> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > Rocking the Cradle
> Trevor Lucas > Songs > A Wee One
> Mike Waterson > Songs > The Charlady’s Son

Rocking the Cradle / Rocking Me Babies /
A Wee One / The Charlady’s Son

[ Roud 357 / Song Subject MAS953 ; AFS 95 ; Ballad Index R393 ; Bodleian Roud 357 ; MusTrad DB23 ; DT ROCKCRAD , ROCKCRA2 ; Mudcat 2696 , 119823 ; trad.]

Stephen Sedley: The Seeds of Love

Séamus Ennis sang The Old Man Rocking the Cradle in 1949 in Dublin for the BBC recording 13774. Another recording made by Alan Lomax and Robin Roberts in 1951 in Dublin was included in 2021 on the Irish Traditional Music Archive’s double CD of Alan Lomax field recordings, The New Demesne. Nicholas Carolan noted:

A distilled version of a song on an old theme which was circulating widely on Irish ballad sheets by the 1860s but which is originally English and was the foundation for the American cowboy song Git Along, Little Dogies. The statement sometimes made that there was an earlier underlying Irish song in which the baby was the Christ Child and the singer St Joseph is unfounded. The melody was also a performance piece on the fiddle in 19^th-century Ireland, the player touching the tuned-down strings with a door-key held in his/her mouth to imitate the word ‘mama’.

Paddy Tunney sang Rocking the Cradle in a Summer 1955 recording made by Diane Hamilton in Beleek, Co. Fermanagh that was released in 1956 on the Tradition album of folk songs and dances from the Irish countryside, The Lark in the Morning. He also sang The Old Man Rocking the Cradle on his 1966 Topic album The Irish Edge. Sean O’Boyle noted:

This famous song is another Chanson du Malmarié. It is known in one form or another from Manchuria to the West of Ireland. The old man left rocking the cradle while his wife is gallivanting with a younger man, sings a lullaby to the baby ‘that’s none of his own’. His song ends with the usual warning:

So come all you young men that’s inclined to get married,
Take my advice, leave the women alone,
For by the Law Harry if ever you marry,
They’ll leave you there rocking the cradle alone.

Paddy learned the song from John Doherty, one of the greatest traditional fiddlers in Ireland, who invariably follows up his singing of the song by playing it on the fiddle. Paddy lilts it.

The tune is Seoithín Seo, an old Irish suantraidhe (lullaby). The mothers of Connemara have a great reverence for the tune, believing it was used by the Blessed Virgin in putting her child to sleep (Amhráin Mhuighe Séòla, pp. 66-67, Talbot Press, Dublin).

A third Paddy Tunney recording of The Old Man Rocking the Cradle, made by Tony Engle and Tony Russell in the crypt of St. John the Baptist, Kensington, London in February 1975, was released in 1976 on his Topic album The Flowery Vale and was included in 1998 on the Topic anthology of songs of courtship and marriage, Come Let Us Buy the License (The Voice of the People Series Volume 1; Topic 1998). Cathal Ó Baoill noted:

This song was first recorded by John Doherty of Donegal in 1952 when he sang it for the BBC collection made by Sean O’Boyle and Peter Kennedy. When he sang it then he was lacking the second line of the second verse. It is quite clear that Paddy learned this song from Johnny, for he too is missing that second line. One has further proof of the source in Paddy’s use of the expression “by the law Harry” which John had used instead of “by the Lord Harry”. ‘Lord Harry’ is of course the devil. John Doherty was primarily known as a fiddler, and would frequently follow a song by a set of variations on the tune played on the fiddle; Paddy follows this admirable tradition of refusing to abandon a good tune simply because the words have run out, and lilts another verse.

Sally Sloane sang The Wee One on the 1957 Wattle album Australian Traditional Singers. The album’s sleeve notes commented:

The song that Mrs. Sloane calls The Wee One was a street ballad in Ireland, and is quite widely distributed; a light-hearted version of it is well known to students. But it has seldom been printed, and we have chosen it from amongst many Irish songs in Mrs. Sloane’s repertoire, partly for that reason. The song is more often known as The Old Man Rocking the Cradle, or some similar title.

