It’s not that I have anything against Burl Ives. “The Wayfaring Stranger” is a very fine album, and I’m happy to have exposed my children to the rich smorgasbord of folk music Mr. Ives shares with us.
On the other hand, I now have a DIN tool. With it, I intend to pry the entire stereo out of my van, because it’s become clear that that’s the only way I’m going to get Burl Ives to come out. Someone pushed a little too hard (on the cassette tape, I mean, although there is no lack of other kinds of pushiness around here), and the tape has been stuck in the tape deck for close to four months now.
Well, there comes a time in a woman’s life when she simply does not wish to hear “Hey willy-wallacky, how John Dougal, a lane quo rooshety roo roo roo” any more.
I’m looking over my other music, thinking about old albums I haven’t heard for a long time. Some of them are pretty forgettable (did I really pay money for the Spin Doctors’ second album?), but others have been floating around in my memory all these years. Little fragments of songs bob to the surface, called up by the events of my daily life.
Here’s one from Paul Simon’s outstanding album, Rhythm of the Saints. I don’t know what the song is really about, other than a devastatingly elegant and icy snapshot of cultural dissociative disorder—but the hook, “I can’t run, but I can walk much faster than this, cannot run but” comes to me pretty often, and it eggs me on:
Also a great line, which reminds me of this “I’m spiritual, not religious” nonsense: “The music suffers, but the music business thrives.”
From the other end of the emotional spectrum, we have Billie Holiday in one of her more gleeful performances. If “Can’t Run But” is the sound of a free-floating soul trying to find some anchor, Holiday’s “Ooo, ooo, ooo, what a little moonlight can do!” is what the body says when it has no problem right where it is.
But, the poor thing - look at that dress they made her wear.
Next we have an anthem for the postpartum woman, especially one whose very healthy child engages in what is known as “cluster feeding”:
I couldn’t find it on YouTube, but you can click here to hear the clever song “I Need a Doctor” with the handy line, “I used to hard as candy, but I’ve been sucked on too long.” Heh heh. The Nields are pretty good.
Or how about when you’ve had five hours of sleep, spent four hours doing housework, need to make snacks for three different classroom parties, have two kids hanging on your legs, and you ask ONE little thing (I believe it was, “Please put a slice of potato in the cricket cage so they won’t get dehyrdated before your frog eats them”) and what do they do? They COMPLAIN!
(Warning: super creepy images.)
“If you complain once more, you’ll meet an army of me!” Good one, Björk.
Or let’s say, hypothetically speaking, that it’s almost time to leave for school and your tween daughter is near tears because her hair looks “bumpy.” She may not even know it herself, but you know that what she’s really afraid of is that she is bumpy, that the world is bumpy, and no amount of diffusing hair dryers will make the world silky and manageable. You want to tell her tenderly,
“Any major dude with half a heart surely would tell you, my friend:
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again.”
Of course no Mother’s Daybook Soundtrack would be complete without the Beastie Boys, with their all purpose observation:
“Well I think I’m losing my mind this time
This time I’m losing my mind
That’s right, said I think I’m losing my mind this time
This time I’m losing my mind.”
(Warning: for crying out loud, it’s the Beastie Boys, and this is the National Catholic Register. The Beastie Boys. By pressing “play,” you officially waive any right to put an angry comment in the comment box.)
So now you know what’s in my head, not that you asked. What’s making you hum a little tune today? You can borrow my DIN tool when I’m done with it, if you want.
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Barenaked Ladies -“Who Needs Sleep”
“Now I lay me down not to sleep/I just get tangled in the sheets/I swim in sweat 3 inches deep/I just lay back and claim defeat.
Third trimester living right there.
When I can’t think of anything nice to say or want to complain about housework or anything…..“Give me Words to speak /Don’t let my Spirit sleep /Cause I can’t think of anything worth saying /But I know that I owe You my life /So give me Words to speak /Don’t let my Spirit sleep” -Aaron Shust
Ozomatli, “Dejame en paz”:
Cuando yo regreso a mi casa
la gente me preguntan “donde estabas
donde? donde? donde estabas tu?
donde donde? estabas tu tu?”
