Friday 27 April 2018

The Slimy Rhymes

As a kid, I'd sing the nursery rhymes without rhyme or (knowing the underlying) reason. On revisiting them as an adult, I discovered that a lot of them beat Shin-chan by a landslide. You just can't miss those with the naughty or downright sinister undertones. So much so that I believe that they would make mighty good background scores for your run-of-the-mill horror movies. Their spookfest begins with the kids anyway. Imagine the following with a haunting twist, more so for their savage/insidious lyrics:
1. Old father long legs
2. Rock-a-bye baby
3. Mary, Mary, quite contrary
4. Ring around the rosie (the black death reference is questionable but why not put the creepy version to good use?)
5. Jack and Jill

It's hard to trace the origins and the most authentic versions of many of these rhymes. Harder yet to figure out whether they were composed in all innocence and twisted around later to match turbulent historical events, or if they really were cryptic works of oppressed minds to begin with. Either way, it has been a wild goose chase so far, with nary a solid clue to the identity of Mother Goose, the (imaginary?) author of many nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

While the savagery in most of Mother Goose's collection has been watered down through the centuries, it still gives you goosebumps. I guess Shin-chan received flak over his few repetitive mischiefs for being so blatant. While the good old nursery rhymes got away with much more for surreptiously catering to several mindsets - the playful & the innocent, the dirty minds, the history buffs and those with a penchant for dark humour. I sure am enjoying reciting them to my kid; my evil laughter mingling with his innocent, unsuspecting giggles. These rhymes are the mother of all geese indeed, because what's good for a little Goose is as good for a dirty old Geezer.

Cheers,
A badly enlightened mother goose