Children's songs that disturbed me as a child

[azurelunatic]

That song where Mother Duck loses all her ducklings one by one until she too goes "over the hills and far away" and they are reunited:
As clear an allegory for death and heaven as ever my gummy little brain had been fed. I was sceptical about the heaven part as it seemed obviously tacked on to make people feel better about death. As I had a hobby of scaring myself silly by trying to comprehend eternity and infinity, it seemed a cheap platitude.

"Waltzing with Bears":
Interesting metaphor for drug addiction! It's a dangerous and bizarre hobby that his family tries to intervene in, but in the end the addiction was stronger than their love and his determination.

"Puff, the Magic Dragon":
Pointlessly depressing because the kid dies at the end, and the dragon mourns him forever. (He may have grown up before dying.) Even so, it was all the terror of eternity with the loss of a close friend to make it more interesting.

Comments

[majoline]

Am I weird that the other thing that used to get me as a child was documentaries on the Pyramids for the same reason?

[amberfox]

The first three concerts I ever attended were all Peter, Paul & Mary. I have a serious soft spot for Puff; that one was even more of a song-along than most.

[vass]

I always interpreted that song not as Jacky dying, but as Jacky growing up and abandoning Puff entirely. I think that's worse. I figured that if he'd died while he was still friends with Puff, he would have just gone to live in Honalee permanently.

[xenacryst]

Those did not disturb me as a kid. I did not hear Waltzing until college, when it did not disturb me because I was sick and twisted by then. The other two disturb me more now, though I don't think I take them as far as you do. The ducklings are just running away from home and leaving mama duck all alone and worried, and as vass said, Jacky isn't dying, he just grows up and forgets about his bestest friend which is perhaps an even worse parting than having a serious falling out and vowing never to see him again. (Dude, you forgot? YOU FORGOT? Like, did you not even think about what Puff might be feeling? How could you?) Come to think of it, maybe that is worse than Jacky dying - if he died, at least Puff could, like, come to a funeral or something (I'm sure the parents wouldn't mind) and have some kind of closure, but instead he just wanders away without so much as a goodbye. WHAT KIND OF FRIEND DOES THAT I ASK YOU?

[mmegaera]

"Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children all gone. All but one, and her name was Ann, and she hid under the pudding pan."

Seriously? This is appropriate for small children?

[highlander_ii]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates "Puff, the Magic Dragon" - omg what a horribly depressing song!