The king of Marigold was in the kitchenCooking breakfast for the queenThe queen was in the parlorPlaying piano for the children of the king
One song off the White Album that I found when I was 13 years old. It’s a good reason why I’m happy they kept it as a double album. I wouldn’t have this song and a few more. When the chorus kicks in it sticks in your head. That is the beauty of the White Album…it has something for everyone. Lennon had a way of delivering sometimes dark imagery, forming it around a catchy melody and it worked. It’s just part of the album’s huge tapestry.
The track includes a coda not originally part of the song… a snippet of Paul McCartney singing a few lines known as “Can You Take Me Back?” That was an unfinished song by Paul. This fragment segues into Revolution 9 on the album and adds an eerie, unresolved feeling to the end of the track. They would explore this more on the B side of Abbey Road.
Although the songs differ in style they all have that Beatles touch to them whether it be the hard Helter Skelter, country Rocky Raccoon, or even the fairytale-like Cry Baby Cry. The sessions were not the happiest time for the band (the Esher Demos were though) but they came up with the most eclectic batch of songs they ever produced. The demos they made gave another look at the song.
When John Lennon was killed in 1980 there were three albums I bought that long winter. Double Fantasy, The White Album, and Abbey Road. I’m back there again in that 1980-81 winter and spring when I hear this album.
The White Album is as diverse as you can get… Pop, Rock, Country, Folk, Reggae, Avant-Gard, Blues, Hard Rock and some 20’s British Music Hall thrown in the mix. It has plenty of songs that you have heard of and many that the masses have not heard as much. John Lennon wrote one of his best songs for this album… Dear Prudence.
The Beatles more than many bands could bend to a style of music and play that style well.
Of all the songs I heard on this album…this is the one where I thought…hmmm… John Lennon was so different in writing songs compared to Paul. I love this example of John’s fairytale. He wrote the song in 1967, inspired by a commercial jingle he heard on Television. The lyrics play on the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence, with lines like Cry baby cry, make your mother sigh evoking a fairy-tale atmosphere.
Ian MacDonald, in his book Revolution in the Head, described this song as “a charmingly wayward waltz” with “a whimsical, mildly satirical undertone.”
The White Album was released in 1968 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Chart, #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #1 about everywhere else
The demo of Cry Baby Cry. You can hear John double his voice.
Cry Baby Cry
Cry, baby, cryMake your mother sigh
The king of Marigold was in the kitchenCooking breakfast for the queenThe queen was in the parlorPlaying piano for the children of the king
Cry, baby, cryMake your mother sighShe’s old enough to know betterSo cry, baby, cry
The king was in the gardenPicking flowers for a friend who came to playThe queen was in the playroomPainting pictures for the children’s holiday
Cry, baby, cryMake your mother sighShe’s old enough to know betterSo cry, baby, cry
The duchess of Kirkcaldy always smilingAnd arriving late for teaThe duke was having problemsWith a message at the local bird and bee
Cry, baby, cryMake your mother sighShe’s old enough to know betterSo cry, baby, cry
At 12 o’clock, a meeting ’round the tableFor a seance in the darkWith voices out of nowherePut on specially by the children for a lark
Cry, baby, cryMake your mother sighShe’s old enough to know betterSo cry, baby, cryCry, baby cryMake your mother sighShe’s old enough to know betterSo cry, baby, cry
Cry, cry, cryMake your mother sighShe’s old enough to know betterSo cry, baby, cry
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