Ponytail Picks #49 - Kids

It’s after school and we’re knocking on your front door with this week’s picks. Can your inner child come out to play?

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LISTEN

Classic albums made with and/or for kids

Most children’s music is something adults tolerate, at best. The high-pitched, sour-candy cheeriness can quickly get on the nerves of anyone older than 10. But! as with any genre, there are few true gems to find. Like the tales of Frog and Toad or the occasional bowl of Captain Crunch, these six albums can be enjoyed at any age.

Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1964)

You’re likely familiar with the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, but Mr. Schultz’s collaboration with Vince Guaraldi began with this album, originally titled (so seriously!) Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown. Basically, it’s a lot like the album you’re more familiar with but packaged so you can listen year-round without getting weird looks from the rest of the family.

Peter, Paul and Mary - Peter, Paul and Mommy (1969)

‘60s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary made a name for themselves with a certain, suggestive children’s song involving a shore-dwelling dragon, but it wasn’t until this album that they fully embraced the genre. Familiar tunes like “It’s Raining” sit alongside originals (“Day Is Done,” “Make-Believe Town”) and songs written by other childrens-media geniuses like Shel Silverstein (“Boa Constrictor”). Play it on a Sunday afternoon, and if you’re lucky, it’ll shift everyone into nap-mode.

Harry Nilsson - The Point! (1970)

I’ve mentioned The Point! before, but I can’t help myself. It’s the only record from this genre that I can be coaxed into adding to my all-time top 20 list. The pun-filled (if a little politically incorrect) tale of a round-headed boy in a pointed world was narrated by Ringo Starr in the film released the year after, but for the original, Nilsson puts his own voice to the story and its career-high songs. Tracks like “Me and My Arrow” and “Think About Your Troubles” could be counted among his best work—quite a compliment considering who we’re talking about.

Johnny Cash - The Johnny Cash Children’s Album (1975)

Similar to Peter, Paul and Mary, it doesn’t feel like much of a stretch to imagine Mr. Cash writing music for kids. His trot-speed honky-tonk sounds tailored for children even when he’s singing about murdering people in cold blood or destroying a loveless marriage. So his foray into children’s music goes as well as you’d imagine.

Many of the songs are written by Johnny and/or June, but he also performs work by Sesame Street writer Jeff Moss to round out the album. No matter the tune, this record firmly establishes him as America’s Grandpa.

Langley Schools Music Project - Innocence and Despair (1977)

I don’t know when or how this CD ended up in our house when I was a kid, but for years, I didn’t think of it as anything more than a fun piece of hometown history. Only after happening upon a copy in a Seattle record store and seeing a quote on the back from David Bowie himself¹ did I realize Mom had stumbled upon a cult classic. You’ll never hear “God Only Knows” the same way again.

Dead Man’s Bones - Dead Man’s Bones (2009)

Ryan Gosling’s performance as butt-rock-loving Ken wasn’t his first foray into music. He and Godzilla vs. Kong writer Zach Shields put a children’s choir together to produce this surprisingly awesome Halloween-themed gem in 2009, citing Langley Schools Music Project as inspiration. How’s that for a random group of pop culture references!

-AK

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WATCH

My favourite kid-led films

Knowing that there are plenty of excellent teen coming-of-age films out there as well, I’m keeping my definition of “kid” here to folks who are either specifically known to be or at least appear to be around 12 and under.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Forbidden love brings with it a flood of intense emotion, no matter your age.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

This isn’t one of those “oh, to be a kid again” situations—no, Kiki’s living my grown-up dream: cute attic home above a bakery in a town by the sea with a cat, a career that utilizes one’s skills and passions, and artist retreats in a cabin in the forest.

Lilo & Stitch (2002)

Lil’ Lilo with her quirky personality and kid troubles from small to big might be the most precious kid ever put on screen.

Boy (2010)

Moonwalks to perfection the blurry line between the innocence and imagination of childhood and the harsh reality of grown-ups who fuck up. 

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Yet another fantastic kid-led film from the master Miyazaki.

-JB

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READ

From the books of babes

Kids’ books don’t get enough credit from adults. I find that the most profound truths often come in the simplest fashion. Here are a couple examples, and make sure to read my write-up on Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger back in Ponytail Picks #14 for another one:

Frog & Toad All Year

Definitely make sure you listen to the Frog & Toad stories Andrew linked above, and while you’re at it, read this collection too, which I also referenced in my year-end picks for “READ” in Ponytail Picks #47. It’s a gorgeous, hilarious collection of stories of companionship, which is one of the best and truest things there is. Here’s a really cute one from it that really encapsulates both Frog & Toad’s care for each other, as well as their loveably bumbling ways.

Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas

The Dog Man series is a current favourite of my own kid’s. They are comics made by George Beard and Harold Hutchins, who are in turn comic characters made by Dav Pilkey. 

One of my favourite ongoing storylines is that of Petey the Cat, who naturally, is good guy Dog Man’s main foe to begin the series, but over the course of the many books, he slowly learns how to be good, in large part thanks to his son Lil’ Petey, who is actually Petey’s clone, but as a kid. So essentially, Petey’s own childhood self is guiding him towards redemption—you can’t get any more poignant than that. Here’s a beautiful dialogue between the two that’s preceded by Petey learning that he will still have to go to jail at the end of the story:

BRB, crying up a storm.

-JB

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Fun’s over. Next week we’re going where no kid has dared go before… the

basement.

1. Bowie called the rendition of “Space Oddity” “a piece of art that I couldn't have conceived of,” describing the vocals as “earnest if lugubrious” and the backing arrangement as “astounding.”