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Lyr Req: Go to Sleep My Baby / Wyoming Lullaby
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Subject: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST,tiggerdooley Date: 23 Feb 01 - 03:55 PM I'm trying to find the lyrics/tune to a lullaby that my Great Grandma used to sing to me. It begins "Go to sleep, my Baby/ Close your pretty eyes..." It then has something about the moon or the stars and ends something like "It's time for (insert child's name) to go to sleep".I would be so grateful if somebody could tell me how it goes. Thanks! |
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Subject: Lyr Add: GO TO SLEEP MY BABY From: MMario Date: 23 Feb 01 - 04:17 PM Could this be it?
Go to sleep my baby, close variant also found...
Go to sleep, my baby. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST Date: 23 Feb 01 - 04:23 PM I think there are lots of versions of this. 2 recorded versions I've heard are as follows-one is on Alan Lomax southern journey's series Rounder records, I believe volume 1 voices of the south. the other is brand new allison krause and some other folk on the soundtrack to " oh brother where art thou." Some of the lyrics aren't as gentle as the ones Mario offered, Mama's gonna away |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST,tiggerdooley Date: 23 Feb 01 - 04:41 PM To MMario Thank you so much!!!!!! That's the one! You don't know how much it means to me to finally have all the words. And thanks for replying so quickly. How on earth do you know that song? Nobody else I asked knew what I was talking about!! To GUEST Thanks for letting me know how I can finally hear this tune after so many years. I'm going out to find it A.S.A.P!! I haven't heard that tune since I was about five years old, and not even my Nan could remember it properly. It seemed as though it had gone forever when my great grandmother died. Thanks a lot, folks, tiggerdooley |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST Date: 23 Feb 01 - 07:36 PM MMario My Mum sang that to me sixty years ago; lovely to be reminded! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: tiggerdooley Date: 24 Feb 01 - 05:24 AM MMario I'm off to try and buy it from somewhere today. I'm almost certain that I've got the tune right in my head, but if not, I may be requesting your help again! Do you know where it comes from? Maybe a film, or, knowing my great grandma, there's probably some Irish influence. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Mary in Kentucky Date: 24 Feb 01 - 10:21 AM This lullaby was new to me, so I searched for a sound file. The best I can come up with is a short clip here. (http://www.kidsmusic.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Playtime_Cassettes_10.html) I had to download it and then listen to it. I found some really nice lullabies on this search! |
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Subject: Lyr Add: A CHRISTMAS LULLABY (Pat Garvey) From: Barry T Date: 24 Feb 01 - 01:24 PM The lyrics to this song reminded me of A CHRISTMAS LULLABY by Pat Garvey... from a Cherrybell Music songbook of New Christy Minstrels' stuff...
Go to sleep my dearest one
'Round the world and back again
Refrain
Repeat first verse.
'Beautiful tune in 3/4 time. I sang it for years to my son at bedtime. Now infant nieces and nephews are my audience. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: GO TO SLEEP, MY BABY From: Noreen Date: 25 Feb 01 - 12:25 PM This is the version my parents sang to me, and I in turn sang to my children... and still do on occasion, though they're 9 and 13... Go to sleep my baby, |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST,Wendy Date: 25 Feb 01 - 01:14 PM There are a couple of mp3s, more along the lines of the Lomax Souther Journey & O Brother versions mentioned by guest above, in the The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip section at the Library of Congress site. One is by "Aunt Florida Hampton" here . And one by "Aunt Caroline & Frances Horne" here . You can find the lyrics in the fieldnotes. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Steve Parkes Date: 26 Feb 01 - 10:41 AM Wow! My mother used to sing Noreen's version to me nearly fifty years ago, and I used to sing it to my kids, too. Steve |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 26 Feb 01 - 10:56 AM Yes, Noreen's version was used on me, er, 50-odd years ago as well. So soon you forget! RtS |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 26 Feb 01 - 11:30 AM Oh, thanks Steve- any idea of its history? I've never thought of where it came from before, it was always just there... I wonder if you know any of the others that I sing too? :0) Noreen |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 26 Feb 01 - 11:40 AM Aah, and Roger too! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Steve Parkes Date: 26 Feb 01 - 11:49 AM I'll have to ask Mom where she got it from -- chances are, it was Nan or Grandad! The only thing I can ever remember asking her when I was little was: "how can jars peep?" (Mom's version has "stars above you peeping, peeping at you, dearie, from the sky") I suppose I must have been about two years old, from the odd little thing or two I can also remember that I associate with the memory. I still have this rather vivid inmage of a moonlit night sky, wispy clouds, and cut-glass vases leaning out of the clouds at odd angles -- Magritte could have done it justice. No wonder I'm in such a mess today! I suppose Mom's version isn't quite the same as yours, Noreen. What other lullabies do you rmember? I have a vague recollection of "lula-lula-lula-lual-bye-bye", as sung by Paul Robeson, but it mightbe Paul Robeson that I recall. (Not that he ever sang me to sleep!) Steve |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 26 Feb 01 - 01:32 PM "lula-lula-lula-lual-bye-bye" was another one, Steve, and I remember the shock of hearing it sung on the radio when I was quite grown up, prob by Mr. Robeson. Presumably he recorded it- I wonder if it's available? This was my daughter's favourite lullaby for a long time, she'd ask for "the moon and stars". Aaaah- happy memories. The other one was: Go to sleep, my little piccaninny, Noreen |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: tiggerdooley Date: 26 Feb 01 - 05:24 PM Noreen, are you from Liverpool? Iam! I posted the original lyrics request at the top and I didn't even mention that I was from Liverpool!!! That is so weird. You don't know my Grandma, do you? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 26 Feb 01 - 09:07 PM Tigger! Wasn't she the woman who... *LOL* Hope the words are the ones you remember. I've enjoyed thinking about them again. Noreen |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Steve Parkes Date: 27 Feb 01 - 03:23 AM Noreen, you can get Robeson's "Lula..." on a cd; I'll try and remember to look up the number when I get back tonight. I've got quite a few 78s by him as well (I never get tired of hearing his voice!), which you're welkcome to come and listen to next time i you're in Milton Keynes. Steve |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 27 Feb 01 - 07:55 AM Thanks Steve, I'd love to hear it again. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Steve Parkes Date: 28 Feb 01 - 03:27 AM Oh dear! Sorry, Noreen -- I checked out both my PR cds last night, and it's not on either of them. It'll take me some time to check through my 78s to find it, but you won't be able to order a copy anyway! Keep your fingers crossed, and check out the budget complation cds. Ohterwise, the other offer still stands! Steve |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 28 Feb 01 - 10:13 AM Stee, would the song be called "Ma Curly Headed Babby"? I've found that listed on a CD here which looks tempting. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Steve Parkes Date: 28 Feb 01 - 12:16 PM It's not the same song, Noreen -- I was playing it last night, so I can say that with confidence! I wondered the same thing. That's one of the cds I've got. "Babby" is a typo, btw: it's "baby" on the sleeve, and that's what he sings. It's a good one, though. (Mind you, he could have sung the Ying-tong Song to make your heart melt!) There must be a Paul Robeson appreciation society, mustn't there? Or maybe we should start our own Mudcat PRAS? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: rich-joy Date: 02 Jul 02 - 05:42 AM I was going to start a thread to ask for the lyrics of this song - and here it was already!! My Dad used to sing me to sleep (in Perth, W.A.) with "Go To Sleep My Baby" - he was born in 1916 in Fremantle, Western Australia - but this is the fragment that I recall - SIMILAR to MMario's and Noreen's, yet not QUITE the same ...
I can't recall if this was the whole of it or not, though ... (but I can IMAGINE Paul Robeson singing it ...) Is there any more??
Cheers! R-J ---Jeff (PA)--- |
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Subject: Lyr Add: WYOMING LULLABY From: rich-joy Date: 03 Jul 02 - 08:03 AM "Seek, and you shall find, Knock, and the door shall be opened, Ask, and it shall be given ..."
So there I was today, pursuing with a passion one of my favourite past times - that of Op-Shopping!! (i.e. scouring opportunity/thrift/charity shops)
There amongst the knitting patterns, I came across a little publication, in pink and blue (!!) that was presented free with "Wife and Home" in November 1952 (when I was 14 months old) and entitled : "Vera Lynn's Favourite Lullabies"
Among the gems was : "WYOMING LULLABY" : words and music by Gene Williams - published by permission of Lawrence Wright Music Company, Ltd, London WC2, complete with words and music. The words are :
Go to sleep, my baby So my Dad wasn't that far off ... I still find this song very comforting and soporific!!! Cheers! R-J
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 03 Jul 02 - 08:05 AM Lovely! Music please... |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: rich-joy Date: 03 Jul 02 - 08:32 AM sorry Noreen, I haven't a clue how!! I could post you a photocopy though if you PM me!! (c/o The Ark) Cheers! R-J |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Snuffy Date: 03 Jul 02 - 09:09 AM My Mum used to sing this to us, Noreen. I'll see if I can manage to get it down tonight. WassaiL! V |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 03 Jul 02 - 09:15 AM ok, will do |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 03 Jul 02 - 09:23 AM Thanks Snuffy- I'm interested in knowing whether the Vera Lynn tune is the same as the one my parents sang to me. I'll get the dots from R.J and we can compare notes... (groan) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: MMario Date: 03 Jul 02 - 09:26 AM and you all know what to do once you have the tune, don't you????