Para cuando yo regreso a mi casa
yo querro que la gente me deja en paz
privacia porfavor
ya no me molesten
deja me en paz!
Unofficial and awkward translation:
When I get home everyone asks me “where have you been? Where, where, where? Where were you?”
But when I get home I want people to leave me alone. Privacy, please, don’t bother me, leave me alone!
With all those complaining kids, you must be the illest mother from here to Gardena.
I loved your “pre-comment” on how you’ve gotten in the habit of poking all your posts with a fork first. You have, indeed. Stop, please.
So . . . I once drove an old car I bought for $800 that had no heat, no air conditioning, and an 8-track player. I put in it the only 8-track I owned, Godspell. (Good heavens, I’m old!) It then got stuck in the player and for the next two years, the only music I could listen to in the car was Godspell. “Day by Day” and “On the Willows” aren’t so bad, but trust me, “Save the People” gets a little taxing after the 150th time.
Loved your mama’s soundtrack!
Any Major Dude, and the line you quoted in particular, is the best when it feels like life is wearing you down. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that! Neutron Dance by the Pointer Sisters is good on hard days too.
1. Thank you for the Nields link. This is the cassette I couldn’t listen to yesterday because it was all warpy! Wahoo! Free download of the whole album! HOORAY!!
2. I saw them at a free show several years ago in Boston doing a kids concert. They have really cute kids songs.
3. I was laughing at myself thinking of you thinking of me as I downloaded some really horrible, silly, pop songs (which are so great for working out!), and then I was laughing picturing you be-bopping around, working out to Steely Dan and Beethoven.
@Tiffany: There’s so much . . more. . .to you than meets the eye . . .
I’m tempted to do that workout today, in honor of you!
Here is something from my soundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkroIXktjgE
I listen to this when I am feeling especially rebellious and frustrated, and I happen to be able to be alone for two seconds in the car (or with the baby, who is still too young to be scarred by the idea of his mother shaking booty, and screaming in frustration over the life she now leads.
Of course, this feeling passes and I do not give it any more credence than necessary. I hope for a future in which I do not have any more desire for my rebellious nature to speak so loudly.
“Broken, beaten down, can’t even get around/Without an old man cane, I’d fall and hit the ground…I don’t wanna be an old man anymore/It’s been a year or two since I’ve been out on the floor/shaking booty, making sweet love all the night, It’s time I got back to The Good Life”
And this is the other side:
Johnny Cash singing Unchained:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFwdmjHjFog
Oh! I am weak. Lord, I know that I am vain.
Take this weight from me,
Let my spirit be
Unchained
....
Where’s that Rock of Ages
When I need it most?
I need to be driving one of those in the Bjork video.
*Settles in for a day of ignoring children, using candy therapy, and listening to the Beastie Boys.*
Rough morning. In my head, it sounds like this:
“Oh, oh, oh . . .
I wanna be sedated.”
Extra points to any former punk rockers who know which band sang that!
It’s funny that we are around the same age but every single song you’ve posted is completely unfamiliar to me! The closest I get is snippets of Burl Ives reading the Story of Creation—and my dad was asked to do his tile work but refused because the man was so obnoxious—but I’ve never heard his folk music. Anyway, the snippets that run through my head are completely random and meaningless, not at all congruent with actual situations that come up…“Come gather round people, wherever you roam, and admit that the water around you has grown” (Bob Dylan), “If I had a hammer” (Mommas and Papas), “Istanbul was Constantinople” (TMBG), “All You Need is Love”, “Every Rose Has its Thorn” which I’ve always hated but I now sing all the time, and movie songs from the Sound of Music and the Wizard of Oz…nevertheless, I belt them out at the top of my lungs, because it feels good to give in to insanity, and because I kind of like to tease my husband, who is deeply suspicious of anything post 18th century.
Just when I was feeling like a frumpy old lady, this post cheered me up because I knew the Beastie Boys and Bjork references, even in the comments (nicely done, @Tim)! I think I might dig up that Check Your Head CD, I bet it would make a good housework soundtrack.
