"Cry Baby Cry" was written by John Lennon, who was inspired to write the original lyrics, "Cry baby cry / Make your mother buy", by an advertisement. According to Wikipedia, "Cry Baby Cry" was the last straw for someone who worked closely with the Beatles:
This was the song the Beatles were working on when engineer Geoff Emerick quit, though his departure was precipitated by Lennon and McCartney's obsessions over the recordings of "Revolution" and "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da", respectively, and the overall tensions of the White Album sessions. Emerick would not work with the Beatles again until the session for The Ballad of John and Yoko nine months later.
As a nerdy, geeky kind of person, my first thought when I started listening to this song was, of course, "Firefly". On that show, the "Cry Baby" was a device the good guys employed that would mislead anyone pursuing their spaceship. Two of the characters actually say the first lines of the song: "Cry baby cry." and "Make your mother sigh!" That's a huge part of the reason this song makes me happy. :P
Other than that, the lyrics themselves remind me most of the nursery rhyme, "Sing a Song of Sixpence" because both songs talk about a king, a queen, and their various locations and activities. I'm sure it was done that way on purpose by Lennon, who, like many children (particularly in England), was no doubt familiar with the popular 18th-century tune.
The lyrics of the Beatles song are much different, however, and at some points seem to suggest a rather dysfunctional family. In particular, the lines "the children of the king" combined with the chorus ("Cry baby cry / Make your mother sigh / She's old enough to know better / So cry baby cry...") were almost disturbing to me; the part about the Duke and Duchess was even worse. All together, the lyrics suggest that all is not quite well/normal in the kingdom of Marigold.
That's all for today... See you tomorrow!
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Heard It Tally: 39
Songs Completed: 165
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