(no subject)

[miko2]

Valentine Mix

I was listening to an interview on NPR with the person who assembled a children's music cd called Play, which features many alternative artists (a lot of them from the Northwest) and is billed as the kind of music that both children and adults can enjoy -- children's music that is not "dumbed down" so to speak.

The last song on the cd is a cover of John Fogerty's Centerfield, which they explained is not really a children's song but since it's about baseball most kids appreciated it. This made me think of kehf's son (codename Valentine -- boy I never had a codename when I was a kid!). Valentine likes baseball, and it occurred to me that he'd probably like the song Outfield quite a bit, and with some effort I could assemble a cd of baseball songs for him.

Well, despite it being out national past time and all, good baseball songs are few and far between, and ones that might also appeal to children even moreso. I was having trouble assembling my baseball cd. I decided to branch out into arena rock on the general idea that a lot of songs popular at arena events are the kind that are fun and mindless and would probably appeal to children. But the list of arena rock also contains a lot of song that I'm not all that fond of myself. I picked out some tracks that I owned or could get on iTunes that I thought would be good, fun songs for a kid... Wild Thing by the Troggs, Who Let The Dogs Out? by Baha Men, Bang the Drum All Day by Todd Rundgren, Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen and Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam. I put on the Timelord's song Doctorin' the Tardis because I happen to own it and I like it better than the song it borrows its riffs and rhythms from, Rock 'n' Roll part 2 by Gary Glitter.

But along the way I came to the conclusion that a cd full of arena rock was going to be kind of boring and not the best kid's cd I could assemble. So I passed on other favorite arena rock songs such as Taking Care of Business by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild, Mony Mony by Tommy James & The Shondells, Song 2 by Blur, Boom by P.O.D., Kool & The Gang's Celebration, and numerous other r&b pop hits that I wasn't that fond of anyway. I also didn't add We Will Rock You by Queen (or We Are the Champions for that matter), but I might change my mind and try to squeeze it in, but I'd have to remove something else.

(Actually I had to remove "Louie, Louie" too... ah well!)

In the end, what I decided to do was assemble a cd of songs that mostly aren't written to be children's songs, but that I thought might appeal to kids. Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves is not a kid's song or a song about baseball, but it's a great pop song about summer. It seemed to fit. Rasputin by Boney M isn't really a kid's song or a stadium rock song, but it has some of the same qualities as some of these other songs -- a fun beat, a story, etc. And then I set about adding fun silly novelty songs that I remember liking as a kid. I have some odd artists in my collection so I was able to add Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants, Volcano by The Presidents of the United States of America, Nellie the Elephant by the Toy Dolls, and Poisoning Pigeons in the Park by Tom Lehrer. From two novelty record collections I picked Witch Doctor by David Seville, The Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooly, They're Coming to Take Me Away by Napoleon XIV, Long Tall Texan by Murray Kellum, and Star Trekkin' by The Firm. From a "Bubblegum's Greatest Hits" cd I selected Yummy Yummy Yummy by Ohio Express. I thought a Ramones tune would be fun, but I didn't have much of their stuff on hand so I added their cover of the Spiderman theme song from a collection of covers of Saturday Morning cartoon songs by alternative artists.

Lastly, I tracked down on iTunes a few of my favorite novelty tracks that I didn't own: Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight) by Lonnie Donegan, I Wanna Be a Cowboy by Boys Don't Cry, and Popmuzik by M. I almost added Funkytown by Lipps, Inc, but that's more of an oddball disco tune than a true novelty record.

What I have, in the end, is a collection of songs designed to appeal to a kid (or specifically to Valentine, although I didn't consult with him at all so I'm just making assumptions). Several songs included are probably of the sort that can drive people crazy with repeat listenings, but none of them were originally created to be kid's songs, so hopefully nothing is too insipid. Thus I give you:

The Valentine Mix CD

Centerfield - John Fogerty
Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour - Lonnie Donegan
Walking on Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves
Volcano - The Presidents of the United States of America
I Wanna Be a Cowboy - Boys Don't Cry
Witch Doctor - David Seville
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye - Steam
Wild Thing - The Troggs
Popmuzik - M
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - Ohio Express
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park - Tom Lehrer
Star Trekkin' - The Firm
The Cockroach that Ate Cincinnatti - Rose & The Arrangement
Spiderman - Ramones
Nellie the Elephant by the Toy Dolls
Who Let The Dogs Out - Baha Men
The Left Sock Thievers - The Suesettes
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
Eat It - Weird Al Yankovic
The Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
They're Coming to Take Me Away - Napoleon XIV
Bang the Drum All Day - Todd Rundgren
Doctorin' the Tardis - The Timelords
Long Tall Texan - Murray Kellum
Rasputin - Boney M