It’s funny that we are around the same age but every single song you’ve posted is completely unfamiliar to me! The closest I get is snippets of Burl Ives reading the Story of Creation—and my dad was asked to do his tile work but refused because the man was so obnoxious—but I’ve never heard his folk music. Anyway, the snippets that run through my head are completely random and meaningless, not at all congruent with actual situations that come up…“Come gather round people, wherever you roam, and admit that the water around you has grown”, “If I had a hammer”, “Istanbul was Constantinople”, “All You Need is Love”, “Every Rose Has its Thorn” which I’ve always hated but I now sing all the time, and movie songs from the Sound of Music and the Wizard of Oz…nevertheless, I belt them out at the top of my lungs, because it feels good to give in to insanity, and because I kind of like to tease my husband, who is deeply suspicious of anything post 18th century.
I have to say I am a convert to KLOVE. I enjoy the upbeat music with a Christian message. It is safe for my kids to listen to anytime. I can’t even count on public radio to be safe for my kids anymore. I don’t want that music during mass—love my hymns, but as an alternative to country or pop on standard radio, it rocks!
On my hardest days I favor Meat Loaf: I’m still alive
Must have been a miracle
It’s been a hell of ride
Destination still unknown
It’s a fact of life:
If you make one wrong move with the gun to your head
You better walk the line or you’ll be left for dead
I’m a runaway train on broken track
I’m a ticker on a bomb, you can’t turn back this time
That’s right
I got away with it all and I’m still alive
Let the end of the world come tumbling down
I’ll be the last man standing on the ground
As long as I got blood rush trough my veins
I’m still alive
when current events get me down I end up singing “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” Also Bob Marley’s “So Much Trouble in the World.” I don’t recall there being a resolution in that song, but that’s what makes it so good. Sometimes things look so bad, I can’t even formulate a prayer except “so much trouble in the world. there is so much…in the world.”
“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find, you get what you need.”—Rolling Stones
“You have admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time. (Can’t get no worse…)”—The Beatles
“When I think about all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.”—Paul Simon
“Life’s a piece of !@#$%, when you look at it, life’s a laugh, and death’s a joke, it’s true.”—Monty Python (“Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” is comedic therapy for me.)
When my kids won’t stop complaining I start hearing “misery loves company, we could build a factory that makes misery . . . Frustrated incorporated”
Like a lot of people, I grew up on the rock. I thought my rock was the best , most insightful rock. then, I read something that Pope Benedict xvi wrote about Bob Dylan and about the rock. so, I have stopped listening to the rock, even to ol’ Bob Dylan. wondered if it was having some effect on my person. the ol’ rock still comes into my head at times:
“Somewhere in my soul/
There’s always ROCK and ROLL!”—Joe Strummer, R.I.P.
I like the Bob Dylan version and the video for, Little Drummer Boy
That line form The Nields about made me blush~
Currently playing over and over again in my head is, “they’re two, they’re four, they’re six, they’re eight! Shunting trucks & hauling freight!” I could use a little mama music vacation…bring on the beastie boys!
Simcha, you are bad @$$. Fo’ sho’ LOL
@bob cratchit - Oops, sorry about that!
@Jen - yes, that Burl Ives is pretty hard core. You should hear “The Little White Duck” sometime, if you can handle it.
Jumping up and down and around the house to Coldplay gets me going after a call from my son, who’s got “Trouble—OOo-oo, I got worries—OOo-o” Never ends but I’m glad I’m around to listen! (btw, I THINK Viva da Vida is about redemption, right?)
@Katymalone - I think you could be right about Viva La Vida, doesn’t it say: “I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing; Roman Catholic choirs are singing…”?
When things get me too far down I listen to REO Speedwagon’s “Roll With The Changes,” which comes close to a thrill ride for me riding on the highway. Or this line from Steely Dan: “Any world that I’m welcome to/is better than the one I come from.” Simcha, you make me smile.
On the way to school this morning, twelve and eighteen y.o.d’s belting it out to Santana:
“And if you said this life ain’t good enough
I would give my world to lift you up
I could change my life to better suit your mood
cause you’re so smooth….”
Ahhh, good times.
