The Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the soundtrack of our lives

I've been enjoying reading all kinds of comments recently. (The Hobbit House post will continue taking comments, well... so can everything else since they all come to me to moderate.) :)

I love the comment reminding me of... Mr. Conductor!!! Why didn't I think of that? Christopher loved Thomas the Train Engine, especially the original episodes with Ringo. So, I know I'm not a complete failure as a homeschooling mother because I do remember telling him about the Beatles at that time. He doesn't remember. Of course, he also doesn't remember any of the grammar and sentence structure we studied during that time either.

There were two instances last week I asked him who his homeschool teacher and why she didn't teach him the important things of life. One was the said conversation about music, if I remember the other was about movies. Obviously we needed to review curriculum, perhaps we should have added "20th Century Culture"???

Although, we did chat yesterday about "what group or person was the musician of a particular decade" in the 20th century. I remembered reading it was Frank Sinatra in the 40s, Elvis in the 50s, the Beatles in the 60s (although I'd split that decade and pick The Beach Boys the first part of it and the Beatles the second... but whoever made the list didn't ask my opinion), John Denver represented the 70s and I think it was Garth Brooks for the 90s.

I couldn't remember who represented the 80s but Christopher thought it would be Michael Jackson (whose only song I liked was Rockin' Robin and even then I preferred the 1950s version).

Going back to the Beatles... imagine going through life and not knowing the haunting lyrics to Yesterday, or Something, or the delightful When I'm Sixty-four. Then there are all their songs just made for philosophical debate... like Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds... as in... what were they smoking when they wrote this... catchy beat, though.

While a certain nineteen year old says he doesn't know who the Beach Boys are, he has certainly heard their music in this house. Guess he didn't associate the name with the song... sigh. How many times has he heard his father sing Help Me Rhonda and ask that very important historical question... was it the Beach Boys or Jan and Dean who sang Little GTO?

Although hubby and I were not raised in the same town (we just barely went to high school in the same decade), we had one thing in common... summers with our radio tuned to WLS in Chicago! I think it's now talk radio all day but back then it was.... magic. It was a different time and place when the radio was king (and the music was, for the most part, clean).

You do notice there was no confusion over John Denver... or Elvis? Other favorites like Johnny Cash (whose songs tell the soul of America) should be well known in this house. Having been raised by Southern parents, my nostalgia is definitely found in the already mentioned Johnny and the music of Willie Nelson.

My mother-in-law hated country music but she owned Willie's Stardust album... what's not to love? Then there is the cowboy music of George Strait and Marty Robbins or the angelic bluegrass songs of Alison Krause.

It all has to be the fault of those ear plugs. When Stephanie was home, the house was filled with music. Steph was our song bird and she had (has) the loveliest voice. Christopher tells people there's a reason his original i-pod songs were mostly show tunes and contemporary Christian music from the 1990s... the influence of his big sister.

There was the year she was in a chorus that performed Beauty and the Beast. I wonder if Christopher remembers her singing the entire musical to him over and over when he was little. We did have a cassette player but who needed it when we had his sister at home?

So... all this to say it's all the fault of those ear buds and earphones and having our songbird move away. No one wants to hear me sing. I haven't a clue why...

May we wax poetic over the music of our youth... we haven't even gone down the road of Yo Yo Ma, yet... or the Carpenter's... or the Fifth Dimension... or the music of the Jesus People... or Frank and Dean... sigh.

I know there are wonderful contemporary Christian and Gospel songs as well as the "old hymns of the faith" but sometimes I just love to hear the best the secular market has to offer. That music which is lovely (at least to individual preference), not that which defiles the imagination.

While writing this, I remembered a post written back in 2006 where I pondered "music, technology, and the soundtrack of my life". It can be found here...