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Bonkers doll! I love it! There's a couple of nursery rhymes that are a bit dodgy - can't remember them off the top of my head but my friend had a National Trust tape (proper English Charity) which had a song on it with the N word in it. Yes that word...outrageous.

When I next come visit I'll do Monkey Music songs with Clara Jane - not quite as cool as Franz Ferdinand but not saccharin either!

Sal, I do believe that doll is British. It came with a book published by Child's Play, which is either British or Australian. I'm finding that the British kids stuff seems to be a lot more questionable than the American stuff. Which means I love it.

I so wish we had Monkey Music here. And I wish they would transfer you here.

But my lovely child sang Damn, I wish I was your lover at her nice preschool. And of course, there was the Don't Stop Swaying which she called the Hansel and Gretel song. (There are Hansel and Gretel allusions...but definitely NOT a kid song)

Then...there were the problems brought about by Melissa Ferrick and Gotta Go Now. The right thing for a tot to say when hearing discussion about someone being Jewish (say her father) is not "Jewish men make good lawyers" Ai yi yi. Context child. Context.

I guess you probably wouldn't be able to deal with Peter Paul and mary and Simon and Garfunkel like Eric's cousin was raised on. As I've learned from you and Kara you gotta just make a mix...of stuff that doesn't include blowing or highness...
Monkey Rag says ass but besides that it rocks, in fact they (ass) are coming out with a kids cd. TV party could be okay...too but I think you should leave out everyone's fucking but me...cause thats just wrong.

that doll gives me dirty thoughts....and frighting ones too

You know, many of the best-known children's songs are morbid. "Ring Around the Rosie" is about the Black Plague, isn't it?

Our 16-month-old is just noticing music. So far Raffi's her favorite - we play her Belle & Sebastian or even theoretically kid-friendly stuff like "Hoodoo Voodoo" from the first Mermaid Avenue CD, and she doesn't really respond. I figure Raffi's her gateway.

There is a decent midway point between the kids stuff and the good stuff.
They might be giants put out a kids cd that my kids will kill me to listen to.
On my four year old's mix cd?
Lots of weezer, cake, fatboy slim and selected beastie boys.
also, the killers and some gorrillaz thrown in for good measure.
You don't have to put up with the crap if you choose the non crap carefully.

Ivy, we listen to a lot of stuff like that. We've got some of the TMBG stuff and she's starting to get into that. She's loved Weezer since the moment she exited the womb.

The other day she and B. had gone out for a bit. When they came in, I was blasting "Intergalactic" and she started screaming about the Beastie Boys.

I've been working on a mix for her for some time. "Hoodoo Voodoo" is great; she loves it. So's Wilco's "Just a Kid" from the Spongebob movie soundtrack.

There's no way I'm bailing out on good music in favor of the horrid stuff. I'm really pretty happy with the balance we struck. I just wish B. hadn't found this damn CD stashed in the back of her collection. :)

we struggled withthe same thing at casa tpon and settled on a somewhat limited music library that consisted of the best of the standards... Beatles, U2, XTC, etc. and little but of the Smiths and PIL just to keep it interesting.

I tellya, Pops: get the "For the Kids" CDs. It's really pretty good music--and it's even got Wilco on there!

I bought it long before I was pregnant. I was in a philanthropic mood, and a portion of all the proceeds from the sales of the 2 CDs go to "Save the Music." (Which is totally the main reason why I haven't just burnt the damn CDs and sent them to you. ;))

this has been the dilema for moms & dad's everywhere, forever... my little sister grabbed the microphone at her pre-school graduation and sang "Look at me I'm SandraDee, Lousy with virginity...." from Grease. Mortification personified is my mother, oh so proper, trying to disappear into the nether world at that moment.

One of my wife's friends is on the Wilco tape-trading scene. We've been bugging her to get us a live tape of the Wiggleworth Dad shows (Tweedy/Jon Langford/Tim Rutili) for some time now - that should work really well.

Our 16-month-old is just too young to really "get" music yet, I think.

Mike, I think Clara Jane was around Esther's current age when she really started noticing music. It's just been in the past two months that she'll point to my computer or her stereo and ask for music. Or shout out requests.

Annie, I've never met your sister, but I'm pretty sure I love her.

i love the singing and dancing.

i'm disturbed by the old lady who swallowed a horse.

:)

In a moment of pure foolishness, I admitted to my mother that I don't know the words to kids songs. We knew the tunes, and made up the words.

Ma got us three CDs. Thanks, Ma. Our fave was the ever-peppy Micheal Finnigan, which goes something like:
"some-thing some-thing MICHEAL FINNIGAN he had whisk-ers on his CHIN-AGAIN, some-thing some-thing MICHEAL FINNIGAN screech-ing screech-ing BEGIN AGAIN!"
Rinse. Repeat.

Somehow, those CDs were lost in the move. I swear, totally subconcious. After listening to the crap that is St. Louis radio, I almost wish I could find them.

OMG, are you kidding? What a crazy doll! Funny, wacky, and a little scary...

ah, mary, st louis radio is the bane of my existence. i complain about it at length quite often.

