Me and You and Our Musical Boy Named Boo

Watching my kid come into his own musically is quite a treat. He has had some pretty solid influences, between his father and I. My tastes can be seen all over this blog and run a gamet that includes, but is not limited to: British folk, old rock, punk, new wave, ska, rockabilly, klezmer, Bollywood, show tunes, old jazz, parodies…well, the list is endless. One minute we’re playing Woody Guthrie and the next minute it’s the Sex Pistols. The Daddy-o prefers things Renaissance themed (Tull, Steeleye Span, Bawdy Beggar Girls), prog rockish or jazz. Set him up with a J. Geils CD and he’s stellar. We’ve never kept the kidlet from anything musically-even things I would really rather NOT listen to.

So, here is where my being a supportive Mama-creature overides my desire to hurl whenever I see that the Disney Channel is on- Noah wants me to make him a CD. I know, shades of mixed tapes and High Fidelity. The greatest musicical guru influence of my life turned me on to High Fidelity and so much more (for another blog someday,I promise) and honed my already developed skill in the art of the CD compliation.

“OK, Beaner. What songs do you want?”

“You mean I can have any song in the world that I like?”

“Well, if I have access to them, then, yes, you can have them. Remember though, its one CD and I’m guessing you might get 15-20 songs on it, max.”

I encouraged him to research the musical offerings around our house. We have scads of CDs. We have crates full of records, those disky things that need a turntable and a needle. As luck would have it, we also have not one, but two turntables in the house. We do have a small assortment of cassette tapes left, although I did finally send most of them to Goodwill, realizing that I had the music on CD or the Internet. I’m pretty sure that there are even 1 or 2 8-tracks here, but if so, we have no way to play them any longer.

Then there’s Youtube. Sigh. Youtube.

Youtube is a great resource, but it takes all the anticipation out of music. When I was a kid, I’d listen to the radio all day long, classic Atlanta stations like WQXI (Quicksie in Dixie), Z-93 (our local mainstream pop station), 96-Rock (hard rock) or WRAS 88.5 (the local college alternative punk station.) You waited all day for a song that you liked or wanted to come in over the air and recorded it off the airwaves, using your newest Radio Shack cassette recorder. When you played back your song later, you also had airwave bumps, news teases and advertisements for all kinds of things, but at least you had “your song.”

If I wanted musical permanence, I saved up my allowance and took myself to one of the many record emporiums around Atlanta: Peaches, Turtles, Record Bar, Wax and Facts, Fantasyland, Oz, Coconuts or Eat More Records. The record stores themselves were part of the allure, full of seasoned veterans of the music underground, who had stories, man and real life interactions with the musicians I was grooving on at the time. The record store employees, especially with the smaller shops, were one step away from actual rock and roll royalty and I tried to make friends with as many as possible, so they’d include me into their network. I’d find out when new albums were released, sometimes was given promotional products and get clued in to upcoming concerts. Music was a major part of my life, so I wanted to hang with the major players.

Today, the way kids get their music is as manufactured as the pre-pubescent pop pollutants they listen to. It makes me sad, but it’s the way of the world. Most of the record stores of my youth are long gone and the few that remain are considered “vintage”. Now my offspring hears his music on television shows mainly unless it’s my old school stuff. I wish he would have the experience of routing through a dusty, smoke filled, patchouli scented record store for musical treasure and talking to people with names like Spike and Rainbow and Rodney the British guy.
So, here are some of Noah’s CD picks. Remember, he’s 11, so please be kind.

Noah’s Mammoth CD Mixed Compilation-2011

Led Zeppelin- Stairway to Heaven
Nick Lowe- Cruel to Be Kind
Who- Substitute
Cheap Trick- I Want You To Want Me
AC/DC- Highway to Hell
Styx- Come Sail Away
Sandi Thom- I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker
Britney Spears- Dance til the World Ends
Colbie Caillat- Brighter than the Sun
Katy Perry- Firework
Selena Gomez- Who Says