Soundtrack of my week

2008
07.25

Dillon had an auspicious taste in music from the first song he identified as his favorite: the Big Payback, by James Brown.  He was way too young to know what it was about ["get down… with my girlfriend… that ain't right!"] but totally dug the soul music, and to Dillon, the Big Payback was as much a genre as a specific song, to be determined by the word preceding it: to put on 'some' big payback music was to put on anything by James Brown, Otis Redding, The Temptations, etc.  

For the past two weeks, my kids have been serenading me with three songs: Pork and Beans by Weezer, Handlebars by Flobots, and Iron Man by Black Sabbath. They are three very anti-establishment, rebellious songs that my kids have adopted as the theme songs to our life.

Wash your hands for dinner?  "I'ma do the things that I want to do, I ain't got a thing to prove to you…"  Thanks, Weezer.

Take your elbows off the table?  "Look at me, look at me, hands in the air 'cause it's good to be… alive, and I'm a famous rapper…"  Thanks, Flobots.

Or perhaps the highlight was Dillon's forty-minute solo of the same line from Iron Man (you know it, sing along…_ "I am Iron Man – dinininin nuh nuh nuh IRON MAN!" which then morphed into "I am Iron Boy, I am not a team, I'm IRON BOY" and some additional lyrics, which only ended when we realized D was singing in the bathroom.  On the toilet.  And asked him to wrap it up a bit.

The funniest thing is that Dillon has progressed in his level of musicality to understand rhythm and cadence,  and to get very upset when Rose, who is usually the backup singer/dancer/overall accompanist, doesn't get it quite right.  She hasn't figured out that when one sings a song with another person, you try to sing together, as opposed to at different tempos, in different keys, and much louder than the other person.  So one could picture these kids in different rooms, unable to hear each other but singing the same song, only you're treated to it in person, in stereo.

But I love it, don't get me wrong. 

Though Charles wasn't happy when Dillon "illustrated" a thank you note to Charles' boss for some books with the lyrics from Pork and Beans "working out at the gym to fit my underwear" with the scene from the video (which I only let him watch once, I swear, unless he's figured out You Tube on his own) of a ninja kicking people's butts.  [side note, if you like You Tube, check out the Weezer video, it's awesome, though probably inappropriate for impressionable children under 7.] 

One Response to “Soundtrack of my week”

  1. Charles says:

    Yeah… It was a good drawing, though… motion lines and all. And, they were not just guys, but ninjas!

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