When I write about art, literature, poetry and music as being both subtle and great influences on our culture, I wonder if many people understand it. The rebellion of the 20th century removed the great art and poetry which spoke of marriage, home and family. It told of courtship, flowers, loveliness, mothers, babies and beautiful architecture. It reinforces the good and the pure and the lovely in life. Bad art and literature and music tends to bring out more coarseness in young people. I think there ought to be another rebellion, a quiet one, where people throw out these imposters in music, art, literature and architecture, and elevate what is good and truthful and complimentary! The following are some songs that were once very popular. Young men loved to sing them and young women thrilled to hear them. They spoke of marriage, permanence, a cottage for two, and building a life together. Notice the highlighted words, that would make a feminist cringe today.Sleepy Time Gal
Sleepy time gal,
You're turnin' night into day!
Sleepy time gal,
You've danced the ev'ning away!
Before each silvery star fades out of sight,
Please give me one little kiss,
then let us whisper "Goodnight,"
It's gettin' late and, Dear, your pillow's waitin' . . .
Sleepy time gal, when all your dancin' is through,
Sleepy time gal, I'll find a cottage for you.
You'll learn to cook and to sew,
What's more, you'll love it, I know!
When you're a stay-at-home, play-at-home,
Eight o'clock sleepy time gal!
<> (this is sure to draw some outraged progressive/modernist, feminist women)
Painting: Daydreams by Marcus Stone
Tea For Two
Picture you upon my knee,
just tea for two and two for tea,
just tea for two and two for tea,
Just me for you and you for me, alone!
Nobody near us, to see us or hear us,
No friends or relations on weekend vacations,
We won't have it known, dear,
that we have a telephone, dear.
Day will break and you'll awake and start to bake
A sugar cake for me to take for all the boys to see.
We will raise a family,
a boy for you, a girl for me,
Oh, can't you see how happy life would be?
(Do you think I'll get in trouble for posting this song??)
My Blue Heaven
Whippoorwills call, evenin' is nigh
Whippoorwills call, evenin' is nigh
Hurry to my Blue Heaven
Turn to the right, there's a little white light
Will lead you to my Blue Heaven
You'll see a smilin' face, a fireplace, a cozy room
Little nest that nestles where the roses bloom
Just Molly and me, and the baby makes three
We're happy in my, in my Blue Heaven
You're gonna see a smilin' face, fireplace, cozy room
And a little nest nestled where the roses bloom
Just Molly and me, and the baby is three
We're so happy in my Blue Heaven
We're happy in my Blue HeavenWe're happy in my Blue Heaven!
(I'm sure they'll come in droves to attack the blog again)
26 comments:
How sweet! A totally different spirit of a much more peaceful time.
sorry about the interference with corrupted "code." Makes it less easy to read. We are working on it .
Oh what a lovely coincidence that you have this last song up! I should say a GodIncidence probably :) I had been looking for this song with only remembering vaguely about the "My Blue Heaven" part of it. Thank you so much.
I posted before about the Victorian home we built. It is blue with white trims and I always have referred to it as ~My Blue Heaven~ After I posted about our home in other comments, I was looking for the song that featured that phrase.
Thank you for posting it. It has put a smile on my face. Now back to work in my home. Have a lovely day.
I cried as I read the first words to this post. Sleepy Time Gal was what my Mother would sing to wake us up most mornings. The other songs she would hum throughout the day. So many beautiful songs. We were taught all the old songs and my sisters played them on the piano daily as well as my Mother and Father. Music was a big part of our family from records,piano,trumpet, to radio. The old songs {and some were silly like Marsy Oats and Dozy Oats...I believe that was the title}... but they were fun and so many others were so pretty and the sentiment was so lovely. Our little ones are not even taught the patriotic songs like we used to{or to stand up for for this great country}.....We need to teach them ourselfs if they don't. When you go arouind thinking of Bible verses or stories or songs from church or the other beautiful songs, it keeps your spirits in a good place. Thanks for the memory....
...but I thought it was:
Mares eat oats
And doe's eat oats
And little lambs eat ivy!
