My childhood was filled with the sounds of polkas. Although no one in the household I grew up in listened to this type of music (I remember Don Ho and Burt Bacharach LPs kicking around our livingroom with Beatles, The Guess Who and Led Zeppelin condemned to the basement), every childhood friend's house echoed with the sounds of Frank Yankovic and the like blaring from Milwaukee's finest AM radio stations. ("Milwaukee Polka," "Hoop-dee-doo," "In Heaven There is No Beer" and "Too Fat Polka" are, I am sure, tunes with which all readers of this blog are perfectly familiar.) So imagine my pleasure, nay, GLEE when I realized that Frederick may have a real future as an accordianist. He doesn't crank away at the thing, as most kids would, producing bleets like so many dying sheep. Rather, he sits in a quiet corner of the playroom, slowly pulls and pushes the bellows while working the chord buttons, and sings a soft and sweet tune. His favorites are Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" and "Road To Nowhere." He has created novel interpretations of these great pop tunes and it's just possible David Byrne would approve.
2 comments:
It looks like a serious and very absorbing occupation.
Frederick was very responsive to music when we saw him.
The sqeeze box looks just the thing,
xM
Can't make this technology work, it accepts Margaret but not me, just what I expected. Why am I so suspicious of this kind of thing? Dunno but it rarely disappoints me.
F is obviously talented but eccentric. A squeeze box, forsooth? At his age you're supposed to play the recorder, and like it.
Meanwhile have just been to see Kate Pegram's new baby (two days old) and am full of sentimental nostalgia. It does remind me very strongly of Simon at the same age. Everyone will tell you that he was born with a squashed nose and subsequently had gentian violet all round his mouth. He has improved quite considerably since.
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