I did that too!! I sang (badly) "and Momma will catch you cradle and all." I also changed the end of "It's raining, it's pouring," from "he bumped his head and he went to bed, and he didn't wake up in the morning," to " he bumped his head and he went to bed, and he felt much better in the morning."
@@sourgreendolly7685 True, you should also watch your step whilst carrying a pail full of water down hill!! You either have or will have very logical children (or nieces and nephews)❣️
@@sourgreendolly7685 " he bumped his head, stayed up and read, and he felt much better in the morning." OK, I'll stop now. I'm only cracking myself up.😂
My mother hated this lullaby so much, she refused to sing it. She much preferred to sing, "Hush little baby, don't say a word / Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird."
What's the story behind that nursery rhyme? Does the mockingbird represent something else, like it does in To Kill a Mockingbird or was she just going to buy a bird?
@@derekbates4316 I haven't heard anything definitive, but the lyrics are all about buying presents for a baby, ending with the reminder that even if all presents break or disappoint, "you'll still be the sweetest little baby in town." Not a bad sentiment.
@@Coffeeisnecessarynowpepper yeah I know, like the other comment said is why I said that. I didn't realize he had posted before this video and I thought this was his first one since his video saying he was positive
The sea shanty makes sense to me. Young cabin boy sent up to crow's nest to watch out for rocks maybe. He is scared shitless by being up so high and the ship's rocking is WAY intensified up on that mast. So kind and considerate as fellas are known to be in the face of a frightened comrade, they sing a song mocking and intensifying his fear to shame him.
Its funny how things that are supposed to be kid friendly have origins that can literally be the plot of a horror movie. Jon you never fail to amaze me and all the other fans who watch. thank you for even making this channel you're one of my favorite RU-vidrs out there. Stay strong man.
Clearly you haven't come across some of the more...unique media produced to this day for children in Japan. That said, it's also great learning about the stories and nursery rhymes I grew up with here in the West, and I love this RU-vid channel for it.
I always assumed that “Rock-a-Bye Baby” was written by an older sibling to torture a younger sibling. My sisters and I even wrote and performed a short play of the theory.
I thought the song was about child birth. "When the bough breaks" - when the water breaks. "Down will come baby, cradle and all" - the baby and the placenta both coming out. Love the idea of Pirates singing this though 😁
This is a story that's really not messed up. It's still used these days to help kids understand how lying keeps people from believing them, and that eventually they may need help for real, but no one will believe them if they lie all the time. The boy crying wolf is an example kids can understand.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria you say that but its all about perspective not only would it be origins but the fact that even with him being annoying noone listened to him and in some versions it caused him to die and that's messed up in it's self imagine the origins of it
My mom made up her own words cause she didn't like the real words: Rock a bye baby in mommy's arms You are so sweet and so full of charms Mommy wants you to know you are loved by everyone here and God up above :)
Again, a story/lullaby of life of the times and warnings. Ring around the rosie (boils/blisters caused by bubonic plague), pocket full of posies (smelling flowers/unguents to keep the smell (vapors) which were thought to spread disease, away). Ashes, ashes..we all fall down. Not sinister, just word-of-mouth tales. Remember, they had no internet, and most were illiterate. What better way to pass on wisdom than with tales and songs? That's how it was done in the old days.
During the pirates version of the “lullaby” I was disappointed I didn’t hear someone screaming Heeeelp, we’re gonna diiiiiie. Heeeeelp! We’re going down!
I was told it was about sudden death syndrome in infants. As long as the wind was blowing, breathing, the cradle would rock. When the wind stops, breathing stops, the baby would die and the cradle would be taken down.
Jon is too under appreciated, he fighting COVID-19 and still making full videos for us 😭 we really taking him for granted. I hope you feel better soon Jon💓
I remember when the Simpson's were on The Tracey Ullman Show and they had a little skit where Maggie was in a tree in a baby cradle and it fell out the tree.
Yeah, same here. I thought it had something to do with cradles being tied to walls with "rat blockers" on the lines to keep the rats from getting to the babies and biting them. That's one of the reasons for the rhyme I had heard of.
Honestly, the extent of your research is overwhelmingly impressive. Thank you for your work. But I suspect that research might not necessarily be a chore for you. I love research. It can get tedious, to be sure. But, oh, how I live for finding those little bits of information that absolutely blow my mind!
The reason for the poem I learned was, it was about how people would put their red haired babies up in trees becusse they wanted the fairy's to take them back becuase the red hair meant they were children of the devil
I always thought Rock a Bye Baby was creepy as hell. When I was a kid, I saw the first version of The Simpsons that has Marge singing to Maggie. Maggie imagines the events of the song happening to her. Marge turns out the light and shuts the door. Maggie lies awake in the dark, and all you can she are huge, fearful eyes. Afterwards, I like, "Nope! I'm never singing this song again!"
"Rock a bye truckie, at the truck stop When the gear shifts, the speedometer will drop When the truck brakes, the engine will cool And we'll fill you up with diesel fuel "
Of course you didn't hire a bunch of voice actors to sing you a lullaby you hired a bunch of voice actors to sing your audience a lullaby very different😉
I remember the Simpson's episode, many many years ago, where Maggie visualized the song when it was being sung to her. Until then I hadn't realized how messed up the song was. It's nice to hear the origin.
