Tag Archives: Folk song

Nigerian Lullaby

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 25th, 2012
Primary Language: English

“So my sophomore year, one of my acting professors was this big crazy guy that did a lot of volunteer work around the world. He was like, really big into using theatre as therapy and stuff like that, and he goes to Nigeria every few years to work with the people there, and give aid, and use theatre to help them deal with the situation over there. And anyway, he taught us this song, which is a Nigerian lullaby, and its a round. And I don’t remember if he actually told us what it meant, no one in the class remembers what it meant, and we might even be singing the wrong words. But we like sing it, the people in my acting class, that took that class with him sing it. We use it as a warm up song before performances, because its pretty gentle on the voice, and also sometimes when we get together, and we’ve been drinking we sing it, because everyone knows the tune, and its a round so it sounds good without people having to know how to create harmonies and stuff like that.”

Nigerian Lullaby

 

I find it remarkable that the song has really been re-purposed from a lullaby to essentially a drinking song by the group of actors, who really don’t know what the song means, and could be singing the wrong words anyway. I think it’s a testament that certain sounds, like harmonies are almost universally pleasing. I don’t believe the meaning of the song is the reason people in Nigeria still sing it to their children, but rather that the sounds are relaxing and pleasing to the ear. That’s why people from cultures as disparate as Nigeria and the United States can find so much enjoyment in the same tune.

A Grandpa Song

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 25th, 2012
Primary Language: English

The following is a song that the source’s Grandfather used to sing to her when she was a kid. She originally thought that he wrote the song just for her, but really he took the song “Daisy Bell” a very popular and famous American song, and substituted “Daisy” with the source’s name, Maisie. The clip below has the source first sing the original song, and then her Grandfather’s version.

Grandpa song

“He sang that song to me when I was little and he was, dandling? Is that the right word? Bouncing me on his knee”

 

The song really accomplishes two things. First, it helps the source’s Grandfather expose her to a song that he knows, and shares a piece of his generation with her. Also it created a special connection between Maisie and her Grandpa.

“He was my favorite Grandpa” she said.

Poison (Folk Song)

 

 Charlie was a fiddle player, the best there was around
He and his fiancee were at the picnic ground
Charlie and his band would play the dance that summer night
But deep inside his heart he felt that something wasn’t right

His sister said, “You better keep an eye upon your girl
Rumor has it she’s been giving someone else a whirl.”
So Charlie had decided to spy on his bride-to-be
But never was he prepared to see what he would see

CHORUS:
Her love was poison
Her love was poison
She ran around with other boys and
Her love was poison 

He spotted her behind the bar in another’s hands 
The man he saw was Earl who played guitar in Charlie’s band 
Blood red sunset fell upon the couple’s dark embrace
And cast a long and desperate shadow over Charlie’s face

When that night he took the stage
Sadness mixed with jealous rage
Charlie gazed upon the crowd
Raised his voice, clear and loud 
What I fear has come to pass
In his hand a poison glass 
He swallowed it underneath the moon
And said, “I’m playing my farewell tune.” 

CHORUS 

As the last note died away, the fiddler did the same
They put him in an old pine box
With nails they sealed his fame
The summer sun in poison soon made his body swell
The casket nearly burst apart
And put forth quite a smell 

A green fly swarmed around and followed Charlie all the way
To the little meadow where forever he would lay 
And dream of fiddles, fiancees, and that fateful night
When Charlie played his farewell tune
Beneath the pale moonlight 

My informant is from the Republic, Missouri, where he comes from an enormous family of “Ozark Hillbillies” (as they refer to themselves) for generations. His entire extended family lives in the area, and together make up three separate family folk bands (and one huge family folk band, when they get together.) The family’s musical inclinations have gone back for generations. The bands are currently made up of my informant and his cousins, all generally between 20 and 50, and each of their parents had been in the bands before that. As they have children, they join the bands too (My informant has a six-year-old daughter who performs with the family from time to time.)

This song is from my informant’s family, and it has been passed down for at least three generations.  It is supposedly based on a true story of a family member from years past. In the YouTube clip included, it is being played by my informant’s cousin’s band, but everyone in the entire extended family knows it, and they sing it whenever they’re together in any group.

Cielito Lindo

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Claremont, California
Performance Date: February 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

SourceURL:file://localhost/Volumes/HP%20V125W/SP%2007%20FL&PC%20COLLECTS/Scheffler/1.%20Spanish%20Folksong.doc

“Cielito Lindo”

Ay, ay ay ay
Cantar no llores
Porque Cantando se alegran,
Cielito lindo,
Los corazones

Translation:

Ay, ay ay ay
Sing and don’t cry
Because singing, my Beautiful Heaven,
Gladdens the heart

 

My informant first learned this song as a child, when his father would sing it to him as a lullaby.   His father is Mexican and his mother is Caucasian, and he was traditionally raised in the American sense, learning English and not Spanish.  In fact, the only Spanish he knows is this Mexican folksong, and he is not able to translate it.  He sings this song when he’s bored, to break an awkward silence, and just to be obnoxious.  In fact, he once removed the last three lines with “Please leave a mess-age/and I’ll get back to you/as soon as I ca-an” and used the song as his phone’s voicemail message.

While it may seem pointless to recite the folksong considering he does not even know what the lyrics stand for, my informant believes the song is his only link to that part of his heritage, and when he sings it, he feels closer to his dad and that part of his family tree.  He believes that it used by others for the very same reason, to connect with the history of their ancestors.

When translated, the song is about how singing will protect your heart from sorrow.  In Mexican tradition, Cielito Lindo represents a lovely stranger.