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  • 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.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Music Lyrics Explained 2. And today the, the

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