In The Town Where I Was Born...

[poliphilo]

I don't sing. Or maybe that should read I can't sing. Or even I shouldn't sing. I am wholly unmusical. I can't hold a tune. And in the normal course of things I don't even try

But faced with a baby I do.

First I sing nursery rhymes. I find I know the words of ever so many.

Then drinking songs like One Man went to Mow.

Then I move on to Yellow Submarine

And from there I access my cache of music hall numbers- Daisy Daisy, I'm 'Enery the 8th I Am, The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin.

Finally I launch into the Battle Hymn of the American Republic and variations thereon- including the old RAF version with the verse that goes, "He jumped without a parachute from thirty thousand feet....(repeat three times)... And he ain't gonna jump no more".

The baby seems to like it. 

I believe my mother is responsible. She used to sing to me when I was tiny. All sorts. Including Daisy Daisy. And- my favourite- The Skye Boat Song. That's the one she used to put me to sleep with. Such a sad song. A lament for Culloden and Bonnie Prince Charlie. I'd sing it too if I knew the words.

Comments

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

That's a beautiful song (Skye Boat). I'd never heard it, so I you tubed. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86egt8PDmos

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's a nice version.

But the comments do contain some guff. Bonnie Prince Charlie was two generations on from William of Orange. Specifically, William defeated James II at the battle of the Boyne in 1690, so ending Stuart rule in Britain. Charlie- James's grandson- made a doomed attempt to regain the throne in 1745- by which time it was being sat on by the Hanoverian King, George II.

Sorry if you already know all this :)