Friday, October 27, 2006

Listening to Lyrics....

Well, it's happened. At the age of four, the Sweet Girl is finally beginning to really "tune in" to song lyrics.

I'm not saying that she hasn't listened to the words of songs before. But by and large, at least when it's been "Mommy and Daddy's music" playing, I've gathered that it's mostly seemed like background sound. But she's getting older now, and she's definitely taking an interest in what those words are saying. Which means I need to be careful what I play and when, especially when listening to country music. :-)

Not that I feel like I listen to music with "bad" lyrics, but some songs contain language or imagery she's not going to understand (and that can be hard to explain). Those topics and expressions are quite "grown-up."

A case in point came at dinner last night. D. had to work, and I'd put on Johnny Cash while I was cooking. Well, OK, I'd put on the soundtrack to Walk the Line, which is Joaquin Phoenix singing Johnny Cash songs. Sweet Girl loves to dance to Johnny Cash. In fact, the other day she'd come jigging into the kitchen and announced "Mommy, this is my favorite song!" when I was playing Get Rhythm. Good taste!

So we were at dinner and the Cash songs were still playing and suddenly she looked up at me, with a thoughtful look on her face, and asked "Mommy, why does he walk the line both day and night?"

Ummmmm.....

So there I was, trying to explain the poetic idea behind someone "walking the line" (being faithful and true and steady all the time, was how I tried to explain it). I don't know whether she got it, though she did announce cheerfully that sometimes she walked the wall on her favorite street. Which made me smile.

The conversation flowed on from there, and everything seemed fine, but in the back of my mind I kept pondering whether or not I should keep playing Johnny Cash. Especially when I realized Folsom Prison had just come on. I talked really, really loudly to cover the line "shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." And then I surreptiously turned the music down...

I still think we can enjoy jigging together to Get Rhythm. But it turns out I think certain Johnny Cash songs are not quite appropriate for the pre-school set. Not surprising really, but it did make me do some good, hard thinking about what kinds of things I want that little mind and heart focused on.

4 comments:

Erin said...

I'm the person who will make some comment about the song playing on the restaurant radio when nobody else even realizes there's music on... So I have always been one to "tune in" quite a bit too! I can't recall if when I was little I ever asked my parents any uncomfortable questions about any music I'd heard... But I think kids definitely pick up on more than a lot of people realize!

Beth said...

Hee! It might be interesting to ask your parents if they can recall any lyric-moments from your early childhood! :-)

I survived "silence like a casserole" when I wasn't much older than my daughter, so I guess Johnny Cash won't leave permanent scars... :-)

Erin said...

Hehe! Hooray for silent casseroles! I butchered so many Simon and Garfunkel lyrics when I was seven...

Beth said...

Some of my favorite musical memories are from S&G. We used to have a record player with a big wooden cabinet -- a real solid piece of furniture (I know, I'm dating myself with all these talk of record player cabinets!) and when I was little, I used to sit on the cabinet and look out the window while the music spun out beneath me. So my audio memories of S&G are enhanced by visual memories of redbirds and pine trees in the neighbor's yard...