Over the Line

I may have crossed a line of sorts last night.

Having a baby gives you the opportunity to get back to singing - if you were a singer and now are not.  Conventional wisdom is that babies are soothed by their parents singing to them.  I'll buy that I guess, although I would also imagine there's some quality and content issues involved behind the baseline of just hearing your parent's voice.

One of the first things I discovered here, or rather confirmed what I have always suspected (and what is frequently a pop-culture joke): I don't really know the words to that many songs.

Actually this is a little bothersome because I think the real statement is that I don't know the words to that many songs out of context.  Put me in the car with the radio on an 80's or Classic Rock station and I'll be fine.  In context, with the music, I remember a staggering amount of content.  So much so that from time to time I have wondered if there wasn't something better to use those engrams for (triple integrals comes to mind).

But it's all different sitting in that glider in semi-darkness holding the baby.  Suddenly the repertory shrinks substantively.

One of my first tries was "You Can Sleep While I Drive."  But the words weren't there.  That's too bad because I really like that tune and I think it has real potential as a lullaby.  #manfanfail

Sometimes what I do remember is even more interesting than what I can't remember.  Off the top of my head I can do passable versions of "This Train" and "Make Room for Marty" from a Limelighters LP my dad gave me when I must have been just old enough to work a record player.  The album "Through Children's Eyes" was one of my favorites, I don't really know why.  I have mp3s of all the tracks now.  I went back to try to find the words to "Lollipop Tree" a little while ago.  The last track on that album is "This Land is Your Land."  I could not believe the amount of lyrics I had completely spaced from that song.

Although its not like Baby TANBI will notice.  For a while anyway.

I can do a word and melody perfect "William's Doll" from Free to Be You and Me.  I must have done hundreds of runs through that song with the Traveling Troupe.  In this case not only can I remember the words and the tune, but I can also hear people I used to sing with in my head.  I also remember the title track and "Brothers & Sisters."  I can't remember the tune for "It's Alright to Cry" and there's some disagreement in my head about the lyrics to "When I grow Up."  Part of me wonders if those lyrics were changed somewhere along the way - or maybe if my mom made some kind of artistic executive decision all those years ago.

Anyway, the line.  Out of what I can only assume was a desperate attempt to find lyrical content appropriate to my goal of calming a truly spastic child, last night I found myself recalling word for word and note for note "Comfortably Numb" from The Wall.  There are two problems here.  First, I really wonder about the content appropriateness.  There's a lot of hard living behind the story of that song.  Probably a good thing Leo has no English (that I know of).  On further recollection, perhaps The Eagles "Take It Easy" would have been more appropriate.  I might have all of that in RAM somewhere.

The other problem with "Comfortably Numb?"  The last third is a wicked guitar solo which I cannot in any way reproduce.