Thursday, January 22, 2009

I Think, Therefore, I Rock And Roll*

*nifty little song by Ringo Starr. Quite catchy and very poppy.

¡Hola!

I love music. And I love listening to all types of music (except country pop). But the one genre that I love listening to, especially at work, is children's music. Not the garbage that passes for kiddies music nowadays, but the good stuff that I grew up with.

In no particular order of importance, here's what's hanging ten inside my cubicle at work for my listening pleasure.

Note: I apologize in advance for using Wikipedia as link material. Wikipedia wasn't my first choice, but it does give a decent overview of each.

1) Schoolhouse Rock!: I have the compilation from the mid-90's done with alternative acts on cassette. The update features groups such as the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Moby, Better than Ezra and Blind Melon. So-so compilation. Much better if you can find it, is the original four CD set put out by Rhino records in the late 80's. This excellent set is now unfortunately out of print (short sighted on Rhino's part if you ask me), but the next best thing to that is the two DVD 30th anniversary set that came out in 2002. In any event, I really rock to this CD set and have been known to even sing along at work to it.

2) Free To Be, You And Me: I remember watching this t.v. special when I was kid, and my mom picked up the album for me soon after. Always listened to it whenever I got the chance over the past 25 years or so. Finally found a CD reissue of it. Some of the stuff seems a bit outdated and has a touch of indoctrination to it, but overall it has held up remarkably well throughout the decades. Marlo Thomas, Alan Alda and Mel Brooks are some of the featured performers on this.

3) Really Rosie: Again, this was something I watched as a kid. The entire soundtrack was done by Carole King, based on stories written by Maurice Sendak (this I learned as an adult). The songs are catchy and memorable. I've even taken this CD and played in my car during the past couple of summers.

4) A Charlie Brown Christmas: This was something that I picked up a few days after Christmas, when I was shopping for a CD shelf unit. This is a remastered reissue of the original soundtrack album, put out by Fantasy Records. This is probably the only Christmas CD that I will publicly admit to listening to. I love the Peanuts and I loved the music in it.

This is yet another insight of what makes Georgie B tick.

So tell me, what kind of music did you enjoy listening to while growing up? The kind that you still enjoy now. The kind that if people knew that you still enjoyed and still listened to, would make them question your sanity.

18 comments:

  1. Just to let you know, I've had problems with feedburner XML not picking up. Cahnged to myyahoo4, thus far thus good.

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  2. The only music allowed in our house growing up was country and western, of the old style, like Porter Wagner and Grand Old Opry, or the music of the Lawrence Welk show. I disliked all of it pretty intensely, and when I got old enough to get out of the house I took a liking to rock and roll, then hard rock, then heavy metal. Pretty much all I listen to today is heavy metal or classic rock.

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  3. First 2wo albums I ever bought, tracks from within...

    http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4mnIzNY0DP4

    http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_nl46l8XHvg

    Hence beginning my life long obsession of making mix tapes that didn't really go together...

    And just because, a track from the first CD I ever bought

    http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=zdodc1Eu1nA

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  4. Dave: sorry that you're having problems with the feedburner. That's something I'll have to explore with the Feedburner site. I'm still a relative newbie when it comes to blogging and subscription feeds.

    My apologies.

    Charles: I can understand disliking that type of music. Mine while growing up was 60's folk music (The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul & Mary) and 70's country.

    I spent the next twenty plus years listening to everything but. About ten years ago, I started getting back into what I grew up listening two, plus branching out into bluegrass and other assorted odds & ends.

    To be honest, the only thing I really hate listening to is classic rock, which is partly due to the fact that I listened to it the first time around when it was fresh, and partly due to the stations around here have such anal-retentive formats that it pretty much killed it for me.

    But I'm slowly trying to work my way back into it.

    Miles: I'll have to check out those YouTube clips, but I share a similiar trait of putting together tapes/c.d.'s of songs that really don't go together at all.

