Song Lyrics

The Little Man loves music. It's a surefire way to put him to sleep, to get him in a better mood, and to make life in general better for everyone involved. It doesn't matter where he gets his music from, either. He can just as easily listen to music from the iPod speakers as he can when my husband or I play guitar and/or sing to him.

So the other day it was just the Little Man and me home for the afternoon. I laid him down on a blanket on the floor and put on some music. I started singing along with the music, looking into the little dude's eyes and getting lots of big smiles and coos from him. Then I heard myself sing this:

Voices whine

Skyscrapers are scraping together

Your voice is smoking

Last cigarettes are all you can get

Turning your orbit around

Ack! My kid isn't smoking cigarettes! I waited for the next song on the mix to come on. It was even worse.

I dreamed about killing you again last night

And it felt alright to me

Dying on the banks of Embarcadero skies

I sat and watched you bleed

Buried you alive in a fireworks display

Raining down on me

Your cold, hot blood ran away from me

To the sea

Both Jesus, Etc. and Via Chicago are songs that I love (and, by the way, if you get the opportunity to see Wilco perform live...do it. They are awesome and fun and possibly my favorite band ever). But jeez. Those lyrics came on and Motherbrain took over. I started thinking about all the songs that I probably shouldn't play with him around, at least while he's pretty little. I mean, you never know what they're going to decide to perform in public, right?

My husband has a story about grocery shopping with the two oldest kids when they were little - like 3 and 4 years old - and getting death stares from middle-aged ladies in the produce department. It wasn't until then that he realized that his son and daughter were singing Someday Mother will die and we'll get the money (From "I Palindrome I" by They Might Be Giants) over and over again. Yeah, I don't want to be in that situation. I realize it's not a huge deal what other people think, but if I'm going to be watching my language around the kid then certainly the music I listen to shouldn't be filled with cussing, violence, or drug and alcohol references.

I need to listen to that stuff now while he's too young to repeat it and then give it up for a while.

So for the rest of the afternoon we listened to Sublime.