Tonight was one of the best rock and roll experiences of my life. I didn't meet Keef backstage or at the bottom of a coconut tree, nor did I eat sushi off naked women in Tokyo with the boys in Metallica. I didn't even run into Patterson Hood in the men's at the recent Seattle Drive By Truckers show.Tonight I rocked out with my five year old daughter and got real feedback on who rocks and who is too slow, too rocky (whatever that means), and totally rockin'. Since most of her musical time has been in the car with some dubious adult musical supervision with playlists ranging from Shakira to Pink to Anastacia I've been concerned how things might turn out for the little.
Out of sheer desperation and hope, I'd bought her a seriously bitchin', pink, Hello Kitty Strat for her birthday and even tried to teach her a few chords but a full scale electric is probably not the wisest form of musical encouragement for the under five set.
So when she suggested we put on some of Daddy's music and dance, I was filled with a weird combination of excitement and fear. Would she love the Stones and hate the Old 97s? Who knew. I've been sadly remiss in playing much music around her for the last few years as I felt talking and relating was likely a more worthy exercise than brainwashing my musical taste into the poor kid.
My technique was simple, give her a several ounces of benadryl, a few dozen sugar cubes, a small trampoline and crank up the Bose system. OK fine, there was no benadryl, just a half dozen Paul Neuman O's. Turns out the best trampoline bouncing tunes for my child were the first two Van Halen records, some random Zeppelin tracks (I tried like thirty...Heartbreaker was big), a bunch of Old 97's cow-punk rockers, the new Hold Steady record, and a couple of tracks from Thin Lizzy's greatest hits. Come on who can resist Cowboy Song? Sadly the Stones were a bust but I didn't fully get them until I was 20 so what can you do?
When I was a kid, my folks played incessant Stones, Beatles, CSN, Simon & Garfunkel, and various and sundry folky things and it made a lasting impact on me. My dad's fleeting interest in Ray Coniff never touched me. The moral of the story is that the lasting bands are just that...passing pop music will become a fleeting memory but the visceral reaction of a great song will affect your kids the same way it did for you. Just ask Elise about Runnin with The Devil.
2 comments:
That's so cool with Elise and the guitar! My son Trevor (3 1/2) wants a guitar, but I don't know if he is serious, or what he would do to one. It won't be electric, most likely. Maybe an indestructable metal dobro? Maybe something plastic that comes with a coloring book attached? Cheers, Eric
Frying pans with sticks work pretty well too. She likes her little Mahalo uke alot.
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