The Wiz: "Teach Your Children" Pt. 5
Today in "Teach Your Children", conversations with children through music, #5: what connects a dinosaur, communication and goosebumps? "Cosmic Dancer", "T. Rex", 1971.
The girls and I are making lunch. I hear Marc Bolan's voice in the background, stop, feel a shiver, and blurt out:
"Wow, what a song! Look, I have goosebumps!"
"Why, Dad?" We talked about how conversations, meeting people and other experiences are forms of communication that we receive and experience differently. Sometimes we feel excitement. Sometimes our bodies respond involuntarily, with blushing or goosebumps, even to music. We explained voluntary and involuntary reactions and thought of examples.
I described what the song does to me: how its melody and strings move me, and the words too, sneaking in a little English along the way. We talked about feeling such passion for something that it seems part of you from birth, as dancing does for the song's narrator, and wanting to continue forever. Everyone has that special passion, and those goosebumps, of their own!
I asked whether any songs moved them. "No!" Ha! So we talked about the last time they remembered getting goosebumps or feeling excited: their first class Zoom meeting, before a competition at an activity, or simply being cold.
We discussed the band's name and whether either girl knew what it meant. Who does not enjoy a little dinosaur in a story? One even answered "Tyrannosaurus". What?! We talked about it being like the lion of the dinosaur jungle, and perhaps the band wanting to be the biggest and strongest.
Talk to your children, play the music you love, and share your experiences and enthusiasm. If they do not get goosebumps, perhaps you will. There is a good chance you will create a lovely shared memory!
The linked Spotify playlist includes the original, live versions including an extended acoustic performance, a lovely Morrissey cover and, of course, the moving version Nick Cave released recently.
P.S. Usually, a review introduces these "Teach Your Children" installments. This time it happened the other way around.
My post about Bolan and "Cosmic Dancer":
In the image, counterclockwise from the upper-left: singer Marc Bolan, an involuntary reaction to great music, a real T. rex, the next generation listening to "T. Rex", Bolan alongside the title of that spine-tingling song, and the iconic "Electric Warrior" artwork, the album from which it comes.
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