It is my oldest nephew's birthday this week. He is turning eleven. I have decided that this is the right age to begin his musical education especially as his younger sisters are obsessed with musicals. I don't think that a boy should have to take his first tentative steps towards puberty with High School Musical, rather than the Clash, as his guide. (I don't think that a girl should have to either, but it is easier for them to get away with.) Therefore as his birthday present I have decided to make him a compilation CD featuring all the key musical influences that he will need to take him through life. (Or would do, were it legal etc etc.)This is where you come in. What are the indespensible moments of music that no eleven-year-old boy should be without? What, in essence, is the canon? We can get into more esoteric stuff later as he gets older, but right now, what are the bands, the tracks that he needs to know? And is he too young for Leonard Cohen?
Answers in the usual place.
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17 comments:
It's important to get 'em funky when they are young. So either Superstition by Stevie Wonder or It Takes Two by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock. Something folky too so how about The Irish Rover by the Pogues and the Dubliners
Oooh, tricky. Although that's not a suggestion.
I did a mix-tape for my niece when she was 13 with this running order:
Slow Dog (Belly)
This is a Low (Blur)
Rudie Can't Fail (The Clash)
I See The Light (Cracker)
The Passenger (Iggy Pop)
Echo Beach (Martha & The Muffins)
Supernaturally (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)
Big Exit (PJ Harvey)
Near Wild Heaven (REM)
Superstition (Stevie Wonder)
Shiver Me Timbers (Tom Waits)
Mexican Wine (Fountains of Wayne)
If I Can't Change Your Mind (Sugar)
Les Fleur (4Hero)
Union City Blues (Blondie)
Changes (David Bowie)
Cecilia Ann (Pixies)
Secret World (Peter Gabriel)
(I didn't memorise it, but it's on my iPod because it also turned out to be a good gym mix)
Course, Joanne isn't an 11-year-old boy, but she was a gothy young teen (and is now a gothy mid-teen). I was trying to go for a mix of different types of music, different sounding singers, tending towards the indie end of things and trying to keep to relatively catchy stuff. She liked it.
Her big sister got Flaming Lips (kids love 'em), Half Man Half Biscuit, Arcade Fire and the Undertones on hers.
You're never too young for Leonard Cohen, but you have to pick your tracks carefully. I'd probably go for First We Take Manhattan.
I'd never do a mix CD without a Tom Waits track and a Nick Cave track, but that's just me.
Essential track suggestion: Teenage Kicks. Of course.
Hmm. You have an advantage being an auntie whose choices might get taken seriously - the twelve and ten year olds now sneer at both their parents' choice of music. However, the twelve year old does like Bowie (courtesy of her auntie, not me!) They also like The Passenger, so I think that's a good choice.
How about:
Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed
Don't Fear the Reaper New Order
Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana
Pinball Wizard The Who
London Calling The Clash
Going Underground/Eton Rifles The Jam
Dead or Alive Bon Jovi
Ok I'd better stop now as I'm getting carried away....
Do let us know what you come up with!
Having never been a teenaged boy I can only draw on withered memories of the boys I knew when I was 11 and what they listened to, coupled with what various male friends claim were the seminal songs of their youth and, er, songs I'm quite partial to as well. Apologies if it's a bit rock-tastic.
Anyway....
Some Jimi Hendrix (Purple Haze?)
Some Led Zeppelin (Immigrant Song?)
Some Nirvana (Smells Like Teen Spirit)
Some Pixies (Where Is My Mind?)
Guns N Roses (Sweet Child O' Mine)
Metallica (Enter Sandman)
Smashing Pumpkins (Today)
The Smiths (Hand in Glove)
Soundgarden (Black Hole Sun)
The Killers (Andy, You're a Star)
Foo Fighters (Best of You)
GreenDay (American Idiot)
Kings of Leon (On Call)
Tracy Chapman (Fast Car)
Pearl Jam (Alive)
Radiohead (so many to choose from!)