First, I'm glad you're feeling better. Second, I'd like to request Ring Around The Rosie for the next nursery rhyme. I was watching a documentary on the bubonic plague and it briefly mentioned the "rumored origin" of the rhyme. There were two kinds of pleuge: the kind where your lymph nodes were infected and swelled up causing the signature egg shape lumps, and the kind that infected your lungs and also caused rashes. That second kind is the rumored origin of Ring Around The Rosie. "Ring, a ring of rosies A pocket full of posies A tissue, a tissue We all fall down" Could mean "The pleuge rash is like a ring of roses We carry flowers to ward off miasma This pleuge makes you cough up blood Then you fall down dead" My mom has an alternative, less messed up theory that it's about allergies in a time when people didn't know about allergies, roughly translating too "So many flowers Everyone's carrying flowers Why do flowers make me sick I'm dizzy and I want to stay in bed" I just wanted to share that last part with someone who will appreciate it.
In the origins for the song, I was always told that it was linked to how a tribe (no idea what tribe, or where in the world) would test the worthiness of a baby, to be a part of the community, by leaving it in a tree overnight - if it fell and died = baby weak, and if it fell and lived = baby strong. Pretty gruesome tbh.
My theory has always been that the Rock-a-bye Baby lullaby came from when people believed in changelings I read stories of where someone would believe their baby was a changeling and would tie it up in a tree to see if the fairies would give them back the original baby
The sea shanty version could be the one with land lubbers changing it to 'hush a by' because they suck when compared to Sailors. I do like the possibility of drinks singing about wanting a prince to die though. Straight up harsh.
Nope apparently I cried when this was sung to me when I was young and I still can't hear it without crying today, probably because of the fact it mentions death
Crows Nests were originally a feature in whaling ships and weren't really invented until the beginning of the 1800s. In square-rigged sailing ships there is a platform up on the mast called the "top." It is about 1/3 to 1/4 of the way up and it is where the shrouds supporting the upper mast attach to the main mast. The shrouds are the rigging that supports and holds the mast in place from side to side. Stays, back stays and forestays, hold the mast in place from back to front. The top is made up of the "crosstrees, " spars which sit across the trestle trees, timbers that are bolted to the mast. The top is also called the masthead or the mast top. The lookouts were often sent up to the mast top. The smallest and usually younger sailors were the top-men or reefers who went up to the tops and let down or tied up (reefed) the sails. Since boys were often sent to sea at an early age, some of the reefers could be as young as 14 or 15 year old - any younger and they weren't strong enough to handle a heavy, flapping sail in a gale. Top-men were usually in their mid-teens to early 20s and were the most agile and lightest of the seamen. Ships boys and midshipmen (young men being trained to be officers) were often sent up to the masthead as punishment, sort of the navel version of being sent to the corner. So the idea of a youngster being sent up to "rock in the cradle" is not out of the realm of possibility. Guys being guys in every age and generation, reefers, top men and ships' boys would often swing from the rigging WAY UP in the tops and goof off. This was called "sky larking" and is one of the reasons why something fun is sometimes called "a lark." In warships, men with rifles or muskets were often sent up to the "fighting top" which also might have a small cannon up there. Admiral Lord Nelson was killed by a shot from the fighting top of an enemy ship.
It's hilarious to me that this lullaby hasn't changed hardly at all. It's just weird & messed up enough for ppl to be like... nah, it's perfect as is 😂
the lullabye 'can ye sew cushions' also has the baby put on high things and left 'i placed my cradle on yon hollyhock, and aye as the wind blew my cradle did rock.' this particular lullabye is about a young mother that cannot afford her child and needs it to sleep so that she can work for its upkeep whilst her husband is away at sea.
“Hey I got a job for you!” “What is it?” “I need you to sing rock a bye baby for me” “Ok???” “That’s not all...” “What?” “...” “What!?” “...I need you to do it in a pirate voice”
You know they sent youths up because they were able to climb up because they were so light. Let’s face it, pirates weren’t the healthiest. They often employed healthier youths that were great climbers. malnourished but healthier. Always boys that were need of a coin or two. Whether they got to live is another story so I can believe it could be a rock a bye story.
"Poop my pants without being told I had an attitude problem" Cracked me up!! Not only do you hav a great sense of humor you do deep research- so cool. BTW I going with the pirates version- maybe the singing SWAYED me but it is also reasonable explanation (see what I did there..?)
... I need the pirates in One Piece to sing Rock-A-By Baby in broken English one episode yesterday! Better yet, how about in a remastered version of Pirates of The Caribbean!
"I love the idea of a bunch of drunken hooligans singing a lullaby together as a form of protest." Well, as forms of protests go, it sure beats burning down the local black-owned Walgreens.
I always loved this nursery rhyme but also thought it was incredibly morbid. So when I sang this to my own kids, my nieces, and nephews and now my grandson, I changed the lyrics from "when the bough breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby cradle and all" to "when the bough breaks the cradle will fall and i will catch baby cradle and all". Its my diabolical plan to have a whole generation of kids that know only my lyrics
Of all the info I could have taken from this video the thing that will stick with me the most... Gunthers reaction to being called an Alien. That was priceless.
The version I always heard goes as follows: Sleep-a-ba baby, Your cradle is clean. Father's a noble, And mother's a queen. Maria's an artist, She dances and sings.
Just got my Hercules hoodie and my sisters christmas sweater from your store and we both love them. Not only does the store carry XXXL for a big guy like me unlike alot of other small online shops but its also a quality and comfortable hoodie. Thank you Mister Solo 👍
You should always talk to cats. It's when they start responding when you have a problem. Well, not really. They're chatty critters and if you talk to them a lot they're likely to talk back.
i like the pirate sounding cover you did it actually sounded good and i could see the crew of the black pearl under capt jack singing that in a pirates of the carribean film
6:35 FYI from the mid 19th century until about WWII The banjo and the (fiddle) violin were the two most common musical instruments played amongst all classes of people in Europe and North America. Banjo was more common that guitar until about the war years, give or take. _So, not so random an instrument as implied._