A kid ill eat ivy too wouldn't you....!! :-) I am rereading Linda Lichter's book now and wondering how you get people to understand just how soft and comforting it was then to know what was right and strive for it. To know you were not alone in doing so. It was the way it just Was. I thought it would always be so. I am the child of the 50's but raised with Victorian Grandparents and many relatives that lived a very long life and so I was around them a lot. My parents both kept their values and passed them to us. These sweet songs reflected what was in people's hearts. I feel like people don't even conceive of how upside down morals are from just such a short time ago. I was not alone in the values I had as my town all seemed to be the same even in the 50's...now anything seems to be ok to so many ...rudeness etc is everywhere...so it goes that it invades lyrics in our songs and so the youths minds. We do need a private war as the schools and outside influences will not do the job. If we keep our influence on our little community as much as we can towards these ideals it will help. Ask your little ones if they know such and such holiday or patriotic song and if not teach them these and others and play for them the old concerts and such. Keep these values alive through all the books and poems and the really good moral movies you can find when you are around them. Work together with their parents and include their playmates when you can. Have good mucic on in the background sometimes when you are teaching them to cook or doing chores together and sing together. Put these songs on their I Pod if they have one... or do a cassette or a recording of you all singing together... Just thought I'd add a few more thoughts..
I have been wanting to do an article about bad architecture and how irresponsible it has been to foist this on the public, especially our youth. I kept wondering how I could "get away with it" since I am not an architect. I figured out that the angle I will use will be "Lady Lydia Speaks About Rude Art and Architecture," to be sent to LAF sometime in the future. I'm doing a bit more studying on it and collecting a lot of pictures. The ones of the 1800's are just irresistable. The architect, Alexander Jackson Davis, suggested that homes should be cozy, with porches and trellises and vines, and reflect a man's desire both for domestic things but for higher aspirations.One house he designed looks like a storybook cottage. Frank Lloyd Wright, a more modern architect (whom I believed was divorced 3 times, quite modern even in his time) once commented that he could design a house that would cause a married couple to divorce within a matter of weeks. By the same logic, David Orr(A site I've been reading) says it is possible to create buildings and cities so badly as to cause a culture to disintegrate socially and come unhinged from nature.
I love the songs! I was happy to see more commentary added to the top of this post when I came back and for the songs to have some highlights in them. It got me to thinking of other songs that I have used for my own children. All mine grew up with my pitiful singing voice but they all loved my singing anyway. I sang "You are my sunshine" to each of them. And a song called "A you're adorable, B you're so beautiful, C you're a cutie full of charms." All mine knew and were called by all the sweet nicknames from the song as well as each learned the order of the alphabet this way. I would love to find the actual words to "I love you a bushel and a peck" because I had to make up the words for so many years that we sing it my way still. Each of my babies was bounced on my knee to these songs and now that some are even getting so grown up, sometimes they like me to muss their hair or twiddle it and sing the songs to them.
My girls all have long hair and when they were little (only two of my children still need my help with their hair daily) I would recite nursery rhymes to them while we washed and combed out their hair. The all time favorite nursery rhyme of the girls and mine as well when I was little, was "Bobby Shafto's gone to sea with silver buckles on his knee. He'll come back and marry me, bonny Bobby Shafto. Bobby Shafto's fat and fair, combing down his yellow hair. He's my love forever more, bonny Bobby Shafto." I see nothing wrong with rhymes like that which show that a girl dreams of being married someday. I always dreamed of it and my daughters dream of it. It is such a wonderful thought...to be a wife and mother and to have a home of one's own to nestle into and to make beautiful for our family.
Such lovely memories the songs and rhymes bring back of when my children were yet babies on my knee and then toddlers who would beg me to "Tell another poem, Mama?" or "Sing the Adorable song next." Becoming a wife and mother is the best thing I could ever have done with my life. It has been such joy and I have so many memories to enjoy from all those lovely moments.
Thank you for the sweet reminders of what is truly important. This site is always a bright spot for me. I come to read when I rest between chores and to be fed on lovely thoughts so that I can go back to my working with a happy heart and a smile on my face. How I appreciate the encouragement I receive here regularly.
Gratefully,
Kimberline
I am a faithful reader of your blog, Lady Lydia. Thank you for posting these wonderful songs. And to your point about Frank Lloyd Wright, I understand how his personal life can be off-putting, but his style and the Craftsman style are where my husband and I have compromised. He enjoys the clean lines of the furniture and architecture, and I bring in some more feminine touches. Keep up the great work!
Elizabeth, CA
To Kimberline:
These are the lyrics from Bushel And A Peck that you asked for, from the musical Guys And Dolls. Unfortunately, in the show they are sung by the girls at The Hot Box, which is, shall we say, not a family place. Taken out of context, however, the song is not at all salacious!
I love you, a bushel and a peck!
A bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck!
A hug around the neck, and a barrel and a heap
A barrel and a heap, and I'm talkin' in my sleep.
About you.
About you!
About you!
My heart is leapin'!
I'm having trouble sleepin'!
'Cause I love you, a bushel and a peck
You bet your pretty neck I do!
Doodle, oodle, oodle.
Doodle, oodle, oodle.
Doodle oodle oodle oo.
