Listmaina - Road Trip Songs

This is not really a list, just a little ode to my number one driving song on a sunny day. My favourite moment, when the sun is shining on Sydney Harbour, and I happen to be driving over the Cahill Expressway, is to crank up Randy Newman's I love L.A. 

Now I know that seems to defeat the point, as I am in Sydney not LA, but there is a bit about driving down the highway, with the roof off and the beach boys blaring on the radio, and for some reason, on this part of the road with the stunning views, my windows down and the wind blowing my hair and those words and music lifting my spirits, I feel I'm in the most beautiful place on the planet.

I don't have a convertible by the way, I drive a big people moving bus, so you don't get more uncooler than me, but I still feel like a million bucks in my 'ride' (and I say windows down and topless convertible are the same thing....)

So my list of driving songs:

1. I Love L.A.

Linking up with Listmania.

Other Randy Newman ode is here. Maybe you should do a listmania topic of posts about Randy Newman....

Don't tell me I'm weird, I know none of the above makes sense to anyone else but me. And as I'm 100, and you are not, I'm sure half of you don't know Randy Newman, but you've missed out....

Shh, Randy! Not in front of the children!

I listen to a lot of hip hop and rap – and I have a few rules about it. I never play it with other people’s kids in the car, and my kids and I have had plenty of discussions about the inappropriate attitudes or swearing and they even understand the issues around the “N” word.  My 11 year old informed me he’d refer to Ni**as in Paris as ‘Track 3’ and he was quite horrified when he heard it on the radio “But Mum, what will they say when they back announce it? (eyes wide in alarm) What will they CALL it?”
So I thought nothing when I dug out the Randy Newman Songbook CD – lovely, melodic grand piano sing-a-long music…or so I thought.
My 8 year old had endless questions – “Why does he love money so much?” (It’s Money that I Love), “Why did they kill them if they were gay?” (Great Nations of Europe), “How can they be holy if they kill people like that?” (Great Nations of Europe) and midway through Rednecks, “Why do you like this guy? He’s weird.”  (I did realise Rednecks is TOTALLY inappropriate but it’s so catchy I can’t help it. I thought I could explain it but I failed miserably. )
He’s not weird, he’s clever and a satirist. He points out the hypocrisies of mankind, and that is harder to explain to a child than a few warnings about swear words and offensive or sexist/racist words. There is apparently some age when you don’t get it, and then you magically do, that concept that what the words are saying, and what the songwriter actually thinks are not the same.
Kids hear and see such adult things these days - I hated that Katy Perry could sing about getting so drunk she blacked out and having a three way and every little girl merrily sings along. Jesse J says not to dress like a 'ho' and that gets beeped out. What do our kids make of all this? I don't know what to make of it!
For the record, by the time I got to Leave your Hat on, I just pressed skip. Even I wasn’t brave enough to go there.  Political Science, on the other hand, I loved as a kid.  It came out in ’72 but I didn’t hear it until after Short People (I was slightly nuts about Newman as an 8 year old.) I figure if I could understand it was a joke at 8 (in the less savvy '70's), then my kids can too. Otherwise I’ll just have to dig out his Toy Story soundtrack….at least I KNOW those songs are safe!

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