.
The Clash, when I was cool, “Rocking the Casbah” Yeah baby.
The Cure, Why are my kids into MY music?
“Don’t Speak” Gwen Stefani, when I became a hopeless romantic. How can my daughter claim it too?
Sugar Ray cause we’re nostalgic beach bums
Cold Play (remove the Gwyneth factor)
Sting which makes hubby and I “vintage” in my kids’ eyes
U2 which makes them berate us
Heartless by the Fray: Don’t understand why I can’t get sick of it. I think it’s the Youtube video with the brokenhearted boy.
Green Day: SF Bay Area, we love you
Pandora download: girlie music for when Mom needs soothing
And my HIDDEN shame: Finding myself bobbing my head to my kids’ stupid rap that only talks about the 3 B’s: “Booty, Bling, and Beezies” sighhhhh…so much cultural elevating still to do…My son Max, (beyond excited) telling me: “Mom! They were actually playing N——-s in Paris when we were ACTUALLY in PARIS! (Lord, give me strength)
Will Ferrell: “NOBODY gets it….it get’s people GOIN’!”
.
Last but not least… ALL ten of US (2 to 48)getting our groove on, (@yes Corita, shaking some booty) in our very own mosh pit, which is our living room…
Good times.
“Warning: for crying out loud, it’s the Beastie Boys, and this is the National Catholic Register. The Beastie Boys.”
.
...Although, the Beastie Boys *do* remind us in that song that, alas, we will not be able to front when Revelation comes.
Cassidy, that was our theme song for an entire year. Right now it’s the Monster, Inc. theme, which you would think would be hard for a four-year-old to sing.
I love how you included Bjork—one of my favorite singers!
While my other embarrassing comment is being moderated, please accept my condolences for the “cluster feedings”. But I’ve seen those cherub cheeks, and they are worthy. Remember: “This too will pass”—and then, I promise… you’ll MISS it!!...Even though you are being pulled in a comical amount of directions. Crickets eh? Heh.
Oops, forgot “Someone that I used to know” Addictive.
Seeing The Beastie Boys on the NCR is about the best thing ever.
Thank you
i like the Beastie Boys woolly beanies in the video clip.
I keep coming back to Jars of Clay’s “Work:”
Just in case, I will leave my things packed
So I can run away
I cannot trust these voices I don’t have a line of prospects that can give some kind of peace
There is nothing left to cling to that can bring me sweet release
I have no fear of drowning
It’s the breathing that’s taking all this work
Do you know what I mean when I say, “I don’t want to be alone”?
What I mean when I say, “I don’t want to be alone”
No Brahms, Simcha? : )
I’m with your daughter. I’m still afraid that my world is bumpy, because it actually is, and I started to tear up when I read that part of this post. Life is hard. Thanks for validating both of us. :)
The song which most encapsulates my life when all my dear ones were still at home is Weird Al’s parody of McArther Park.
.
Jurassic Park is frightning in the dark.
All the dinosaurs are runnnning wiiiild.
.
Which pretty much sums up years of stumbling toward the crib of a crying newborn at 3am and encountering hard plastic Ticerotops. Ouch. Of curse, unlike Jurassic Park we also had running wild in our domestic minefield Lego bricks, chocolate chips, Tonka backhoes and My Little Pony hairbrushes.
I realize that I have just made the most freudian typo in any post I have ever made at any time in my previous comment. I didn’t mean to say, Of curse. But it fits. Sorry about that.
I love “Any Major Dude”. My big brother is a huge Steely Dan fan and I grew to love them in my teenaged years. Also, *love* the Beastie Boys. One of my favorites is “Alive”
“Dip dip dive, so-socialize/Open up your ears and clean out your eyes/If you learn to love you’re in for a surprise/It can be nice to be alive.”
Nice sentiment, no? Bring it back, that old New York rap, baby :-)
And, now, Simcha gives us Reason 1001 to love her. The Beastie Boys ..... Oh, I love it! I think Jen Fulwiler linked to a very cool video that had a million cameos in it recently. My pregnant brain can’t recall the song, of course, but Elijah Wood was in it.
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