Down in the Meadow
Here’s a song I’ve been enjoying recently. Enjoying so much, in fact, that I have memorized it and sing it often to the little one. Now when I sing it she smiles and smiles.
[It’s too bad they couldn’t fit the whole song into the scene. The last part is nice.]
When I first decided to learn it, I wasn’t sure of some of the lyrics, so I asked the internet what the exact lyrics are. I was very surprised to find that the internet does not know! It thinks it knows, but gets some of them quite wrong.* And then other bits of the internet copy the wrong parts, and so they end up all over the place.
Here are the correct lyrics, as best I can determine.
Down in the Meadow
from River of No Return (1954)Performed by Marilyn Monroe
written by Darby/NewmanWhen Mister South Wind sighs in the pines
Old Mister Winter whimpers and whines
Down in the meadow, under the snow
April is teaching green things to growWhen Mister West Wind hums in the glade
Old Mister Summer nods in the shade
Down in the meadow, deep in the brook
Catfish are waiting for the hookOld Lady Blackbird flirts with the scarecrow
Scarecrow is waving at the moon
Old Mister Moon makes hearts ev’rywhere
Go bump bump
With the magic of JuneWhen Mister East Wind shouts overhead
Then all the leaves turn yellow and red
Down in the meadow corn stalks are high
Pumpkins are ripe and ready for pieOld Lady Blackbird flirts with the scarecrow
Scarecrow is waving at the moon
Old Mister Moon makes hearts ev’rywhere
Go bump bump
With the magic of JuneWhen Mister North Wind rolls on the breeze
Old Father Christmas trims all the trees
Down in the meadow snow softly gleams
Earth goes to sleep and smiles in her dreams
Nice, yes?
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*An example of the wrong lyrics: “Old Mister Moon makes huts everywhere go bump bump”
Well, that’s a little bit more adult than the original . . .
Another: “Old Father Christmas trims over trees”
Which just doesn’t make any sense. I get the feeling that the person who put up the bad lyrics did not have English as a first language, and was just working out the lines phonetically.
Last: I am tempted to get part of it wrong on purpose — the last line seems to me like it should say “sighs in her dreams” — not because it’s less sappy (sighs can be sappy too), but because my brain keeps making me sing it that way. Also I’m not crazy about the line “catfish are waiting for the hook” and I’m trying to think of a better alternative than “catfish are waiting for a book.”
But I will leave the song intact, at least here, at least for now.