Monday 10 November 2014

MicroBlog Mondays: Singing



I realized the other day that I need to make sure I have enough song lyrics memorized to entertain AJ when she wants to rock on the glider. When I was younger I used to make a point of memorizing songs and poems, but haven't done so deliberately in some years. OK, I'm sure AJ doesn't care what I'm singing or if I mumble "something...something....something" along to the melody occasionally, but it's more satisfying for me to be able to sing the full song. Sometimes I will put on a CD and sing along, which is the cheat way of doing it (she likes that too). But with an armful of baby, meanwhile wrangling a nursing pillow, a blanket, a glass of water and my shirt, just for example, getting the music on doesn't always happen.

There are some songs to which I never have any difficult remembering the words. One of these is "Wild Mountain Thyme" which became popular in Celtic/Folk circles starting in the 90s. Not sure who first recorded it (The Corries?) but for some years everybody seemed to be singing this song. It has a melody that is easy to carry even if you are not so great at carrying a melody (and/or it is some witching hour of the night when I'd be asleep if it was up to me.)

Here are a variety of renditions of Wild Mountain Thyme, if you haven't heard it.

As I watched the snow falling on Sunday however, I decided I needed a winter version of this song - summer won't be coming for a long time. So here are my revised lyrics. I considered myself a bit of a poet once, but it's also been a long time since I made any particular effort in that area. But this will do for a midnight concert for an audience of one, I think. See the original lyrics here.

Oh, the wintertime is coming
And the snow is softly falling
All among the trees and hollows
On the slopes of this tall mountain
Will ye go, lassie, go

And we'll all go together
A-sledding on the mountain
Where the snowdrifts reach to cover
All the trees and shrubs in whiteness
Will ye go, lassie, go

I will build my love a snow-fort
Near yon clear and crystal skate rink
And on it I will pile
All the snowballs on the mountain
Will ye go, lassie, go

And we'll all go together.....

If my true love she were gone
I would surely find another
Where the children laugh together
On the slopes of this tall mountain
Will ye go, lassie go

And we'll all go together
A-sledding on the mountain
Where the snowdrifts reach to cover
All the trees and shrubs in whiteness
Will ye go, lassie, go
Will ye go, lassie, go

Here are a few other favourites (which I haven't yet attempted to re-write!)

Castle of Dromore (traditional) Very appropriate for an October baby!
Barrett's Privateers (Stan Rogers) It's just so much fun to sing!
Whiskey in the Cup (The Rankin Family) Not sure why this one often comes to mind when AJ is fussy....but it does
Rise Again (The Rankin Family) Simply a beautiful song. Although I often get weepy in the middle of it.

Does anyone else sing to soothe baby? or your own nerves.....sometimes I'm doing it as much for me as for her! Any favourites? I'm actually enjoying sharing my old folkie favourites with her. If my tastes were ever more sophisticated, I can't remember when it was.

Sleepy AJ:




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24 comments:

  1. I absolutely love the dimple in her chin! Your husband must have one too!

    I'm from Nova Scotia and grew up with many of the songs you mentioned. I have many fond memories of being at pubs with friends singing Barrett's Privateers :)

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    1. Up till now I only sung it in pubs too LOL! AJ likes fast rocking songs though so sometimes a bouncy tune works. I love east coast music so that's mostly what I know, even though I've only visited once.

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  2. I sang very often to Girl Wonder during our awful NICU days; it was one of the only parent-y things I *could* do. Now, the same songs continue to sooth her, even while they have tears streaming down my cheeks at those memories. Like AJ, she's a fan of folk. Loves Cat Stevens, Neil Young and James Taylor.

    Sweet post :)

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    1. Love the picture of you singing to Girl Wonder in the NICU. I'm glad the tears now are for the memories.

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  3. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but I've always sung to babies. My nephew loved "The bear went over the mountain" which I would make up new verses to while singing, and the boy I nannied would beg me to sing "Baby Beluga" before he went to sleep. Just kids songs, but they love them!

