Like a heartbeat baby, trying to wake up.

Singing son said recently, when I asked him if he'd listened yet to the new Beck, "I don't like new music, I only like old music."

Of course, even the oldest old music was new music once, but still, he has a point. It's especially great to find out how great an old song is, a song you haven't heard for a long time, or maybe, more to the point, that you never really listened to in the first place.

For instance, "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite." It's on a great album, maybe even a perfect album, Automatic for the People, and the lyrics, which I never really heard until recently, when singing son chose the song for a game of "choose the song" on our way home from Idaho, are awesome. This is a fun game, by the way, with a limited group of people with a bunch of fully loaded iPods between them.

A couple of days later, when my son was helping me pick up my bike and bring it home, he busted out this verse, as he is wont to do, wherever and whenever:

Baby, instant soup doesnt really grab me.
Today I need something more sub-sub-sub-substantial.
A can of beans or blackeyed peas, some nescafe and ice,
A candy bar, a falling star, or a reading of doctor seuss

Singing son has a little bit of an uncanny ability to mimic the voices of other singers, so his reaching up for the "candy bar" was so Michael Stipe, I could have sworn we were back in the 90s eating at The Grit in Athens, GA. I haven't been able to stop singing this bit of this song to myself now for a couple of weeks. Sometimes, this little bit of the song keeps me awake at night, because I myself need something more sub sub sub substantial.

Anyway, you can check the song out for yourself on the "Pretty Music" feature of this page (upper right hand corner), if you've never heard it, or if, like me, you never really heard it until someone pointed it out to you, while you were driving through the georgian vistas of eastern Idaho, or while waiting for someone to adjust your brakes in a bike shop.

Clarification: In my previous post, I inadvertently implied that I personally threw the baby shower for singing son and his lovely wife. This isn't so--I was just an assistant. The hostess was my daughter the make-up artist, who is a perfect hostess and the impresaria of enjoyment.
It was a swell party, thanks to her.

Right back at ya: Thanks to renaissance girl for her kind words about my blog. Most of the time when I try to say "I love your blog," it comes out more like "when are you going to blog again, already?" Which doesn't have the same gracious ring, come to think of it. I appreciate the words you put out in the world, all of you. Thanks for your messages.