REM (Losing my Religion)
Jeff Buckley (Hallelujah)
Bob Dylan (Lay Lady Lady)
Pulp (Common People)
Red Hot Chili Peppers (Give It Away)
Van Morrisson (Gloria)
Bob Marley (No Woman No Cry)
Aqualung (Strange and Beautiful)
Stevie Wonder (Superstition)
The White Stripes (Seven Nation Army)
Yow. Some excellent suggestions here. May I suggest things that pre-date him, that he still needs a taste of?
Sweet Jane - Lou Reed
The Weight - The Band
I'm on My Way - The Proclaimers
Train in Vain - The Clash
All the Way from Memphis - Mott the Hoople
Tumbling Dice - Rolling Stones (or Brown Sugar or Jumpin' Jack Flash)
Under Pressure - Queen
Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
Happiness is a Warm Gun - The Beatles (because the message and humour would appeal to an eleven-year-old)
Bohemian Like You - Dandy Warhols
What I Like About You - The Romantics
Uncle John's Band - The Grateful Dead
Ordinary Day - Great Big Sea
Lola - The Kinks
Enid - Barenaked Ladies
Dance the Night Away - Van Halen (for gawd's sake, not Hot For Teacher because that really is what eleven-year-old boys like...)
Mean to Me - Crowded House
20th Century Boy - T Rex
Carrie Anne - The Hollies
Free Fallin' - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon
Runaround Sue - Dion and the Belmonts
Rock and Roll - Led Zepplin (or Misty Mountain Hop)
Don't Walk Away Eileen - Sam Roberts
Ahead by a Century - Tragically Hip
Runaround - Blues Traveler (or Hook)
Rock and Roll Girls - John Fogerty
In the Name of Love - U2
And I think, since you've rediscovered him so recently, Marie, that you should pick something by Bruce Springsteen, right?
I second "The Passenger". And note I snuck a few Canucks in...
Just to bring it up to the modern day have just come across one of my twelve year old's playlists. Maybe a bit girlie (though no HSM in sight as she hates it), but it does include:
Manic Street Preachers
Kaiser Chiefs
Amy Winehouse
Take That (?Ok OK)
Adele
Corinne Bailey Rae
Persephone I forgot to mention Lola! I heard it on the radio this morning and embarrassed the children by singing...
He must have some Sinatra, a Buckley (either will do), some Talking Heads, at least two girls with guitars and RATM.
Souisxie and the banshees (anything)
the cure - killing an arab and boys don't cry
roxie music
t rex - cosmic dancer
bauhaus
david bowie
queen
iggy pop
blondie
ramones
talking heads
All good things to get through the angst ridden years.
I listened to Leonard Cohen when I was 11, even younger in fact. I didn't know what "giving head" was, that's for sure.
One cd? This is a nightmare of vast proportions. Only standard songs? Well, here are some preliminary standards, in not-quite date order, that try to be a range. Problem area is rap, lyrically, for an eleven year old. Probably not Gin and Juice. I mean, I'd REALLY like to say Paul Revere, but... Whatever. I am just doing song names, which is partly a game, people, but also because I am well slow at typing.
Boom Boom Boom Boom
Rock Around the Clock
Hound Dog
I Will Survive
Walk On By OR I Say a Little Prayer OR Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head (Maybe the first two not the most appealing Bacharach for an eleven year old)
Hold Your Hand AND Day in the Life
Sloop John B
The Boxer OR Bridge Over Troubled Water OR Feelin' Groovy (when I was a thirteen, I LOVED The Boxer, which is why I would go for it for a boy)
I Shot the Sheriff
Blowin in the Wind
Paint It Black
Space Oddity
9-5
I Love Rock and Roll
Waterloo Sunset OR (playing to the 11 year old vote again) Dedicated Follower of Fashion
Stayin' alive
Stairway to Heaven
Bat Out of Hell
Teenage Kicks
Going Underground
Ace of Spades
London Calling
Dancing Queen
Bohemian Rhapsody
Our House OR House of Fun
Atomic
Going Underground
Another Brick in the Wall
There is a Light That Never Goes Out
3 is the Magic Number
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Street Spirit
Three
Common People
Hit Me Baby One More Time
Lose Yourself
Clint Eastwood
Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Dry Your Eyes
I'm stopping here. I could go on forever. I have forgotten some obvious ones, obviously. I will try to turn these into a single cd if that's the game, but in case the preliminary list is useful, here it is. I haven't time for this, by the way. I am a really busy guy.
