Friday, December 30, 2005

So the fruits of our slightly-misplaced labors have slowly appeared...

especially in the last few days. We've always listened to lots of different music, mainly classic rock/psychedelia and 80's pop (and a little opera). He's always had his own taste in music - we've exposed him to different songs and he's had his favorites which he sticks to pretty faithfully. One time I had to listen to Video Killed the Radio Star on a loop from Bowling Green to Nashville just to keep him from screaming (he was about 18 months old). Lately he's been really into the Gorillaz, and he's been singing (a capella) the following songs at random times of the day:
Fat-bottomed Girls (Queen)
Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)
FeelGood, Inc. (Gorillaz)
Spanish Caravan (The Doors)
Baba O'Riley (The Who)
White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane)
Beethoven's Ode to Joy

He was about three when I started telling him who sang the song we were listening to at that moment hoping it would lodge in his little brain. My mom really didn't ever expose me to particular music and tell me the artists - we listened to what was on the radio. Don't get me wrong, my family was musically oriented - just not guilty of listening to a large range of songs and talking about them. Last night at Toot's the song playing in the background was Roxanne, and Natha said in a very excited voice, "Hey - that's the Police!" I didn't hear him at first, so I asked him to repeat it - and Ed and I were both surprised. The Police was what I was listening to when we started paying attention to artists and their songs. Once I told him that the Police sang Roxanne, he asked me if it was the same police that drove in the white cars with the blue lights. We then had a short conversation about band names - that it was a group of people who called themselves a thing and that they weren't necesarily that thing. My example was the Beatles - that they sang songs and they weren't really little bugs. When you're listening to something without a visual when you're 3, you can get some interesting thoughts in your head. I think that Natha liked Bouncing Round the Room when he was 2 because he thought little fish were singing it. :)

Thus started my habit of informing Natha of an artist's name when we were listening to a song. He's slowly been catching on - one time he told me that a Beatles song on the Oldies station was by the Beatles and I hadn't ever listened to it with him before. Today I was wearing my White Rabbit shirt (more Alice in Wonderland themed) and Ed commented that he thought it was cute on me. Natha looked at it and said, "White Rabbit - like the song?" Then there was the time Natha told me that the sound of me taping lots of boxes (when we were moving) sounded like Money - the beginning part. It took me a while to understand what he was talking about, but I eventually figured out what he was saying.

We had an interesting discussion one day (Natha and I) about where the music comes from. I told him that the radio was playing recorded music and that the people weren't actually there at the radio station. I added that the radio station changed the music into radio waves and broadcast it and our car received the radio waves and converted it back to music. He had thought that the people were singing live at the radio station. We were listening to Piece of My Heart and he asked me who sang the song. I told him that it was Janis Joplin. He asked me if she was at the radio station, and I explained to him that she was dead, that this song was recorded, and that we were listening to the recording. He then wanted to know how she had died, and I came up with a tasteful answer (I don't remember exactly what it was.) For the next week, whenever I told him who was singing a song, he asked me if they were dead. Some of them were, and some weren't - and I had to think really hard about some of them. :)

I've also had to explain to him why some songs have words and others don't - and why some just have singing without words. At first he didn't understand why I liked Great Gig in the Sky - he said it was just this girl singing with no words. Now he doesn't ask me anymore and he'll even sing along sometimes.

Well, I've got to go get the guest room ready and rearrange some things. I'm almost done putting away the christmas decorations. It's not like we have that many, I just had started and then Ed called me to go to lunch so I left it there. Everything we have fits in the tree box and one other small box. We're not into much hubub, if you haven't noticed, and christmas is no exception. :)

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