Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,Autoharper
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 04:51 PM

What now seems syrupy and sentimental was quite popular 150 years ago -- a time in American History when child mortality was great and one out of four kids would lose mother or father (or both) before they left home. Unique in that he wrote poetry exclusively for children, Eugene Field (1850-1895) is remembered today as "the Child's Poet." Field was born in St. Louis, MO, and the house where he spent his childhood is now a museum. I remember committing "Little Boy Blue" to memory as a 2nd grader. Field's classic "Wynken, Blinken, and Nod" is on my "Along Came a Giant" CD.

-Adam Miller
Folksinging.org

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,k
Date: 25 Oct 12 - 02:42 AM

I did a poetry reading in high school english 1967 . I was 16 . My Dad listened to Irish Rovers. I forgot the connection until now. Lovely sad song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 08 Oct 12 - 07:01 AM

This really is a classic poem. My mom used to tell it to me, and I never understood it until many years later. My son, who's now in his 20's, likes it too.

This poem seems so innocent when first reading, but then hits you in the head with a 2 by 4 before its over. It just sneaks up on you.

James.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: Michael in Swansea
Date: 09 May 10 - 10:44 AM

My mam's visiting and she asked me about the little toy dog all covered in dust, I knew where to look immediately. I've been too long away. May you all walk in sunshine. Mike

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 07 May 10 - 02:25 PM

Here's another of our threads which has stood the test of time, being resurrected every few years. I just now listened to the John McCormack version again, it never grows old.

You might want to look at one of my posts from 1998 just for fun. I said As for search engines, I prefer Profusion, it gives the most pertinent leads from Alta Vista, Infoseek, Open Text, Exite, Lycos, WebCrawler, Magellan, Yahoo, and GoTo. I always use exact phrase, with summary, and choose manually, eliminating Lycos, which always seems to throw in a bunch of useless urls. No GOOGLE in sight!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 May 10 - 01:08 PM

I learnt this at school more than 30 years ago and absolutely loved it. I'd forgotten the lyrics and tune and was thrilled to find both recently. I've listened to the Ethelbert Nevin version and was not impressed-too operatic and stilted, with no emotion. The John McCormack version is beautiful though. I've also heard that the Irish Rovers did a wonderful recording of this, but it's incredibly difficult to find. It's on the album called something like 'Tales to warm your Heart'(or it may be 'mind'?) The author did write this for his son who died. I think its fine to recite, or preferably sing, this to a child - I found it beautiful when I was little, but, as a Mum now, it is truly heart wrenching.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,JoMar
Date: 06 Nov 09 - 08:10 PM

Did Field's write Little Boy Blue because of his son's death? My mother would recite this many times. Here I am at 69, remembering and wondering if I should recite it to my grandchildren.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,Cathy
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 12:24 AM

My father sang this to me at bed time when I was young. I only now realize what the lyrics are about. Sad and beautiful at the same time. The youtube version by McCormack is done well.

Sweet Memories!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,me again
Date: 09 Feb 09 - 06:25 AM

tnx guys

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 11:23 AM

So THAT's what it sounds like!!!! Thank you, laurapf, for that link.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,laurapf
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 09:48 AM

I was moved indeed with this thread.
Thank you. I found this link with John McCormack singing Little Boy Blue on YouTube, should it help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egc-8q9etko

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 09:37 AM

Where can I get the music to Little Boy Blue? Please send to [e-mail]
Thanks so much,
Mary Ann

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 08:53 AM

When this thread first ran I hadn't had the experience I write about below. I posted the following on a more recent thread..........

Perhaps the first poem that "hit me" as a child was Eugene Field's "Little Boy Blue." Sad, sentimental, syruppy......a true tear jerker.......and let's face it, a bit hokey or so I thought as I grew older.

