[Image from US Library of Congress's Prints and Photograph Division/Van Vechtan Collection]

We own “Burl Ives’ and the Little White Duck”, in which he sings quite a few popular nursery rhymes. I know many Western nursery rhymes are very dark and about loss, death, corporal punishment, plagues, but Ives’ interpretation in this LP is so…tragic? Is that the word? When he sings, it’s like he’s saying, “Well that’s just life isn’t it?” like he’s given up and there’s no magic anymore. But yet the songs are nursery rhymes sung with a whole orchestral backing and … you just have to listen to them to understand what I’m trying to say. I really like it, not only because he’s picked some wonderful nursery rhymes to sing but also because of this overall tone I can’t put in words.

“The Little White Duck” and “Two Little Owls” always bring a tear to my eye or at least a little twinge of sadness. They both begin by painting the most beautiful most idyllic of scenarios. Baby animals relaxing in the sun - but then some predator comes and tries to kill them.

The ending of “The Little White Duck” goes something like this: “There’s nothing left but the lily pad, the duck and the frog ran away I’m sad. There’s nobody left sitting in the water….boo boo boo”

I much prefer Burl Ives’ version of nursery rhymes to any of the newer ones I’ve been borrowing from the library. There’s just no soul to the new ones. I’ve been borrowing ones that come with a book of nursery rhymes and the music sounds so synthesized.

If you want the original LP you can buy it from 1st in Tunes.

Googling some information about Ives:

He was an actor before he became a singer of children’s songs and most famous for his role as Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He was nominated for a support actor Academy Award that year in two films, and won the award for his role in the western The Big Country because Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was deemed too controversial. Tennessee Williams wrote the role of Big Daddy for Ives!

Oh no…I just found out that Ives was originally blacklisted during the McCarthy era but like Elia Kazan, who directed Ives in the broadway version of Cat, co-operated with the House committee on Un-American Activities and was able to continue his entertainment career. Only 10% of those blacklisted were able to rebuild their careers. Some like Charlie Chaplin just left the country. Oh no…Burl Ives dobbed in a fellow folk singer Pete Seeger - who is famous for co-writing another of my favourite folk songs “Where have all the flowers gone”. Seeger refused to co-operate with HUAC.

No wonder pictures of him can be found in the US Library of Congress! No wonder I picked up that twinge of sadness, regret in his songs.

It all makes sense now.

Ives and Seeger reconciled before Ives died and appeared in a concert together. So I feel better about being a fan of a man who destroyed the careers of others. Seeger is a more admirable person, but Ives is a more complex and interesting one, which is why I suppose even his take on simple nursery rhymes is so complex. I always thought his nursery rhymes should be used in scene in a film where something sinister is lurking in the background.