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[miko2]

Today's Song: The Left Sock Thievers by The Suesettes

On Thursday a coworker was complaining about missing socks, and it reminded me of a childhood song that I loved, from an album of Dr. Suess songs. It's called The Left Sock Thievers. I went home that night and downloaded it from iTunes. It's very short, just over a minute long. For some reason, this particular song has stuck in my head all my life, while I remember nothing else from that album.

The next day we got into a discussion about songs we remembered from our childhood. I took it upon myself to try and track some of these songs down, and spend many hours trying to locate some of these songs last night on the internet. Two other songs that I remember very prominently from my childhood are The Bear Necessities from the Jungle Book and The Unicorn Song These two songs I remember singing with my entire family at church and at campgrounds while my dad played guitar. You know, three kids singing, I'm sure we were very cute.

The version of The Unicorn Song I downloaded from iTunes is by the Malarky Brothers, who are about as sickeningly cliched as the Irish Rovers (linked above). But it's probably the Irish Rovers I remember from when I was a kid. Just be lucky I didn't make this my song of the day! ^_^ No doubt a more paletable version is the one by the Brobdingnagian Bards Well, maybe.

Side note: The Bear Necessities: Genma's Theme Song?

Another song I went looking for last night is one my grandfather used to sing on his banjo. I'm lucky enough to have a recording of him singing the song, and so I know the lyrics:

Last night after rocking the babies so sweet
I took a walk on the street
And to my surprise, I saw with my eyes
My wifte with a soldier sixteen

Hush-a-le-hi-hoo, hushabye baby,
Tossing the babies ever so high
Hush-a-le-hi-hoo, hushabye baby,
Mama will come by and by

At first I was riled when she passed me and smiled,
I said I was taking a peek,
Then she tickled my chin and said "Willie, go in,
And rock the dear babies to sleep."

Hush-a-le-hi-hoo, hushabye baby,
Tossing the babies ever so high
Hush-a-le-hi-hoo, hushaby baby,
Mama will come by and by

There's probably more verses that I don't have, but this is certainly enough for me to eventually track down the song. But I had a hard time of it last night. For one thing, what's the title of the song? Hushabye Baby? Do you have any idea how many lullabies exist in the world with words to that effect? I tried to search on "Hushabye Yodel" or "Rockabye Yodel", thinking that that is likely the name of the song, but I had mixed results. I found songs with that name, but nothing i could verify was the same tune. I downloaded Lullabye Yodel by Thomas Frasier from iTunes, but that wasn't the same song. Nice old-time music yodel though. ^_^ Someone named Mary Schneider, the "Australian Queen of Yodeling", does a Rockabye Yodel that may or may not be the right song. I may have to order her cd to find out. She has a website though.

I'm sure if I could find the right person to play this song for or show the lyrics to, I'd get my answer. And there's probably a recorded version of it somewhere.

Next I went looking for a song that I've never even heard. A few years ago I was in an antique store with my parents, and my dad was looking through old records. He said he was looking for a song that went, "Five cent cotton, ten cent meat, how can a man afford to eat?". He couldn't remember who did it or the name of the song, but was hoping he'd find it one day.

I remembered that conversation and I've tried to track down this song before, with no luck. I tried again last night and hit paydirt. Now I know that the song is "Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat" by Bob Miller. But I haven't found a recorded version of it. There's a country song on iTunes called "Eleven Cent Cotton" which isn't the same song. Uncle Dave Macon did a cover of this song, but it's only available on vinyl or on a cd collection of everything he ever did that sells for nearly $300.00. I actually ordered the vinyl record last night, but now I'm pretty certain he's singing the ancient country song, not the Bob Miller protest country song. I'm still looking for a recorded copy of "Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat".

When I got out that old recording of my grandfather singing I also heard him singing I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again. I'm not actually certain the blues song I just linked to is exactly the same as the old-time hillbilly folk/country song my grandfather sang, but if not it's a close relative. ^_^ This song was easy to track down, and I downloaded a nice hillbilly version by The Maddox Brothers & Rose that's quite fun. ^_^

What I want to do is assemble a cd of children's songs from my own childhood and give it to my nieces and nephews, and also assemble a collection of songs that my grandpa sang or that my parents liked or sang, and give that to my parents and my sisters. But for now I'm still looking for Rockabye Yodel, if that's what it's called, and a recorded version of Eleven Cent Cotton, Forty Cent Meat by Bob Miller!