School of Rock

    The Whack ol Ladies have been busy being moms and trying to get out to shows whenever possible. Blogging about all that has fallen by the wayside of late but since I have a few minutes to myself with no one breathing down my neck begging to use the computer I'll take a little time to ruminate.
    It's no secret that I like to talk about music but I have absolutely no background in music theory or  even the history of music. It's just  a nerdy fascination akin to collecting stamps . I don't pretend to know anything about the technical aspects of music making, either - I just know what I like to listen to.
      My oldest daughter and I share a very similar taste in music and it has been fun to watch her musical interests evolve over time.  I didn't want to be didactic and only play classical music  because I thought it would increase her brain capacity.  When she was fussy,  we listened to Arlo Guthrie, Jonathan Richman, Bob Dylan, The Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel.  All of my old Jonathan Richman records made perfect kid music. All 3 of my kids think that every child knows the words to "Dodge Vegematic" and "Abominable Snowman in the Market." In the early days of musical child rearing I only refused to listen to or buy any of the "Wee Sing"  or "Barney" recordings. As a matter of fact we were a Barney -free household even though all the other moms kept telling me how their children were mesmerized by the purple fellow. I just couldn't go there. We danced around to David Bowie instead.
     As my oldest daughter grew, she began to have an opinion about what she wanted to hear. If there was a long car ride in our future, we could travel a long way with recordings from old Disney movies or Danny Kaye's "Hans Christian Anderson." After I got tired of Disney we moved into the recordings from kid friendly Broadway tunes.

 

      I would like to take this opportunity to thank Baz Luhrmann for his vision in the movie, Moulin Rouge. That movie helped introduce another generation to David Bowie and Elton John.  My girls were surprised to find out that most of the songs in the movie were actually "old!" I guess the Shrek movies and Gossip Girl have helped to educate another generation in the oldies from the 1980's too.
    Now my big girl and I go out to hear music together and talk all nerdy about it.