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June 29th, 2011 by Steve

Help: US road trip playlist for a six-year-old

My daughter’s first iPod and the associated parental responsibility (letting her ‘taste’ some music without trying to sway her taste) is a topic that’s been aired before.

It’s a challenge that took a new twist recently when she asked me to add some stuff for our forthcoming summer holiday. I have a habit of overly ambitious holiday plans. This year: Florida, coast-to-coast road trip with three young kids in nine days, then Californian mountains, forests, cities and coast in a massive motorhome.

She wanted stuff that she could listen to on long, probably tedious driving days that would also reminder her of the holiday afterwards.

This is the playlist. Something from, about or referencing every state we plan to go through, with a few extras, oddities and bits of tat thrown in:

 - Welcome to Miami (Will Smith)

- Georgia (Elton John)

- Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

- Mississippi Goddamn (Nina Simone)

- Memphis Tennessee (Chuck Berry)

- Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn)

- Mary Queen of Arkansas (Bruce Springsteen)

- Is This the Way to Amarillo? (Tony Christie)

- King of Rock and Roll (Prefab Sprout)

- By the Time I Get to Arizona (Public Enemy)

- Under the Bridge (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

- California (Joni Mitchell)

- San Francisco (Scott McKenzie)

- California (Lenny Kravitz)

I clearly need help here – all suggestions welcome. And has anyone ever written anything even vaguely musical, apart from the musical, about Oklahoma?

January 4th, 2011 by Steve

Back to responsibility (and Pod-given rights)

Responsibility is something that many of us are getting to grips with again today, the first ‘real’ working day of 2011. After days of what was, for most, an extended festive holiday because of the way the dates fell, today for many PRs is all about refamiliarising with project schedules, deadlines, urgent requirements and longer-term actions.

For me, the stark realisation that responsibility was again required came a little earlier – when faced yesterday with the life-determining issue of what music to put on my daughter’s new iPod.

It did seem a bit strange giving a tech gadget to a six-year-old for Christmas, but then again I got my first music player (grim grey portable record player, only played 7ins singles, though it could stack them up thanks to a natty plastic arm) at six, so fair enough.

But she doesn’t know how to download music. Yet. So she asked me to put some music on it for her. What sort of thing did she want, I asked?

“You’ll know what I like. Anything that is good, is happy and is not a Christmas carol because Christmas is over” came the reply.

This, then, became a responsibility like no other.

My actions over the coming few hours could shape her musical tastes, and so indeed the rest of her life. The first three pieces of music I got were (in this order, and with a degree of pride): Baggy Trousers by Madness, Ghost Town by The Specials and A Town Called Malice by The Jam. All from Boots’ record area, all 89p each. Yet in the digital get-it-quick age, she was entrusting me with making these formative decisions for her.

So what’s on the Pod then? Given I figured she’d need a small selection to start with, rather than being overwhelmed, and I needed to avoid the temptation to inflict too much of my tatty tastes on her, I went for:

- Several ABBA classics

- Best of the Jackson 5

- Some (70s) David Bowie

- Return of the Las Palmas 7 (mandatory, clearly) by Madness

- Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones

- Back in Black by AC/DC

Possibly a bit of a forecful ensemble for a six-year-old, but equally a crucial part of her education.

Here’s to 2011 bringing lots of other challenges, although hopefully none with quite the weight of this one.

March 23rd, 2009 by Steve

Ultimate PR top 10: work in progress

Great column from Lucy Kellaway in today’s FT about why there are so few pop songs inspired by the workplace.

She cites Sheena Easton’s Morning Train but laments on this being an ode to commuting rather than an incisive snapshot of the working day. Whatever the merits, the video and studio performances are classics.

Even domesticity has had a go at attaining musical heights of late. 101 Housework Songs offers us treats like I Want To Break Free, Manic Monday and – poignantly in the depths of a recession – I Will Survive.

So surely the modern workplace can offer us something to inspire musicians? We spend enough time in it after all.

Here’s my PR top 10, in no particular order, for consideration:
- Fleetwood Mac, Sweet Little Lies
- Spandau Ballet, True
- Dead Or Alive, You Spin Me
- The Jam, News Of The World
- Eurythmics, Would I Lie To You?
- Green Day, I Want To Be On TV
- Elton John, Tell Me What The Papers Say
- Brutal Truth, Media Blitz
- Girls Aloud, No Good Advice
- Bros, When Will I Be Famous?

Nylon and hairspray meets a steam train