Oh Mother How Pretty the Moon Looks Tonight - Chords, Lyrics and MP3

Chords, lyrics and description below  :-)


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        C                                   C

Oh, mother, how pretty the moon looks tonight

              C           G7           C
She was never so cunning before

       C                                    C        

Her two little horns are too sharp and so bright

    C                      G7             C              C7
I hope they'll not grow any more.

   F                                   C

If I were up there with you and the moon

          F                                     C
We'd rock in it nightly, you see.

         Am                               C
We'd sit in the middle and hold to both ends

         C                G                       C
Oh, what a fine cradle 'twould be!

         C                                 C
We'd call to the stars to get out of our way,

          C                      G             C
'Lest we should rock over their toes.

        C                                           C
And there we would stay 'til the dawn of the day

         C                   G                  C       C7
And see where the pretty moon goes.

   F                                   C

If I were up there with you and the moon

          F                                     C
We'd rock in it nightly, you see.

         Am                               C
We'd sit in the middle and hold to both ends

         C                G                       C
Oh, what a fine cradle 'twould be!

          F                                         C

And there we would sit in that beautiful sky,

         F                                                          C 

and through the bright clouds we would roam.

        Am                                   C

We watch the sun set, and watch the sun rise,

       C                  G                        C

and on the next rainbow come home.

Information about this Song:

Peter Kruse is singing and playing ukulele in this song. Michael Aukofer is on upright bass, accordion, bells, background vocals and autoharp. This is an old children's song based on a poem that appeared in Eliza Lee Follen's book in 1832 (Link 1) (Link 2). Eliza Lee Follen can not be confirmed as the author, however, as she often included anonymous traditional poems in her book. My grandfather, who was number 9 of 13 kids, learned a version of this song at a barn dance in South Dakota when he was a child. He and his siblings remembered what they could, and taught their version to my dad, who taught it to my siblings and me.