Fascinating conversation between my 5-year-old daughter and her friend Calvin in the backseat of the car (pre-quarantine).
Neve: Calvin, do you like my dad’s favorite song?
Calvin: No I don’t. My leg likes it. But my body doesn’t like it.
Neve: Your leg is a part of your body.
[beat]
Neve: My body doesn’t like it either.
(“Either” pronounced as the British do it.)
My daughter Neve and I saw the incredible IMAX movie Apollo 11 last week. And the emotional climax of this very emotional movie is the playing of this song by John Stewart, the folksinger and alum of my alma mater Pomona College.
Despite already being a John Stewart fan (check out the amazing album “Bombs Away Dream Babies”), I had only discovered this song earlier this year. And it made my day to hear it in the movie.
The kicker is that the Apollo 11 astronauts actually did play a tape of this song on their return journey to earth.
Such a delightful find yesterday. Came up on a Spotify playlist that my wife Simone was listening to.
Well, I don’t care what the whole world thinks
Call us a couple of Missing Links
Love all these monkeyshines
Every day is Valentine’s
I love the monkey’s uncle
And the monkey’s uncle’s ape for me.
I should have recognized those harmonies for the Beach Boys. And written by the brothers who wrote “It’s A Small World”!
UPDATE: The Sherman Brothers also wrote all of the music for Mary Poppins AND the 1974 musical adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. Apparently, everything in life leads — eventually — back to Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn. Here’s their song “Cairo, Illinois” performed by Paul Winfield (as Jim) and Jeff East (as Huck):
We visited a new church in Highland Park yesterday, and the band played “Ain’t No Grave” by Claude Ely, which is just amazing. It’s basically proto-rock-and-roll …written in 1934.
Claude Ely was a preacher, songwriter, singer. Legend has it that Elvis’s mom took him to Ely’s tent revivals, and it’s not hard to hear Elvis in this recording. The Washington Post said that Ely had an “unhinged delirium.”
What a find.
Kazoos! And strings.
I want a brave man
I want a cave man
Johnnie show me that you care, really care, for me
I can’t help but imagine this music as the soundtrack to Huck and Miguel’s escape down the river.