For my 4th birthday, I was given a orange and white plastic portable record player. When the lid was down it looked kind of like a modern plastic suitcase. I loved it. With the record player, I was given some Disney albums and some of my mother's old 45's. My mother also bought me the 45 for "Yellow Submarine" because she thought it would be a good kid's song.
Little did she know that I preferred the B-side, which happened to be "Eleanor Rigby."
Lutherans don't believe in reincarnation, but I don't know else how to explain my instant connection to the lonely people in this song. I also think I wanted to know the answer to "Where do they all belong?" because I already knew I wasn't exactly right.
Don't get me wrong, I was definitely young, and my second favorite song was from Dumbo.
So I wasn't exactly a pre-gothic/emo type at age 4. Eleanor Rigby spoke to me, Yellow Submarine did not. Did that make me a screwed up four year old? Maybe.
My mother gave me a lot of her 45's. My parents were squares. My parents like show tunes and some modern music, but neither of them had their fingers on the pulse of what was hip. I grew up listening to Broadway, Disney, pop songs from the 50's, doo wop, Simon and Garfunkel, Chicago and the Beach Boys. Later, after my parents were divorced, my Dad had other music that he played in the car - the Muppet Show soundtrack, Queen, Supertramp, more show tunes. I didn't really start exploring the radio or music on my own until I was about 10 or 11.
So some of the songs below were big favorites from ages 4-10. I wish I could find all of them, some of them were hilarious B-sides to big sappy songs. My Mom was a big Perry Como fan.
Little did she know that I preferred the B-side, which happened to be "Eleanor Rigby."
Lutherans don't believe in reincarnation, but I don't know else how to explain my instant connection to the lonely people in this song. I also think I wanted to know the answer to "Where do they all belong?" because I already knew I wasn't exactly right.
Don't get me wrong, I was definitely young, and my second favorite song was from Dumbo.
So I wasn't exactly a pre-gothic/emo type at age 4. Eleanor Rigby spoke to me, Yellow Submarine did not. Did that make me a screwed up four year old? Maybe.
My mother gave me a lot of her 45's. My parents were squares. My parents like show tunes and some modern music, but neither of them had their fingers on the pulse of what was hip. I grew up listening to Broadway, Disney, pop songs from the 50's, doo wop, Simon and Garfunkel, Chicago and the Beach Boys. Later, after my parents were divorced, my Dad had other music that he played in the car - the Muppet Show soundtrack, Queen, Supertramp, more show tunes. I didn't really start exploring the radio or music on my own until I was about 10 or 11.
So some of the songs below were big favorites from ages 4-10. I wish I could find all of them, some of them were hilarious B-sides to big sappy songs. My Mom was a big Perry Como fan.
"Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" was a song my Dad would often play on the piano, and I would sing along with him.
Ooh! The Aristocats! One of my all time favorite Disney movies, I loved this Soundtrack, very jazzy/swing. They never re-release this one! I wonder why? Oh yeah...watch the video:
"Spinning Wheel" was another big song on the Dad's Piano Hit Parade:
Ah, old awesome Chicago before Peter Setera took over and wussified it.
One of my all time favorites from Paul and Art. In fact, my Dad once improvised while playing the organ at church and played the melody of "Sound of Silence" on the bass pedals while playing the old Lent hymn "There Is A Green Hill Far Away" on the upper keys, and the story goes I gasped and turned around and started excitedly telling my mother about what he was doing, because at age 4 or 5, I recognized the bass line immediately.
You know, watching these videos, I'm struck by the racist stereotypes in both Dumbo and The Aristocats...I wonder if that's why they haven't been re-released in a million years? Wow.
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