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    1. I will need to learn more kid songs at some point! really know none, although I do also like "The Ants go marching one by one" (is there more than one line in that? lol)

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  4. Surprisingly, as a speech therapist, I don't sing a lot of songs to my kiddos. I just want to comment on how cute AJ is! She's absolutely adorable!

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    1. thanks! :-) When I was teaching my developmentally disabled students, I always thought we should do more singing, but I don't have the confidence to sing much more than O Canada with them lol

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  5. Awe she's so cute!

    I do sing to Sawyer. Mostly nursery rhymes in both English and Dutch because I am terrible at remembering lyrics to "grown up" songs ;)
    There are a few sappy mom songs that I love to sing to him, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjFJtW3aSc8 but they make me cry every time. It's so easy to remember how it felt to be going through treatments. And now, exactly 2 years after the IVF treatment that gave us Sawyer and pregnant with Sawyer's twin brothers, any and all songs that reference birth/children/family make me cry :P

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    1. I'll check out the sappy mom songs. I often end up crying in the middle of a song too lol.

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  6. We also do a lot of action-based songs now that Sawyer is older. "Slippery fish" in the bath tub, "We're going on a bear hunt", "Head, shoulders, knees and toes", "Criss, cross, apple sauce" etc.

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  7. I sing everything to Pickle and she loves it. Not actual songs so much as what is going on. Some of her favourites include Ah Cha Chooey, Baby's Got a Sneezy Nose, Grumpy Baby to You (to the tune of Happy Birthday) and There's a on Your Belly. I really should try to sing some actual songs to her.

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    1. hahaha! I like the made up ones too! Mr. Turtle sang her a hilarious song about everything that was going on in her digestive tract. When I'm really out of it she gets the "fussy fussy fussy" song - which she seems to like.

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  8. As an east coaster who's drunkenly blared this one out more than a few times in my life, I'm laughing out loud at the thought of you singing "Barrett's Privateers" to AJ. Are you even allowed to sing that song sober???

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    1. Sleep deprived counts as drunk I think, at least it is as close as I'll get for a while yet :-D I'll just imagine you and Gypsy Mama singing along with me in solidarity.

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  9. Adorable! I was thinking about songs today, too, and also about the coming winter (I've seen too many geese lately to NOT think about winter). A lullaby for all of us, in a sense.

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    1. Thanks! here's a song about autumn and geese:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsOir-k12js

      Another one that would be fun to sing.

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  10. This is such a sweet story. I don't know any songs, but I'll come back here when I need some of my own. AJ is so cute!

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    1. thanks! I'm sure you will find or make up many of your own songs when the time comes. xo

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  11. I made a songbook that I used to leave in their room! Sometimes I had to look at the words while we rocked. It felt like camp, when they would pass out the songbooks around the campfire.

    I like your rewrite.

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    1. that's a good idea! I think I will try to put together a songbook during one of her afternoon naps, if I am not sleeping myself!

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  12. I'm very impressed with your effort here! I have a hard time singing to SB... in part because I don't remember many of the lyrics of the German nursery rhymes from 30+ years ago, in part because singing makes me cry. Not always, but at least singing to her appears to be fairly reliable here. And then it's not particularly soothing anymore. And for some reason I wanted to try German songs, not the (usually English) pop songs I tend to listen to. Maybe I just need to try out some others...
    On a somewhat related note, playing some of H's favorite movie soundtracks, which she probably remembers from her time in the womb, seem to be soothing. To the annoyance of her grandparents ;)

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    1. I often cry when singing too - but it's therapeutic crying so I let it happen! pretty normal I think! I think it's natural to want to sing songs from childhood/youth. I don't know many kid songs and I don't think I ever did; my parents weren't really into kiddie stuff. Rather they just introduced us to whatever they liked as adults, and we went along with that until we developed our own tastes! but there are some songs (folkie favourites that were comforting to me) that just feel right to sing to a baby. With Christmas approaching you can sing Silent Night in German to Strawberry!

      Laughing at the movie soundtracks! We watched the entire Star TreK: Deep Space Nine during the latter part of pregnancy so I wonder if AJ is familiar with the voices etc.! Whatever works!

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