hi y'all,

up at 6:30 this morning with a wide awake baby, thought i'd share my top 5 albums to play loud and soothe ian to sleep and make him smarter or at least bless him with more rhythm than i got. please add your suggestions to switch up my rotation--you think it will bounce him off to sleepytime and i'll try it. he seems to really like beats so it has been hip-hop heavy.

1. Mos-Def, Black on Both Sides
2. Vince Gauraldi Trio, A Boy Named Charlie Brown
3. Lauryn Hill, Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
4. A Tribe Called Quest, Beats Rhymes and Life
5. Radiohead, OK Computer

back

submit your own top 5

  
Jon,
I really feel you need to get some deep house and drum and bass in the mix. This kids the future, so you got to start prepping him. I recommend:

Kevin Yost - For a nice mellow/deep house beat, something to lull the kid to a sleepy dance state.
DJ Soul Slinger - Something to help prepare the kid for the beautiful, dystopic future in which we all live
Carol King - Really Rosie (Chicken Soup and Rice) A very moving children's album.
Free to be you and Me - Another great kids classic (I'm sure Jason Brownell can chime in on the merrits of this one.)
Joni Mitchell - Turn him onto Joni early. So he'll be emotionally prepared for life. I recommend, "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter", "Heijera", "Mingus"

Peace,
Ray.

  
Abbey Road, Side Two (That's a given)
Neil Young--Neil Young (Thick production and very soft tones)
The the--Mind Bomb (Puts me to sleep all the time. In a good way.)
Beck--Mutations
Rushmore Soundtrack (Excellent film and blow out soundtrack)

Phil
I am very white.

  
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Killers - Iron Maiden
Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
Piece of Mind - Iron Maiden
Powerslave - Iron Maiden
Live After Death - Iron Maiden
Somewhere in Time - Iron Maiden

In that order continuously for next 18 years.

pebner

  
I definitely know what you're talking about. When Zoe was born we lived in Goshen Indiana's version of Section 8 housing -- the apartment was really long and thin, that is, the rooms weren't very wide but it wasn't necessarily a small place. I had put a stereo on the shelf in a big closet and run 4 speakers the length of the house. Zoe was colicky and I would pace with her draped over my left arm most nights. Just playing CDs until she fell asleep and I'd fall asleep too in one of those pier 1 papasan chairs. Of course I was a wreck, too, because I worked full time washing dishes at the hospital and went to school full time in the "big city" of south bend an hour away. Ah! Those were the days! Thankfully they didn't last long. We dug out of there in a year and Susi's well-written scholarship application got us to Bloomington...

But let me give you the 1990 version of that list. It's not so hip-hoppy, but it's funny because it's accurate:

1. Paul's Boutique
2. Taj Mahal Sings and Plays for Children (This was on this Music for Little People label. I dunno if you can still get it. Keep an eye out. The Smothers Brothers Aesop's fables thing Zoe still listens to all the time.)
3. Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story
4. Sly and the Family Stone - Small Talk
5. Some Misfits "all the 7"s" comp that a snowboard kid left at my house when I was 16, that I still have in my car today.

Then of course there were those Gulf War NPR newscasts...

Anyway, if I was going to make suggestions today I'd say to throw in EPMD's Strictly Business, Zoe still knows all the words to You Gots To Chill (even though she'd rather listen to Blink 182 today), and I'd give you my personal favorite lullaby of the moment: Stina Nordenstam's "And She Closed Her Eyes".

Three cheers for the nighttime fathers! Thanks, Jon.

ian [rogers]

  
All good choices, but it is an irrefutable fact, that Reggae makes the babies heart grow fonder. The "One Drop" cures all infant anxieties. Like Bob says: "one good thing about music, when it hits, you feel no pain....." I relied heavily on the Wailer's Burnin' LP (Bob Marley and the Wailer's second album, the only one that was released as just "The Wailers") with all my kids.

...."so hit me with music, hit me with music now!"

Blaine

  
i'm not sure if you already got most of this message but it mysteriously disappered mid-typing. anyways i can't speak to any of these having baby soothing qualities, but here's my heavy rotation list these days.

eric b. and rakim "follow the leader"
stetsasonic "talkin all that jazz"
jurassic 5 "quality control"
phoenix "united"
ali akbar kahn & john handy "karuna supreme"
any nick drake record
all the blue note brazillian jazz comps.

keep on keepin' on my brother.
drew

  
1. Amon Tobin-Bricolage
2. Kruder & Dorfmister-K&D Sessions
3. Orb-Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
4. Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath
5. Bob Marley-Talkin' Blues

my list.
i've actually thought about this often.

peace
-lf8tr

  
my brother in arms,

cousin joey's week-old rotation goes a little somethin' like this:
common-like water for chocolate
de la soul- art official intelligence
beenie man- many moods of moses
wyclef jean- ecleftic
moby- play
beethoven for babies
gregorian chant cuts for the early morning wakefullness
yankee games when we can get 'em

(ian's uncle)joe

  
Top Five for Grampa Russ

1. John Coltrane "My Favorite Things"
2. The Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
3. Miles Davis "So What"
4. Stan Getz "The Girl from Ipanima"
5 John Coltrane "Love Supreme"

  
My Five for those long nights:

1. Miles Davis - "Summertime"
2. John Lee Hooker - "Boom Boom"
3. Ray Charles - "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now"
4. John Coltrane - "My Favorite Things"
5. anything by Sarah Vaughan

can't wait to try them out on my little ones
doan winkel

  
Taj Mahal Sings and Plays for Children definitely rocks
Also:
Harry Belafonte - Calypso
Pete Seeger - For kids, can't remember title
Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire
Marvin Gaye - Early recordings plus What's Going On
Dave Van Ronk - Inside Dave Van Ronk
Africando - Africando I

Oh yeah duh Frank Sinatra and Elvis of course. For Frank recordings on Capitol label, nearly almost any Elvis will do although Sofia is particular to the Sun Sessions.

Oh yeah, plus the two lullybyes I sing, coz they seem to be the only songs I can remember to words to without listening to the music, are:]
Bruce Springsteen, Sinaloa Cowboys
Johnny Cash, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

Both songs are rather dark and depressing although of course the end of the one about Christ has that possibility of ressurrection and redepemption, still, little complicated for a two year old. I need to figure out something more cheerful and upbeat. Sometimes I sing her that old folk song "Where Have All the FLowers Gone," it's a little sad too but I don't like to sing it too much because it gets in your head then for days, ouch. I've been trying to learn the words to "Hickory Wind" for a month but they just won't stick.

g