Lullabies and Grampa Jake

As a part of the interview with ABC's Peter Travers, Jake was asked to sing a song. Travers told him whatever came to mind and even threw him a softball, and said something from Damn Yankees. Jake's choice a lullaby.



This is not the first time he has mention this song. He talking about The Fox, when he as talking to the KCRW around the promotion of Brothers. He talked about how he was influenced by his parents’ musical tastes and "repaid the favor with a Guest DJ set dedicated entirely to family – from the folk song that his dad sang him to sleep to the live track that makes him sob on set."

He talks about crying when listening to the River while on the set of Brothers and what the song reminds him of: "I think a lot of it has to do with, it’s connection to my family, listening to Bruce Springsteen when I was a kid with my dad. My first concert I ever went to was the Born in the USA tour concert and I remember being with my father. I just think the story between father and son and the complications between those two positions in a family has always been a huge thing in my life." It is not the first time Jake's use The River as part of his process, it was an important piece back when he debuted on the London Stage for This is our Youth.

Next is the song he sang for Peter Travers. The Fox by Burl Ives. "My father used to sing this to me -- and I love Burl Ives just as a character, just as a musician -- and when I was a little kid we were robbed outside of our house. We were driving home, we pulled up and we were robbed and ever since I was always really nervous about falling asleep, you know, naturally, and so my dad would sing this to me before I’d go to bed.
My father, has this guild guitar, which he still has, beautiful kind of mahogany color, and again it comes back to my father who was a big musical influence on me when I was a kid and continues to be."

Then it was a song connected to his mother. Inchworm by Danny Kaye. "So I would say “Inchworm,” would be my next choice because Danny Kaye was and is still a HUGE influence on me as an actor and a performer. I just watched him so much when I was a kid and he had this love of entertaining, I think I’ve heard also about him this real love of children and caring for them, and you can tell that it in this song. Just like, wonderful, wonderful movies, “Five Pennies,” and “The Court Jester,” and then “Hans Christian Anderson,” which this song is from. My mother was a big Danny Kaye fan and would always play me these movies. She is, in fact, the person who always calls me up and is like, *imitating his mother’s voice* ‘You should redo “The Court Jester!"

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso "And this in particular, I’m taken so many places with this song. It really broke me out as a kid into the emotions and the intensity of classical music. This is another one of those things where I just remember being in the car and this is something that my father played me."

And lastly "Father and Son" by Loudon Wainwright. "This song somehow encompasses, I guess, what I was saying about family. At the very end, Loudon Wainwright says “Maybe its hate, probably its love.” Man, *chuckles*, that sort of says it. And I think, somehow, the fact that he’s the patriarch of this family that is so kind of extraordinary is something to look up to, something to admire. They are, I know at least publicly, they have complications and are open about it and it’s wonderful because we all try and pretend like everything’s ok, or that things are perfect or try to make them the way they’re ‘supposed to be,’ quote unquote, and I think this song is really about him being as honest as he can about his relationship with his son and just loving him deeply."

While the movie Brothers was about family, Jake was saying much more than just that when he did shared these songs.

As for Grampa Jake? This could be him in twenty years or thirty with Hollywood medicine. What is it? It's a 18" prototype of a Dastan statue for $300.00. The interchangable arms come free. (Kotaku)