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Noreen Date: 03 Jul 02 - 09:48 AM That thought was never far from my mind, MMario! |
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Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: GO TO SLEEP MY BABY From: Snuffy Date: 03 Jul 02 - 06:39 PM Here's what my mum used to sing when we were kids:
Go to sleep my baby, WassaiL! V |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: rich-joy Date: 04 Jul 02 - 05:36 AM My Partner, (Poor Misery), who's an ex-Scouser, says he remembers it from his childhood too ... Noreen - I'll copy the whole booklet and snailmail it to you, coz the others may be of interest too (some of which I've never heard anyway ...) Cheers! R-J |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: rich-joy Date: 09 Jul 02 - 05:42 AM Noreen - the copied booklet is on its way to you.
There is one line where my memory of my Father's singing is at odds with what both the booklet and my Scouser Partner remember (but I think my Dad's line is an improvement!!!) Cheers! R-J |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Joe_F Date: 09 Jul 02 - 08:49 PM Variant remembered from my childhood: The little stars are peeping To see if you are sleeping. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Gray D Date: 10 Jul 02 - 07:42 PM You all keep typing that you remember it from the distant past. Didn't any of you sing it to your own kids? Ours were certainly lulled with it hardly a dozen or so years ago. Snuffy's version was the one we used to use, lyricwise anyway (sorry, Snuffy, I'm not musically ept enough to decipher the tab. Every confidence that you're spot on tho'). I drifted off to my mum singing "The Skye Boat Song" in my early years. Altogether now "Speed bonny boat, like a bird on the wing, over the sea to Skye". What a beautiful tune. Thanks for the thread, tig'. Made me go all misty and nostaligic. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Gray D Date: 10 Jul 02 - 07:50 PM Obviously, being nostalgic ain't what it used to be. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Steve Parkes Date: 11 Jul 02 - 03:22 AM Yes, I sang it to my kids! But since my bro married a black girl, we have a problem with "picaninny", so we'll all be changing to one of the versions above. My days of getting small children to sleep are over now--for tha time being, anyway! Steve P.S. My mom also used to sing "My resistance is low". It must have worked, 'cos I could never remember the ending...! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Snuffy Date: 11 Jul 02 - 09:56 AM For some reason I never sang to my twins at bedtime - used to read them lots of stories, though. Bathtime was when I sang to them, but there's not much call for lullabies then - more stuff like Michael Finnegan or the Tennessee Wig Walk or Hang on the Bell, Nelly or nursery rhymes. WassaiL! V |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST,m t Date: 23 Jan 03 - 08:46 AM The song you are looking for is "Ma curly headed baby" It will still be on records/C.D somewhere as it was popular during the thirties and forties and translated into other languages even Polish. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: JudeL Date: 24 Jan 03 - 07:54 AM It was one who's first line was "Sweet & low, sweet & low, wind of the western sea" that my dad used to sing to me when I was little. It still has the power to make me relax and feel sleepy , when I hear it today. How's that for conditioning! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Joe_F Date: 04 Aug 03 - 10:43 PM My mother sang a version that had a introduction with a different tune. I only remember fragments: Here comes the sandman Tripping so lightly . . . And he scatters the sand With his little brown hand In the eyes of the sleeping children. Go to sleep, my baby. Close your tired eyes. The . . . . . . paradise. The little stars are peeping To see if you are sleeping. Go to sleep, my baby, . . . . |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Mudlark Date: 05 Aug 03 - 02:00 AM And speaking of sandmen...what about that great old Crosby tune... That sly old gentleman, from Featherbed Lane He's watching you, peeking through your windowpane. There's a bit I don't remember well, then He'll make your little heart so happy and gay You'll ride a rockinghorse across the Milky Way Don't stay away...why don't you take that Slumber Train With the sly old gentleman, from Featherbed lane |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Steve Parkes Date: 05 Aug 03 - 03:07 AM Where did this "Sandman" come from? I know Hans CAnderson used it in one (or more) of his stories, but I don't think he invemnted it. It always seemed gruesome to me as a child that someone (and a responsible adult at that) should make you close your eyes at bedtime by throwing sand in them! Steve |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST,MMario Date: 05 Aug 03 - 09:06 AM But he must - otherwise how come you wake up with sand in your eyes! (Or don't you?) Most - or at least many - people wake up with gritty deposits in the corners of their eyes - The sandman doesn't necessarily throw sand at you to make you close your eyes, but he throws sleep sand which makes you sleep - but it wears off - which is why you find the sand in your eyes when you wake. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Steve Parkes Date: 05 Aug 03 - 10:05 AM That accounts for it. And talking of strange things you find in bed when you wake up, what about ... no, better not ask -- there may be ladies present! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST,Dave in British Columbia Date: 15 Nov 03 - 12:02 AM Joe F reported (on August 4) a version of "Go to Sleep my Baby" with a verse that began, >Here comes the sandman >Tripping so lightly >. . . >And he scatters the sand >With his little brown hand >In the eyes of the sleeping children. That's our family version! My mother heard it from some other young people when barely out of her teens and attending a function near Denver. That would be in the early 1930's. She took it to heart and sang it to her children when they came along. My sister and I in turn sang it to our kids; I hope some in the next generation use it too; as a lullaby it's almost as good as a sedative on small children, because the tune is irregular yet so gentle. It sounds like a rocking cradle. Until stumbling upon Joe F.'s recollection, none of us in the last seventy years had encountered another soul who knew the song! Here is the version that I used. My sister's memory of the song will be more accutare, perhaps she'll provide more authentic words: [Verse] Here comes the sandman Softly he's stealing Creeping along on the tips of his toes. And he scatters the sand With his own little hand On the eyes of the sleeping children [Chorus] Go to sleep my baby Close your sleepy eyes The silver moon is gleaming from under starry skies The old sandman is peeping To see if you are sleeping Go to sleep my baby for just a little while. Wish I could enclose the tune in some way, because it makes the song. The melody is more complex than one finds in most lullabies. When sung in the key of D, for example, the word "sleeping" takes an F-sharp major chord. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: Joe_F Date: 15 Nov 03 - 08:22 PM Guest Dave: Thanks very much for completing it and (probably) correcting some mistakes. Here is the tune as I remember it, line by line, in solfa (scale is DRMFSLTdrmfslt, except that there are a lot of accidentals, so make that DRMF4SLTd1r2mf4slt): m.2.m.d.....S..... m.2.m.d.....S..... S.L.T.d.r.m.s.f.L.t... rmf.s.l.r... rmf.s.l.r... rrs...ss4...4.s.....S..... S...L.T...d.m.....m..... S...L.T...d.f....... m.r...1.r...2.m...d.S... S.4...m.r...L.r......... S.S...L.T...d.m.....m... m.2...m.t...l.f.....f..... d...T.r...d.m.....l... m.s...f.m...r.d........... Dots mean continuation for another half beat. The rhythm, as I remember it, is irregular, so I have not tried to divide it into measures. It is indeed a complicated tune, probably not a folk tune. At a guess, my mother learned it when she was little. She was born in 1908. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go to sleep my baby From: GUEST,Dave in British Columbia Date: 16 Nov 03 - 08:06 PM Yes Joe, that is close to the tune that we use in our family. Now I see the advantage of the old sol-fa notation: transmission as text! There are some variations, such as in the first two lines of the chorus, where we use: S...L.d...m.s...s..... S...L...d.m.s....... Rhythmically, we sing most of it in a slow 6/8 or 12/8, though the first two lines are sung in 4/4. My sister saw our correspondence and (having sung the song to more children than I did) suggests some corrections to the words, as shown below in asterisks: ...*As* he scatters the sand.... The silver moon is *gleaming under starlit* skies. [-- which might explain how you remember "paradise"] And at the end, Go to sleep my baby, Close your sleepy eyes. Now, as to source. My mother (Ruth Witbeck at the time) heard it around 1933, when she was running a sorority camp for underpriviledged children south of Vancouver, in Boundary Bay. Two sorority sisters from Denver CO, with the last name of Peck, used this song with the younger children at bedtime and also taught it to my mom. Thanks to musical training and a very good ear, my mother likely preserved it as accurately as she heard it over the years until my older sister could become the lullaby's repository. Do any of those clues help you to trace the song? Dave |
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