All hail the irresistable post!
This is a delicate balancing act Marie, and one you cannot afford to get wrong. I won't make any actual song suggestions, but you should adhere to the following principles:
- he will not blindly follow what you are into, so a CD of your favourite tunes throughout history won't work
- he is surrounded by modern music (with the shouting and the bleeps and it hasn't even got a proper tune!), so this influences what he defines as relevant
- he is 11 and has a short attention span. Give him a few tunes as a taster, then more later. A 15 track epic compilation will have him reaching for HSM before you can say "innit".
- a musical education should be just that, a compilation of the roots of *current* popular music. So the Beatles might be relevant, but then so are Green Day, the Verve and Spice Girls. Yes, these are the foundations of today's popular acts, and we're all very much old enough to remember them.
- throw in some current popular songs to sweeten the deal, things you know he'll like or already likes.
Man, I so need to make a compilation.
P.S. Oh! Oh! I know I wasn't going to make any song suggestions, but given Jay-Z's recent Glastonbury extraveganza and associated controversy, may I suggest 99 Problems.
The original.
You might not be allowed to see him for a while after this.
No mention of Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys? The best single ever made?
I'd also recommend XTC for a young lad. Maybe Sgt Rock, or Making Plans for Nigel.
Am totally loving MC MCs.
I would suggest that a Janis track is an essential. Probably Me and Bobby McGee.
I'm agreeing with Matt on this one... if I was 11 and someone gave me a CD with lots of weird songs on it I probably wouldn't listen (especially of they were OLD weird songs).
Although if he does like HSM (or high street musical, as my mum recently called it) pulp are probably a good place to start.
I wasn't going to spend more time on this, but Jessica inveigled me into it.
I have stuck with only including goldstandards, as I have taken to calling them. I have gone with original brief of being a general educative taster, which is maybe not the best thing - I mean, I totally run with the idea of a few older songs on an album of things he likes, but when all is said and done, you knows the boy in question and will have to use your judgement. For what it's worth, I didn't have a taste at age eleven of any significant kind. I would more or less listen to anything. Thus it is a good time to mould, maybe. I was well sheltered. On the other hand, the first two albums I bought were Graceland and War of the Worlds, and I still love them both. So there. And here is a playlist that ought to fit on one cd (I have obviously read and agreed with a lot of other posts, and I have tried to focus on the eleven year old boyness).
(American Idiot has to take place of a lot of all the Nirvana and Motorhead, but maybe they're for thirteen year olds. But there has to be some metallish stuff. And you might say the Moldy Peaches aren't goldstandards, but EVERYONE has the Juno soundtrack, and there should be some representative of Fey Indie, since it's massive.)
Boom Boom Boom Boom
Hound Dog
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head
Surfin' USA
Space Oddity
Hold Your Hand
Dedicated Follower of Fashion
Bohemian Rhapsody
Another Brick in the Wall
You Can Call Me Al
Common People
Hit Me Baby One More Time
Lose Yourself
American Idiot
Clint Eastwood
Anyone Else But You
Well when I was eleven my big brother had already taken me to see Dylan so my own experience is a little unusual. This was also around the time of Sergeant Pepper,, so I grew up with that, Pink Floyd, The Mothers of Invention and a weird mix of folk blues and jazz (plus Ravi Shankar). Including the first Leonard Cohen album.
I found with both my own kids that simply playing loads of music when they were around and letting them decide for themselves which ones they liked (then suggesting similar stuff) worked well. Plus my kids definitely got the idea that there's no such thing as a musical enthusiasm you should be embarrassed by.
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