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Off the record: Do try this at home, kids
Evening Standard 17.04.09
Do try this at home, kids
As a new parent, the thing that troubles me, even more than sleeping habits and weaning, is this: how can I ensure that my twin daughters grow up to have impeccable musical taste? How can I guarantee that they beg me for Radiohead and Glastonbury tickets as six-year-olds and obediently request Tom Waits on long car journeys? I suspect, among young parents, that I am not alone in this.
I will even confess to playing the Beach Boys and Sam Cooke diligently to them in the womb. But perhaps I need the help of Ziggy Marley.
Bob's eldest son has long been in the family business, and has now roped in his three-year-old daughter, Judah, to chirp along on the title track of his new album, Family Time. Released on Tuff Gong on 5 May, it's squarely aimed at kids.
It also features Ziggy duetting with Willie Nelson on a version of the uplifting Woody Guthrie track, This Train, two stories written and narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis and another duet with Jack Johnson, who has a history of this sort of thing after composing the soundtrack to the Curious George movie.
The salient point for parents is that it's just about possible to listen to Family Time without wanting to hurl yourself underneath Thomas the Tank Engine. As for my own offspring, their critical response is some oblivious window gazing, a brief cry and an eventual attempt to bite the CD in two — chips off the old block, both.
Marley's work joins a bulging market of albums that, like their computer-animated film equivalents, are capable of entertaining the little ones while tacitly acknowledging that there are adults in the room, too.
There is even a new genre name: “kindie”, meaning guitar-based songs played by ageing indie rockers who want to offer their children something less teeth-grating than Barney the Dinosaur. Dan Zanes has had Debbie Harry, Lou Reed and Nick Cave appear on his albums and just played at the Southbank Centre over Easter. There's also Laurie Berkner (key songs: We Are the Dinosaurs, Rocketship Run), Farmer Jason (Punk Rock Skunk, Guitar Pickin' Chicken) and former Meat Loaf guitarist Mr Ray (George the Groovy Giraffe, I'm Gonna Read A Book Some Day).
The genre is gaining good standing on the radio, too: Fun Kids Radio has just been nominated for best digital station at the Sony Radio Awards.
This is all good clean fun — but what I want is scientific proof, backed by years of research, that if my children listen to this semi-credible kiddie stuff now, they will grow up loving good music. Do these musical training pants really work, gently ushering youngsters towards a lifelong appreciation of the finer things?
I like to think that as they get a bit older, there's no reason why real grown-up stuff shouldn't appeal straight away, if it's chosen carefully — the colourful lyrics of Paul Simon or Ray Davies, the easily-hummable tunes of The Beatles or Stevie Wonder, the story songs of country and the infectious bounce of reggae.
Ziggy Marley's next project is to take
eight songs by his father and “revise” them for children, but why shouldn't Bob's Sun Is Shining or Three Little Birds appeal in their original forms?
I fear that High School Musical will get my girls in the end, no matter what I do. If we can find some common ground in kindie, that may have to do.
NEW ON THE NET
*Jazz balladeer Madeleine Peyroux (below) is back this week and mellower than ever on her latest album, Bare Bones. Buying it in the iTunes store will get you a bonus version of one track, Our Lady of Pigalle, sung in French.
*While AC/DC have been rocking London for the first time in six years this week, what does it tell us that the two bands who sell more copies of their back catalogue than anyone else — them and The Beatles — both still refuse to sell downloads? Seems that there's life in CDs yet.
*In contrast, Mike Skinner of The Streets has thrown himself headlong into new technology, using his Twitter page (http://twitter.com/skinnermike) to gabble away about hot dogs and Kevin Spacey and give away three new songs this week, including the skittering beats and text message beeps of I Love My Phone.
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