When i was in my 20’s back in the 70’s, this was one of my favorite songs. Heard it the other day, and realized, itz still one of my favorite songs:
w
v
=======
The Crow on the Cradle
[Sydney Carter]
The Ian Campbell Folk Group sang Sydney Carter’s song The Crow on the Cradle in 1963 on the B-Side of their Topic single The Sun Is Burning (though they call it The Crow and the Cradle).
Judith Silver sang The Crow on the Cradle in 1963 too on her Topic EP The Summertime Is Over. The liner notes commented:
The most recent song on the record, composed by London songwriter Sydney Carter, whose song subjects range from the Bomb to the Oedipus Complex as he builds up a book of haunting and distinctly disturbing songs, modelled on the political cabaret of the Continent.
Mary Black sang The Crow on the Cradle on her 1985 album Without the Fanfare.
Kate Burke and Ruth Hazleton sang The Crow on the Cradle on their 1998 album The Bee-Loud Glade.
Judy Dunlop sang The Crow on the Cradle in 1999 on her CD My Arms Are a Cradle. This track was also included in 2005 on Ashley Hutchings’ Free Reed anthology Burning Bright.
Kirsty Bromley sang The Crow on the Cradle in 2011 on her EP Sweet Nightingale.
Lady Maisery sang The Crow on the Cradle in 2013 on their second CD, Mayday. They commented in their liner notes:
The singing crow that perches on the baby’s cradle in The Crow on the Cradle is perhaps the most foreboding symbol of warning on this album. Written by Sydney Carter during the height of cold war tensions, it is a bleak reminder of how the decisions we make impact the generations after us. The juxtaposition of vivid images of war, against those from nursery rhymes and lullabies, make this song particularly chilling for us.
This video shows Lady Maisery at the Acoustic Sessions at Stanley Halls on March 27, 2018
Karine Polwart sang The Crow on the Cradle on July 17, 2014 on Doug Lang’s Better Days show on Vancouver Co-Op Radio. She recorded it in 2018 for her Hudson CD Laws of Motion.
Thom Ashworth sang Crow on the Cradle on his 2017 debut EP Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
Lyrics
Lady Maisery sing The Crow on the Cradle
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn,
Now is the time for a child to be born.
He’ll laugh at the moon and he’ll cry for the sun,
And if he’s a boy he will carry a gun,
𝄆 Sang the crow on the cradle. 𝄇
And if it should be that this baby’s a girl,
O never you mind if her hair doesn’t curl.
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And a bomber above her wherever she goes,
𝄆 Sang the crow on the cradle. 𝄇
The crow on the cradle, the black and the white,
O somebody’s baby is born for a fight.
The crow on the cradle, the white and the black,
O somebody’s baby is not coming back,
𝄆 Sang the crow on the cradle. 𝄇
Your mother and father, they’ll sweat and they’ll save;
To build you a coffin and dig you a grave.
Hushabye, little one, never you weep?
For we’ve got a toy that will put you to sleep,
𝄆 Sang the crow on the cradle. 𝄇
Bring me a gun and I’ll shoot that bird dead,
That’s what your mother and father once said.
The crow on the cradle, what shall we do?
𝄆 This is the thing that I leave up to you. 𝄇
Links
I didn’t turn 20 until, September of 1986, but I have a few, I tried to sing some of these to the ladies, but as it turned out, I don’t have the voice for them,
I saw Gordon Lightfoot perform live sometime in the late 80’s. He has a few songs I really like, but none more-so than The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald. He really paints a picture with that song.
“When suppertime came the old cook came on deck and said Fellas it’s too rough to feed ya.
At 7pm a main hatchway caved in, he said Fellas it’s been good to know ya.”
I saw Gordon Lightfoot perform live sometime in the late 80’s. He has a few songs I really like, but none more-so than The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald. He really paints a picture with that song.
“When suppertime came the old cook came on deck and said Fellas it’s too rough to feed ya.
At 7pm a main hatchway caved in, he said Fellas it’s been good to know ya.”
Agreed.
More:
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
I saw Gordon Lightfoot perform live sometime in the late 80’s. He has a few songs I really like, but none more-so than The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald. He really paints a picture with that song.
“When suppertime came the old cook came on deck and said Fellas it’s too rough to feed ya.
At 7pm a main hatchway caved in, he said Fellas it’s been good to know ya.”
Agreed.
More:
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lightfoot changed some of lyrics in deference to the wives of two of the lost sailors. The wives were upset with the line, “at 7pm the main hatchway gave in…” because their husbands were responsible for the main hatch and they thought it implied that their husbands were at fault for the sinking.
So now the line is “at 7pm it got dark and then…”
The new line doesn’t flow as well or evoke the powerful imagery of the original, but it was cool of him to do that for the widows.
I saw Gordon Lightfoot perform live sometime in the late 80’s. He has a few songs I really like, but none more-so than The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald. He really paints a picture with that song.
“When suppertime came the old cook came on deck and said Fellas it’s too rough to feed ya.
At 7pm a main hatchway caved in, he said Fellas it’s been good to know ya.”
One major theory I heard was that the ship was so loaded that when both the bow and the stern were raised by the crests of high storm waves, the middle of the hull was out of the water suspended over a deep trough, and just broke with all the weight.
Agreed.
More:
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lightfoot changed some of lyrics in deference to the wives of two of the lost sailors. The wives were upset with the line, “at 7pm the main hatchway gave in…” because their husbands were responsible for the main hatch and they thought it implied that their husbands were at fault for the sinking.
So now the line is “at 7pm it got dark and then…”
The new line doesn’t flow as well or evoke the powerful imagery of the original, but it was cool of him to do that for the widows.
One theory I have heard is that in the rough waters, it was possible that both the bow and the stern could have been raised by the crests of huge storm waves, and in that case the ship was so heavy with ore that when the middle of the hull was suspended over a deep trough it would have just snapped in half.
One theory I have heard is that in the rough waters, it was possible that both the bow and the stern could have been raised by the crests of huge storm waves, and in that case the ship was so heavy with ore that when the middle of the hull was suspended over a deep trough it would have just snapped in half.
…
That sounds reasonable. The wreck was found in two pieces, snapped in half, almost through the exact middle of the ship.
.
