So we've been listening to a folk music CD in the car cut by a friend's band that disbanded years ago. The song Country Life that the kids sang at the Talent Show came from this album. There are plenty of songs of love and loss.
Don't sing love songs, you'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here right by my side
In her right had a silver dagger
She says that I can't be your bride
This morning Greta grabbed a harmonica and began to play for me. When she was done she'd tell me what her songs were about.
Another "tune" soulful, eyes shut, swaying.
"That was the Scarlet Song. It is about a girl who died. She got shot. It was in a war. She was in the middle of the war saying stop. But they did not."
That song is a playful mixture of the folk music theme of the forlorn girl and the ravages of war we encounter listening to His Excellency George Washington.
Clementine says she can't stop thinking about the guy who "got his face shot off".
Maybe we should switch to Raffi and Rabbit Ears for a while?
or this 
6 comments:
Folk songs: Grand Theft Auto for the educated class.
OMG, thanks for the chuckle, you paint such a vivid picture--it totally cracked me up!
Later in the the dagger song it says, "My father is a handsome devil" and Greta would say "Why is her father a devil?" Try explaining "handsome devil" to a four year old. Go on.
After a while she accepted that line. When it came up she'd say, "He's not really a devil". Then she focused on what came after: "he has a chain 5 miles long. On every link a heart does dangle of some fair maid he's loved and wronged."
"Why does he have hearts dangling on a chain!" Ok, now try explaining metaphors to a 4 year old. Now she says, "They're not real hearts," but she doesn't sound so sure.
Oh man, you should do a special edition of folk songs where someone is mourning the fact that they murdered the woman that they actually loved, and now, oh darn, they're going to be hung.
I love this subset!
Just start calling Mike a Handsome Devil. She'll get it in context.
All you have to do is look at the picture and you can see that she is totally into her music. She's quite a songwriter. It's interesting how she's picked up on the pain and soul of music.
i've always said, "Kids get it..."
wouldn't take that away from them for the world.
Love the "devil" discussion. Although, i surmise she gets it there, too," once we ask what she thinks it means.......
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