Lie in bed and watch the moon and dream about your day,
while I lull you with a tune from half the world away.
It has closed ten thousand eyes of children now grown old.
Made the room seem warm and safe when nights were dark and cold.
You may live to ride through space or travel to the moon.
yet your children still may find contentment in this tune.
Let the world slip soft away, tomorrow's plans will keep.
One goodnight and I'll be gone, for you are fast asleep.
I sang this to my Granddaughter recently and remembered singing it to my brother many years ago. My older sister said he would go to sleep so he didn't have to hear me anymore! I am tone deaf apparently. I wonder how I managed to sing in the Grammar school choir for seven years?
Sorry "big little brother"! Well I also sang it to my younger brother and to all three of my kids!
I so wish I could find a source for this. It was from one of those BBC school radio broadcasts about 1967 I think. I was in the last year of primary school at Beltingham at the time.
We would be in the time when the Moon missions were being planned not long before the first time "Man reached the Moon!" Seems so long ago and yet so very close! What a different world we live in now!
The Moon has always fascinated me. Lady of the Night sailing serenely through the dark skies. Still mysterious despite all the accomplishments of modern technology.
When I sang it I would change the words to "you must go sleep" until they actually did go to sleep!
I thought I would write it down now while I remember it. Maybe someday one of my children will sing it in the future.
I wonder if anyone else remembers those programs and that song?
If you know where I can find them online I would love to know!
It may have been from BBC Time and Tune Spring 1968. Journey into Space.
My dad used to take me out on the front porch and show me the moon, I was afraid of it! But as a grown up, I love it and used to belong to a spiritual group that did full moon ceremonies!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very interesting! I have always loved sitting watching the moon. The one in the photo I took is what they actually also call a "Blue Moon" when there are two in one calendar month.There is another sort of blue moon which is different as it actually seems blue.
DeleteDuring the Sixties at a convent prep school in London, we listened to a programme called "Singing Together" on a huge radio which was wheeled in to the classroom for that lesson. For some reason "Lie in Bed and Watch the Moon" stuck in my mind, possibly because it's in a minor key. Fast forwarded to adulthood, we stayed at a farmhouse in Devon when my eldest daughter was 3 years old and her baby sister about 12 weeks. Everyone gathered in the sitting room in the evening where there was a piano. I hadn't played since aged about 12 but opened the lid and, inside, found a "Singing Together" book with that song in, so played it. From then on I used to sing it to my girls as a lullaby.
DeleteWhen I was about 7 or 8 at a convent prep school in London in the Sixties, we used to participate in a radio broadcast singing lesson once a week. My favourite song was a lullaby called "Lie in Bed and Watch the Moon", possibly because it was in a minor key. Fast-forward to adulthood when we stayed at a farmhouse/guesthouse in Devon when one daughter was 3 and the other two months old. In the sitting room I found a one of the songbooks from that programme and it contained that very song. I played and sang it and thereafter used to sing it to my girls at bedtime.
DeleteYou are so lucky to have found the book! Which one is it?
Delete