Lyr Req: First Lullaby (Bill Staines)

To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café ^TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=61797
14 messages

Lyr Req: First Lullaby (Bill Staines)

01 Aug 03 - 02:48 PM (#995180)
Subject: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: katlaughing

Musicman sings this on the Blue Bottle Special CD for LiliAni. I've searched the DT, the Forum, and google and haven't found the words.

Musicman/Paul, or anyone else who has them, would you mind posting them, as long as it's okay with Bill? I'd really love to learn this one.

Thanks!

kat

02 Aug 03 - 07:35 AM (#995472)
Subject: DTADD: First Lullaby (Bill Staines)
From: cetmst

From notes on Priscilla Herdman's Star Dreamer" album:

FIRST LULLABY
(Bill Staines)

Tis the close of the day, the sun's long away, far over the
shining sea,
And the rising moon like a big balloon's come visiting you and me.
In your mother's arms you work your charms, a whimper, a smile, a cry
And on this magic night, in heaven's timeless light, I'll sing you
your first lullaby.

Mon petit enfant, mon petit enfant
Le ciel est dans tes yeux.
Mais ferme les maintenant, mais ferme les maintenant
Demain c'est un autre jour.

The album is a lovely selection of songs the Herdman's put together aftr the birth of their daughter and ought to be in the collection of everyone who has a child or grandchild.

02 Aug 03 - 08:28 AM (#995487)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: Beccy

Kat- Do you have chords?
Beccy

02 Aug 03 - 09:41 AM (#995511)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: katlaughing

Thank you, cetmst! As I said, our Musicman does a beautiful rendition of this on the CD specially made for Mudcat Max's daughter.

Becky, I don't, I'm sorry, but I am sure Musicman would.

Thanks, again,

kat

02 Aug 03 - 11:54 AM (#995566)
Subject: ADD Chords: First Lullaby (Bill Staines)
From: Joe Offer

The Bills Staines Music To Me songbook has one difference in the lyrics. I don't know French, so I don't know which is correct, but here's what's in the Staines book:

Mais fermer les maintenant, mais ferme les maintenant

(with fermer the first time and ferme the second. Here are the chords:

FIRST LULLABY
(Bill Staines)

  
            D                    A
  Tis the close of the day, the sun's long away,
       D        G       D
  far over the shining sea,
           G                  Em7
  And the rising moon like a big balloon's
        A                D
  come visiting you and me.
                             A
  In your mother's arms you work your charms,
     D           G       D
  a whimper, a smile, a cry
               G
  And on this magic night,
               Em7
  in heaven's timeless light,
         A                       D
  I'll sing you your first lullaby.
  
         Bm                G
  Mon petit enfant, mon petit enfant
       A                D
  Le ciel est dans tes yeux.
               Bm                         G
  Mais fermer les maintenant, mais ferme les maintenant
      A                   D
  Demain c'est un autre jour.

02 Aug 03 - 10:56 PM (#995763)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: katlaughing

Thanks, Joe!

05 Aug 03 - 12:11 AM (#996858)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: Marion

Translation:

My little child, my little child,
The sky is in your eyes.
But close them now, but close them now,
Tomorrow is another day.

My French grammar is a little rusty - but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be "fermer", which is the infinitive. If it's two syllables then it's probably "fermez", which would be a surprisingly formal way to address your baby, but since the more intimate "ferme" is just one syllable, maybe he used "fermez" to fit the metre. (Neither the r or z at the end of the word is pronounced - they both would sound like "fermay").

But shouldn't it be "les ferme(z)" rather "ferme(z) les"? I've forgotten most of my grammar and just get by knowing nouns and verbs - but that doesn't sound quite right to me.

Marion

05 Aug 03 - 01:10 PM (#997226)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: Joe Offer

You have to remember that if it comes from Staines, it must be New England French Canadian French - so anything goes. I married a woman who speaks New England Polish French Canadian French, so I know about these things. She's from the Polish community of the French-Canadian city of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. They talk funny there.
Even their French is funny.
-Joe Offer-

05 Aug 03 - 02:02 PM (#997281)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: katlaughing

Haha! That reminds me, Joe. One time we were in the small "International" airport of Casper, WY. There was a couple very obviously speaking continental French and having a tough time with any English. This was before I knew much about the differences between New England French Canadian French and "proper" French, so I urged Rog to help them out. They managed a few sentences, enough to help, but he let me know, later, that it was a VERY different kind of French and not that easy to converse with them.:-)

15 Jul 19 - 09:26 PM (#4000900)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: GUEST

I contacted Bill Staines once and asked him why the last few lines are in French and all the rest is in American English and he answered "There is no particular reason why the last few lines of First Lullaby are in French while the rest are in American English. I just thought it sounded nice and flowed well." After being unable to find the meaning of "the sky is in your eyes" which is the translation of the second French verse, I contacted Bill Staines to ask him what the line means and he answered "The line simply means that your eyes are blue."

16 Jul 19 - 09:45 AM (#4000919)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby by Bill Staines
From: leeneia

You can hear this lovely song here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3CgrXLgF-I

22 Sep 19 - 11:52 PM (#4009982)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby (Bill Staines)
From: GUEST,GUEST

I'm not a native speaker of French, I believe it should be "Mais ferme les maintenant." It is true that in spoken French, the word "ferme" would be just one syllable - the final e is silent. But in singing French songs, the final silent e is often pronounced in order to add another syllable when needed. So it is sung in two syllables as "ferm-e" where the final e is a sound not really found in English, kind of an English "schwa" sound but with fronted, rounded lips. Singing some kind of a soft "uh" sound is a good enough approximation. Both "fermer" and "fermez" would be ungrammatical and would be pronounced differently, like "ferm-ay."

23 Mar 21 - 04:09 AM (#4098824)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby (Bill Staines)
From: Monique

Leeneia's link.
Guest in the previous post is right. It's "Mais ferme-les maintenant, mais ferme-les maintenant / Demain est un autre jour" (But close them now, but close them now / tomorrow is another day). In French there's a hyphen between a verb in the imperative and the object pronoun(s).
The saying is "Demain est un autre jour" with no "c'est" (= it is).

23 Mar 21 - 04:36 AM (#4098828)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: First Lullaby (Bill Staines)
From: Monique

I forgot to mention that "mon petit enfant" should be pronounced as "petit_enfant" = "petitenfant" -there's a liaison.