Kenny Loggins and Winnie the Pooh go way back. Like many children before
him, he met Pooh in the classic books by A. A. Milne. Around the time
he wrote House at Pooh Corner as a high school student grappling
with his reluctance to leave childhood behind, Richard and Robert
Sherman were writing the iconic songs that would soon become instantly
identifiable as having to do with the Silly Old Bear. I read Milne’s
books, which were wonderful, but I met Pooh first via Disney, like so
many of my generation. There’s something extra touching, then, about
Loggins finding his way back to the Hundred Acre Wood with the help of
the Sherman Brothers.
More Songs From Pooh Corner is a follow-up album to Loggins’ Return to Pooh Corner, a collection of lullabies. Even when he released Return,
it seems that he had an idea that this was a subject to which he would
like to return. His opening note concludes, “Here are the songs I sing
to my children… Should I say ‘part one’?” This album came out six years
later, the same year as The Tigger Movie, which presented him
with an opportunity to write an original song with the Sherman Brothers
that in many ways feels like a response to House at Pooh Corner. While that song is a plea to return to a place he loved so much, the new song offers assurance that it’s not so out of reach.
Your Heart Will Lead You Home - This is the aforementioned song that served as the theme to The Tigger Movie. Unlike House at Pooh Corner,
it makes no specific mention of anything that would immediately
associate it with the Pooh universe, aside from the instrumental quote
of the earlier song that opens it. If you heard this song on the radio
with no context, chances are that your mind would not travel to the
Hundred Acre Wood. There is a very Pooh-ish sort of sensibility to it,
though, especially in the opening verse, which talks of such woodland
staples as “lazy afternoons” and “hummin’ little tunes”. And the
emphasis on friendship is certainly one that fits that world in general,
and particularly that movie, since it finds Tigger having an identity
crisis when, all at once, being the only one of his kind doesn’t seem so
appealing anymore, and it’s up to his friends to show him that he does
have a family after all. I suppose that after doing this, Loggins had
Disney on the brain; three more songs from Disney movies turn up here.
On an album that includes many childhood classics, this tender anthem
feels right where it belongs. “When you feel lost and on your own and
far from home, you’re never alone, you know. Just think of your friends,
the ones who care. They all will be waiting there with love to share,
and your heart will lead you home.”
You’ll Be In My Heart - Another Disney song released shortly before this album came out, this one comes from Tarzan,
where it serves as a powerful expression of the love between mother and
child. Written by Phil Collins, it speaks of the desire of a parent to
protect his or her children and to keep them close even when they
venture out on their own. A very gentle and understated performance.
“When destiny calls you, you must be strong. I may not be with you, so
you gotta hold on…”
Always, In All Ways - One of only
four songs on the album not connected with a movie, this song goes very
well with the one before it, conveying the same message of wanting to be
there for one’s child. While You’ll Be In My Heart is directed
at a young child, this song finds the parent dealing with the fledgling
leaving the nest. It’s bittersweet, but the gentle, almost whispered
song written by Loggins and Mark Mancina carries an assurance that the
love and support remain just as strong despite the shift in
circumstances. “I never thought that this day would come when we’d have
to say goodbye, but now that you’re on your own, whenever you need a
home, I’ll be there inside you always, in all ways.”
Flying Dreams - This gorgeous song is the theme of Don Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH and is probably just behind Somewhere Out There
when it comes to my favorite songs from his movies. It always seemed
like a bit of an odd theme to me, since it seems to be about romantic
love, which really isn’t a focus of the movie, except for the fact that
the widowed mouse at the heart of the story connects with the
super-intelligent rats who save her family’s home because of their
association with her husband. In that sense, one might say that his love
transcends death and continues to bolster his wife and children. A
beautiful duet with Olivia Newton-John, with woodwinds adding to its
haunting quality. “Love, it seems, made flying dreams so hearts could
soar. Heaven sent, these wings were meant to prove once more that love
is the key…”
That’ll Do - Even though I loved Babe,
I never saw its sequel, from which this is drawn. (I should do
something about that soon.) But several years ago, I heard this gentle
song at an Art Garfunkel concert , where his wife performed it
beautifully. It’s a song of encouragement, written by Randy Newman
around the taciturn Farmer Hoggett’s affirmation of choice. The
incorporation of the harp and Uilleann pipes give an enchanting Celtic
flavor to this heartening tune. “A kind and steady heart can conquer
doubt and fear. A little courage goes a long, long way, gets you a
little bit further down the road each day, and before you know it,
you’ll hear someone say, ‘That’ll do, Babe. That’ll do.’”
