bizgirl

After a particularly stirring storytime today, one of my admiring fathers asked me my opinion of the They Might Be Giants CD No!.

I was so pleased. I had only heard it myself for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and was very happy to have found that They Might Be Giants embrace their infantile urges, and just make music for children. It's brilliant stuff. Here's the lyrics from a couple of my favourites...

Robot Parade
In a future time children will work together to build a giant Siborg
Robot parade, robot parade,
wave the flags that the robots made
Rob parade, robot parade,
robots obey what the children say

There's electric cars, there's electric trains,
here comes a robot with electric brains
Robot parade, robot parade,
wave the flags that the robots made
Robot parade, robot parade,
robots obey what the children say

The kids crack up at that one. They love the idea of ruling the robots. And this one's quite good to calm the kids down with and get a smile on the parents' faces...

Where Do They Make Balloons?
Marmalade's from Scotland, Rugs from Pakistan
Mexico has jumping beans and cars are from Japan
Clowns are from the circus, barking comes from dogs
Eggs come from a chicken and log cabins come from logs

But where…?
Where do they make balloons?

New York has tall buildings, New Jersey has its malls
Pisa has a leaning tower will it ever fall
The ocean has the fishes
London has a tower
In Holland they have windmills , lots of banks and pretty flowers

But where…?
Where do they make balloons?

Balloooooons. Ballooooons. Balloooooons. Balloooooons

Spaghetti is from China but Italians make it best
Ants can make an anthill and monkeys make a nest
Hungary isn't hungry
And French fries aren't from France
Turkeys aren't from Turkey – they can't fly but they can dance

But where…?
Where do they make balloons?

Obviously, it's even better with all the different instruments in there as well. They bash away at all sorts of fun stuff. And the singing is nice and bright and upfront. Much to my embarassment I actually sang (warbled, more like) the "Turkeys aren't from Turkey – they can't fly but they can dance" line while giving my review of the CD to the father, and, after we parted, I saw him pop it back into the rack. I must remember to not try and sing when I've been reading aloud - I daresay it isn't the prettiest of noises.