But then only a few years back, Karen and I were walking through the cemetery where my family is buried and stumbled upon the children's section. Its an old cemetery and there were probably close to two hundred graves filled with the remains of the unrealized hopes and dreams of loving parents. On a great majority of these headstones there were toys, little trucks, stuffed animals..........Sad in and of itself but when we saw that many of these things were new and on graves that were sometimes 50 or more years old, neither Karen nor I could hold it together. Can you imagine bringing gifts to your long dead child on a regular basis? I don't know what that kind of pain is like but we stood holding each other tightly as we cried and realized how lucky we were.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field)
From: GUEST,chagz
Date: 25 Nov 08 - 07:19 AM

pls help me what does the poem tells about??? the little boy blue....thnx

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue
From: GUEST,www.theirishtenor.us
Date: 23 Jul 03 - 10:03 AM

This is probably the most moving poem ever put to music. Being an Irish Tenor myself I actually don't know if I will ever be able to sing this in public as I too had a younger sibling carried away by an angel's song. McCormack's rendition is probably the definitive version which will never be matched. He truly had a golden voice with an innate ability to convey true feeling to every phrase and nuance.

Regarding the Trundle bed, I see some other poster has "shssh I'll tell you later" I was out shopping last week and finally came accross a Trundle bed. Forgive the ignorance but I never knew what it was until now. Basically for those like me, this bed is a bed which collapases and can be stored under another bed. YOu know the kind, they single bed with another single bed underneath which can be pulled out and risen up to the same height.

Your's truely,

Isaac Chute

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Boy Blue
From:
Date: 12 Jan 03 - 03:32 PM

I am so glad i found this information. the song little boy blue was one that has lingered in my memory for a long time.My mother used to sing/recite it to my sister and i when we were very young.I had managed to obtain a copy of the words from someone in the glasgow guide web page but have been seeking more info re recordings etc.Glad to hear that i am not the only one who has tears in his eyes when he remembers the words.When i first got a copy of the words i was on the phone to my daughter and told her about them. I tried to recite them to her over the phone but the memories were just too much so i told her she could get a copy next time she was over.

Subject: RE: Lyrics Little Boy Blue
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 10:20 PM

chutiye log , kya ho raha hai .....duffers .

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: DaveJ
Date: 20 May 01 - 07:56 AM

Let's put an end to this nonsense about cats killing babies. This mythology is left over folklore from the days of witch hunting. Cats do like to sleep with people, infants included, but there is no proof that any cat ever smothered a child. Cats will clean an infants face if there is spilled milk, but they won't steal the breath away as is suggested in myth. I think Barbara is right. Cats are 'taking the rap' for SIDS, or worse yet, infanticide. My daughter, who is now a healthy (and somewhat Gothic 15 yearold), has been sleeping with cats since she was in a crib. As a baby, she would sometimes even use one of our cats as a pillow. (Admittedly, this was an exceptional old gentle neutered Tom with more claws than he knew what to do with.) 'nuf said.

Dave

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From:
Date: 19 May 01 - 02:15 PM

Thank you to those who posted words and sources for recordings and music to "Little Boy Blue". It is a song my mother used to sing and I have often wanted to find the words and music. Searching now an then through titles of children's songs in songbooks and folk recordings had never yielded anything, although I did find a similar song she also sang, "Put my Little Shoes Away" on a CD called "Angels' Visits" (New World 80220-2). Those of you interested in Victorian songs about dying children my enjoy this CD.

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: alison
Date: 25 Jan 00 - 07:39 AM

Malcolm, you were right to put netting over a pram left outside..... I have looked after mothers on more than one occasion who lost babies through being smothered by cats... theories being that the cats liked the warmth, or that they smelt milk on the babie's faces.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 02:35 PM

My thoughts on Cats and Cradles should not, of course, be taken as gospel, but rather as a (possibly) interesting sidelight.  In creative writing, and in the analysis of it, the association of ideas -often unconscious at the time- plays an important role; while it's perfectly possible that Chapin may have made the same association that I did, it is probably more likely, as Alison and Barbara have pointed out, that he did not!

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Barbara
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 02:12 PM

Thanks, Dale, I'll check out the tune next. I'm sure the Chapin song is just a compilation of nursery rhymes. In regards cats sleeping on babies and suffocating them, people probably needed some explanation for SIDS.
Blessings,
Barbara
(who's been off-line for a couple days because somebody at Verio crossed a couple cables in their office. Took them almost 2 days to figure it out, and they're the upstream link for my ISP -- who's now shopping for a replacement!)