I love you, a bushel and a peck
A bushel and a peck, go and beats me all to heck!
Beats me all to heck how I'll ever tend the farm
Ever tend the farm when I want to keep my
Arms - about you -
About you!
About you!
The cows and chickens
are goin' to the dickens!
'Cause I love you a bushel and a peck
You bet your pretty neck I do -
Doodle oodle oodle
Doodle oodle oodle
Doodle oodle oodle, oo!
Good-bye now!
Dearest Lady Lydia,
A lovely article yet again! Before i share my thoughts upon music, I'll comment briefly on Linda Lichter; in Australia, this book is not available via conventional channels (i.e. booksellers). Her name doesn't even show when searches on Author are carried out. Now, as I would dearly love to obtain this title but am always dubious concerning purchasing on-line (no matter the credentials of the providers) i would greatly appreciate some pointers (maybe from fellow Australians?).
Now to music; I must say during my youth my musical tastes could not have been further from the mainstream down here. Quite by accident stumbling across a particular radio station upon receipt of my first long-saved-for modest little portable stereo I instantly fell in love with music of the baroque era and before. Though my tastes have widened considerably over the years, music of this type still brings me much joy - Dr. Arne, Daniel and Henry Purcell, William and Henry Laws, Bird, Boyce, Tavenor, (the 16th century composer - not the contemporary sharing his name) and so on all hold a special place as do a good number of German and Italian composers (not to mention the French Gang of four - Lully, Couparin, Forquere and Rammeau - please excuse my spelling). Through my study of music during my teens, I became aware of beautiful 20th century composers such as Michael Head and John rutter - if anyone knows where I can get hold of a recording of 'the Cornfield', (by the former 20th century English gentleman mentioned here I would much appreciate the lead - this song is breathtakingly beautiful and anyone who has even a modest ability at the piano and anyone who enjoys the love of singing will be moved to tears.
Though I cannot remember them all and long ago lost the English translation, the German Leider song De Jager has a message every girl might wish to take to heart.
I could go on and on but alas I'd take up too much of everyone's time.
A final word; even in the early years of the 20th century, mainstream composition had not turned disonant as it did post WWI with the likes of Debussy composing beautiful 'pictorial' works such as the Enveloped Cathedral - a work that brings to mind the marvels of the deep sea (it's been arranged for Piano if any of the more able out there wish to tackle it).
such
Blessings,
Mrs. E.
Australia.
I am in total agreement about good art and good music. We need to throw out all the horrid stuff and get back to the excellent.
Many blessings...
I thought I was the only one left who loves these songs,you think just the way I do about most things.In the 1950's and even the 1960's (the decade in which I married)morals were still very high and people did not live together before marriage it would have disgraced their families and scandalised their village or neighbourhood.I will always think that the best roles in life are those of wife and mother,after all who is responsible for the welfare of the nations,the person who provides a good homelife.
Be sure to check out iTunes for these songs (or maybe other online music suppliers??) I just bout the tea for two one and am about to have a look for the others.
I think it is nice for our children to be exposed to this kind of music. I am always looking out for *good* songs of all era's to share with my kids, they aren't allowed to listen to commercial radio, but there is lots of good stuff out there that I want them to hear - iTunes have been brilliant for this.
What about He ain't Heavy, He's My Brother - that's another good one with a great message you wouldn't hear too much outside of Christian circles!
Lady Lydia,
I'm so sorry you are being tormented by people who are so rude. I rarely ever post on the blogs where I "lurk". Guess what! I almost never read the comments,either.(I didn't even read those above this comment. I don't have time today.) I read your blog and others and the articles at LAF because I am interested in what you think. Reading your opinions causes me to evaluate where I stand on many topics and shows me places where I need to improve, but I must confess, I'm not much interested in what others think about what you think. I read for my own edification and I for one am thankful for your honesty and wisdom. Thank you for your obedience, even when things are difficult and people are being so hateful.
Thank you for the lyrics and the info on where the song was sung ;) You know, after reading it through, I wasn't singing the wrong words at all as I only knew the first verse and always sang down to "About you...about you" and then would start that verse again. The kids were wild about it because to them it was a Mommy loves me song.
It is a cute song...What a shame that so many songs end up tainted because of the movie or musicals they were in. You are right, if you pull it out of the musical and sing it as purely that song, it is rather charming.
Thank you again for taking the time to post the lyrics for me. I sure wish I knew the tune to add in the doodle oodles because I know my youngest daughter would enjoy it!
HAHAHAHHAHAHA! I say "let them attack". They are predictable. I only feel sorrow for them and the lack they must feel inside at not recognizing the beauty of such a lovely home life with a loving, caring husband and family. I thought "live and let live" was what they were all about?
