The "Silly Songs" thread got me thinking about the music we listen to in our household. Here's my take on the subject.
Four years ago while expecting our first, I decided to introduce our child to music via a set of headphones on my wife's belly. I shuffled through my vast, alphabetized collection of cd’s, (~700), looking for anything that might work as ‘kids’ music. Finally, down in section ‘r’, I came across the Red Hot Chili Peppers “Mothers Milk”, and then way down at the end, in‘w’, a couple of selections from Ween. (I thought, could this be it? is this the only music I have for little dude? or am I just freaking out about this upcoming breast feeding thing?) As it turns out, I had quite a bit more to offer. These are some my selections that I have come to rely on over the years:
* Fun, Get up and Dance Music: the Skatalites, Pucho and his Latin Soul Brothers, Greatest Hits of Jan and Dean, Herp Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Prez Prado, B-52’s (some songs), Violent Femmes (now banned due to explicit lyrics), Billy Bragg and Wilco “Mermaid Avenue”, They Might be Giants (some songs), Let’s Go Bowling…
* Snowbound: Marty Robbins, Jr. Brown, Foghorn Stringband, Los Straitjackets, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Devil in a Woodpile, Taj Mahal, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Hank Williams, Tex Ritter…
* Sleepytime: Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Sade, Beck “Seachange”…
* Beatles: Please Please Me, Beatles for Sale, Rubber Soul…
* Easy on Baby Ears: Belle and Sebastian, Andrew Bird, the Shins, Elliot Smith, the Smiths, Jeff Buckley, Calexico, Iron and Wine, R.E.M., Stereolab, Spoon, Sufjan Stevens, Wilco, Son Volt, Fruit Bats…
* And When I Just Can’t Help Myself: Johnny Cash, (they get it all the time), a whole mess of the old Blues, (heavy on harmonica, from the 50’s and before), Bluegrass music, (the classics), and a variety of World music, (mostly African and Caribbean) …
What's some of the music, from YOUR collection, that has worked in your home?
Note: The majority of music played specifically for my babies comes from their own expanding collection of children’s music. I would guess that at least ~75 percent of my collection is deemed inappropriate for their ears.
Joined: 2007-10-24
Dad Points: 67