Subject: Cat's Cradle
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 02:04 AM

I've played Cat's Cradle (click) with people from all over, and it's always the same. I'll betcha there's an interesting folklore behind it. Anybody know?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 24 Jan 00 - 12:50 AM

Wow...Reading the poem made me realize that my Mom had a little illustrated version that she would read to me, oh, maybe 47 years ago. Sure put a lump in my throat. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: alison
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 11:54 PM

Cat's cradle was a game we used to play as kids. you did it by looping string around your fingers, then by moving your fingers you could make all sorts of elaborate shapes... I seem to remember being able to do an "Eiffel Tower" and a "swing"... but there were lots....

I think the song refers to this game from childhood same as the nursery rhymes from childhood..... not anything more sinister.... just the innocent things we did when we were kids...

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Ulli
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 03:34 PM

Thanks a lot Malcolm This information is of great help. When playing this song to pupils(and then discussing it) I had to 'improvise' a little bit when trying to explain the chorus of that song. I do feel a lot better(and more confident!)now Thanks Ulli

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 02:01 PM

Harry Chapin's "Little Boy Blue" would be the one from the nursery rhyme:

Little Boy Blue,
Come blow your horn,
The sheep's in the meadow
The cow's in the corn;
But where is the boy who looks after the sheep?
He's under a haycock,
Fast asleep.
Will you wake him?
No, not I,
For if I do,
He's sure to cry.

The Man in the Moon turns up all over the place; for example:

The Man in the Moon
Came down too soon,
And asked the way to Norwich;
He went by the south,
And burned his mouth
With supping cold plum porridge.

The "silver spoon" may be a conflation of the spoon with which the dish ran away in "Hey Diddle Diddle" and the silver spoon which privileged children are said to have in their mouths when they are born.  "Cat's Cradle" is a children's game which involves looping string around the fingers in complex patterns;  "The Cat's in the Cradle" also has sinister undertones; cats were popularly believed to like to get into cradles and suck a baby's breath.  Certainly when I was small, prams left in the garden would have nets put over them to prevent cats getting in (they do like to sleep on peoples' heads, and I suppose a baby might actually suffocate as a result).

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Ulli
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 04:54 AM

Is the chorus of Harry Chapin's CATS IN THE CRADLE, (The cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon, Little Boy Blue and the man on the moon....) also a reference to the Little Boy Blue mentioned in this thread? By the way, can anyone please tell me what "cat's in the cradle" actually means or refers to? thanks Ulli

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Dale Rose
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 01:24 AM

Barbara, every now and then, something comes up that is useful to an old post, and thanks to the new handy-dandy search by Max, I was able to find this old thread and give you the tune that you asked for back in September of 98.

While exploring Benjamin R. Tubb's site this evening, I stumbled across a midi for Little Boy Blue the same tune as used by John McCormack and The Irish Rovers. Tubb's music of the 1800s page You'll find it under 1891, composed by Ethelbert Nevin, 1862-1901. Interesting to note that Field wrote the poem in 1888, and Nevin put it to music just three years later.

Do check out the rest of his site as well, there is much to be enjoyed there.

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Sheye
Date: 05 Sep 98 - 10:24 AM

gracias, amigo!

This song is another childhood shadow. My mom would be playing it on the piano as we lulled, snuggly in our beds...

Sheye

Subject: Lyr Add: LITTLE BOY LOST
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Sep 98 - 03:37 AM

How's this, Sheye? -Joe Offer-

LITTLE BOY LOST
Lyrics by Marilyn & Alan Bergman
Music by Michel LeGrand
©1970, EMI
(from the motion picture, "Pieces of Dreams")

Little boy lost
In search of little boy found
You go a wondering, wandering,
Stumbling, tumbling round, round...
When will you find what's on the tip of your mind?
Why are you blind to all you ever were,
Never were, really are, nearly are?

Little boy false
In search of little boy true
Will you be ever done traveling,
Always unraveling you, you?
Running away could lead you further astray
And as for fishing in streams for pieces of dreams,
Those pieces will never fit. What is the sense of it?

Little boy lost,
Don't let your little sheep roam.
It's time, come blow your horn, meet the morn,
Look and see, can you be
Far from home?

Another song on the same theme is Little Girl Blue, by Rodgers & Hart.

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Sheye
Date: 04 Sep 98 - 10:32 AM

I was remembering a different song:

Little boy blue,
(???)
You go a wandering, wondering,
fumbling, stumbling around, round...
When will you find,
what's on the tip of your mind?
Why are you blind to all you ever were,
never were, really are, nearly are?

