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Run DMC: The kid-friendly Sucker MC remix
There are a few special moments that you can never fully prepare for as a parent. The birth of your child. The look in his eyes when he dashes into the living room and sees presents under the Christmas tree. And the first time he freestyles a verse to "My Adidas" by Run-DMC in your neighborhood doughnut store.
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Reason #38 that Run DMC is good for your kids: They teach geography.
I enjoy rap, but a good 97 percent of my collection is completely inappropriate for tiny ears. Of the remaining 3 percent, about half of the music is written and performed Run DMC. I play a lot of the groundbreaking rap trio in the car, and my children both became fans at a young age.
Unlike many modern rappers, Run DMC (especially in the early years) were at least trying for mainstream radio airplay. While there was a parental advisory sticker on their later albums, maybe half the songs were PG rated.
I started out playing pretty much the entirety of "Raising Hell" in the car with my kids. Songs such as "My Adidas" and "Walk This Way" were fine for my older son by my admittedly loose standards. "You Be Illin'" was borderline. And for tracks such as ""It's Tricky" and "Peter Piper," I would keep my hand on the dial to be sure to turn the sound off during the "went to her house and bust her out" and "goddamn that DJ made my day" parts. Eventually this censorship/remixing got old, and I started looking at the group's entire body of work -- trying to find an album's worth of good songs with no words or subject matter that was inappropriate for my kids.
Below is a 12-song playlist of good Run DMC songs with content that I also deem fine for small children. All are available on iTunes. I avoided misogyny, profanity and the n-word, which is a rarity in the early recordings. I didn't worry about comic mischief, the word "sucker" and lines that are so indistinct ("I stomp out pimps with diamond rings") that my children can't possibly hear the words, much less understand the meaning.
Disclaimer: I've listened to all of these songs several times and double-checked some of the lyrics online, but can't guarantee I didn't miss something that you may personally find inappropriate for your kids. Please do you own due diligence
Read More 'Run DMC: The kid-friendly Sucker MC remix' »| November 02 2010 at 06:06 AM
Children's music for adults: Frances England
We have, maybe, possibly, one kids music CD lying around somewhere -- probably a Laurie Berkner disc because for a while I had a crush on her. I'm not cool enough to forsake children's music out of some obscure awesome person code, opting instead for a compilation of the Hipster Droolers Greatest Hits. It's just that the radio usually works just fine, and when it doesn't, I tend to fall back on Broadway show tunes anyway. If the kid is going to learn anything from me, it's that a doe is a deer and La is a note that follows So.
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There. My secret shame is out. Are you happy?
But a few months ago, I attended a book reading by one of my favorite dad writers -- Jeremy Adam Smith -- and he invited a children's musician to join him for the event. I was there without my daughter, so I was more or less quietly browsing books in the back during the performance, letting the kids dance and hop around up front. Then I noticed just how catchy some of the songs were and how great this musician's voice was and how the lyrics were less rubber-ducky-in-the-bathtub than I expected. Pretty soon I was tapping along and humming and wondering what would happen if I pushed some of the kids off the dance floor and started hopping around myself.
Then something odd happened. The musician played a song called "Daddy-O" and I spent a solid two minutes hiding my tears behind a book. It was sickening. Really. I was a mess. It was such a sweet, almost melancholic ode to a child's love for fathers that all I really wanted to do was run home and hug my daughter.
Since then, I've been singing or humming along to Frances England's songs, even if my daughter is nowhere in sight. Read More 'Children's music for adults: Frances England' »
| October 20 2010 at 04:33 PM
"How many punks does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"
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In the wake of our musical artists who would make great children's albums post, I received an e-mail from Vanessa Burt at Fat Wreck Chords linking to this "Pancake Mountain" appearance by Fat Mike from NOFX and his adorable daughter Darla. (I met both a year and a half ago before a NOFX show at Slim's. The San Francisco-based band had Pabst Blue Ribbon in a keg. As if you needed another reason to be a fan ...)
Needless to say, NOFX is now elevated from an honorable mention to the top of the list. I also completely forgot the Bouncing Souls, whose lead singer Greg Attonito illustrated a children's book.
| October 06 2010 at 04:26 PM
Artists who would make a great children's album
Billy Idol returns to Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit on Oct. 23. This news was immediately greeted by excitement from two of my best friends, who have attended more than a half dozen Bridge concerts with me over the years. Almost all of the visiting performers are kind, but many are a bit awkward in their acknowledgement of the Bridge School students and graduates in wheelchairs ringing the stage.
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It's nice day to start again ...
Idol's October 2001 Bridge performance was perfect. He playfully smiled and pranced and sneered at the kids through the entire set. I recall that he even encouraged/participated in the "Hey ------------ get laid get ------" audience sing-along for "Mony Mony." I was too far away to see their faces, but I'm guessing the kids liked that. Nobody wants to be patronized ...
