Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Music Lyrics Explained 2. And today the, the
song is actually a nursery rhyme and if you ever been a parent, sometimes you
notice that some Nursery Rhymes seem to have some strange lyrics. So , anyway I
tried to check it out and see what we can say that this song actually means.
It's a very sweet song. It's a tender song.
You always hear it all the time. So the song today is Rock-A-Bye Baby. Okay so well
again. Just like usual. I'm going to read the lyrics, and I'm gonna review it. I'm going to
look at some notes that's on the board. So let's start. Rock A-bye baby in the
treetop. Where the wind blows the cradle will rock.
All right this itself is a little strange. Why is the baby in the treetop. This
sounds really weird, and you have them up there with the cradle. The cradle is
rocking in the tree. This sounds very dangerous. I don't know, by today's
standards, we might even think this is child endangerment. So what's, what's
going on ? You know we've always, we've heard this is such a classic Nursery
Rhyme. You've heard this for many many years. But when you really start
listening to the lyrics you start to question what what exactly is happening ?
So let's continue here. Rock-A--Bye Baby in the treetop. where the wind blows the
cradle will will rock. When the bough breaks. All right now. If we look at a bough. a bough
is a big branch on a tree. And not only is it on the tree, There's the cradle on
the tree the bough is breaking. So the cradle and the baby's going to be falling.
So when the bough breaks the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and
all. So when you are listening , you think , Oh my God ! What happened ? Is the baby all right ? The
baby fell from the tree. They had the baby hanging in the tree. So you might
question these things. All right, but let's continue. It does get better.
But momma will catch you, cradle and all. Well I hope.so. You got to be pretty
quick. You're going to catch a whole cradle and the baby ? It sounds pretty risky. But
mama will catch you, cradle and all. Baby is drowsing. All right All right. Here if we
say to drowse it means to be in a light sleep. Baby is drowsing cozy and fair. All right.
Cozy of course warm and comfortable. Fair, fair was an old word that we used to
mean, to mean beautiful. We don't hear it as much today but you know if you ever
think of the old Snow White. You know Disney movie. You see the Witch
looking in the window, you know in the mirror, you know mirror , mirror on the
wall who's the fairest of them all ? She was asking who is the most beautiful ? So
fair used to be used in kind of Old English to mean beautiful. All right. So
cozy and fair. Mother sits near in her rocking chair. Okay. Well at least she's kind of
close. I hope she's ready if just in case it
falls. Forward and back the cradle she swings and though baby sleeps he hears
what she sings. All right that's pretty nice. That's pretty sweet. Again he hears
what she sings. All right. So Hushabye baby . I remember if
you say hush like be quiet. Remember hush use for telling someone to
be quiet or stop or to stop crying. So you might say you know hush little baby.
Hush quiet. Hushabye baby up in the sky, on a soft cloud it's easy to fly . All right.
Well I don't know. Up in the sky. Well up in the sky. Is he up in the
branch again ? Or are you talking about a dream here maybe. On a soft cloud
obviously the trees not high enough to be a cloud. So, so maybe it's a dream. It's
easy to fly. Angels keep watch. All right. Well let's hope so. Over as you
sleep. So Hushabye baby don't make a peep. All right. A peep of course means a slight
sound or a noise. You know. So be quiet. Go to sleep. Rock-a-bye baby
do not you fear. You know, so don't be afraid.
Never mind baby mother is near. Wee little fingers. Well wee means like very small.
very tiny Yeah if you're looking at the baby in the cradle, the crib, sometimes
they were they're really cute. It is amazing how small baby's fingers or toes
can be. So you could imagine. This wee little fingers eyes are shut tight.
Now sound asleep. Yeah sound asleep means you know very in a deep sleep. Until
morning light. And that's how the song ends. And let's just hope the baby really
does stay asleep until morning light. If you've ever been a parent, you know
that , that's not always true. You often wake up in the middle of the
night. And they scream and they cry, but But anyway, we say until morning light. So
again. I hope you got it I hope if you ever wondered about these lyrics now you
know what they might mean. All right. One of the notes here. I did try to check to see the
origin of it and actually it's really really old Nursery Rhymes so there's a
few origins. I think there's one even in England where they may have it like
about a king and a queen. But I think this one here. So let's review this note
here. There are a few possible origins of the nursery rhyme. But the one that
seems to make the most sense, you know especially with these lyrics , is that an
English immigrant who observed the way Native American women rocked their
babies to sleep. They put them in a cradle suspended meaning hanging from a
tree . From tree branches, letting the wind rock the baby to sleep. Well again
hopefully it was all very safe. In some ways maybe it was kind of ingenious. You
know this is the days before electricity. They found a way to make life easier for
them. Let the wind do the work of rocking the baby. But this one seems to make the
most sense of where some of these lyrics may have come from. Anyway, I hope you
enjoy it. I hope the song is a little clearer for you now. Thank you for your
time. Bye-bye.