Lighter wrote:I'd be interested to know if the songs under discussion have anything at all to do with the grieving process....It's easier and safer to deal with the imaginary morbidity and cannibalism in the song (accompanied by snorting, fake retching, shouting, grabbing another beer, slopping it over your WSO, etc.) than to think about the suffering of real people. So the songs are defense mechanisms in some cases.
The context of the singing/learning of the three field recordings of "My Baby Died" shows that the song is another drinking song, not unlike sung limericks, where the intention (and humor!) is in shocking a person by its grossness.
Version 1 above was learned from female undergraduates Version 2 was from a male undergraduate. Both learned at a "beer bust". The Korat version of the song in my collection starts with the introductory warning that Commander Harry Mathews would wait until people had been drinking for twelve hours straight and then surprise them with this song.
Joybell, could you ask Hildebrand what he thinks the intention or purpose of the singer when they sang "My Baby Died"? To shock? Did people think it was humorous?
The song most similar to "My Baby Died" is "Born Dead".
Born Dead.mp3
Sung by Dennis "Mu-Sick" Gill.Born dead
Your baby was born dead
Three fingers and no head
Born dead -- to live in a jar.
Stay dead.
Don't come back to haunt me
You really don't want me
Born dead -- to live in a jar.
.
Here are some more songs which I call "grossout" songs.
sj