Ever since that day, I've always thought that Billy Idol would make a fantastic children's album. He seems game for anything, and even something simple like the "ABC" song could be faux menacing fun. I could see Idol performing a remix of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" that sounds a little bit like "Blue Highway." Hell, nearly three decades later, his first album even sounds like a kid's record. Even though I've always assumed the song is really about masturbation, I could still see the cast of "Sesame Street" bouncing around to "Dancing With Myself."
Below are several more acts that I'd like to see make a children's album. Yours in the comments. I'm limited myself to living acts, but you're welcome to throw in a Janis Joplin or Miles Davis if you want.
(Thanks very much to Burrito Justice for giving me the idea -- via the blogger's Twitter feed.) Read More 'Artists who would make a great children's album' »
| October 05 2010 at 10:55 AM
What do you sing to your kids?
Last night was pretty much the best ever. Technically, the evening was completely routine, but it ended with my 2-year-old under a blanket in his crib -- with me, my wife and my 5-year-old son all singing Journey's "Faithfully" at his request.
The toddler's exact words, in a sleepy slightly whiny demand, were "Momma, dada, bruddah, Highway Run. Sing!"
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Two strangers learn to fall in love again ...
We sing a lot of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in my house. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Row Row Row Your Boat," too. But I would say the nursery rhyme-type music is split evenly with Top 40 from the 1980s. My younger son doesn't just know how to request Journey's "Faithfully" -- he calls it "Highway Run" -- he knows all the words. I discovered this about a month ago, when he was in the crib and I happened to be running the video camera. I would start a line and he would finish it, botching some of the lines but getting enough of the sounds and syllables right that I knew he had the song memorized in his little head. No big surprise. I'm a Jonathan Cain fan, and I've sung it to him probably 1,000 times. (And three years later, I still nearly break down during the "I get the joy of rediscovering you ..." part.)
My unconventional music selection started when my older son was barely 2 years old, had trouble getting back to sleep, and I pulled out the guitar for the first time in more than a decade and a half. Because I learned to play in pre-grunge 1988, most of the songs I knew were from the hair bands of the era. In the beginning, Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home" and Guns 'n' Roses' "Patience" were in heavy bedtime play.
More recently, I've been trying new songs. I recently managed to self-learn a vaguely recognizable "Faithfully" on the guitar, and was working on "Redemption Song" and "More Than Words," when the adorable-ness of it all (and the surprisingly difficult Extreme chord structure) forced me to take a break.
My songs that I sing to my kids below. Yours in the comments ... Read More 'What do you sing to your kids?' »
| September 22 2010 at 07:08 AM
More about Malachai from "Children of the Corn"
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I'm thinking of dropping the parenting, Bay Area nostalgia and pop culture elements from this blog and just writing about "Children of the Corn" star Courtney Gains full time. Judging by the comments in this morning's scariest movie kids of all time post, that's all you really want to talk about any way.
After perusing his personal site, the first topic is obvious: Courtney's awesome band. Check out the above performance from the Corey Haim Memorial Concert at the House of Blues earlier this year. I think this is Courtney performing with Benny Bliss and the Disciples of Greatness, which is featured in a Gains-produced DVD by the same name. Gains also plays with the more stripped down but equally bluesy Ripple Street band. (You can hear their music on this MySpace page.) Read More 'More about Malachai from "Children of the Corn" ' »
| August 16 2010 at 06:02 PM
When the Grateful Dead sang the national anthem
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Since it's the anniversary of Jerry Garcia's death and Jerry Garcia Tribute Night at the Giants game tonight, I thought I'd post one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time. The audio is far from perfect, but this 1993 Grateful Dead performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" always brings a tear to my eye.
I'm not a Deadhead and never collected Jerry Garcia's music, but I've grown to admire the man and the band. Even if you weren't into 9-minute versions of "Sugar Magnolia,'" it was easy to like the guy. A San Francisco native, he clear loved his community, and made the Bay Area a better, more interesting place.
I'm guessing there were some conservatives in the stands who weren't happy to see Garcia and his bandmates come out to do the national anthem. And I'm guessing there might be a Deadhead or two who thought this was a sellout move. But by the end of this heartfelt performance, how could anyone in the stands -- liberal and conservative, hippie and square -- not be feeling a little emotional?
R.I.P. Jerry Garcia.
(Thanks to Dead fan mrosnbrg20 for putting this on YouTube.)
| August 09 2010 at 02:32 PM
Your go-to karaoke song
I read a Twitter post a couple weeks ago from KNBR's Dan Dibley, who was about to engage in some kind of karaoke battle involving the harvest princess at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. I found it impossible to tweet back constructive advice in 140 characters or less, and the controversial karaoke defeat caused Dibley to lose the coveted Golden Clove. Or something. This is all from memory.
