jcdevildog
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 07:12 PM

My mom sang gospel songs while she did her housework, but my dad was the bedtime singer and storyteller. He sang quite a variety, including children's songs like "Animal Fair", "The Old Woman & Her Pig" and "Go Tell Aunt Patsy" (same as "Aunt Rhody" except for the name); cowboy ballads like "Jesse James", "Billy the Kid" and "Utah Carroll"; and parlor songs like "Beautiful Brown Eyes", "Over the Hill to the Poorhouse" and "Forsaken Love". "Dead baby" songs were not omitted from the repertoire: if you think the song about the little lost monkey was disturbing, think about going to sleep listening to "Put My Little Shoes Away"--no wonder I'm warped!

Fortunately I've always had a good memory for lyrics, so I can still remember a lot of those songs; and I'm working on finding some of the ones that I remember only in part. I recently found the full lyrics to "Over the Hill to the Poorhouse" on a website, and a songbook with the missing fifth verse to "The Prisoner at the Bar". Singing them is a real connection to my parents, both of whom have passed on.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Peg
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 07:54 PM

Mom had a Kimball organ and played lots of wonderful old sonsg; from musicals, Cole Porter, classics sung by the likes of Dean Martin and Doris Day...I know my love of old songs comes from this.

She did not sing much but one of my favorites she liked to sing to us:

"Leprosy is getting the best of me
There goes my ear dear into your beer, dear
Kiss me quick, there goes my upper lip
There goes my eyeball into your highball"

etc.

Can't remember much more except, "There goes my fingernail into your ginger ale..."

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 09:18 PM

My mother loved musicals, and she used to sing Fred Astaire songs to me. Specifically, "Cheek to Cheek" and a song I remember (I think it was an Astaire song) that had a line that went something like this: In Si-be-ri-AH! Where the snow is so su-pe-RIOR! I can't find any references to this song, although it's pretty distinctive. If anyone's heard of it, I'd like to know... Please... She also sang Dean Martin songs and the entire soundtrack from Guys and Dolls (movie version). Her traditional repotoire (sp?) was pretty much limited to 'Billy Boy' and 'Waltzing Matilda.'

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Joe Fineman
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 09:52 PM

Margo:

I regret to inform you that the song you inquired about was called "The Darky Sunday School" and that the chorus originally went:

Young folks, old folks, everybody come.
Join the darky Sunday School and make yourself at home.
Please to check your chewing gum and razors at the door.
We'll tell you bible stories that you never heard before.

My mother did not sing that one to me. I learned it in high school about 1952, from a teacher who was black and a former minister. It is in _The New Song Fest_. Some stanzas I remember are:

Jonah was an immigrant, so runs the bible tale.
He booked a steerage passage in a transAtlantic whale.
Now Jonah in the belly of the whale was quite compressed,
So Jonah pushed the button, and the whale he did the rest.

Salome was a dancer, she danced before the king.
She wriggled and she waggled and she shook most everything.
"How now!" said the king, "We'll have no scandal here."
"The hell we won't!" Salome said, and kicked the chandelier.

As to what my mother sang me, there was "Rozhenkes mit Mandeln", which has a thread of its own. There were two songs, "There's a Ship Sails Away" & "Sail, Baby, Sail", that compared sleeping to going to sea. And there were --well, here is the list from my baby book of the songs I had learned when I was 2 1/2: Lead Kindly Light, Jesus Bids Us Shine, Blessed Jesus, Silent Night, Frere Jacques, Au Clair de la Lune, Aupres de ma Blonde, Kommt a Vogel, Muss i Denn, Ah wie ist's moeglich, Von Meinem Bergli, Guten Abend Gute Nacht, Oyfn Pripichuk, Rozhinkes mit Mandeln, Come Let's Play We're Indians, Here Comes the Sandman, Lovely May, and "about 25 nursery rhymes".

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Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Kaleea
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 11:53 PM

My family pastime was singing around the piano. My mother sang all the time. Early childhood songs were such as: Way down yonder in the Paw Paw Patch. (there really is such a thing as a Paw Paw!) It goes like this: Verse: Where oh where is dear little (any 2 syllable girl's name) Where oh where is dear little Mary Where oh where is dear little Mary Way down yonder in the Paw Paw Patch.

