Ros and Robbie

[przed]

Ros will frequently get on a kick where she wants to hear the same song constantly so she can learn the lyrics. Fortunately, she has so far always done this with songs I like. (Mancunian Way, Wooden Boat.) Her fave of the moment is Robbie Williams' Let Me Entertain You.

Leaving aside the wisdom of letting an eight-year-old listen to a song with the line "shake your ass, come over here," (hey, at least there's no f-bomb in this one) it's led to the occasional interesting question.

Ros: Why does he say "Little Bo Peep has lost his sheep?
Me: Because Robbie likes to play with gender....Do you know what gender is?
Ros: Yeah.

Half an hour later.

Ros: Why does Robbie like to play with gender?
Me: That's a good question. ::launches into a discourse on the frequency of cross-dressing in English culture::

Comments

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Bunny does that too, I like to introduce her to songs *I* like listening to lots too.

We now know all the words to Skullcrusher Mountain, for example. I may feel a tad guilty about that...

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one. *g*

I was not familiar with Skullcrusher Mountain. (Jonathan Coulton is one of those guys I appreciate when I hear him but never seek out on my own.) Heh. And also, yikes!

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Did you listen to it or just look at the lyrics, cos the tune is really catchy.

In my defence, if it had explicitly been about a dude abducting a woman I wouldn't have touched the song with a barge pole - what I like about it is it could be any gender mad scientist abducting anyone they fancy. Because that's totally better *looks shifty*

[soundofthesurf.livejournal.com]

I can't help it, but this makes me feel all warm inside. You and Ros are just simply made of all kinds of awesomeness. :)

[przed.livejournal.com]

You're on LJ! (However briefly. I shall enjoy your appearance while I can.)

Well, we're all kinds of something. *g*

Hope you've had a lovely weekend, my dear!

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

Do you have pantomime over there? In the style that we do? With principal boys and principal girls, and the dame, and cross-dressing everywhere? Like this (http://moonlightmead.livejournal.com/2014/01/04/)?

(I think in the states they think that 'pantomime' is a mime thing, but it isn't here, and I certainly don't know what it is in Canada.)

If ever you are over here in December or January, get thee - well, no, get you all - to a pantomime.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Not only do we have panto here, but we've gone to it the last couple of years! I should totally have brought that up in the gender fluidity explanation! I'll be better armed the next time she brings it up.

We're just trying to decide whether to do the panto again this year. Ros always enjoys it, but this year another theatre is doing an figure skating musical, and given Ros' current figure skating obsession that might be more up her street.

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

Heh! *g* That is a song full of vocabulary, for sure. I like to think of Ros learning the wonders of twisting expectations from Robbie songs. I was a bit older than her when I was listening to them as new stuff and thinking a lot, but I remember how radical he seemed at the time in amongst pop compilations which were otherwise all Spice Girls and Britney et al.

[przed.livejournal.com]

The first day Ros decided she was going to learn the words and I had it on repeat in the car, she stopped during the third time through and yelled "This is like a tongue twister!" But she cracked Candy pretty easily and that's at least as fast, though possibly doesn't contain as many difficult words.

All in all, I'm enjoying the process. *g*

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

Robbie's songs really do have the vocal dexterity of rap. He's very good with language and seeing how to fit words together. That said, I don't think I know all the words to half his songs because I'm bad at hearing them distinctly - I know how 'Let Me Entertain You' goes, but not necessarily what he's saying all the time! *g*

[przed.livejournal.com]

Robbie's love of rap definitely shows in his lyrics. There are definitely songs of his where I struggle with the lyrics, but there's now only one line in Let Me Entertain You that I completely muck up, and I'm finally at the stage where I can sing it all unaccompanied. Benefits of having an obsessive eight-year-old constantly listening to it. *g*