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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Rock-a-bye baby thy cradle is green;
Father's a nobleman, mother's a queen;
And Betty's a lady who wears a gold ring,
And Johnny's a drummer and drums for the King.
Hush-a-bye baby way up on high;
Never mind baby, Mummy is nigh,
Swinging the baby all around,
Hush-a-bye baby, up hill and down.
Rock-a-bye baby thy cradle is green;
Finest in emerald I've ever seen,
The wind holds a secret, the rhythm to keep,
To carry my baby so gently to sleep.
To carry my baby so gently to sleep.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"Thy Cradle Is Green" is a traditional English lullaby, related in spirit and in some of its imagery to other cradle songs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first verse presents a pleasingly elevated domestic scene: the baby's cradle is green, father is a nobleman, mother a queen, Betty wears gold and Johnny drums for the King. It is the kind of gentle fantasy that lullabies have always offered, placing the child at the centre of an orderly, prosperous world.
The second verse adds a more intimate note — "Never mind baby, Mummy is nigh" — bringing the song back from the grand to the particular. The final verse, with its emerald cradle and the wind holding a secret rhythm, was written by Mat Williams for this recording, and fits seamlessly with the older material. The image of the wind as the keeper of a rocking rhythm is both poetic and true: the best lullabies do feel like something natural, as though the melody were already there in the air and someone had simply found the words for it.
This folk arrangement lets the melody carry the song quietly to its close.
