What are the most haunting lullabyes and children's songs?

[BillHadersNewWife]

I find Lavenders Blue and "On the Mountain Stands a Lady" wonderfully creepy.

What about you?

@puppymonkey
That Cilla Black song is called Liverpool Lullaby
The problems encountered by the singer in the song are still written about here on Mumsnet
"... it's quite a struggle every day living on your old man's pay cos the sod he drinks it all away and leaves me without any..."
".... you'll get a belt from your da..."

I was only thinking about that song theother day - no idea why - and then I stumble on this thread.

Those who’ve said Hushabye Mountain, I agree. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was on over Easter and I watched it all the way through for the first time (I’m late 40’s...) and when Hushabye Mountain came on I was sobbing!

I remember reading an interview with Cilla Black, where she talked about the loss of her baby daughter. She eventually went back to performing on stage, but said she realised she could not bear to sing Liverpool Lullaby, because it would mean singing that last line "Go to sleep for your mammy"

Rock a bye baby seems pretty messed up to me!

I remember singing weilia weilia walie as a kid and thinking it had a surprisingly upbeat tune for such a morbid song (old woman who lives in the woods, stabs a baby in the heart with a penknife, gets arrested and hung). Very good for clapping /skipping to.

@DaughterOfEvening it’s called Highland Fairy Lullaby, it’s always been sung in my family, if someone starts singing it to a baby, every family members eyes get heavy!
Dream Angus always made me feel a little sad, it seemed to me that the Mother felt very lonely.

Old shep by elvis

My grandad used to sing a song to me when I was about seven or so...but I've googled it and never been able to find it. It was kinda half spoken, (a bit like the delivery of "The lion and Albert")

I can't remember the words very well, though I remember his delivery, he put such a lot of acting into it. It was something like
"Young Tom Greenway,
worked on the railway
cleaning all the ?
and keeping the ?? bright..."

Then later in the song along comes a runaway train and he gets killed by it. (Very cheery for a little child, but I loved it.)

I'd love to find the words to it or a recording of someone singing it but I don't know what it was called.

Two Little Boys is a real tear jerker. I could never get through it. Can’t sing it now for other reasons

Paul McCartney's Blackbird gets to me every time.

I love Blackbird too, but I wouldn't think of it as a children's song.

@Will0wtree I've been go ogling for about an hour and a half but I can't find anything except a Canadian called Tom Greenway who was high up and involved in railways.

Have you tried the name that song subreddit? I'm really curious to know now as well

We used to sing this at school about Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty one

I don't know why we sung that!

Most nursery rhymes were political statements about the Crown or politics of a particular time or to mock.

They are Dark because they were about dark times, deeds and people and I imagine were actually quite dangerous to know.

Humpty Dumpty is actually about a siege cannon, Georgie Porgie was about George IV (who was fat and hated his wife), Mary Mary quite contrary is a lovely little song about torturing your political opponents.

I always used to sing the Mockingbird one to my children althoughI didn’t know all the words but it really used to soothe them.

Hello mother hello father (letter from camp) Although my dad only sang the sad verse so I never knew the child ended up enjoying his time at camp, until I was an adult!

I used to love that song - but I did hear it through to the end so knew it had a happy ending! It always makes me smile.

mintich I love Hello MotherHelloFather too.
I have it on my playlist on my phone.
Always makes me smile.

The Ash Grove! I used to sing it to mine.

Down yonder green valley where streamlets meander
When twilight is fading, I pensively roam
Or at the, bright noontide in solitude I wander
Amid the dark shades of the lovely Ash Grove
'Tis while the blackbird is cheerfully singing
Each warbler enchants with its note from the tree
Ah, then little think I of sorrow or sadness
The Ash Grove , enchanting, spells beauty for me

The Ash Grove how graceful, how plainly 'tis speaking
The harp through it playing has language for me
Whenever the light through its branches is breaking
A host of kind faces is gazing on me
The friends of my childhood again are before me
Each step wakes a memory as freely I roam
With soft whispers laden its leaves rustle o'er me
The Ash Grove, The Ash Grove, alone is my home
Ah, then little think I of sorrow or sadness
The Ash Grove, The Ash Grove, alone is my home

Boys and girls come out to play
The moon does shine as bright as day
Leave your supper and leave your sleep
And join your playfellows in the street
Come with a whoop and come with a call
Come with a good will or not at all
Up the ladder and down the wall
A halfpenny roll will serve us all
You'll find milk and I'll find flour
And we'll have a pudding in half an hour
Boys and girls come out to play
The moon does shine as bright as day
Leave your supper and leave your sleep
And join your playfellows in the street

The old Henry Hall version of 'Teddy Bears' Picnic is quite sinister:

"If you go down in the woods today, you better not go alone
It's lovely down in the woods today, but safer to stay at home"