Those women who 'throw out the baby with the bath water,' lose so much more than they will ever know. And that's what I have to say, to any who come to attack.
Mari-Nanci
Is it very Christian to try to start fights with your "enemies"? And no one even showed up/cares. How sad for you. :(
Dear Miss Anona Mouse,
You seem to know all about what a Christian should do. Should people attack my choice of art, music, literature and architecture?Should the Marxist college girls who have time to attack blogs be allowed to ridicule and sneer at what is good and lovely? I've noticed that choice is the big mantra of the century...but only if it is THEIR choice.
Probably what would help you is to read the story of the Pink Satin Sea on The Pleasant Times. It will keep you from being so tense and worried about the world. I am not attacking anyone, but to beat them to it. Besides, the subject is the good songs that promoted marriage, home and family.
To all who read and comment here,
Not one word of hostility has been put forward by the authors here in anything they write. There is nothing wrong or hostile in standing for what is beautiful and harmonious in this world - and from a thirty-something Aussie gal to all those college students etc who can speak nothing but what cannot be published here for decency's sake or do not even understand the concepts presented here (mistaking all for aggression- which it isn't)...ladies, remember the sunset. and do grow up a little; for your own good and that of others.
Also, one common thread throughout the entire Bible is not only love (shown here by the authors in abundance) but a constant theme of absolutes; good and evil, safe ground and the dangers of the tretcherous path, the risks inherrant in following the earthbound carnal self-centred ways, the way of life that will bring happiness not only in the kingdom but in this life (and it does not revolve around who has the most toys at the finish line) and the things to meditate upon in one's life with a single entreaty ringing out loud and clear - BE IN THE WORLD BUT NOT OF THE WORLD which does not involve mirroring the worldly ways that so clearly depart from the timeless instruction of holy scripture. yes, Jesus spent time with those considered undesirable by the community of the day but he always called a spade a spade, never compromising His mission, His message or Himself for the sake of making it easy and smoothe with the words so often heard after each individual was lifted up - gO AND SIN NO MORE. he also gave firm instruction about what to do when the Gospel was unwelcome in a place - DEPART FROM THERE, SHAKING THE DUST FROM YOUR FEET.
This is a very different message than the pluralist, post-modern secular humanist message that forms the rickety foundation of the contemporary West (and tragically that of a great majority of the churches).
Blessings,
Mrs. E.
Australia.
I find it fascinating that people deliberately seek out blogs that they don't agree with, and then post rude comments.
If you know you don't agree with the subject matter on a current blog, why would you go there? Aren't you just looking for disagreement?
There are many blogs that upset me. So I don't go there. Because it might be irresistable to comment. So I stay away and respect their space.
Thank you for your blog.
I let that comment stick, to show how silly these people are. Every summer we get a rash of them who are not using their time away from college wisely to gather new knowledge. It would seem that with that time on their hands they would feel the freedom to find out things beyond the classroom and beyond the dogma that is daily delivered to them via the women's studies classes and all other subjects, but no, they expect everyone to conform to their own gullible beliefs.When they discover a world that does not follow the prescibed data they are fed, they are shocked and outraged.
Thank you Mrs. E, Anonymous and Lady Lydia for setting the record very straight. I hope the nice lady above under another anonymous who said she seldom reads the comments gets a chance do so more often as many times there is much more enlightment brought out about the articles through good discussion. If not her day was surely brightened by the origional article though. The ones who write and disagree so rudely are missing out on so many wonderful things in this world by not opening up their minds.
Dear Ladies,
So many beautiful thoughts and ideas are brought out on this blog. How wonderful to uphold the honorable place God has so lovingly given the woman. Yes, in this modern world, the role of mother, wife, homemaker is not often given value anymore. It is refreshing to find a place where it is illustrated with gratitude and joy. I only think it should be left at that more often. It is much more appealing to those who are new the concept of what a beautiful plan God has made in all of this. Let us not assume we must constantly FIGHT our way out to spread this message. I believe it was you, Lady Lydia, who has written of living out this God-given role in a genuinely joyful way, in order to draw more to its blessings. It seems that although the authors don't intend to be defensive, it comes across that way very much lately. It doesn't mean we pretend there isn't opposition to this way of life, but that we can show we belong to Christ because of our LOVE. God has always been the true victor of the battles, not man.
Respectfully and with thanks for the work you do.
Oh to hear those songs again! I grew up with those songs. My mother always had the radio set to an "oldies" station in St. Louis that played songs from the 30's, 40's 50's and "today" (1980's). The radio station changed its genre and we stopped listening.
Blessings to you and yours,
this day and always
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