Friday Music Day

FMD: Lullaby

34 Comments

What do/did you sing to your kids to get them to sleep? What do you like for yourself for the same?

I've been cycling through the same handful of songs, adding one or two with each of my kids. The rotation is pretty much:
"Hallelujah" (More Cohen than anyone else, when I sing it)
"When You Dream" (BNL)
"Salvation Is Created" (Chesnokov)
"You'll Be In My Heart" (Collins)
"Leaving On A Jet Plane" (Peter, Paul, & Mary)
"You Are My Sunshine"

Occasionally some others make it into the mix, but the kids usually request these ones, and I know 'em.

We've also found that Don Williams and George Strait work pretty well for rocking a baby to sleep.

34 thoughts on “FMD: Lullaby”

  1.     a. Rusty Blackbird “Multiple Song Types Given in a Flock” (Cornell Master Set)
    1. Twilight Circus Sound System “Horsie” Horsie
    2. Charlie Parr “Manifold”* While No One Was Looking: Toasting 20 Years of Bloodshot Records
    3. Howie B. “Nordleed” Jockey Slut Jukebox
    4. Kilchhofer “Laar” Darsu
    5. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy “Blindlessness” Mindlessness 7"

    6. Ken Nordine “Mauve&rdquo*; Colors
    7. Sacred System* “Dèrive” Nagual Site
    8. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy “Tribulations”* Hummingbird EP
    9. Lupe Fiasco “Kick, Push” Food & Liquor
    T. Tranquility Bass “Cantamilla”* Exist Dance: Transmitting from Heaven

    *Notes:
    2. Devil in a Woodpile cover.
    6. Bonus track from the 1995 Asphodel CD reissue.
    7. Not sure if this is best considered a pseudonym or a project of Bill Laswell.
    8. E.C. Ball cover. Will Oldham has also covered Ball's "John the Baptist".
    T. Bought from Bandcamp, where the lyrics often come as tags to the MP3. This track, in full: "I see. I know."

  2. Heh, I may not be the baseball-iest person around here, but I am guessing I have the baseball-iest answer. For probably close to two years now, I've been singing the peperoncino the same three songs at bedtime. I honestly don't quite recall how this particular line-up evolved, but he's a kid with opinions, so this is not something that I forced upon him.

    1. "Take Me Down to the Basement"
    This is sung to the tune of #2 on the list and has lyrics created by yours truly about playing with trucks and trains in the basement.

    2. "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

    3. "We're Gonna Win Twins"
    The peperoncino used to call this song "Soar and Score".

    1. Your #1 reminds me of my second "verse" of "Little Piggies" (for the other foot).

      This little little piggy went to the store
      and this one hung around.
      This little piggy had omelets
      and this one had hash browns.
      And this little piggy went boo hoo hoo all the way home.

      The pinkie-toe line is weak; I'll admit as much.
      Usually reserved for nail-trimming time, either as a sort-of reward or a warm-up.

      1. The other foot! I love this.

        When I do the regular "Little Piggies," I frequently replace "This little piggy ate roast beef" with "This little piggy ate tofu."

      2. We often do something similar, but it tends to involve more improv.

        this little piggy visited [an occupation]
        Yes, and this little piggy..."

    2. We grew up to this Swedish finger naming-ritual at bed-time (the last finger always included tickling):

      thumb - "Thummatort..."
      index - "Schliktipooet..."
      middle - "Longy-man"...
      ring - "Gooovrin..."
      pinky - "Littly-bittsy-spady-man!!"

      Names are probably all butchered from orig. Swedish.

