While Sting’s song is truly well-thought-out and well crafted, Burnett and Welch’s version of “Go to Sleep You Little Baby” is both under- and over-thought-out. The words are pathetic, meaningless (except for the unbelievably obvious surface meanings), and wrong. It is their artistic license to use the song to their purpose – but they have blasted all meaning right out of the beautiful, simple lullaby. Here are all of T-Bone Burnett and Gillian Welch’s new words:
Everybody’s gone in the cotton and the corn,
Didn’t leave nobody but the baby.

You’re a sweet little baby,
Honey and the rock and the sugar don’t stop,
Gonna bring a bottle to the baby.

Don’t you weep pretty baby,
She’s long gone with her red shoes on,
Gonna need another lovin’ baby.

Go to sleep you little baby,
You and me and the devil makes three,
Don’t need no other lovin’ baby.

Go to sleep you little baby,
Come and lay your bones on the alabaster stones,
And be my ever lovin’ baby.

They took all of the incredibly deep significance and meaning of the seemingly simple lullaby as sung by Mrs. Carter, and they hooked it up for telephone service – added some red shoe lyrics from some other genre, used a few ‘old’ words like ‘alabaster’, called their agents about their next booking, and gave it to the producers to make it sound pretty (and add all sorts of odd sounds to make it sound somehow celestial).

The lullaby that Mrs. Carter sang is painfully simple…

Go to sleep you little baby
Go to sleep you little baby
Your momma goin’ away and your daddy gonna stay
Didn’t leave nobody but the baby

Which she then modified to…

Go to sleep you little baby
Go to sleep you little baby
Momma goin’ away and my daddy gonna stay
Didn’t leave nobody but the baby

There are so many possible meanings – and I would have to speak to her to understand what the song meant to her. On the most important level, the kid gets to sleep well to it – (I know that I find myself sluggish and starting to drool when I listen). On the second level – lullabies have always been used as secret adult death and religious songs – Erlkönig-fears of losing your child, and fear of the dark night and all it might hold – and the uncertainty of tomorrow – all of these things are encased in simple lullabies.