I let Emmett hit in the batting cages this evening, while wearing a catcher's mask and helmet.
I think this added to his very cheerful and chatty mood tonight.
As we drove home I was playing my mix tape, Raydio Schmaydio v. 3 which has been in high rotation lately. Enough that Emmett can sing along with most of the songs. Which he usually only does with his absolute favorite songs (like Joan Jett's and Greg Gaffin's cover of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" - which Emmett calls "the little bluebird song.")
But tonight he was whistling and singing along (even to Buck Naked's "Teenage Pussy From Outer Space" - which I am pretty sure he considers to be a song about spacecats).
So first he's whistling along with Morricone's theme to "For a Few Dollars More" and asks if somebody is really whistling in that song.
Me: "Not only is he whistling, but the same guy is playing the twangy guitar and leading the singers who are doing those background chants."
Emmett: "Whoa. Are they still flying the flags half mast for the Pope?"
Me: "Yes."
then the Buck Naked played.
Emmett: "He died right? Somebody shot him. Did they fly the flags at half mast when Buck Naked died?"
Me: "No."
Emmett:
thinking about this
"How about when Prince dies? Do you think they'll fly the flags at half mast when Prince dies?"
Me: "I don't know. They should. But they didn't even fly the flag at half mast when Ray Charles died."
Emmett: "What?!? But Ray Charles is a great singer. And a jazz musician. He's a great guy."
Emmett is now singing along with Charlie Rich's "I Can't Go On."
Emmett: "Who is this?"
Me: "Charlie Rich."
Emmett: "We should listen to this again. He sounds like Elvis. I like when his voice swoops up and down. This song has kind of a groove. It's a good night time song."
Emmett also sang along to Barry Gray's theme to "Stingray" and The Nowhere League's "For You." Then he asked me whether I thought it was more likely that he'd become a professional baseball player or a singer. I gave the edge to baseball for right now considering he's practiced at it for two years and hasn't practiced at music at all.
Obligatory Daily U2 Post From Alicia K:
I dig their cover of "Beat on the Brat" because really, where else can you hear a Nobel Peace Prize nominee sing with such glee:
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat with a baseball bat, oh yeah!
I love Charlie Rich, and "I Can't Go On" is one of his best, but even the Jerry Kennedy sessions collected on Fully Realized (among Rich's favorites of his long career) are maddeningly inconsistent. Now I like "Mohair Sam" as much as the next guy -- and sure it was a big hit -- but there's no excuse for all those other Dallas Frazier songs. Yuck!! At least Charlie was interested all the way through. When I went to SXSW ten years ago Koch was reissuing a bunch of his albums & I got CDs of Set Me Free, The Fabulous Charlie Rich and Big Boss Man. I'm delighted to own them, but I'd be hard-pressed to recommend any of them to someone not already on the bandwagon and who either (a) has plenty of disposable income or (b) doesn't mind buying a very short album where half the tracks aren't very good. That said, the good tracks are frickin' fabulous and worth the price of admission. But the difference is painfully obvious between the songs he cares about (his and his wife's, covers he chose like "Nice and Easy" and "Big Boss Man") the ones that are on the album because Billy Sherrill had a piece of the publishing. When he's on he's the sort of singer who inspired the cliché "I'd pay to hear him sing the phone book," but when he's singing crap like "San Francisco Is a Lonely Town" it's Jeezus, start singin' the phone book already!
where else can you hear a Nobel Peace Prize nominee sing with such glee:
You obviously don't spend a lot of time at Jimmy Carter's house . . . .
A great plug for the Bubblegum book :
[link]
XRRF is one of the must-read UK blogs...
Man, I love me some Charlie Rich, too, but I gotta agree with the gist of Joe's post: the man had some erratic material.
I had a big crush on Charlie Rich when I was a little girl. I think he may have been my first crush based only on voice. mmm the Silver Fox.
I couldn't make it all the way through that. That is a cry out for a mercy killing.
I couldn't get it to come alive for me.
