Sunday, October 9, 2011

Lullabies Are My Downfall [Worst Parent Award Goes To...]

I have many downfalls.  (Downsfall?)  Anyway-

Among them is that I have fairly poor recall for song lyrics.  Actually, that's not quite true.  It's really that I tend to not bother to try to recall the words if they don't immediately come to me.  I'd rather just make up new ones or just switch, mid-stream, to another song.  Over the years, that has led to many interesting -- and often wildly inappropriate -- songs being sung to my children.

"Lullabye, and good night, ....
la lala la la ....ummmmm...
... and Iiiiiiiii ain't got NoBODY [NOBODY!]
Nobody! Cares for me! No BODY! NOBODY!
'Cause I'm just a gigolo, everybody knows....
ummm....
AND Iiiiiiii - ain't got NOBODY!"

I come by this honestly, though.  My mother tells me that HER mother (a fine upstanding citizen, member of the Order of the Eastern Star and such) would sing to her such ditties as,

"Show me the way to go home.
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed.
I hadda little drink about an hour ago
and it went right to myyyyy head...."

So, she sang it to me.  And I sang it to my babies.  There's nothing quite like singing a drinking song to your brand new infant in the middle of the night, when you're nearly asleep on your feet.  You get quite soulful with it, actually.
"Wherever I mayyyy roooaaaaaam...
O'er land or sea or foam,
You will always hear me singin' this song:
Show me the wayyy to goooo hoooome."

I'd start out singing a Winnie The Pooh song,
"Oh I'm so rumbly,
in my tumbly,
annnnd I'm rumbly
iiiiiin my .... tumbly."

and the next thing you know?

"CO-pa!
Copacabana!
The hottest spot north of Havana!"

Or

"Rockabye baby
In the treetop,
when the wind blows....
ummmm..... lala la la laaaaa....

"VOGUE!
Let your body... moooove to the music!"

So it shouldn't have been a surprise when I was driving one morning with my then-toddler Allie in the back seat, and the song "Just A Gigolo" comes on;

"And Iiiiiiiii
ain't got noBODY!"

from the backseat, a little voice chimes in,
"NOBODY!"
David Lee Roth, "Just a Gigolo"

1 comment:

alison said...

Yep, you haven't cringed in public until your kids, in the company of others, sing along to "Home for a Rest", a song describing a drunken debauch in London by Spirit of the West. Some lyrics? "You'll have to excuse me, I'm not at my best, I've been gone for a month, I've been drunk since I left, these so-called vacations will soon be my death, I'm so sick from the drink, I need home for a rest." In their clear, piping, little-kid voices. Oy.

Loved the segue into DLR though, that made my day.