Music

Summer soundtrack

Mandy tagged me for this music meme, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to follow the rules. You’re supposed to:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good — but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

We have music playing all day, but I keep the iPod on shuffle most of the time. There are more than 2,000 songs on there. That doesn’t quite mean that we rarely listen to the same song twice, but it does mean that there hasn’t really been a steady soundtrack to our days. That being said, there are songs that are getting a lot of “airtime” here lately.

  1. Poppy requests “Hush Little Baby,” also known as “Hush-a Baby,” every night at bedtime. We sing at least two versions every night — “Hush Little Baby,” “Hush Little Poppy” and/or “Hush Little Nemo.” The “Baby” and “Poppy” versions are relatively straight-forward, even though she requires me to sing “Daddy’s gonna buy” the various items. (Speaking of which, who buys their child a billy goat?) In “Hush Little Nemo,” however, “Marlond” buys “Nemo mockingbirds,” “Nemo diamond rings,” and so on. It gets a little tricky fitting it all in.
  2. After the “Hush Little Baby”-a-thon, we sing “Rockabye.” Twice. Or three times. With the same cast as above. The “Rockabye Nemo” lyrics, if you’re interested, are as follows:
    Rockabye Nemo, under the sea
    When the wind blows,
    the seaweed will wave.
    When the seaweed waves,
    the cradle will fall,
    and down will come Nemo,
    seaweed and all.
  3. The final song in our evening repertoire doesn’t take as many alterations. The lyrics are lifted from a “Sesame Street” story called, fittingly, “Elmo’s Lullaby.”
    Lullaby, kiss goodnight,
    in the glow of a nightlight.
    Lay down, sleepyhead,
    in Poppy’s soft bed.
    Close your eyes now and rest,
    like a bird in its nest.
    Close your eyes now and rest,
    Poppy you are loved best.

    4. Poppy sings it to Pete, too, when she helps me put him down for morning nap.

    That’s about it as far as regularly occurring songs go. These four are the last ones the iPod played this afternoon.

  4. “Midnight Rider” by Gregg Allman.
  5. “Fly” by Nick Drake.
  6. “Mary Wore a Red Dress,” which was a tune from Poppy’s music class. The iPod is pretty fond of this one (as is Poppy).
  7. “Heard it in a Love Song,” by the Marshall Tucker Band.

    8. The final instructions are to tag seven people. I’m not going to do that, though. If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged — and drop me a comment if you share your own seven-song list.