Robert Cinnamond sang The Old Man Rocking the Cradle to Diane Hamilton in 1961, probably in Co. Antrim. This recording was released in 1975 on Cinnamond’s Topic album of traditional ballads and songs from Ulster, You Rambling Boys of Pleasure. Proinsias Ó Conluain noted:

The well-known lamentation of the old man left at home by a young wife “rocking the baby that’s none of his own”. The tune has a long and interesting history, carrying a lullaby or a carol in the Irish-speaking parts of Ireland, a lyrical complaint in Australia, and a cowboy song, Git Along Little Dogies, in the western states of America.

Isla Cameron sang The Old Man Rocking the Cradle in 1962 on her Prestige album The Best of Isla Cameron and in 1966 on her eponymous Transatlantic album Isla Cameron. Ewan MacColl noted on the first album:

It is said that country singers in the West of Ireland declare that this lullaby is the one which Joseph sang when he rocked the infant Christ to sleep. Needless to say, there is no evidence to support this claim. The song is the source of the cowboy song Ride Around Little Dogies.

Cyril Tawney sang Baby Lie Easy in 1962 on his HMV EP of songs from the West Country, Baby Lie Easy. All tracks of this EP were included in 2007 on his posthumous anthology The Song Goes On. Peter Kennedy noted on the original album:

Also learnt from a fellow sailor at one of those Naval singing parties at Plymouth.

Come all you young men that’s inclined to get married
Now take my advice and let the women alone,
Or by the law, Harry, if ever you marry
They’ll give you a baby and swear it’s your own.

The Ian Campbell Folk Group sang Rockin’ the Cradle in 1963 on their Transatlantic album This Is the Ian Campbell Folk Group. This track was also included in 2004 on the Transatlantic Folk Box Set. They noted on their album:

One of Bert Lloyd’s songs from New South Wales. We heard him sing it at a concert in London, and liked it very much. He very kindly sent us the words and music. It is a variant of the popular student song, Baby, Lie Easy.

John Doherty sang Rocking the Cradle on his 1964 EFDSS album Pedlar’s Pack. Peter Kennedy noted:

This tune is also well-known as Seoithín Seo, a Connacht lullaby. The Gaelic words have nothing in common with these English words. Other versions of this English song are widely sung in England and have been printed on broadsides and there is a student version from Australia. The more usual words for the last part of the second verse are:

The innocent baby he calls me his dada
But little he knows that he’s none of my own.

Joe Heaney sang The Old Man Rocking the Cradle in a recording made by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in their home in Beckenham in 1964. This was published in 2000 on Heaney’s Topic anthology The Road From Connemara.

A.L. Lloyd sang Rocking the Cradle in 1966 on his album First Person. He was accompanied by Alf Edwards on concertina and Dave Swarbrick playing fiddle. The track was reissued in 1994 on the Australian CD The Old Bush Songs. It was also sung by Trevor Lucas as A Wee One on his 1966 album Overlander.

A.L. Lloyd noted:

It seems to have begun life in Ireland, originally perhaps a lullaby purporting to be sung to the Christ Child by disgruntled Joseph (in mystery plays and carols Joseph is often presented as a dour peasant very suspicious of the parentage of his wife’s baby). It has undergone many changes, as a cowboy song in the USA and a mildly bawdy piece among students everywhere in the English-speaking world, besides flourishing in a number of variants (mostly deriving from the same broadside print) among folk singers. Our version here is substantially that sung by an outstanding Australian traditional singer, Mrs Sally Sloane of Teralba, New South Wales. Mrs Sloane has a large stock of family songs, many of them inherited from her grandmother who came to Australia from County Kerry in the 1840’s, but Rocking the Cradle is not one of those, for she learnt it in her young days from a neighbour in the small-farming country around Parkes. She begins the song: “I am a young man cut down in my blossom.” I altered it to “I am a young man from the town of Kiandra” because I knew a Kiandra fellow whose plight was similar to that of the man in the song.

The Wayfarers sang Baby Lie Easy in 1970 on their Folk-Heritage album The Wayfarers.

Martyn Wyndham-Read sang The Wee One in 1971 on his eponymous Trailer album Martyn Wyndham-Read. He noted:

All the songs on this record were acquired during the seven years I spent in Australia. Some are indigenous, but the majority are Australian variants of the songs taken over by British convicts and settlers in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Green Bushes and Banks of Claudy show how well our songs took root in their new home. The present versions were collected by John Meredith from Sally Sloane of New South Wales, Australia’s finest living traditional singer. The text and tune of The Wee One are also hers.

Derek Sarjeant and Hazel King sang Baby Lie Easy on their 1973 album Folk Matters. They noted:

This song was collected in the West Country by Cyril Tawney.

