A nerdish obsession with pop trivia has gripped my boy in recent months, much to his mother's despair. I've tried to tell her it's just a phase. 6 months ago, he was obsessed with the clock. The most exciting thing in his world was watching the numbers on a digital clock turn back to zero zero at the top of the hour. Right now this has been replaced by an obsession with pop songs and their singers. There are three questions that are asked of every track I play him in the car...
"What's this song called?"
"Who is the singer / band?"
"What else do they sing?"
His memory for this information is astounding: far better than mine. I'm thinking of entering him for Pop Master.
"This is 1999 by Prince. He also sings Raspberry Beret and I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man. What else?"
As I say, the other half despairs. She's worried he will be picked on for being a trivia-obsessed geek. "That never did his father any harm," I tell her. Something in her expression says she disputes that.
2. The Beatles - Drive My Car
One of the first songs he loved. I knew he would, that's why I chose it as the opening track on the first compilation CD I made for him. His favourite toys are cars, his favourite movies are Cars... he already knows more about cars than his dad ever has.
Plus, when it comes to pop, you've got to start with The Beatles, haven't you? I may have grown a little jaded with them over the years, but in terms of pure pop... there's no contest. Pretty much everything else comes from this...
Beep beep - beep beep - yeah!
Mine has a similar love of music. He likes all kinds of stuff, but for him nothing is quite as good as David Bowie. Other favourites include Song 2, Blister in the Sun (despite lyrical inappropriateness), Rise and Shine by The Cardigans and, one of the first songs he danced around to, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag by the Godfather of Soul.
ReplyDeleteExcellent stuff
ReplyDeleteDriving in my Car by Madness is surely the next logical step
Long may his obsession continue
As CC says, long may his obsession continue.
ReplyDeleteA fab song from what's probably my favourite Beatles album. Yer lad has taste.
ReplyDeleteA (pop) trivia-obsessed geek - There are far worse avenues he could venture down, so all good. Our daughter was the same at his age, probably because I was a bit of a bored stay-at-home mum so we spent our afternoons playing my old records, this one included.
ReplyDelete(Probably shouldn't say I was bored actually as not very yummy mummy-ish, but true!)
My 11 year old is am absolute sponge. He remembers everything. Lately, he has a knack for repeating everything I say. Not necessarily a good thing. Like Martin's child, mine also has a thing for Bowie. Perhaps we can weep a little less for the future after all.
ReplyDeleteClocks, cars and Beatles - how lovely to be able to witness the wonder of these things through the eyes of the innocent all over again! Best of all, he'll be able to as well, when he's older and you show him these posts.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is a timelessly great song.
Martin and Brian - love that your sons are Bowiephiles too.
That's brill. J loved Bruce Spingsteen (his words) for a time, but I doubt that he ever even noticed that there were different songs.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, my first exposure to this song was on Stars on 45.