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Stay away from Sinatra.
I'm not good at karaoke. I'll never be one of those people who brings their own microphone to karaoke bars several nights per week, and belts out songs from the "Phantom of the Opera" soundtrack. But for someone who has an extremely marginal voice and sings karaoke approximately once every 2 1/2 years, I think I've made the most with what I've got. Karaoke success for the musically challenged is about knowing your limitations, and never straying from the following four bylaws:
1. Pick a song that everyone knows well. This way people will hopefully join in the chorus, masking the performer's inadequacies.
2. Pick songs from singers who don't a lot of vocal range. I sing along with the radio when I'm alone in the car, and play songs on the guitar for my sons, so I have a pretty good idea of what songs I can and can't pull off. I always feel bad for the performer (and for the crowd) when a karaoke newcomer gets up to the mic and tries to belt out a Sinatra tune.
3. Get liquored up. As anyone who has seen Motley Crue live knows, booze is not good for your voice. This advice is strictly for amateurs, for short-term psychological reasons. When liquored up, A) You are less likely to be nervous and self-conscious; and B) If you are completely bombing, you're less likely to notice and hate yourself when it's over.
4. Unless you are Tony Bennett, don't sing Tony Bennett. It ruins Tony Bennett for the rest of us.
My go-to karaoke song is below. Please add yours to the comments, along with tales of your karoake success or disasters ... Read More 'Your go-to karaoke song' »
| August 03 2010 at 11:34 AM
The concert that killed your hearing
I think I'm going to make a pretty awesome old guy. My wife tells me this all the time, and I don't take it as an insult. I'm good at puttering around and I enjoy going to bed early. A big reason why I had children was so they could help me up whenever I'm lying on my back. And while I don't own one now, I look really good in this kind of hat. Give me 30 years and I might even be able to pull off an ascot.
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This was the last thing I saw before the ringing started ...
One area where I've already gotten a huge jump on being a full-on old guy: My hearing. Due to a love of loud live music, a job that has allowed me to frequently get near the front of the stage and extremely poor planning (I always forget to bring earplugs), I would suspect that I currently have the hearing of a man twice my age. Considering this is such a music-loving community, I thought some of you might be in the same position, and we could start a support group. We'll meet right here, so we don't have to shout at each other in some church meeting room.
My loss of hearing was the result of a three-prong onslaught, not unlike a starting pitcher, middle reliever and closer in baseball. While these bands played 18 years apart, I consider them co-conspirators, forever linked in my damaged ringing cranium. I'm hopeful that they'll some day play a concert together -- maybe to raise money for my cochlear implant.
The concert(s) that killed my hearing are below. Yours in the comments ... Read More 'The concert that killed your hearing' »
| July 20 2010 at 06:02 AM
Rick Springfield plays the San Mateo County Fair this Friday!
When it comes to my fellow man, I've always tried to focus on how an individual does their job, not the job itself. If you're putting your all into working the Taco Bell drive-through window -- enunciating well, making eye contact during the bag transfer, throwing in an extra hot sauce -- I have a lot more respect for you than a Nobel Prize winner who's been phoning it in for the last five years.
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He makes it look so easy ...
With that said, Rick Springfield is pretty much the greatest human being that ever lived. Yes, he performs on the county fair free act circuit. But he plays the living s--- out of the county fair. If his performances were rated on Yelp, they would need to invent a sixth star. I've interviewed several people running Bay Area fairs, and they treat a Springfield booking very personally. I'm guessing that many a local county fair executive has lost their job after slinking back to work to tell the bosses that the best they could get is Smash Mouth. (First place is Rick Springfield. Second place is Eddie Money. Third place is 'You're fired.')
Springfield is playing the San Mateo County Fair this Friday night. (Details here.) The concert is free with fair admission, like God intended. San Mateo is Springfield's only Bay Area appearance this summer, before he heads East to perform at the Taste of Joliet Summerfest in Illinois and the Quik Check Festival of Ballooning in New Jersey.
It's a tribute to my friendship with The Poop's Mike Adamick that I will be at his book reading in Corte Madera on Friday night instead of the Main Stage at the San Mateo County Fair. I'll be the one yelling at Mike to "read faster!" (Not a shot at Mike, who wasn't responsible for setting the date, but who schedules a book reading on the day that Rick Springfield is in town? That's like setting your wedding date on Super Bowl Sunday ...)
Your Rick Springfield memories in the comments. Read More 'Rick Springfield plays the San Mateo County Fair this Friday!' »
| June 16 2010 at 06:42 AM
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