Mike Waterson sang The Charlady’s Son in 1977 on his eponymous LP Mike Waterson. A.L. Lloyd noted:

Two songs have come together here and married happily enough. Rocking My Babies to Sleep was a music hall piece of the 1860s, beginning: “Oh, show me the lady that never would roam / Away from her fireside at night.” The other song was older, seemingly Irish in origin, The Wee One, or Rocking a Baby That’s None of My Own. Both are on the same theme: the young wife is off on the ran-tan, leaving the henpecked husband as baby-sitter. The Irish song is said to have evolved as a parody of a sacred original, The Christ Child’s Lullaby. New light on the role of Joseph? Mike had the song from Mick Taylor.

Nic Jones sang this song as Oh Dear, Rue the Day in a life performance recorded prior to 1982 that was included in 2001 on his anthology Unearthed. Nic and his son Joseph Jones sang Rue the Day in 2014 on the Topic DVD The Enigma of Nic Jones.

Ray Driscoll sang Rocking the Cradle, “a version learnt from his Irish father”, to Gwilym Davies in Dulwich, London on 27 October 1993. This recording was included in 2008 on his posthumous anthology Wild, Wild Berry.

Dave Burland sang The Man From Kiandra in 1996 on his Fat Cat album Benchmark. He noted:

The Man From Kyandra is an Australian version of Rocking the Cradle from a group called Steam Shuttle.

Bill Jones sang Rocking the Cradle in 2001 on her Brick Wall/Compass album Panchpuran. This track was also included in 2002 on the Park anthology Women in Folk.

Ron Taylor and Jeff Gillett sang Rocking the Cradle in 2006 on their WildGoose CD Both Shine as One. They noted:

Another fickle young woman, and a severe case of generalisation by an embittered man. Partly from a recording by Buffy Sainte-Marie; partly learned from Jill Smith, founder of the long deceased but fondly remembered Exmouth Arms folk club, in Cheltenham.

Sam Carter sang Oh Dear, Rue the Day, with Sam Sweeney playing violin, on his 2009 Captain EP Keepsakes.

Jon Boden sang this as Rocking My Babies as the 30 December 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Damien Barber and Mike Wilson sang The Charlady’s Son in 2011 on their CD The Old Songs, giving their source in their liner notes:

A song we’ve been having fun singing for a good while now. From the singing of one of, if not the, Greatest of the Greats of the English Folk Song Revival of the 1960’s, Mike Waterson. Mike got his song from Mick Taylor of Hawes in Wensleydale.

Bill Whaley & Dave Fletcher sang Baby Lie Easy and Kate Burke & Ruth Hazleton sang The Wee One on the 2003 Fellside anthology celebrating English traditional songs and their Australian Variants, Song Links.

Danny Spooner sang The Wee One on his 2017 final CD, Home. His liner notes commented:

The Irish street ballad Rocking the Cradle was a lullaby purporting to be sung to the Christ Child by disgruntled Joseph (in Mystery Plays and carols Joseph is often presented as a dour man very suspicious of the parentage of his wife’s baby).

This version was from the outstanding Australian traditional singer, Mrs Sally Sloane of Teralba, New South Wales, who learned it from fiddle player Bob Vaughan. She began the song: “I am a young man cut down in my blossom.” Bert Lloyd altered it to “I am a young man from the town of Kiandra” because he knew a Kiandra fellow whose plight was similar to that of the man in the song.

Peter Knight’s Gigspanner sang Rocking the Cradle on their 2017 CD The Wife of Urban Law.

David Cambridge sang Rocking the Cradle on his 2019 CD Songtales. He noted:

A cautionary tale from the point of view of a young man who unwittingly acquires a baby, along with his new wife. This song is very likely Irish in origin but found its way to Australia (and back again) via Irish migrants during the 19^th century. It has developed into a somewhat “bluesey” arrangement, which is, I feel, quite in keeping with the storyline.

Macdara Yeates sang Rocking the Cradle on his 2024 album Traditional Singing From Dublin. He noted:

From the singing of Séamus Ennis, Paddy Tunney

One of many songs discouraging the marriage of old men and young women, this one from the old man’s perspective. Séamus Ennis sang a haunting version of this song, borrowing the air from a fiddle piece of the same name. I am told the melody in the chorus is supposed to emulate the sound of a crying baby.