Chorus: Pickin' up Paw Paw's Puttin' 'em in a basket (3X) Way down yonder in the Paw Paw Patch.

Verse: Come on, boys, let's go find her 3X Way down yonder in the Paw Paw patch.

Chorus

Also, Fairest Lord Jesus (the first song I had to sing to company) and lots of other hymns. She did not approve of my father teaching us songs or such things as:

(tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean) My Bonnie leaned over the gas tank more clearly it's contents to see I lighted a match to assist her Oh bring back my Bonnie to me!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: DougR
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 01:08 AM

The earliest I remember was "Where The River Shannon Flows."

DougR

Subject: Lyr Add: OH! OH! ANTONIO
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 03:48 PM

For Tiggerdooley, as promised:

OH! OH! ANTONIO

1. In quaint native dress
An Italian maid
Was deep in distress
As the streets she strayed,
Searching in ev'ry part
For her false sweetheart
And his ice cream cart
Her English was bad,
It cannot be denied,
And so to herself in Italian she cried:

CHORUS: Oh! Oh! Antonio
He's gone away,
Left me all aloneio,
All on my ownio.
I want to meet him with
His new sweetheart
Then up will go Antonio
And his icecream cart.

2. So sad grew the plight
Of this fair young lass,
She'd faint at the sight
Of an ice cream glass.
She'd dream nigh ev'ry day
He'd come back to stay,
But he'd fade away.
Her old hurdy gurdy
All day she'd parade,
And this she would sing to each tune that it played:

(CHORUS)

3. She sought in despair
For Antonio,
And looked ev'rywhere
That she thought he'd go.
Soon she to pine began
As each face she'd scan
For her ice cream man.
She faded away,
But they say in the streets
The ghost of that girl in Italian, repeats:

(CHORUS)

LFF

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Caitrin
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 04:05 PM

I remember Mum singing "Song To Celia" and lots of Simon and Garfunkel. She was also fond of one that I don't know the title to...
"Today while the blossom
still clings to the vine
I'll taste your strawberries
I'll drink your sweet wine"

Can't remember any more of it than that off the top of my head.
I also recall singing "Misty Moisty Morning" with Mum in the car--it was -years- before I realized it wasn't a typical children's song in this century. *grins*
Dad used to sing mostly "southern rock" stuff and play his guitar for me when I was little. This resulted in some amusing moments, like my translation of the Grateful Dead as "Ridin' that train, Hi I'm okay."

Subject: Lyr Add: TODAY (while the blossoms still cling to.
From: mousethief
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 04:23 PM

Today, while the blossom

Today, while the blossom still clings to the vine,
I'll taste your strawberries, I'll drink your sweet wine.
A million tomorrows shall pass away,
'ere I forget all the joy that is mine, Today.

I'll be a dandy and I'll be a rover.
You'll know who I am by the songs that I sing.
I'll feast at your table, I'll sleep in your clover,
who cares what the morrow shall bring?

I can't be contented with yesterday's glory
I can't live on promises, winter to spring,
today is my moment, now is my story,
I'll laugh, I'll cry and I'll sing.

-----

From my search on the web, this may or may not be by Rod McKuen.

Alex

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: celticblues5
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 10:15 PM

My mother was like some others mentioned here - couldn't sing for anything - her forte was drawing & painting; but she loved to recite poems like "Winkyn, Blinkyn, & Nod" to us.
Dad was the singer - mostly pop songs - Nat King Cole, Ella's "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," etc. The one I remember most, because he always picked me up to dance for it had a lyric that included, "Gonna dance with the dolly with the hole in her stockin', hole in her stockin', hole in her stockin'; gonna dance with the dolly with the hole in her stockin', dance by the light of the moon."
His family had singing sessions whenever they would get together (I thought that's what families DID - when I went to holidays at my husband's & found out they went out and played football instead, I was totally dismayed).
A couple of my great-aunts were in vaudeville, so everyone knew a lot of the old songs from that era too.