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  5. We had an album called "silly songs" which had yakkity yak, rubber duckie, purple people eater, along came jones, tan shoes and pink shoe laces and http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=_FA85RO89HA&feature=related - Sam the Sham and the Pharos Little Red Riding Hood.

    The other record which was played alot was a compilation album of "Fonzie's greatest picks".

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  6. Sounds neat.

    I think the silliest album I had while growing up, was one done by the Brady Bunch.

    The reason why that one stuck out was that I remember my mom saying that she had to buy it behind my dad's back because he wouldn't have approved of her buying an album of that type.

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  7. As a child I was forced to listen to that Pop COuntry, oooo. But when I got my first record player at 13 I had me some Elvis, Barry Manilow, Kansas, Leo Sayer and John Denver!

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  8. Really?

    To me Pop Country is anything that was done in the first year of Garthe Brooks career, foward.

    I'm not sure what you would call Pop Country while you were growing up (remember, we're in the same age bracket, more or less), but whatever floats your boat, I'm right behind you 100%

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  9. I listen to a variety of different music genres. I enjoy country music the most.Currently, my favorite music is IL Tivo, Celtic Thunder,and Blake Shelton. I have a strong fondness for the music from my childhood from the 60s and 70s.

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  10. Sounds nice.

    For now, in addtion to listening to the aforementioned CD's (plus about 30 others that I burned from my record collection), I listen to college radio.

    You can't beat the good mix that comes from non-commercial stations.

    I'll always have a fondness for what I grew up listening to. It's what makes us such unique individuals.

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  11. Myyahoo4 picked this up nicely, so maybe it's only XML that's iffy?

    BTW, like the music choice!

    dave

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  12. Dave: thanks for the heads up. I'll checking that out sometime today.

    And thanks for the compliment about the music. I've always been partial to children's music (the stuff I grew up with, not the current state of garbage), so it's been a tough go of it to find it.

    To whit: the Schoolhouse Rock CD series isn't even produced as is anymore. You can only find a few greatest hits compilations. The box set currently goes for about $150 or so on e-bay; the Carol King CD (Really Rosie), I was only able to find as an import; and the Marlo Thomas was the easiest to find as it was a re-issue.

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  13. I loved watching School house Rock with my kids when they were growing up. I was into Motown, and the Beach Boys.

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  14. If you like watching Schoolhouse Rocks with your kids, you'll be happy to know that they came out with a 30th anniversary 2 DVD set of the show.

    It's well worth the money.

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  15. Actually, "Free to Be, You and Me" was originally a children's book written by Marlo Thomas. It came out when I was still in college getting my teaching degree. She then produced the show for about 2 seasons. The book is a wonderful collection of children's stories about the trials and tribulations of society, from a child's point of view.

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  16. Interesting.

    I still have the original album and I remember TVLand showing the original special about six years ago.

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  17. I LOVE Really Rosie! My kids right now have a great DVD that my SIL bought for my son when he was born in 2004. It's Maurice Sendak and has the animated Where the Wild Things Are, as well as snippets of the Nutshell Kids (from Really Rosie) with Aligator's All Around, Pierre (I don't care), One Was Johnnie, and Chicken Soup with Rice, AND the really strange but also strangely wonderful Night Kitchen. I'm totally in love with this DVD and the music that goes with it.

    I also find myself listening to my almost 2 year old daughter's night time CDs because they're relaxing and I love them.

    Oh - and Raffi! Raffi is the bomb!

    So great to have stumbled across your blog!

    Jennifer
    (My blog: Random Ramblings)

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  18. JMS: Thanks for dropping by today. I'll be sure to check out your blog as well.

    I'm not sure when I got back into the "Really Rosie" soundtrack. I think it was during one of my phases of really needing good children's music to listen to or something.

    In any event, I do listen to them quite frequently at work and I agree with you in that they are an excellent relaxer for the stresses of the day.

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