Lyr Req: My Curly Headed Baby (lullaby)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 10:25 AM

My mum sang this to us as little nippers in the 50s. Just the chorus. Nice to be reminded!

Lula lula lula lula bye bye
Do you want the moon to play with?
And the stars to run away with?
They'll come if you don't cry
sing lula lula lula lula bye bye
In your mammy's arms a'creepin'
Soon you'll be a'sleepin'
Singing lula, lula, lula, lula, bye

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST,Charlie
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 05:52 PM

My mum sung the same lyrics as your version Steve. She died three years ago but I've always sung the lullaby to my children and they've learnt it too now to keep passing down the generations. Great to read about its background

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jun 11 - 03:30 PM

My mother used to sing this to me, and also to my children (now grown). I never knew the title, and she only ever sang the chorus. She died 13 years ago, but reading these words has brought her very close again. How wonderful to know that Paul Robeson sang it. My parents both loved him, especially his version of Ole Man River. I'm now going to try and get it on CD so we can keep on passing it down through the generations.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: Linterbug
Date: 03 Jun 11 - 03:42 PM

Now changed from 'Guest' to Linterbug - what a great site this is!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST,Jazzharp
Date: 20 Jun 11 - 05:10 PM

My grandmother recorded My Nigger Babby, on 78rpm,back in the early thirties. We didn't know it was a famous song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST,Oh my baby..
Date: 20 Aug 11 - 08:46 PM

My twin sister and I sng this song in the award winning school choir we belonged to.After 50 odd years its still a favorite of ours which we still sing.
Sallie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST,Egyed Ami
Date: 08 Mar 13 - 02:15 PM

Hi :). Paul Robeson sang it, he was a great singer- songwriter and a good person, but he was a communist who McCarthy was after as well. That idiot wanted to execute Robeson >:(.

You can find it on youtube, there are many videos of it with lyrics as well, if you would like to learn the song.

Anyway, this was the first song I ever heard, my father sang it to me when I was in the womb xx Great song :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST,Canadian mum
Date: 14 May 13 - 08:15 PM

Wow, I was sung this growing up by my English grandmother and mother. I still remember the chorus bt forgot the verses and made up my own for my kids, now in 2013. Now I can really sing the correct words.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: Crowhugger
Date: 14 May 13 - 11:50 PM

My mum sang it to me too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 May 13 - 12:57 PM

Re Jazzharp:

John Dilleshaw and group also recorded "My Nigger Baby" in 1929. Not very close to M C-H B.

He can be found singing his song, if you google for it, but the site is messed up with a lot of other stuff.

There may be other recordings, the song was popular at the time.

Subject: Lyr Add: NIGGER BABY (John Dilleshaw)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 May 13 - 03:20 PM

Once I heard the title, I knew I would have to hear and maybe transcribe this song. Don't get me wrong: I would *never* use the n-word in ordinary speech, and I wouldn't sing this song, or advise that anyone sing it, without making some drastic changes to remove it's offensiveness. But it's a good tune, and doesn't deserve to be forgotten. (Why should the devil have all the best tunes?) Anyway, I have no doubt that a creative person could figure out a way to sanitize this song while salvaging some of the creativity of the original songwriter, whoever that was. Meanwhile, for historical reasons, or maybe because I have a morbid curiosity about such things, I want to know what the original words were. I suspect the racism goes beyond using the n-word, because there is a reference to toting razors, which is an old stereotype, and maybe more.

I found this song on Spotify.

This is a difficult one to transcribe. I would appreciate help filling in the gaps.

Several lines sound like they could be floaters, although I don't recognize them.


NIGGER BABY
As sung by John Dilleshaw on "John Dilleshaw 1929-1930" (Document Records #8002, 1997)
Originally recorded under the name Al Gray & 7-Foot Dilly, on Vocalion 5458, 1930.

1. Fare you well, my little nigger baby, with the … shining eyes.
You're just as good as a railroad bum(?) in the sweet by-and-by.
...
… little nigger baby, going down to … street.

2. … very bad … for I am one myself.
I tote my razor in my hand, my … in my belt.
I'm on my way to glory, Lord; I'm riding through the sky,
… little nigger baby … sweet by-and-by.

3. See that train a-coming; it's coming round the curve.
It's …, it's blowing; it's … every nerve.
The engineer said to the fireman, chunk in a little more coal.
I'm bound to run this engine, ….

4. Little Sally Walker, she's sitting in the sun.
She's a-weeping, she's a-mourning, ever since I've been gone.
She's a-weeping, she's a-mourning, and sweet as a lamb.
… little nigger baby way down in Alabam'.

5. Catching my mule ... on his back.
I caught my whiff(?) in the parlor; oh, sinners, clear the track.
I'm on my way to glory, Lord; I'm riding through the sky,
… little nigger baby, in the sweet by-and-by.


[The Online 78-rpm Discography Project says that Dr. Smith Champ Hoss Pullers also recorded a song with this title on Victor 40124, in 1928, but I haven't heard that recording.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST,Tobias Enevoldsen
Date: 27 Jun 13 - 02:58 AM

Great tune with a terrible name. But it could be rewritten a bit to suit the present.

Here is what I could add:

1. Fare you well, my little nigger baby, with the brightly shining eyes.
You're just as good as a railroad bum(?) in the sweet by-and-by.
...???
Somebody's little nigger baby, going down to get a sweet.

