M and I sing to Orly--not well, but we try. She likes it. M is cooler than I am and sings her Lucinda Williams. O's favorite: "The Night's Too Long."She likes hearing about Sylvia and a place called Beaumont. Maybe her Susu will take her to the "Golden Triangle" one day.
I am a dork and even though I listen to all kinds of music and a lot of it, I can only seem to remember the lyrics to power ballads and show tunes. My repertoire consists of "Johanna" (SWEENEY TODD), "Faithfully" by Journey (which Orly adores) and Manilow's "Mandy." I did also sing her "Desperado" which she hated. Frankly, who can blame her, but it is the one song I can play on the guitar and so I know the words. I also know the words to the theme from Ice Castles as it is the only song I can play on the piano. But I can't bring myself to utter the phrase "looking through the eyes of love."
I also sang O, up until a few days ago, what I thought was, my signature song, "Froggy/Froggie Went a-Courtin'." In my mind, (and I only knew four lines from the song, or what I thought was the song), it was an innocent little tune about Froggy/Froggie taking Miss Mousie on a date. Well, I was wrong. The other day I decided to look up the lyrics so as to spare O from the continous loop of the SAME four lines. I come to discover that Froggy/Froggie is locked and loaded, carrying a gun and sword with him when he rides over to propose to Miss Mousie. The song seems to take a trippy dark turn once he gets to Mousie's crib. After her Deliverance-like Uncle, Rat, agrees to the marriage, a wedding supper catered by various bugs and vermen plays out with Froggy/Froggie meeting his maker when he swallowed by a duck or some nonsense (at least in the Dylan version--wait, Dylan, I don't do Dylan. M does Dylan. There are also versions by Elvis, Burl Ives and Springsteen. ) It is very trippy--very Go Ask Alice. There is also something about cornbread.
Needless to say, I need some new material. Any requests?
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2 comments:
Neil Young! Neil Young! A colleague of D's, and one of the few cool people in this town, remembers that his parents played Neil all the time when he and his siblings were little, such that his baby brother's favorite song was "The Needle and the Damage Done." Heh heh.
xoxox,
GZ
"Solid as a Rock," by Ashford and Simpson, is pretty close to unforgettable, and-- let's not forget-- almost endlessly adaptable to diaper-change ditties. No examples needed here; I'll let the imagination take flight.
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," while far from original, also emerges as an easily-adapted frame tune. Thus: "Orly in the Sky with Kittens," "Orly in the Bath with Bubbles," and, of course
"Orly in my life with Diapers."
Finally, there's the ever-marvelous "Wheel in the sky." Not because it's adaptable. Just because it's awesome.
WHEEEEEEEEEEL IN THE SKYYYYY KEEPS ME YEARNNNNNNNNNNIN
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