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A coolness setback
I'm trying to raise my children to be caring, considerate and humane people. I swear I am.
But in trying to raise upstanding citizens, we parents sometimes have little side projects.
I want my kids to like cool things.
For a music-obsessed dad like myself, much of this coolness revolves around rock music. While it's a little early for my five-month-old daughter to have developed much in the way of taste, I've done some good work with our five-year-old.
Bob Dylan, Nirvana, a little bit of the Clash, even his namesake Miles Davis -- I'm working on this kid having the best taste in Mrs. Burnham's kindergarten class.
He's even developed his own interests, having picked out James Bay's "Hold Back the River" entirely on his own. Not a bad little song. Good work, boy. Thanks, WTTS, for helping me out.
So when we were on our way to school on Wednesday morning and "Train in Vain" came on the radio (WTTS again), I thought it was a chance to make some further inroads on the journey to coolness. It wasn't a Clash song he knew, but I hoped he'd relate.
For those unfamiliar with the song, here you go.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't know if music gets any better than the Clash in 1980. "London Calling" remains, for me, the greatest album ever made. Hard to imagine anything topping it.
So it was much to my chagrin that Miles listened to about 30 seconds before saying, "Can we listen to 'Back Where We Started'?"
I was, first of all, impressed at the kid's memory for a tune, as I believe he's only heard Maxine Nightingale's "Right Back Where We Started From" once or twice. I also know I'm the one who most recently brought it to his attention when the song was caught in my head.
But disco? Are you kidding me? And at the expense of the Clash? I'm proud that the kid has his own taste, but we still have some work to do.
All the same, though, he got the song caught in my head again. It's not at all cool, but it is catchy.
So if you, like me, now really need to hear Nightingale's 1975 smash hit, here it is. I dare you not to sing along.
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