I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JIMMY CLIFF-Tiny Desk Concert #68 (July 12, 2010).

Jimmy Cliff is a treasure in reggae music.  Although I recently leaned that despite his Jamaican heritage and reggae connections, he actually does more than reggae music.  As in this Tiny Desk where Cliff (wearing some amazing glasses) sings and plays acoustic guitar in a more folk-like style.

he plays three songs–two are from the 70s and one in brand new.

“Sitting in Limbo” is classic song that sounds more like a folk song than a reggae song (although the original didn’t sound all that reggae, actually).

“I Got to Move On” is a new song about the present (the present is a gift, that’s why it’s called present).  The simple structure and Cliff’s vocal tone reminds me a bit of “Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

“You Can Get It If You Really Want” is another Cliff classic, instantly recognizable, but somehow sounding more profound with Cliff’s older voice singing it.

I can’t say that I listen to a lot of Jimmy Cliff, but this was a nice sampler of his positive vibe.

[READ: August 31, 2015] Wartime Nursery Rhymes

I love getting these unexpected reprints.  This is a collection of nursery rhymes that were created in 1918.  I don’t know who Nina MacDonald was (there is a foreword, but it doesn’t give any context), but I gather that she is the author of all of these pieces.

And so MacDonald has taken familiar (and unfamiliar to me, although perhaps they were common in England before the first world war?) nursery rhymes and songs and modified them for patriotic use–presumably among children.

There are renditions of all manner of nursery rhymes: “O Dear, What Can the Matter Be?” “Simple Simon”

Or this one of “Little Miss Muffet”

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet
All on a summer’s day
When a bomb (’twas a dud)
came down with a thud
And frightened Miss Muffet away

or “Little Tommy Tucker”

Little Tommy Tucker
Sings for his supper
What does he sing for?
White bread and butter
But bread is now brown and butter scarce seen
So give him some brown bread and margarine.

There’s also some original limericks like

“There was an old woman of Pisa” (which is not pronounced in any way that I ever heard it):

There was an old woman of Pisa,
Whose husband exclaimed “Oh Eliza”
When she said “I must ask
You to cut your mustache
Or you might be mistook for the Kaiser”

And of course there are lots of ones that I don’t know at all.

“Little Polly Flinders”

Little Polly Flinders
Sat among the cinders
Thinking of her Daddy at the war
She didn’t care one jot
if her clothes were spoilt or not
So long as he came back to her once more

Or “Willy was a German”

Willy was a German
Willy was a thief
Willy came to my land and caused a deal of grief
I went with Willy then
And told him what I thought
And beat him hard for all the cruel deeds that he had wrought.

There a few that are much longer “Sing a Song of War Time,” “Little Bo Peep” (she spares the sheep from being butchered(!) and a very lengthy “Old Mother Hubbard” (about the cupboard being very bared indeed).

I’m curious to know if people actually learned these.  I’ve never heard of any of them before (or in Downton Abbey) and it’s quite an interesting collection of propaganda for kids.