Lull-a-Bye Baby

The first thought was that “Rock-a-Bye, Baby” was a canonical lullaby, right up there with “Twinkle, Twinkle,” and the like.

The second thought was that I am not fond of the whole thing about perilously rocking a baby-filled cradle out of a tree, so I shifted over to a different meaning of ‘rock’.

The third thought, therefore, went along the lines of, well, if ‘rock’, then why not ‘funk’? And if ‘rock’ and ‘funk’, then why not ‘jazz’ and ‘punk’ and and and…

At which point, as soon as my brain sang “grunge-a-bye baby” to me, I was hooked (so to speak).

So the next step was making a list of all manner of music genres that were one syllable, discarding ska-a-bye because it demanded a glottal stop that disturbed scansion, and adding salsa because the child whose imminence elicited this album has a mom who is a salsa dancer… and ‘salsa-bye’ also just sounded cool.

The first verse rolled right out, establishing the structure, and things just went from there. All that I needed was to identify an essential feature for each style to fit into the “sweet little __” phrasing, plus characteristic qualities to inspire the second and fourth lines (leaving the first verse relatively generic as an intro).

Now, I thought that the best idea would be to have the music for each verse reflect some flavor of the genre that it described, but that was beyond my capabilities… although it might have been fun to insist that the strategy worked, but ended up being immensely subtle.

Lyrics

Rock-a-bye baby

safe in your bed

sweet little backbeat

drowsing your head

Grunge-a-bye baby

raw and sincere

sweet little feelings

nothing to fear

Punk-a-bye baby

wild and untamed

sweet little rebel

can't be contained

So many favorites.

Which will yours be?

Salsa-bye baby

hot Latin flair

sweet little clave beat

baila con aire

Soul-a-bye baby

heart full of fire

sweet little passion

lifting you higher

Funk-a-bye baby

deep in the groove

sweet little bassline

makes your tush move

So many favorites.

Which will yours be?

Jazz-a-bye baby

free as can be

sweet little improv

scatting with glee

Swing-a-bye baby

dancers delight

sweet little rhythm

swaying all night

Bop-a-bye baby

mellow and cool

sweet little changes

breaking the rule

So many favorites.

Which will yours be?

Blues-a-bye baby

long day is done

sweet little troubles

melt with the sun

Folk-a-bye baby

tales of the past

sweet little stories

memories last

Trip-a-bye baby

layered and slow

sweet little samples

dreamlike and low

So many favorites.

Which will yours be?

House-a-bye baby

four on the floor

sweet little bass drum

beckons for more

Trance-a-bye baby

drifting through space

sweet little synths in

hypnotic embrace

Drone-a-bye baby

one single tone

sweet little humming

soothes to the bone

Lullaby baby

sleeping for me…

So many favorites

Which will yours be?