While babies do appear in songs from time to time, what doesn’t appear is the sense of a baby being part of an album. This comes to mind because of Maria Taylor’s upcoming album, written between her sons nap, Something About Knowing, has motherhood imprinted on it. I mean, no prizes for guessing why Maria was up all night on “Up All Night”, and the album has the joy of children (babies actually), it seems informed by the ineluctable.
Essentially, music write about babies is such a natural because babies, say pre-one years old and even earlier, is the one time when you can communicate, no, must communicate without words. Sounds hold the meanings for babies, words make no sense, it is all in tone, and so it lends itself to music which doesn’t need music to represent.
But there aren’t many songs about babies at all. “Lauryn Hill’s “To Zion”? But what else? Carole King’s Rhymes And Reason, have babies in the background, it is just there somewhere in the back of her mind and it informs without really being overwhelmed by it.
The Walt Disney Dumbo song “Baby Of Mine” is sung by Betty Noyes and is a rarity of sorts, Thom Yorke’s song for his son “Sail to The Moon” (“maybe you’ll be President but know right from wrong”) though I’m sure if my dad had sung it to me I would have been terrified all night.
There are so many greats songs for children from Paulie’s “Backseat Of My Car”, to Johnny’s “Beautiful Boy” to Paul’s “St. Judy’s Comet” and “Father’s And Daughters” , but the earliest age seems beyond most people.
