Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child for 8/26/06

August 27th, 2006 Posted by Bill Childs

This week’s episode is guest-hosted by Oklahoma-based kids’ singer Monty Harper. Enjoy!

They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse in Your Soul (Flood)
Tim Cain - Drum Thang (Marooned On Tim’s Island)
Disney - I Just Can’t Wait to Be King (Lion King Soundtrack)
Joe McDermott - Baby Kangaroo (Everywhere You Go)
Monty Harper - Humming Bird Hum (Paws Claws Scales & Tales)
Are you prepared to get spooked?
Carole King - The Ballad of Chicken Soup (Really Rosie)
Disney - Grim Grinning Ghosts - (Walt Disney World Resort Official Album)
The Who - Boris the Spider (My Generation - The Very Best of the Who)
Monty Harper - Creepy Crawly Party Time (Our Wacky World)
Erin Lee & Marci - The Moonlight Wolfbite Batjuice Jamboree (Snowdance)
Are you prepared to rock?
Elton John - Crocodile Rock (Greatest Hits)
The Beatles - Hey Bulldog (Yellow Submarine Songtrack)
Pete Townshend - Over the Top (The Iron Man)
Paul McCartney - Smile Away (Ram)
Bill Haley & The Comets - See You Later Alligator (The Best of 50’s Rock)
Monty Harper - Tsunami Band (Paws Claws Scales & Tales Enhanced CD)
Are you prepared for love?
Disney - A Whole New World (Aladdin Soundtrack)
The Beach Boys - Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Pet Sounds)
The Beatles - I Want to Hold Your Hand (Past Masters Volume One)
Monty Harper - Love This Baby (The Great Green Squishy Mean Concert CD)
Paul Simon - Father and Daughter (Surprise)
Are you prepared to dance?
Don’t Make Me Dance - Tom Chapin, Some Assembly Required
Disney - Be Our Guest (Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack)
Mr. Billy - Chugga Chugga Choo Choo (Batteries Not Included)
Monty Harper - The Gentlemen Are Dancing On Their Toes (Imagine That)
Disney - Transformation (Brother Bear Soundtrack)
Are you prepared for fun?
Barry Louis Polisar - I’m a 3-Toed, Triple-Eyed, Double-Jointed Dinosaur (Family Concert)
Jessica Harper - Nora’s Room (Nora’s Room)
Fatcat & Fishface - Fatcat & Fishface (Horrible Songs for Children)
Katherine Dines - Flea Fly Flow Mosquito (Hunk ta Bunk ta Chants)
Tom Lehrer - Silent E (The Remains of Tom Lehrer)
They Might Be Giants - Snail Shell (John Henry)

And some comments from Monty:

Howdy, Listeners!

I’d like to thank Bill and Ella for giving me the opportunity to put together a show. I am now in awe of the fact that they do a two hour show each week. It’s fun, but it’s a lot of work. I don’t know how Bill manages it but I’m sure glad he does.

My co-host and 5-year-old daughter Evalyn predictably stole the show. I let her pick out nearly all the songs, and gave her veto power over the few I suggested. There was a natural emphasis on Disney, since she is in a Disney phase right now with her music. I felt a bit conflicted because one of the things I love about Spare the Rock is that we get to hear all kinds of independent music we might not hear otherwise. But the Disney stuff is great too and Evalyn made a few non-obvious choices, so I went with it.

The Beatles, Beach Boys, The Who, Elton John and other classic rock selections came from Bill’s request that I feature some music that isn’t necessarily kids’ music but that might appeal to kids. Evalyn helped pick these out as well. All the songs are familiar favorites of hers and mine.

I played a bunch of my own songs, which may seem self-serving, and I guess it is, but Evalyn genuinely very much wanted me to play them. She’s proud of her daddy, what can I say?

I didn’t realize how quickly two hours of air time can eat up songs. We had way more songs on our list than we actually used. When we had to cut songs, I dropped the stuff you’d be more likely to hear on another Spare the Rock episode.

We organized the songs loosely into categories for each set. This came about after we made our list, and noticed some commonalities that lead to the themes. It was fun to work with Evalyn in grouping and ordering the songs, and she had definite ideas about how she wanted them presented.

I have no idea where Bill and Ella were on Saturday, but I hope they don’t mind the flights of fancy Evalyn and I took them on. That feature of our conversations arose spontaneously and we had a lot of fun with it. [Ed. note: I will be/was in Austin, Texas, seeing some friends, and Ella will be/was in Saugerties, New York, also seeing friends.]

I mentioned the compilation CD, Free Prize Inside, a couple of times during the show. It was originally my intent to feature more artists from the CD but we ran short on time. You can only obtain a copy from the artists on the CD, but I never got around to listing who they are. Therefore, I thought I’d list them here, if that’s ok. Visit a show by any of these artists, and you can get your hands on a copy. It really is a cool CD.

Free Prize Inside
1. Imagination Movers, “Clean My Room”
2. Steve Songs, “Gravity”
3. Monty Harper, “I Go Bananas”
4. Will Hale, “Make Me Laugh”
5. Mr. Billy, “Seuss On The Loose”
6. Erin Lee & Marci, “This Year”
7. The Doo-Dads, “The Ball Song”
8. Ken Lonnquist, “X-Ray Specs”
9. Two of a Kind, “The Double Life of Amphibians”
10. Macaroni Soup!, “Stinky Cake”
11. Lou Del Bianco, “Dawn Puccini”
12. Beth & Scott and Friends, “Hello, My Name Is Joe”
13. Andy “The Music Man” Morse, “R-I-N-G-O”
14. Susan Salidor, “The Boo Boo Gets Better By and By”
15. Barry Louis Polisar, “Early Sunday Morning”

Like I said, it was fun doing the show. We were listening to it again this evening and really enjoying the music and Evalyn’s antics! I hope you enjoy it too!

http://sparetherock.com/20060826.mp3