Bean adores the Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. We have the Simms Taback book and she just howls with delight when we sing "Perhaps she'll die." Cracks me up to no end.

Sooooo i think you should play step daddy by hit man sammy sam and that's just my baby daddy by trick daddy.. :)

Eeeps, the other day Viva asked for a "dance party," (her way of saying "throw on some music and let's dance around") and I made the mistake of putting on Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking. We were whirling around to "Standing in the Shower Thinking" and all of a sudden I realized Perry was singing, "And the water is so fucking hot, it beats upon my neck and I'm pissing on myself," and, oh, oops.

We generally go for a mix of Dan Zanes, Putumayo Kids' collections, Beatles, U2, James Taylor, and the like. She is also a Beastie Boys and Sly and the Family Stone fan.

Oh, and just recently she started singing, "Who let the dorms out? Hoop, hoop, hoop?" I have no idea where that came from.

By the way, that doll? Is frickin' sick, dude.

One of the funniest things I've ever heard (and I guess I found it funny because it wasn't my child) was a friend's two year old in the backseat singing "Rollin down the street, smokin indo, sippin on gin and juice...Laid back [with my mind on my money and my money on my mind]"

'Cept she was singing "...my mind on my mommy and my mommy on my mind...".

I feel your pain.
My mother-in-law got Pixie a Barney C.D. for Chirstmas.
We've been fighting the cutsie-wootsie-kiddie stuff too.
The woman knew not to get it, and now Pixie's wants to hear it all the time.

Pixie (my daughter)loves the White Stripes too!

Why would they even make that doll?
That is just creepy!

Oh, I have laughed and laughed at that piece and all the comments as well...

And this comes from "that wierd kid" who didn't have a blankie or a teddy bear, but carried around an 8-track of Supertramp's "Breakfast In America." They say I knew all the words to several Meatloaf songs before I even started school -- but what can you expect with a Mom who took me to my first day of Kindergarten in the Black Trans-Am from Smokey & The Bandit?

I remember one time my sister was out on the sidewalk in front of our house at about 11 or so singing along to Alanis Morrisette's "You Oughta Know" and my mom finally realized that she was singing it *out loud* and that my sister had no idea what "Does she go down on you in the theater" meant, but our neighbors didn't know that! My mom was so mortified.

Mary, I'm always forgetting the words to kid songs, too. Leaving me to my own devices to make up new words? Not a good idea. That's how Clara Jane winds up learning words she shouldn't know.

Beege, the Wilco song on "For the Kids" is the one I wrote about a few weeks ago. It's one of Clara Jane's favorites.

Lisa Blah Blah, how much do I love that you played "Nothing Shocking" for Viva? Lots! Just don't be surprised if she starts urinating in the bathtub.

I'd forgotten about the Putomayo Kids stuff. We've got a few of those, too.

Dixie, don't you wish PKB would get on here and tell her story about Baylor singing "Baby Got Back" at the Jack in the Box drive-thru? That's right up there with "Gin and Juice".

Johanna, the White Stripes have quite a kids following. There were a lot of little ones when I saw them in August. Have you ever read the interview with Jack conducted by a 5-year-old? It's sweet.

Debbie, the image of a kid hauling around a "Breakfast in America" 8-track? Funniest thing I've heard all damn day!

I checked out Mary Had a Little Amp from the library yesterday. Not bad. There are a few clunkers (Jack Johnson, Maroon 5, I'm looking at both of you.), but there are some real gems. Dixie Chicks doing "Rainbow Connection" is lovely. Love Moby's "Anchovie". The Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson tune is fab. Clara Jane and I both liked REM's "We Walk"; she was singing along by the end. But the real treat is "Wild Wild Party in the Loquat Tree" by Indigo Girls. It just might be the most perfect kids song ever.

That doll is just...well, I currently have a video rental in my truck entitled "The GingerDead Man." It 'stars' (endures?) Gary "The Buddy Holly Story' was a million years ago" Busey as a murderer brought back to life in the form of a foot-tall Gingerbread Man. I haven't gotten drunk and watched this POS yet, but the cover jacket shot of TGDM? Eerily similar to Clara's doll.

I'm just sayin.

BTW, I LIKED Maroon 5's version of the Wonka song, thank you very much. It's no Emmett Otter, but hey.

Nothing stirs the paternal pride like hearing my five-year-old in the back of the car yelling "Go, Flea, Go!" during the bass break in the Peppers' version of "Higher Ground." Or his keeping perfect tempo by rocking back and forth in his car seat.

that doll scares the EVER LIVING CRAP out of me.

Ahem. We have, I believe, two different "there was an old lady" dolls at the library in our storytime collection. They swallow things. And are hilarious. My coworker tried to tell the story in a way where she didn't die, but there was one four year old who kept shouting out "she died! she died!" and correcting her. So she died, of course.

I'm pretty sure that doll's son terrorized Karen Black in her own apartment (if you do or don't get the reference please let me know...).

Harrison asked me recently if I was wanting to hurry up and die so I could see my mom again. What a 'gulp' moment. He's really curious about the afterlife all of a sudden, and we're not Sunday School people, so I'm fielding questions as honestly and optimistically as I can.