All the Pretty Little Horses

This article is about the lullaby. For the album by Current 93, see All the Pretty Little Horses (album). For other uses, see All the Pretty Horses (disambiguation).

"All the Pretty Little Horses" (also known as "Hush-a-bye") is a traditional lullaby from the United States. It has inspired dozens of recordings and adaptations, as well as the title of Cormac McCarthy's 1992 novel All the Pretty Horses.

Origin

The song is commonly thought to be of African-American origin.

An early published version is in "A White Dove", a 1903 story for kindergarteners by Maud McKnight Lindsay (1874–1941), a teacher from Alabama and daughter of Robert B. Lindsay. In the story, "a little girl" sings to "her baby brother" what is footnoted as "an old lullaby":

All the pretty little horses,
  White and gray and black and bay;
All the pretty little horses,
  You shall see some day, some day—
All the pretty little horses.

Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 study On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs describes the song as "one lullaby which is widely known through the South and which is reported in many varying forms, but with the spirit and the tune practically the same." Scarborough says such lullabies were sung by enslaved mammies to the white children in their care; "the black mother often spent her tenderest love on the white child she nursed" because, while she was in the plantation house, her own children were off in the slave quarters and often sold away. None of Scarborough's versions are named "All the Pretty Little Horses"; most sing of ponies rather than horses, and are innocuous; however, a "somewhat gruesome" one about mules ends "Buzzards and flies / Picking out its eyes, / Pore little baby crying, / Mamma, mamma!". Scarborough then gives other lullabies ("Ole Cow" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep") with similar gruesome endings in which the eyeless animal cries "Mammy" rather than "Mamma".

In the 1934 collection American Ballads and Folk Songs, ethnomusicologists John and Alan Lomax give a version titled "All the Pretty Little Horses" and ending: 'Way down yonder / In de medder / There's a po' lil lambie, / De bees an' de butterflies / Peckin' out its eyes, / De po' lil thing cried, "Mammy!"' The Lomaxes quote Scarborough as to the lullaby's origins.

In 1971, Angela Davis commented on a version similar to the Lomaxes': '"All the Pretty Little Horses" is an authentic slave lullaby; it reveals the bitter feelings of Negro mothers who had to watch over their white charges while neglecting their own children.'

Lyrics

Dorothy Scarborough, 1925

Hush a bye, don’t you cry,

Go to sleepy, little baby.

when you wake,

You shall have,

all the pretty little horses.

Blacks and Bays,

dapples and grays,

Coach and six a little horses.

Hush-a-by, Don't you cry,

Go to sleep, my little baby.

Additional verse (included in some versions)

Way down yonder

In the meadow

Poor little baby crying momma

Birds and the butterflies

Flutter 'round his eyes

Poor little baby crying momma"

Or

Down in the meadow

a wee little lamb

poor thing crying mama

birds and butterflies

flutter round its eyes

poor things crying mama

Popular version

Hush you bye, Don't you cry

Go to sleep-y, my little ba - by.

When you wake, you shall have

All the pretty lit-tle hor-ses

Blacks and bays, Dap-ples and grays,

Coach---------- and six-a lit-tle hor - ses.

Hush you bye, Don't you cry,

Go to sleep-y lit-tle ba - by

When you wake, you'll have sweet cake, and

All the pret-ty lit-tle hor-ses

A brown and a gray and a black and a bay

and a Coach and six-a lit-tle hor - ses

A black and a bay and a brown and a gray and a Coach______________________

and six-a lit-tle hor-ses. Hush you bye,

Don't you cry, Oh you pret-ty lit-tle ba - by. Go to sleep-y lit-tle

ba - by. Oh________________ you pret-ty lit-tle ba-by.____

Musical and literary adaptations

"All the Pretty Little Horses" has inspired a variety of recordings (both direct performances of the known lyrics and adaptations thereof). Some of the singers who have recorded adaptations of "All the Pretty Little Horses" include (but are not limited to):