  3. My go to songs were:

    "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" (Newman/Midler)
    "Golden Slumbers" (Beatles)
    "Baby Mine" (Dumbo)

    and any ballad by Collin Raye

  5.  
    2017/03/17 - FMD

    01. “The Comeback” – The Shout Out Louds – Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
    02. “Best Time Of My Life” – Obnox – Louder Space*
    03. “Dreamboat” – Eleni Mandell – Snakebite
    04. “In The Devil’s Territory” – Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans
    05. “That I Do” – Wye Oak – The Knot
    06. “Cannibal Resource” – Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
    07. “Beside You” – Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
    08. “Just Be Simple” – Songs: Ohia – The Magnolia Electric Company
    09. “Dark Arc” – Saintseneca – Dark Arc
    10. “Metronomic Underground” – Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup

    *I could only find the full album on YT (not a bad thing), but there's a link in the description to jump to the specific song

  6. 01. Overkill - "The Wait - New High in Lows", W.F.O.
    02. Metal Church - "Metal Church", Metal Church
    03. Iron Maiden - "Purgatory", Killers
    04. Amon Amarth - "Where is You God?", Twilight of the Thunder God
    05. Metallica - "The Shortest Straw", ...And Justice for All
    06. Arch Enemy - "Heart of Darkness", Wages of Sin
    07. Bolt Thrower - "Entrenched", Those Once Loyal
    08. Epica - "Ascension - Dream State Armageddon", The Holographic Principal
    09. Candlemass - "Cylinder", Dactylis Glomerata
    10. Bruce Dickinson - "Jerusalem", The Chemical Wedding

  7. I never got into singing lullabyes, but the song for hair-drying was "Jesus Built My Hotrod" by Ministry feat. Gibby Haynes.
    "Ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long"
    "Bucky bucky son of a gun"
    "Why why why baby, I just wanna be your friend"
    "I wanna love you"
    etc. I probably flubbed a lot (and removed anything heretical) but I think I was true to the spirit of the song.
    Hmmm... I don't remember all these words, and some of mine don't appear .

    I also used to listen to the album ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ to go to sleep in High School (and could never listen to it while driving at night). I found the disco-metal guitars soothing.

    1. This, and Miss Clare Remembers (for me)
      You Are My Sunshine (in the key of Stapleton)
      Amazing Grace
      This Little Light Of Mine
      Take Me Out to the Ballgame
      Twinkle, Twinkle
      Be Not Afraid

      2. "Be Not Afraid"

        Here was my thought process: Yes. That is perfect. That was played at my sister's funeral. I wonder if I could sing it to the kids. It would have so much meaning. Let me try. Nope, here come the tears.

        Still, that is an awesome pull.

  9. 01. Migos ft. 2 Chainz - "Deadz" from Culture
    02. Jay Som - "For Light" from Everybody Works
    03. Future - "Turn On Me" from HNDRXX
    04. Jonwayne ft. Low Leaf - "Blue Green" from Rap Album Two
    05. Laura Marling - "Next Time" from Semper Femina
    06. Vagabon - "Mal à L'aise" from Infinite Worlds
    07. Kehlani - "I Wanna Be" from SweetSexySavage
    08. Xiu Xiu - "Wondering" from FORGET
    09. Austra - "Angel in Your Eye" from Future Politics
    10. Career Suicide - "Taking You with Me" from Machine Response

    BT. Zig Zags - "Riddle of Steel" from Ripping Death b/w Riddle of Steel 7"

  10. The first lullaby the Poissonnier heard was me singing Tom Waits' "Innocent When You Dream" while rocking her to sleep her first night in the hospital. It's still a regular in my rotation:

    Tom Waits, "Innocent When You Dream"
    Jimmie Davis, "You Are My Sunshine"
    Tex Owens/Eddy Arnold, "Cattle Call"
    Buddy Holly, "Everyday"

    Mrs. Hayes has a beautiful, university-trained voice. She's far more accomplished a singer than me, to the point that the comparison is ridiculous. She's tried singing several very traditional tunes to the Poissonnier that have ended in tears, including "Shenandoah," "On Top of Old Smoky," and "Clementine." We'll probably skip any Stephen Foster compositions, at least for a while.

    1. Yeah, my voice is not nearly what my wife's is (and she's not trained or anything either). Seems like quality doesn't really matter as a quality for lullabies. Strange though.

  11. I haven't done this much lately, but for a long time it was a bunch of Jim Croce songs and basically anything else I could remember off the top of my head.

  13. "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis is the only song I can think of which I've song multiple times as a lullaby.

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