a child's cultural canon

We were listening to The Beatles in the car yesterday. First time Arthur had let us listen to 'grown-up music'. Anne was saying how there's a bunch of stuff it would be good if Arthur just knew. The stuff that she and I picked up just by cultural osmosis and that helped us get pleasure from the world, but which he very well might not. Like The Beatles. Or the book of common prayer. Neither of us are Christians but we've both spent lots of time in Church and are therefore familiar with the rhythms and phrases of the CofE. Which means you get much more out of some things - like 40 Years On, for example, our favourite play ever.

I guess we want him to understand some of the same reference points as us, as he grows up in a completely different world.

So I thought I'd start by trying to make a CD for the car which we can all listen to, which won't bore a 4-year old. It's bound to be incredibly personal, preserving some of things that Anne and I grew up with and value, but it'll be interesting.

Here's a starting list. Anyone got any suggestions?

The Beatles Octopus's Garden and Yellow Submarine
The Lord's Prayer
Sailng By - the music of the shipping forecast
Winnie The Pooh - both some AA Milne and some songs from the original Disney stuff
Onward Christian Soliders - top hymn
Thunderbirds theme
Spike Milligan - Ning Nang Nong
Nellie The Elephant - The Toy Dolls
Psalm 23
The Floral Dance - Brighouse and Rastrick Band

Comments

[Anne]

Hi Russell

We've mercifully been spared too much Tweenies type nonsense, and Tommy seems to like the stuff we like. So you might want to try:

The Who - Boris the Spider
Syd Barrett - Effervescing Elephant
Anything by the Monkees, but particularly the Monkees theme
The Beatles - Altogether now - this has numbers in it so is also educational ;)
Sly & the Family Stone - Dance to the music

Other bands that have gone down well are Josef K, Belle & Sebastian, The Kinks, The Hives, The Stooges and 'Nice weather for ducks' by Lemon Jelly which is probably Tommy's favourite ever in-car entertainment. I now worry that he doesn't know enough stuff which is outside our terms of cultural reference and will be bullied at school for being weird. Still at least our car journeys are pleasant.

Hope this helps!

Anne

[funkypancake]

i'd agree with all those on the list above. we had Sgt Pepper's in the car on repeat for months.

kezia (2 yr old) keeps asking for the volume to be turned up when we have Franz Ferdinand on, and she said "this is my favourite ever" when we played Rock Lobster by B52s (the whole The B-52's album goes down well).

Parklife by Blur is another winning family album.

But for all out family jolliness and excitement we have a special best of album by Herb Alpert which we call "holiday trumpets". Everytime we head off on holiday in the car we have it full blast with us all doing air trumpet solos. great stuff.

[also interested to see the christian items on your list - i imagine most people wouldn't have even thought of including spiritual stuff]

[russell]

many thanks for the suggestions, I have to say that the Christian stuff is nothing to do with us being Christians and has more to do with us being Radio 4 listeners. With vaguely Christian parents. Who read a bit. And you realise that if you want to get the most out of literature or music or art or Kirsty McColl or Tony Hancock (or Radio 4) you have to get some of the references. And a lot of those references come from the church. You have to know why 'this piece of cod which passeth all understanding' is funny. And you get more out of Sheep by Pink Floyd if you know your psalms.

My wife is now saying that I've got this all wrong and what she'd really like to do is find a way to communicate stuff to Arthur that we know nothing about but which he'd get more out of life if he did. Like Greek myths or proper poetry or classical music. Maybe that'll be next.

By the way, Anne, many thanks for the This Is London suggestion. Arthur loves it. I think he's trying to grow up in the fifties. Well actually he's just trying to grow up in a generalised 'olden days' when they had steam trains and dinosaurs.

(I'll have to add Right Said Fred and Hole In The Ground to the canon.)

[funkypancake]

i hadn't thought of all the christian references on Radio 4. i wonder if that'll die out in a generation's time as the 'tradition' of church going dies out ? Or maybe Father Ted and that dreadful thing with Dawn French in will keep the faith alive ? I think that's a cultural reference you'd be bestto avoid with Arthur !

[morgan]

Just how old are you people?? :)

[Luca Vergano]

What about "I want a hippopothamus for christmas"?