I’m fond of “When you dream” by the Barenaked Ladies, written about a newborn baby boy.
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Wow. Wow. Why?
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Congratulations!
Now off to Cafe Society with you.
Moved.
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‘For Baby’ (for bobby) John Denver does a great version but I think Peter Paul and Mary do one as well.
Thanks, Rico… wasn’t sure where it fit exactly. CS it is!
Paul Anka’s “She’s Having My Baby” is always good for inspiring post-natal nausea.
Other songs probably best avoided:
“Lonely Boy” (Andrew Gold)
“Excitable Boy” (Warren Zevon)
“Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson)
Congratulations, Hippy Hollow and Mrs. Hippy!
I’ve always thought the Magnetic Fields’ “Asleep and Dreaming” was about a parent speaking to a child.
Jonathan Coulton’s “You Ruined Everything” is, despite the title, a very sweet song about how a baby changes your life.
Pearl Jam has an acoustic lullaby: Around the Bend
When I got pregnant in 1988, my best friend made me a mixed tape about this very thing. I am trying to remember what was on it. I know it had “father and son” jim croce. “changes” david bowie. “where do the children play?” cat stevens, “wonderful world”, louie armstrong but that is all that comes to mind right now. Congratulations.
“There Goes My Life” is the same way.
As I said, maudlin and cliched; I can’t find a single true emotion, just a long list of all the cliches about fatherhood that Hammerstein could come up with (I like Hammerstein as a lyricist except when he’s trying to make a point; then his need to hammer everything home is tiresome).
Add to that the implication in the lyrics that it’s OK to commit crimes in the name of your child and the song becomes really appalling.
Not to mention that the melody is totally forgettable, and the play it’s in glorifies spousal abuse (“Sometimes being hit feels like love,” says the victim. :rolleyes: )
How about “Kid” by The Pretenders.
"Baby Mine" from the Dumbo soundtrack made me cry when I heard it in the car with my baby girl.
“Living Proof” by Bruce Springsteen
“Well now on a summer night in a dusky room
Come a little piece of the Lord’s undying light
Crying like he swallowed the fiery moon
In his mother’s arms it was all the beauty I could take
Like the missing words to some prayer that I could never make”
Cat Stevens, innit? That one seems more like an exchange between a father and an angsty teenage son.
Don’t want to really hijack this thread, but I can’t help respond once more.
I think that much of what you say is true - but it’s also the point. I don’t think Hammerstein would tell you that he thinks it’s OK to commit crimes in the name of your child; I don’t think the audience is supposed to come away with the impression that Billy is in the right. The whole point of that song - including the broad, obvious cliches - is that Billy doesn’t understand at all what being a father is about. He’s a punk and a violent loser, and he thinks that fatherhood is about teachin’ yer kid to rassle (if yer kid’s a boy) and stealing so you can give her a nice dress (if yer kid’s a girl).
The idea of the song is it’s someone who makes all the wrong assumptions about life and about parenthood, combining those wrong assumptions into an astonishingly poor conclusion and, ultimately, a fatal decision. I don’t think the song is meant to make us like Billy - just understand him, and see how and why he goes wrong.
(Although there are a couple of what I consider to be powerfully well-written lyrics in there - but that’s for another time, and another thread).
And “Hey Jude”, written by Paul to comfort Julian during the divorce.
Isn’t She Lovely - Stevie Wonder
Kinda sappy, but sweet: Thank God For Kids (Kenny Chesney has a version, too, according the the google search results)
Most of the songs I can think of are focus on the Dad rather than the Mom, like Front Porch Looking In and Mr. Mom.
How about Disney’s Baby Mine (from Dumbo)? (video link)
Bonnie Raitt did a really beautiful version on the Stay Awake CD. You can hear it here.
Allison Krauss also does a nice cover. You can hear it here.
:smack: Didn’t notice that Nutty Bunny had already mentioned “Baby Mine”.