One of my favorite kids' books is Mo Willems' Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, which simultaneously manages to capture the mindset of a three-year-old and permits that same three-year-old to yell "No!" repeatedly. It's a safe rebellion for the child, while also allowing him or her to exert control. (It's also now a musical, apparently, but that's a whole different subject.)
The musical equivalent is the traditional "Mama Don't Allow," which allows the listener to do all sorts of things mama (a particularly strict sort) don't normally allow: hand-clappin', foot-stompin' -- you get the idea if you somehow have never heard the song before.
Brady Rymer has a nice version of the song on his latest album, Every Day Is a Birthday. It's uptempo, full of energy, but the part that I really dig (and I why I'm mentioning it here) is when Rymer sings, "Mama don't allow no backup-singin' 'round here," and, sure enough, the backup singers chime in. It's a nice, slightly meta-, slightly humorous moment in a fun version of the song that could easily be no different from countless other versions of the song.
Reminds me a little bit of They Might Be Giants' "Fibber Island," off of -- appropriately enough, given the start of this post -- No!. "Here on Fibber Island / No one sings along," and then the backup singers (or whatever the squeaky voices are) chime in "no one sings along." Just as with Rymer's version, it's a meta-moment that challenges the listener and gives them a little bit of excitement when they figure out what just happened.
You can hear Rymer's version of "Mama Don't Allow" here. And, while we're sending you to CDBaby, you can hear TMBG's "Fibber Island" here.
Song of the Day: Chocolate Milk - Scribble Jim
I know nothing about Scribble Jim. I know nothing about where he is based, what albums he has out, what his opinion of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' engagement is.
I do know that his song "I Love Chocolate Milk" is, against all my best defenses, lodged in my brain. It's not the lyrics of the verses, which I can't really recall. It's not the melody of the verses, which I can't really recall, either. It's not even the spelling out of "I love chocolate milk," which frankly takes too much time to complete.
It's the darn chorus.
I love chocolate mi-ilk.
I-I love chocolate mi-ilk
OK, written out it's not really that impressive. But there's some harmony thing going on in the second line which I think is now permanently lodged in my brain already overstuffed with information, probably forever crowded out some other, more useful piece of information from, say, Mrs. Pittman's AP English class. All I can think of is a small, slightly unruly mob of five-year-olds bobbing their bobbed-cut heads together and raising their crayon-stained fists in unison, singing:
I love chocolate mi-ilk
I-I love chocolate mi-ilk.
That, and the chorus seems like an... homage to Joan Jett and the Blackheart's "I Love Rock 'N' Roll."
Listen to the chorus (and the rest of the song) of "Chocolate Milk" here:
As for the original, all I could come up with was a version by "Rock Lobster," an '80s retro cover band. Didn't seem worth linking to. Couldn't even find the "Weird Al" Yankovic version, "I Love Rocky Road," which seems kinda like the mid-point between "Rock 'N Roll" and "Chocolate Milk," no?
Song of the Day: One Little Cookie - Justin Roberts
Justin Roberts had his first hit, "Yellow Bus," off his 2001 album of the same name. But my favorite track on Yellow Bus has always been "One Little Cookie," deep into the album.
"One eye watchin' the kitchen door / one hand reachin' for the cookie jar / I heard this voice from up above / Showerin' down these words of love."
And from there proceeds an ever-increasing fit of self-rationalization from the narrator as he eventually eats, uh, ten cookies. He knows he shouldn't, but can't stop himself. Kids will laugh, recognizing the feelings of exhilaration from doing something they know they're not supposed to. Parents will laugh, albeit a little more ruefully. The music, powered by the guitar and drums and Hammond organ, gets increasingly loud and insistent, dovetailing nicely with the narrator's ever-quickening swiping of the cookies. It's a nice match of music and lyrics.
Maybe it's the propulsive beat, but the song triggers thoughts in me of Spoon's "Sister Jack," an urgent song that only gets more urgent as the song progresses.
Roberts can turn out great power-pop songs. This is one of them.
Go here to see a video for "One Little Cookie."
Go here to get to a video for "Sister Jack."
Song of the Day: Spaghetti (Twist and Twirl) - Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer with Brave Combo
I heard "Spaghetti (Twist and Twirl)" today and I remembered how much I like the song.
So much so, that I've decided to start a "Song of the Day" series -- we'll see how long it stays "Song of the Day" before it becomes "Song of the Week" or "Song of the Lunar Cycle" -- and inaugurate it with this song.
To call Brave Combo a "polka band" seems to sell them short a bit -- they are a whirlwind of musical energy. Paired up with long-time children's music artists Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, their 2001 album All Wound Up! is a bundle of enthusiasm and lots of fun. Without a doubt, though, the standout track is the penultimate song, "Spaghetti (Twist and Twirl)." The song is about a chef at an Italian restaurant and his frustration with the kids who want nothing more from his talents than plain old spaghetti. Lyrically, it's amusing to the adults and empowering to the kids, who can sing "Spaghetti!" or "Twist and Twirl!"
But it's musically that this song really gets me. Its energy is infectious -- it's great for dancing foolishly with your kids. And sonically... for most of the song it's the bass line with the melody above it, a different melody each for the verses and the chorus and the bridge, and then near the end they sing the chorus and the bridge simultaneously. To top it all off, at the very end they add a fourth musical line out of nowhere but that fits perfectly.
Really, it reminds me of the New Pornographers' "The Laws Have Changed," one of my favorite songs, in the overlayering of musical themes. A whole album of songs like that would just leave me incapacitated for days afterward. It's best taken in limited doses.
You can hear a snippet of "Spaghetti (Twist and Twirl)" here. Links to audio and video of "The Laws Have Changed" are here.
