The other day, my friend Lynn asked my child what her favorite Beatles song was, and my nine-year-old came back with, “Huh?”
When I was a kid, my folks schooled me and my siblings in the ways of iconic folk, rock-n-roll and Motown legends. They gave us a gift of music love that I treasure today as I sing along with Dylan or Carole King in Starbucks and The Rolling Stones or Otis Redding in my car. It’s a passion I’m trying to pass down to my kids.
As for the gaping hole that I had inadvertently left in music history (John, Paul, George and Ringo), what could I do? I hooked up my iPhone to the living room speakers, and sat down my three precious offspring for some important life lessons.
Rock school, session #64: The Beatles.
My kids roll their eyes and take my “lessons” in stride as I belt out every word to every song from Cake’s Fashion Nugget album or explain to them how amazing Michael Jackson really was in our time. I know that these teaching moments are just part of my innate parental duties, and I take my duties very seriously.
Likewise, when my kids began to receive hand-me-downs from my sister’s children in the form of AC/DC band t-shirts, I knew what I had to do. (Side note: My sister has four kids whose first initials are A, C, D and C. She and her husband bought tons of AC/DC t-shirts. What choice did they have? Plus, those little rocker kids looked pretty awesome.) Well, since hand-me-downs from older cousins are basically exactly the same thing as Christmas morning, my kids asked to wear the shirts immediately.
“Whoa. Not yet guys.”
“Why?!?”
“Rock school, session #127: AC/DC.”
“Mommm, please, no!”
You bet your sweet devil horns I made those kids memorize the hooks to three AC/DC songs. Minimum. If you’re gonna wear the shirt, your little ten-year-old self had better be able back it up with the lyrics to “Highway to You Know What.”
Susana Fletcher is a mother of three, writer and blogger and she remembers when Spotify used to be called Napster.
