Skip to main content

Molly Song of the Week? - Shankill Butchers by The Decemberists

By
In a continuing series, I have been exploring music that I love, that is also fitting for my young daughter.  I have looked at adult songs that she also loves, kids songs that I don't want to slit my wrist listening to, and as was the case with 'Boy with a Coin', a track that can calm the child down.


Today's selection is an adult track that can calm a child down, and is an excellent lullaby.  However, it has a short shelf life.  I wouldn't recommend playing this beyond three years of age, as it has some dark and possibly nightmare inducing lyrics.  

If you ever tried to locate some lullabies in your music collection, good luck!  Try searching the word lullaby in your collection.  Counting Crow's 'Mrs. Potter's Lullaby' is much too loud, as is the jazz 'Lullaby of Birdland'.  Coltrane's 'Russian Lullaby' will do one better than caffeine.  'Disenchanted Lullaby' from the Foo Fighters might work for Dave Grohl, but won't work on anyone else.   Even 'Lullaby' from Matt Costa (featuring Jack Johnson) is just a tinge too happy!

There are some great lullabies including the excellent 'Lullaby' from The Dixie Chicks, the seemingly traditional 'Coal Mountain Lullaby' from the Low Anthem,  and Dean Martin's version of 'Brahm's Lullaby.'


Most parents are realistic enough to know you need more than three songs.  Some of the best tracks to not include the word lullaby include, Norah Jones 'Nightingale' and Mary Lou Lord's cover of Ween's 'Birthday boy'  and my selection of the week the Decemberists' 'Shankill Butcher's

Shankill Butchers.


The song itself, is beautiful but has a very dark theme.  If you are considering it, please read the lyrics and think about it first.  Truly, the lyrics aren't saying everyone will be harmed by the aforementioned butchers, but only those that don't listen to their mothers.

 The Shankhill Butchers by the Decemberists (non-official video)


From 2006, the Crane Wife
'Shankill Butchers'

 'And everybody knows if you don't
Mind your mother's words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake
The Shankill Butchers want to catch you awake'

The Decemberists are currently on tour.  

Enjoy the track!
More to follow with a Featured Artist post in the future!
Labels:

Comments

  1. abby mumfordMarch 22, 2011 at 2:18 PM

    the songs with the darkest lyrics seem to be the ones that calm molly down. hmmmm.... :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 22, 2011 at 5:55 PM

    Pink Floyd's "Echoes" always seems to calm me.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Premier Single : Birds Over Arkansas "Forgotten Lights"

By
Philly/CT band  Birds Over Arkansas ' is currently recording their full length release as a follow up to their 2014  Behind The Lights  EP.  Root Down In The Shadow is proud to debut the first single from this release, "Forgotten Lights." "Forgotten Lights" was first teased in an exclusive release for a RDITS house show in March featuring BOA , Kevin Killen , Chelsea Mitchell , and Max García Conover . Finally ready for the masses, "Forgotten Lights" is helplessly watching a loved one slip away into dementia. The song starts as a mellow Americana groove, and the split at the outro introduces the progressive rock elements to bring in the lyric "the flame blew out again." This was the pivotal point in the lyrics, signifying the change from someone who was slowly losing their faculties who has now seemingly become a different person. The switch from the easy, mellow groove to the frenetic time signature embodies this. Scott Haskitt - ...
1 comment
Read more

Root Down Is A Sometime Thing...

By
From the desk of Root Down: Greetings Friends!  It's been a bit, how've ya been? What's new? I've been gone for some time and I feel that I owe everyone an explanation of where I've been.   Honestly, I haven't gone anywhere. Since I've last posted, I've still been frequenting my favorite record store, been hitting up local shows, hosted a few house shows, traveling for special shows, and making music a large part of my life.  What I haven't been doing is losing countless hours fretting over knowing every new artist, tweeting, and losing sleep editing articles that spend less time getting read than I spent writing.  I can definitively tell you that I'm DONE attempting to make Root Down In The Shadow "a thing" in the music world.   I don't need Twitter followers, a lively blog, or anyone else's validation to share my love for music. It doesn't help my enjoyment of music to follow a shit-ton of bands on eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

New Release Q&A - Sonja Sofya answers some questions for "Patterns We Know"

By
The buzz has been all about Sonja Sofya and her new album The Patterns We Know .  Tonight Sonja Sofya and band take to the stage at Boot & Saddle in South Philly along with a great line-up featuring Arc Divers and the dove and the wolf. Right off the top we have some great reasons to expect great things from this album, such as produced by Ross Bellenoit at Turtle Studios and excellent musicianship by guitarist/producer Ross Bellenoit, bassist Jonathan Colman , and drummers Matt Scarano and Jonas Oesterle . But we at Root Down In The Shadow wanted to dig further and see what Sonja had to say about the album. Here's 3 questions we had for the songstress Sonja Sofya: RDITS: What was the impetus to make a full length record and why did you pick the people you worked with? At a certain point, playing and writing as much as I was, it felt like the logical next step, but I waited for a while, trying to find the "perfect" time to go into the stud...
1 comment
Read more