I’ve started on a book of questions/music-themed memoir guide book called The Mixtape Of My Life and I thought it would fit well at lyriquediscorde.
At the start of the book the questions asked are about music at the start of my life – including a request for a playlist (I couldn’t resist that).
The Mixtape Of My Life: The Start Of My (Music) Life
>>> What songs did your parents sing to you in the crib? If you don’t know, ask. Or for me, I imagined.
My mother played The Beatles “Yellow Submarine”, Peter, Paul, and Mary “Puff the Magic Dragon”, Harry Nilsson “Me and My Arrow”, and and Joni Mitchell, “Blue”.
In my “imagined memory”, I always pictured my father playing, and singing-a-long, to Elton John’s “Your Song”. I have no proof, or confirmation of this. My father was absent for most of my life, and when I did briefly meet him, when I was in my late ’20’s, I didn’t ask.
I don’t think I wanted my “imagined memory” proved wrong.
I’m assuming the bands/artists in my mother’s list above, but they are close to the truth( truth-memory-adjacent), as they were all part of my childhood listening (via my mother).
>>> Where did they learn these songs?
My mother was a huge music fan (though not so much anymore), and loved The Beatles more than pretty much anything for her whole life (the only music she seems to still love). She was also a fan of ’60’s-’70s folk (minus Bob Dylan).
Beyond the songs listed in the last question (and in most of the playlist below), my mother used to make up songs using my name, or her nicknames for me. She’d incorporate things around the house, or places we would drive to in the car, in to the lyrics. Sometimes they were to what seemed like made-up tunes, to me. Sometimes they were songs with the lyrics changed.
>>> Create your perfect lullaby playlist, for yourself or your kids
I put the following lullaby playlist together with both imagined memories and truth-memory adjacent memories. The majority of these songs (pretty much all of them) I learned of/heard for the first time as a child, from my mom’s radio play in the car, or from her record collection, so to me, these all fit as a nostalgic lullaby from when I was young.
A Lullaby, Real and Imagined
A Playlist
“Blue” – Joni Mitchell
“Yellow Submarine” – The Beatles
“Puff, the Magic Dragon” – Peter, Paul, and Mary
“Me and My Arrow” – Harry Nilsson
“Mr. Tambourine Man” – Judy Collins
“Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet” – Henry Mancini
“The Boxer” – Simon and Garfunkel
“Summer Breeze” – Seals and Croft
“If You Could Read My Mind” – Gordon Lightfoot
“Your Song” – Elton John
“Dream Weaver” – Gary Wright
“Sailing” – Christopher Cross
“Can’t You See” – The Marshall Tucker Band
“Afternoon Delight” – Starland Vocal Band
“Baby Come Back” – Player
“You Can Do Magic” – America
“Time In a Bottle” – Jim Croce
“Wildfire” – Michael Martin Murphy
“Alone Again (Naturally)” – Gilbert O’Sullivan
“Magic” – Pilot
“Fire and Rain” – James Taylor
“Everything I Own” – Bread
“Sunshine On My Shoulders” – John Denver
“Crazy Love” – Poco
“Teach Your Children Well” – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
“Stardust” – Willie Nelson
“It’s Too Late” – Carole King
“Danny’s Song” – Anne Murray
“Lara’s Theme (from Doctor Zhivago)” – 101 Strings Orchestra
“Songbird” – Fleetwood Mac
