Talk:Rock-a-bye Baby

There is an episode of the movie short John Nesbitt's Passing Parade that claims Hush-A-Bye Baby was written in England during the reign of King James II and that the meaning of the song has something to do with the king faking the birth of an heir, that the "tree" is a family tree, etc. That would date this to around the time of Lilliburlero. I looked at the page for Lilliburlero, but nothing in the lyrics there seems to quite fit this description. --71.58.118.98 10:36, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

I read a similar story in a book about British royalty. According to that, the baby was James Francis Edward Stuart and the wind was bringing William of Orange. Jess Cully 14:54, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Again regarding royalty - I have read that the nursery rhyme related to the english civil war, a surreptitious way of singing dissent: Rockabye baby on the tree top (King Charles 1st in precarious position as head of all religion and state, parliment wanting to control and say goodbye to kings absolute power); When the wind blows the cradle will rock (the wind of change unsettling the throne as balance of power begins alter); When the bough breaks the the cradle will fall (weight of opinion in parliment leads to revolution to topple the throne); And down will come baby cradle and all (the end to the crown, absolute monarchy and the cavalier royal supporters) - please comment as unable to remember source material...--62.6.249.131 10:07, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I have a source! This story about the song is quite popular in Northern Ireland. --Helenalex 21:39, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

I'd greatly appreciate if somebody could supply me with source material to the effect that the two melodies (Lillibullero and Rock-a-bye baby) are actually "relatives", as it were. Many internet sources seem to support that claim, but other than that, few hard facts are given. There are some, well, similarities in the broadest sense, but these are (to my ears, at least) superficial - they don't seem to go any further than the 6/8 meter and general melodic outline, which isn't all that surprising, given the "folksy" context. My impression is (I may be wrong, of course) that the Rock-a-bye baby melody is considerably more modern in its musical outlook, makes more efficient use of wide interval leaps and does some quite surprising things (like the double ascending fourth interval that goes with the words "down will come" - although the music at this point doesn't echo the lyrics too well ;-)). Plus, the chord accompaniments demanded by the respective tunes, simple as they may be, are obviously different. Anyway, since I find "Lillibullero" a song with an amazing history, I'd like to add a few words about the supposed connection to the lullaby (I'm just in the process of translating the "Lillibullero" article into German). Any suggestions are welcome, you are also invited to leave a message on the talk page of the German article (de:Lillibullero). Thx, --Rainer Lewalter 21:50, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Lullaby?

What this song really intended to be a lullaby? Some of the words tell the possibility about the baby falling if what's holding breaks. Doesn't sound lullaby-material. 124.106.201.225 09:19, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I was thinking the same thing--99.234.115.165 (talk) 16:41, 20 February 2010 (UTC)