I’ve always been a fan of late-60’s and 70’s British rock - Deep Purple, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Cream, Blackmore’s Rainbow, that sort of thing. How stoked do you think I was to hear the soundtrack to School of Rock?
Anyhow, to get to the point. The past few days, my 8??-year-old daughter has been wandering around the house humming a riff to herself that I hadn’t picked up on until last night, about half-an-hour before her bedtime. She’s humming the main guitar riff to Smoke on the Water! I had to ask her where she’d heard it. I got a withering look and was told, “I heard it on School of Rock. It’s a cool song.”
I agreed with her and asked whether she wanted to hear some other “cool” songs. “Sure,” she replied. So, we sat down, fired up iTunes and I gave her a 30-minute lightning history of British rock - The White Room, Stairway to Heaven, Pinball Wizard and Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2). Now, by no means are these the greatest songs by these bands, but they’re certainly accessible to a little kid. Now she’s asked to to fill her MP3 player with some of this music, which I plan to do tonight.
She’s also liking Wolfmother, a great Aussie band who plays music with more than a little nod to some of the great Brit-rockers.
If my influence on my daughter informs her music tastes like this, I’ve done my job in a way I can be proud of. There are so many things lately I’m enjoying about my relationship with her. I just hope things stay this way.
Rock on! I was driving home from Home Depot last night and Van Halen comes on (Hot For Teacher).. I look in the rear view mirror and I thought my 3 year old was having a seizure or something - I turned down the music a bit and she screams out - “Daddy I like this - is this Rock and Roll?” So I cranked it back up and we both did the ‘seizure dance’ all the way home!