Lyrics

Cyril Tawney sings Baby Lie Ease

One evening in summer as twilight was fading
Way down by the river I wandered alone.
And I there saw an old man both weeping and wailing
And rocking a baby that was not his own.

Chorus (after each verse):
Oh sweet baby lie easy,
Your own Daddy will never be known.
There’ll be weeping and wailing and sobbing and sighing
All over a baby that is not your own.

Now when I first married your innocent mother
I thought, like a fool, I was blessed with a wife.
But to my misfortune and sad lamentations
She turned out to be just the curse of my life.

’Twas always the same to a ball or a party,
She’d leave me here rocking the cradle alone.
While poor little laddie he thinks I’m his Daddy,
Though little he knows that I am not his own.

Come all you young fellows who one day may marry
If you’ll take my advice you’ll leave woman alone.
For by the Lord, Harry, if ever you marry,
She’ll bring you a baby and swear it’s your own.

A.L. Lloyd sings Rocking the Cradle

I am a young man from the town of Kiandra,
I met a young woman to comfort me home.
She goes out and she leaves me and cruelly deceives me
And leaves me with the baby that’s none of me own.

Chorus (after each verse):
Oh dear, rue the day ever I married,
How I wish I was single again.
With this weeping and wailing and rocking the cradle
And rocking a baby that’s none of me own.

While I’m at work me wife’s on the rantan,
On the rantan with some other young man.
She’s out drinking and cursing while I’m at home nursing
And rocking this baby that’s none of me own.

Come all you young men with a fancy to marry,
Beware you sure leave them flash girls alone.
Or by the Lord Harry, if one you should marry,
She’ll leave you with a baby that’s none of your own.

Trevor Lucas sings A Wee One

I am a young man cut down in my blossom,
I married a young girl to cheer up me home.
But she goes out and leaves me and cruelly deceives me
And leaves me with a wee one that’s none of me own.

Chorus (after each verse):
Oh dear, rue the day ever I married
Oh, how I wish I was single again.
For this weepin’ and wailin’ and rockin’ the cradle
And rockin’ a wee one that’s none of me own.

Now while I’m at work and me wife’s on the rantin’.
She’s rantin’ and dancin’ with some other young man.
Well, she’s drinkin’ and swearin’ while I’m at home carin’
And rockin’ a wee one that’s none of me own.

Now all you young men with the mind for to marry,
Beware of them flash women, leave them alone.
For by the Lord Harry, if one you should marry
She’ll leave you with a wee one that’s none of your own.

Paddy Tunney sings The Old Man Rocking the Cradle

It was the other night that I chanced to go roving.
Down by the wee river I jogging along,
I heard an old man making sad lamentation
About rocking a cradle and the child not his own.
High ho, high ho, high dilly lie easy.
Perhaps your own daddy will never be known.
I’m seeing and sighing and rocking a cradle
And nursing the babby and I all alone.

She goes out every night to a ball or a party,
And leaves me here rocking the cradle alone,
And. it’s by the law Harry, if ever you marry.
You’re sure to be rocking a cradle alone.
High ho, high ho, high laddie lie easy.
Perhaps your own daddy will never be known.
I’m sitting here sighing and rocking the cradle
And nursing a babby that’s none of my own.

So come all you young men that’s inclined to get married,
Take my advice leave the women alone.
For it’s by the law Harry, if ever you marry,
You’re sure to be rocking the cradle alone.
High ho, high ho, high dilly lie easy.
Perhaps your own daddy will never be known.
I’m seeing and sighing and rocking the cradle
And nursing a babby that’s none of my own.

Lilted chorus

Mike Waterson sings The Charlady’s Son

I’m a charlady’s son and I’m just thirty-one
And me wife’s ten years younger than me;
And I don’t like to roam cos I likes to stay home
But me wife she goes out on the spree.

She leaves me behind the babies to mind
And me house in good order to keep,
But with the fire burning bright I could sit half the night,
Rocking me babies to sleep.

And it’s, “Lady, lady, hush-a-bye babe
Mammy’ll be coming back bye and bye.”
But with the fire burning bright I could sit half the night,
Rocking me babies to sleep.

Last Saturday night I went out for a stroll
After rocking me babies to sleep,
Well at the bottom of our street, well who d’you think I met
But my wife with a soldier six feet.

Well she sobbed and she sighed and she damn nearly died,
She says, “Lad, I’ve been thinking of thee.”
But with the fire burning bright I could sit half the night,
Rocking me babies to sleep.