2. I know he is a very bad … for I am one myself.
I tote my razor in my hand, my pistol in my belt.
I'm on my way to glory, Lord; I'm riding through the sky,
Somebody's little nigger baby in the sweet by-and-by.

3. See that train a-coming; it's coming round the curve.
It's huffing (?), it's blowing; it's ringing (?) every nerve.
The engineer said to the fireman, chunk in a little more coal.
I'm bound to run this engine, some dark and lonesome hole (?)

4. Little Sally Walker, she's sitting in the sun.
She's a-weeping, she's a-mourning, ever since I've been gone.
She's a-weeping, she's a-mourning, and sweet as a lamb.
Somebody's little nigger baby way down in Alabam'.

5. Catching my mule, (I sat on him and I hopped up?) on his back.
I caught my whiff(?) in the parlor/holler?; oh, sinners, clear the track.
I'm on my way to glory, Lord; I'm riding through the sky,
Somebody's little nigger baby, in the sweet by-and-by.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Nov 15 - 08:38 PM

Well I've been a grandad for five weeks. Our lovely but non-stop-yelling grandson lives over two hundred miles away from us, in Richmond (the London one), unfortunately. We were there today though, and, as I proudly pushed him around the rainy streets (no-one else was getting a go) and Thames-side paths, I found myself singing (a word I use advisedly in my case) this song to him. It worked, I swear it! My mum used to sing it to me and I "sang" it to mine, and I'm determined that this family tradition shall live on. Well, at least as long as I can persuade my son from singing Johnny Cash songs to the little lad ALL the time! I'm pretty sure my mum got it from the singing of the wonderful Paul Robeson.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly-Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Nov 15 - 11:28 AM

Wow, the only curly-headed baby song I know is < a href="by Woody Guthrie but sung by Cisco Houston" and is not, repeat not, a lullaby.

Subject: Lyr Add: SHE'S MY CURLY HEADED BABY (Callahan Bros
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Nov 15 - 03:39 PM

SHE'S MY CURLY HEADED BABY
As recorded by The Callahan Brothers, 1934.

For about my curly-headed baby,
She has come back home to me,
And, dear friends, I want to tell you:
We are happy as can be.

For four long years we have been parted.
A nervous wreck it made of me,
Until six o'clock last Sunday morning,
She called up and said: "It's me."

[yodel]

Dear friends, I could not keep from cryin',
But I was crying just with joy,
For she told me she still loved me,
And she still had our little boy.

[yodel]

She came back crying on my shoulder.
Now what I'm telling you is true;
And she said: "My little darling,
Now my flirting days are through."

[yodel]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nigger Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Sep 16 - 12:17 AM

==========
1. Fare you well, my little nigger baby, with the BLACK-FACED shining eyes. (may be "brightly", but this seems apt.)
You're just as good as a railroad bum in the sweet by-and-by.
BLACKS ALL KNOW YOU WAS BORN THAT WAY, WITH THE (?) OF A THIEF;
Somebody's little nigger baby, going down DECATUR STREET.

2. I know he is a very bad COON, for I am one myself.
I tote my razor in my hand, my pistol in my belt.
I'm on my way to glory, Lord; I'm riding through the sky,
Somebody's little nigger baby in the sweet by-and-by.

3. See that train a-coming; it's coming round the curve.
It's PUFFING, it's blowing; it's SPRINGING/STRAINING(?) every nerve.
The engineer said to the fireman, chunk in a little more coal.
I'm bound to run this engine in some dark and lonesome hole.

4. Little Sally Walker, she's sitting in the sun.
She's a-weeping, she's a-mourning, ever since I've been gone.
She's a-weeping, she's a-mourning, and sweet as a lamb.
Somebody's little nigger baby way down in Alabam'.

5. Catching my mule ? A SADDLE on him and I hopped up on his back.
I POPPED my WHIP AND hollered; oh, sinners, clear the track.
I'm on my way to glory, Lord; I'm riding through the sky,
Somebody's little nigger baby, in the sweet by-and-by

=======================================================

I've been trying to figure this out in entirety for FIFTEEN YEARS.

Thank you all.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Nigger Baby
From: GUEST,Kegan
Date: 29 Sep 16 - 12:21 AM

The above was me, sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Sep 19 - 02:18 PM

My mother sang the same song with these words you shared. I listened to Paul Robson's lullaby and it is neither the same melody or lyrics.
I wish I had knew the title for sure and where to find the music.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST,Rod
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 11:35 AM

This song was published in the late 19th century by an Australian called GH Clutsam variously through Boosey and others, and was written in the customary mock pidgin script of the time ("Ma curly Headed Babby").
However misguided it may look now it was glorified and owned as an anthem by Paul Robeson in his renditions, which are various.
The lullaby transcends the implications in the lyrics, and in my view can be sung without any concern of contempt.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Feb 22 - 09:37 PM

There's a biography of the song's author George Howard Clutsam at this link, as well as a picture of the song sheet:

https://ozvta.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/clutsam-george-1912014.pdf

(My mum used to sing Lula Lula Bye Bye to me as a baby too (1972), and her mother sang it to her (1944). I wouldn't be surprised if my g-grandmother sang it to my grandmother (1917).)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Feb 22 - 11:33 AM

Wups, here's that link to Cisco Houston's version of Woody Guthrie's Curly Headed Baby. Not a lullaby.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Curly Headed Baby (lullaby)
From: Noreen
Date: 25 Feb 22 - 10:01 AM

GEORGE H. CLUTSAM

(link posted by GUEST above 23 Feb 22 - 09:37 PM)