Statler Brothers
I loaded the cd player up to capacity: 5. Billy Joel, The Sound of Music, Leon Redbone, a local folk duo whose names I have forgotten, and the Statler Brothers. I have written a limerick about the latter:
'The Best of the Statler Brothers'
shall not be compared with the others.
But if I were forced,
why they'd be the worst
yet still the best, given my druthers.
I feel that it represents the complex set of emotions evoked when I hear, "Playin' Solitaire 'til dawn with a deck of 51; smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo, now don't tell me there's nothin' to do." I heard these lyrics a lot growing up, because my dad liked to listen to their cassette in the car. I thought they were really nerdy, and I ridiculed them as 'old fogey' music. This is a term I had adopted in the 6th grade when someone accused me of favoring such a taboo-genre after I revealed to them my taste for 50's rock and roll and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. At that point I decided to give more modern music a try (though OF COURSE never compromising the Chatanooga Choo Choo), which included learning all the words to Ace of Base's "The Sign," (and many of their other songs!) and The Crash Test Dummies' "mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm." I was proud of myself for my attempt at high culture. A few years later, my dad started listening to the Crash Test Dummies and I told him they were so over.
One day I went to visit my grandparents and my grandfather, whose name is Pop, had gotten a new truck with a cd player. He had a total of 1 cd, and it was the Statler Brothers. I had no idea that more than one person fancied the group, more than just my dad. But given that is was his dad, that fine a capella family maintained its stigma; this just wasn't music for teenage girls.
Recently a friend of mine had a play list playing on her computer, and a song, those familiar lyrics recited above, began to chime from her bedroom. I immediately expressed intense affection for the song, like this: "I love this song! I can't believe you know it!" But it's not true! I KNOW the song, word for word, and every other song on the album (though she had only downloaded that one). I know the song, it is familiar to me, we are friends. I think of many things when I hear it, sections of my brain change color, and I feel GOOD when I hear it. I now listen to it voluntarily, because it is now such a source for fairly lighthearted memories.
Maybe I do love it, like a brother.
'The Best of the Statler Brothers'
shall not be compared with the others.
But if I were forced,
why they'd be the worst
yet still the best, given my druthers.
I feel that it represents the complex set of emotions evoked when I hear, "Playin' Solitaire 'til dawn with a deck of 51; smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo, now don't tell me there's nothin' to do." I heard these lyrics a lot growing up, because my dad liked to listen to their cassette in the car. I thought they were really nerdy, and I ridiculed them as 'old fogey' music. This is a term I had adopted in the 6th grade when someone accused me of favoring such a taboo-genre after I revealed to them my taste for 50's rock and roll and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. At that point I decided to give more modern music a try (though OF COURSE never compromising the Chatanooga Choo Choo), which included learning all the words to Ace of Base's "The Sign," (and many of their other songs!) and The Crash Test Dummies' "mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm." I was proud of myself for my attempt at high culture. A few years later, my dad started listening to the Crash Test Dummies and I told him they were so over.
One day I went to visit my grandparents and my grandfather, whose name is Pop, had gotten a new truck with a cd player. He had a total of 1 cd, and it was the Statler Brothers. I had no idea that more than one person fancied the group, more than just my dad. But given that is was his dad, that fine a capella family maintained its stigma; this just wasn't music for teenage girls.
Recently a friend of mine had a play list playing on her computer, and a song, those familiar lyrics recited above, began to chime from her bedroom. I immediately expressed intense affection for the song, like this: "I love this song! I can't believe you know it!" But it's not true! I KNOW the song, word for word, and every other song on the album (though she had only downloaded that one). I know the song, it is familiar to me, we are friends. I think of many things when I hear it, sections of my brain change color, and I feel GOOD when I hear it. I now listen to it voluntarily, because it is now such a source for fairly lighthearted memories.
Maybe I do love it, like a brother.
posted by SK at 7:33 PM
1 Comments:
The class of '57 had it's dreams.
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