Little boy lost
in search of little boy found
Will you be ever done travelling,
always unravelling you, you?

(???)

Little boy blue,
don't let your little sheep roam
It's time, come blow your horn, meet the morn,
look and see, can you be
far from home?

Anybody know the rest of the pieces?

Regarding search engines: another is metacrawler. It too, combines several other engines and you have to skip over the Lycos stuff.

Sheye

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: alison
Date: 04 Sep 98 - 07:45 AM

Hi,

Never heard that one before. Brought a tear to my eye....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 02:13 PM

Gee, Dale....and all this time I thought you knew all those songs.....and I thought it was Art who wrote 'em.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Dale Rose
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 02:09 PM

I see I beat you by a couple of seconds, Barbara! And Joe, there is a typo there. Can you see it? Also, I cannot tell a lie, that particular one was "borrow" and paste. As for search engines, I prefer Profusion, it gives the most pertinent leads from Alta Vista, Infoseek, Open Text, Exite, Lycos, WebCrawler, Magellan, Yahoo, and GoTo. I always use exact phrase, with summary, and choose manually, eliminating Lycos, which always seems to throw in a bunch of useless urls. By the way, Little Boy Blue was written in 1888, compliments of the University of Toronto Library, via Profusion.

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 01:31 PM

Dale does mostly his own typing, Barbara. I actually do quite a bit of that, too - but first I try searching the database, the forum, and an "exact phrase" search at www.hotbot.com.
But give Dale credit. He's not lazy like me - and he rarely makes a typo.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Barbara
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 01:25 PM

Well, yes, Dale, actually I figured that while I was typing it in, Joe Offer would go and find it somewhere and post it, and instead you did.(grin)
My grandmother lost her first child to Scarlet Fever, when she was two or three, and the poem always moved her. I memorized -and recited - it as a birthday present, as I recall. There's a tune?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyrics
From: Barbara
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 01:15 PM

Jeez, Gene, I never ever thought I need that poem I memorized for my grandmother when I was 10 (along with Abou Ben Adam (may his tribe increase). Let me see if I can still remember it.

The little toy dog is covered with dust
but sturdy and staunch he stands,
the Little toy soldier with red with rust
and his musket molds in his hand.
Time was, when the little toy dog was new
And the soldier was passing fair,
And that was when our "little Boy Blue"
Kissed them and put them there.
"Now, don't you go 'til I come," he said,
"and don't you make any noise."
And he toddled off to his trundle bed
(What's a trundle bed, Mom? Shh, I'll tell you later)
To dream of his marvellous toys.
But during the night an angel came,
And awakened our 'Little Boy Blue"
Oh the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toys friends are true.
-------(missing line)---still they stand.

Each in his same old place,
Awaiting the touch of his little hand,
the smile of his little face.

Awright. That's what I can remember. Now I'll go in and get the 101 Famous Poems, and check it.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: Lyr Add: LITTLE BOY BLUE (Eugene Field)
From: Dale Rose
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 01:15 PM

The words are easy enough, that is the poem Little Boy Blue, by Eugene Field. As far as recordings go, I know of two. John McCormack recorded it three times, the first in 1916. His version from 1930 is on his CD Ireland, My Ireland, Pro-Arte/Fanfare 476, 1990. Another much more recent version was by The Irish Rovers. I don't think that one has been reissued.

LITTLE BOY BLUE
Eugene Field

The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and staunch he stands;
And the little tin soldier is red with rust,
and his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.

"Now don't you go till I come.", he said.
"And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue.
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toys friends are true.

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue the stand,
Each in the same old place,
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face;
And the wonder, as waiting the long years through
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
Since he kissed them and put them there.

Subject: Re: Little toy soldier is red with rust-
From:
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 11:57 AM

goes something like this: The little toy dog is covered with dust but sturdy and staunch he stands,

Subject: Re: that was when our Little Boy Blue kissed them-
From:
Date: 03 Sep 98 - 11:53 AM

goes something like this:

The little toy dog is covered with dust
but sturdy and staunch he stands,
the Little toy soldier with red with rust
and his musket he holds in his hand.
Time was when they little toys were new
and the soldier was passing fair,
that was when our "little Boy Blue"
kissed them and put them there.-----