Turn Around
- This Harry Belafonte song is another that isn’t associated with a
movie, and I don’t think it’s one that I’ve heard in another context.
It’s a Sunrise, Sunset sort of song about how quickly time
passes. A bit melancholy but very tender, with sparse guitar
accompaniment. “Where are you going, my little one, little one? Little
pigtails and petticoats, where have you gone? Turn around and you’re
tiny, turn around and you’re grown, turn around and you’re a young wife
with babes of your own.”
Beauty and the Beast - I confess that of all the songs in Beauty and the Beast,
this one, while beautiful and insightful, is my least favorite. Unlike
the rest, it doesn’t feel particularly connected to the character who
sings it, and as a love song, Something There feels much more
in-the-moment and intimate to me. Still, the fact that this is a “tale
as old as time” means that this Alan Menken / Howard Ashman song
resonates with a lot of people, and I think I prefer this mellow version
to the grandiose radio version that helped catapult Celine Dion to
stardom. “Barely even friends, then somebody bends unexpectedly. Just a
little change, small to say the least. Both a little scared, neither one
prepared, Beauty and the Beast.”
Baby Mine - This Dumbo weeper also appears on Art Garfunkel’s Songs From a Parent to a Child, one of my favorite children’s albums. I’m partial to that version of the song, which is pretty much You’ll Be In My Heart
six decades earlier, but Loggins does a lovely job with it as well.
Certainly one of the most fundamentally lullaby-like tracks on the
album. “All those same people who scold you, what they’d give just for
the right to hold you…”
The Inch Worm - I vividly remember the first time I watched the Danny Kaye musical Hans Christian Andersen. My friend and I were having a sleepover, and both of us had Little Mermaid
fever. Since the Disney animated feature was, as I recall, between
theaters and home video at the time, Mom and Dad thought it might be fun
for us to watch this movie, in which Andersen’s classic is presented as
a ballet. I think I liked the movie more than she did, and it didn’t
hurt that I already knew this song, since Anne Murray included it on her
children’s album, There’s a Hippo In My Tub,
which I’d probably listened to dozens of times by that point. It’s a
nice reminder not to get so caught up in quantitative considerations
that you forget how to stop and smell the flowers. A nice violin section
and a kids’ chorus enhance this gentle song. “Inchworm, inchworm,
measuring the marigolds, seems to me you’d stop and see how beautiful
they are.”
Hana Aluna Lullabye - Another song that
Loggins had a hand in writing. This one is directed at his daughter, who
was named for the Hawaiian town of Hana. A very soothing tune that
includes a fair bit of Hawaiian, along with ukulele. Listening to this
song on a snowy winter day whisks me away to tropical shores for a few
moments. No movie connection, but a definite sense of place. “Before you
were born, I saw you in the sunrise, in the arms of my lover, in the
music of the islands. And you are made of paradise, of ginger and
pikake, wild mango and moonlight and dreams of our sweet ohana.”
Goodnight
- Loggins included a John Lennon song on his first children’s album,
and this time around he closes with a tip of the hat to Lennon /
McCartney. This duet with Alison Krauss is a most fitting way to end the
album, in which every track segues seamlessly into the next. Here, the
transition will hopefully be into dreamland as Loggins closes the track
with a softly spoken “goodnight”. “Now it’s time to say good night. Good
night, sleep tight. Now the sun turns out his light. Good night, sleep
tight. Dream sweet dreams for me; dream sweet dreams for you.”
Somehow, I think that whoever is listening to this album will do just that.
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