• Alan Lomax on Texas Folk Songs
• The Mystics "Hushabye"
• Víctor Jara and Quilapayún, 1968
• Barbara Dickson
• Alfred Deller, in the style of the Renaissance countertenor voice
• Caroline Herring
• Calexico
• The Chieftains with Patty Griffin
• Coil, as "All the Pretty Little Horses", for their album Black Antlers, 2004
• Current 93, two versions as "All the Pretty Little Horses", for their 1996 album of the same name, one sung by Nick Cave. A third version, sung by Shirley Collins, appears on the compilation Calling for Vanished Faces
• The Big 3 one their album "Live At The Recording Studio", in 1964
• Esther Ofarim for the Album "That's our Song" (1965)
• Five Folk Songs for Soprano and Band, as part of a 1963 folk song suite by Bernard Gilmore
• Friends of Dean Martinez
• Grant Campbell for The Burrowers
• Tanya Goodman (singer) for Cedarmont Kids - Lullabies - All Night All Day
• Holly Cole, as "All the Pretty Little Horses", for her 1997 album Dark Dear Heart
• Joan Baez on her 1968 album Baptism: A Journey Through Our Time
• Jon Crosse, in his 1985 album Lullabies Go Jazz: Sweet Songs for Sweet Dreams, with Clare Fischer, Putter Smith, and Luis Conte
• The Journeymen on their 1963 album New Directions in Folk Music
• Jonathan Meiburg, on his 2004 album Buteo Buteo
• Judy Collins, for her 1990 album Baby's Bedtime
• The Jukebox Band, during the Lullaby Medley in a Shining Time Station episode Stacy Forgets Her Name
• Kenny Loggins, as "All the Pretty Little Ponies", for his 1994 album Return to Pooh Corner with David Crosby & Graham Nash singing harmony vocals.
• Kidsongs, on Good Night, Sleep Tight 1986 video and album
• Kristin Hersh, as "Whole Heap of Little Horses", for her 1998 album Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight
• Laura Gibson, as "All the Pretty Horses", for her 2008 EP Six White Horses
• Laura Veirs, on her 2011 album Tumble Bee
• Laurie Berkner
• Sam Cahoon as "All the Pretty Little Horses", on his 2008 album The Dismal Stars and the Clouds Afar
• Matana Roberts, "But I Never Heard a Sound So Long" on Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden
• Stephanie Betjemann, as "Բոլոր Գեղեցիկ Ձիերը", arranged by Karenn Presti, on the 2017 album My First Armenian Songbook, in Western Armenian translation
• Olivia Newton-John
• Peter, Paul and Mary, as "Hush-A-Bye", for their 1963 album In the Wind
• Charlotte Church, "The Little Horses" on her album Enchantment released October 9, 2001.
• The New Christy Minstrels, on their album Live From Ledbetters, recorded live on April 10, 11 & 12, 1964, released in 1999.
• Hayley Westenra, on her album, Hushabye, which is dedicated to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby.
• Odetta, on her album At the Gate of Horn, released in 1957.
• Aaron Copland composed an arrangement of "The Little Horses" for voice and piano as the second set of Old American Songs (1952)
• Shawn Colvin
• Leon Rosselson,as "Pretty Little Horses" on the 2014 album "Lullaby For Naila"

The song appears in Silkwood , performed by Georges Delerue and sung by Meryl Streep and Cher. The melody is also used in the score of the 1961 film Misty about a Chincoteague pony. The song is featured prominently in the 2023 film Los Colonos (The Settlers).

Picture book adaptations include Susan Jeffers' All The Pretty Horses (1974) and Lisa Saport's All the Pretty Little Horses: A Traditional Lullaby (1999).

The song provided the title of Cormac McCarthy's 1992 novel All the Pretty Horses. It inspired a short story in Jane Yolen's 1998 collection Here There Be Ghosts. It is sung by Viv in Ken Kesey's novel Sometimes a Great Notion.

Sources

• Engle, Robert B. Waltz and David G. The Ballad Index 2011 (accessed July 19, 2012)
• Lomax, John, and Alan Lomax. "All The Pretty Little Horses". New York City: Ludlow Music Inc., 1934.

External links

• Lyrics - National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, "Kids' Pages"