February 05, 2004

School of Rock

Posted by Brian

And now for something completely different, The Guardian on what six to eight year olds think of classic rock. Here are some sample responses, but the whole thing is very amusing.

Smells Like Teen Spirit
It’s making me think about doing bad things like putting snowballs down my sister’s back.

Anarchy in the U.K.

He sounds like the baddie in Scooby Doo at the end.

Posted on February 5, 2004 04:35 PM UTC
Comments

Tears are literally running down my face from laughing.

“Cream: Sunshine Of Your Love (1967)

What the grown-ups say: “The big hook of Sunshine Of Your Love is a grinding, instantly memorable hard-rock riff, stuttering between two notes before hellishly descending for a few more, then rising in an upward squiggle.” (www.allmusic.com)

What the kids say:

Gabrielle: Argh! Vampires!

Beth: Ooh, I think this is by my dad.”

Posted by Rv. Agnos · February 5, 2004 05:22 PM

Once again proving that kids are stupid and uncool. Weird that they liked “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” though.

Posted by John · February 5, 2004 05:31 PM

What I think is weird is that anyone might think of Nirvana as classic rock.

Posted by Jeremy Pierce · February 5, 2004 05:40 PM

Why didn’t they play ‘Eating Rifles’ by the Jam

Posted by harry · February 5, 2004 05:41 PM

Now is probably a good time to remind people of this — children interpret Radiohead through the medium of drawing people hanging themselves.

Twenty trillion out of a septillion!

Posted by William · February 5, 2004 06:42 PM

Sorry.

Sarah, a Brooklyn schoolteacher, did it first.

And better.

Click here.

For example:

“soma”, the strokes

frances: could you turn this off?

sarah: you don’t like it?

frances: no.

sarah: a lot of people think this is a great new band.

frances: who thinks that?

sarah: i don’t know. music people.

frances: i think it sounds bad. it hurts my head like a hundred dogs.

Posted by ethan · February 5, 2004 07:25 PM

Me, I loved Sophie’s analysis of Dylan’s voice:

He sounds like he’s just smelled something really bad, like cat poo.

I like Dylan, but she’s right!

Posted by Another Damned Medievalist · February 5, 2004 07:32 PM

What the hell is “Busted”? Whatever it is, it appears to be better than almost all classic rock, so maybe I should look into it.

Posted by MQ · February 5, 2004 08:00 PM

Not only is Sophie right about Dylan, but Holly’s take on The Who’s “Substitute” is freakin’ poetry: “It sounds like when your wee goes back up.” Awesome.

Posted by rosalind · February 5, 2004 08:48 PM

> Sorry.
>
> Sarah, a Brooklyn schoolteacher, did it first.
>
> And better

Didn’t VH1 do a whole show like this about 5 years ago?

Posted by Keven Lofty · February 5, 2004 09:11 PM

Eh, these kids commenting on classic video games are sharper and funnier…

http://www.egmmag.com/article2/0,4364,1487038,00.asp

“Niko: Hey—Pong. My parents played this game.

Brian: It takes this whole console just to do Pong?

Kirk: What is this? [Picks up and twists the paddle controller] Am I controlling the volume?

John: I’m just going to do this [twists the paddle controller as rapidly as possible].

Tim: John, don’t do that. You’ll die.

Andrew: This is a lot like that game. Um, whatchamacallit—air hockey.

Sheldon: Except worse.

Andrew: Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip.

Becky: I don’t even see the point of having sound on this.

Andrew: Wow. The score is tied. It’s so exhilarating.

Brian: I saw a documentary on this. The game was so popular in arcades that it got jammed up with quarters.

John: In this thing? [Points to the Pong game console]

Tim: I would never pay to play something like this.

John: I’d sooner jump up and down on one foot. By the way, is this supposed to be tennis or Ping-Pong?

Becky: Ping-Pong.

Gordon: It doesn’t even go over the net. It goes through it. I don’t even think that thing in the middle is a net.

Tim: My line is so beating the heck out of your stupid line. Fear my pink line. You have no chance. I am the undisputed lord of virtual tennis. [Misses ball] Whoops.”

Posted by spacetoast · February 8, 2004 08:48 PM
Followups

→ "He said bums".
Excerpt: I know with the state of the world and all, and having Paul Martin Junior as PM (say this as...Read more at scribblingwoman
→ "He said bums".
Excerpt: I know with the state of the world and all, and having Paul Martin Junior as PM (say this as...Read more at scribblingwoman
→ The violent and the voluntary.
Excerpt: Brian Weatherson links to this brilliant Guardian piece: the 'never trust anyone over ten' set rate classic rock tunes. It's amazing, you know, the range of bizarrely precise, non-musical associations music can evoke. From, "It’s making me think abou...Read more at John & Belle Have A Blog

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.