About 2 years ago my 4 year old son Freddy pulled my vinyl copy of Swordfishtrombones off the shelf and handed it to me. He and I had been exploring some of my music together - kid-friendly stuff like the Everly Brothers, Doc Watson, and early Beatles - and enjoying every rockin' minute of it. When he handed me the Tom Waits I was hesitant, but, you know, what harm could it cause? He might hate it and that'd be that.
Of course, he loved it. For months we could not get past the first song--"Underground". He was obsessed with it. Eventually, songs like "16 Shells from a Thirty Ought Six", "In the Neighborhood", the title track and, then, much of Rain Dogs and later albums became everyday requests. Once, with guilty pride, I observed him marching on a playground and singing "Misery's the river of the world/everybody row!". That's my boy!
So, this morning, Freddy, my two year old (Andy), and I were searching for Tom Waits videos and concert footage when we discovered this video of a NYC 5th grade chorus performing "Time". It's so soulful, unaffected, and beautiful. And even though Freddy was unimpressed and wanted to find film of Tom Waits howling into a bullhorn, I played it again and hugged my boys.
My Trusted MOGs
That's awesome! I think Tom Waits is perfectly ok for kids (well, maybe not perfectly, but mostly). It's storytelling at it's musical best. And it's way better than having them grow up on High School Musical and Hannah Montana. It'll probably increase his vocabulary at worst.
My Trusted MOGs
This chorus does a killer version of "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" too.
My Trusted MOGs
Wow, that was incredible! Can't wait to play some Tom Waits for my son. Is 12 months old too young? ;-)
My Trusted MOGs
Fantastic! I wonder if I can exhibit the patience to let my son discover him on his own. Did you know that the song "Underground" appears in the animated movie Robots? Or that "A Little Drop of Poison" appears in Shrek 2? This last one is strange since it was originally in the movie "The End of Violence".
My Trusted MOGs
Awesome post. But if you listen to the lyrics the kids are singing, they aren't from Time at all (except the chorus). Their teacher changed them to lyrics about hope for the future and related things. Probably their teacher is a big Waits fan and adapted it for his/her class. Pretty neat idea.