"Play the Head Song, Daddy! Play the Head Song!" Moolah said one day in the car.
"The Head Song?" I asked. I didn't know any children's song that fit that description.
Daddy looked at me and said, "Watch this. How does it go, Moolah."
Moolah started singing a song that I was completely unfamiliar with, and was far too literary to be a children's song.
Daddy turned on the requested song and explained to me while Moolah listened and sang along.
The Head Song is really called "The Crane Wife 3". It is by a band Daddy really likes called the Decemberists, an alternative-rock-meets-Shakespeare bunch. Their latest album is called "The Crane Wife" and includes three versions of an ancient Japanese legend of the same name.
In the legend, a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health. After he releases the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries. Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous clothes out of silk that they can sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her making them. They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he soon makes her weave them more and more. Oblivious to his wife's diminishing health, his greed increases. He eventually peeks in 
to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.
to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her own body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.The Decemberists version, and one of Moolah's top requests, is:
And under the boughs unbowed
all clothed in the snowy shroud
She had no heart so hardened
All under the boughs unbowed
Each feather it fell from skin
'Til thread bare while she grew thin
How were my eyes so blinded?
Each feather it fell from skin
And I will hang my head, hang my head low
And I will hang my head, hang my head low
A grey sky, a bitter sting
A rain cloud, a crane on wing
All out beyond horizon
A grey sky, a bitter sting
And I will hang my head, hang my head low
And I will hang my head, hang my head low
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7 comments:
So... why exactly is it called the "head song"?
Because she likes the chorus "I will hang my head, hang my head low"
I listened to the song ad only got 5 words of it... not the chorus. Maybe I'll hear it another time and get it. Good thing for Moolah is that she is a good listener. ARRGGGHHHH> I want to hear the chorus!!!! I'm working on Bampa's machine and it confuses me.
very pretty pictures/paintings...
Miss Moolah has great taste in music ... Her favorites are some of mine as well. I need to put that CD in my car today.
On a side note - Thanks for keeping your page up to date. It's so nice to keep up on your beautiful family! xoxo
PS
Sorry, I had a typo in the first comment. :)
The sample is only a few words. I'll see if I can get her to sing it on a video.
The pictures are a series of Japanese stamps about the legend.
Daddy told me that story when you were visiting the sunny state. I was amazed, still am. I would like to hear the rest of the song too. It doesn't take Moolah long to learn songs. She's very bright and very loveable too. Ace included. Precious babies. Missing them both terribly.
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