“Come down at one,” said my son.
“Make it eleven,” he said on the phone that evening.
“As close to eight as you can,” said the text that woke me in the middle of the night.
“Zzzz,” said my son through his bedroom door. By nine I had all his housework done and meals prepared. My own had been abandoned in favour of scraping the ice from the car; the first frost of autumn had been a hard one and would doubtless have been harder still without the fog that blanketed the morning with ephemeral gold.
Even the kites had not taken to the skies when I left, yet the day before I had counted twenty-one of them wheeling above the house and raiding a local bird table. By the time I reached my son’s home through the interminable queues of traffic, the fish in the pond were awake and demanding to be fed, his garden was alive with birds including thirteen magpies in a single tree. I’ve never seen so many together before.
I cleared away the evidence of the previous evening, that spoke in uncompromising terms of an extemporary lads’ night and got the coffee ready to brew. Having clattered about enough to gently nudge the dead into wakefulness, I finally heard a mumbled ‘hello’ from the bedroom and made the coffee.
He was already checking his phone by the time I went in and, after a desultory conversation, mentioned that he and his friend had been talking about music last night. He had been introduced to such bands as the Sex Pistols. They had listened to some heavy metal. They had commented on the use of real instruments instead of electronic gadgetry and the musicianship of the bands. His friend had suggested a couple of tracks. He played me one. Did I know any others?
Did I know any others? I started gently with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and it went on for a while spanning decades and styles with Pink Floyd, the Eagles, Joy Division, Green Day and the Foos amongst others. The others were the curve balls I threw in…like the Purple People Eater.
Nick’s sound system is one that makes mine look antiquated and it is all controlled through an app on his phone. I told him the titles, he tapped them in and played them… and the morning was lost to rock. Not that I was complaining. We discussed the benefits of an eclectic taste in music. Mine runs from operatic arias through some very strange veins to the rock we were enjoying.
“You’re the only one who doesn’t have the app on their phone…” he complained after a while tapping in yet another title. He instructed me on how to acquire it and made me install it, so that I, his mother, can play or change the tracks and volume at will.
Perhaps he hadn’t had enough coffee…
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
What a nice time of sharing for a mother and son. Very lovely. Good taste in music, too.
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It was, Marilyn… a really good few hours 🙂
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Awesome taste in music.
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I’m a product of my times 🙂
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Music of that time was pretty awesome:)
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It was. Still is 😉
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True
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Nice mother son story!
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There are always tales to be told on that front 🙂
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I envy the fact that you have a son who can drag you into the century of the ap. I can barely make a call and pick up voicemail on these new phones – and BOY does that make me feel old and irrelevant.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
– ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
“It takes a village to educate a world!”
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I’ve always enjoyed tecnology, largely because of my sons, I suspect.
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I did, when I was younger — actually employed as a sys admin for a bit – self taught. But the rock face learning curve lost its appeal as time went by.
After having to drop out due to a protracted illness, I lacked the drive to jump back in, working twice as fast until I figured out how to catch back up and work around all the newfangled glitches in new languages and platforms.
Now I yearn for someone to simply show me how to do what I want to do. Thus the envy.
xx,
mgh
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I learn what I need to learn, that’s all. Keep it simple…and keep an eye on how things progress. I wouldn’t want to be atthe sharp end of technology now, it is moving way too fast. xx
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But how great you were able to share your music with him!
My time to educate my kids is in the car, when various cds go on of my choice! Rock n roll, 60s. Disco, cheesy 80’s pop, bhangra, bollwood, r’n’ b, swing, soul… there’s a lot to choose from!
And we use this great app called Smule! To play karaoke too!
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He grew up with a wide range of music. It is coming home to roost now 🙂
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Brilliant!!! I love catching Lil Princess humming along to an old tune…. rather than all the new music… makes me think I’ve managed to influence her taste just a little!!
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We influence them a lot more than we realise… or they realise 😉
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So true!!!!
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Yep we deliberately damaged our children by having a jukebox at home that takes 100 cds of our choice. Gradually they began to appreciate a wide range of music. I need to up-app I suppose.
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Oh that is mean… and brilliant 🙂
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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Thanks, Jaye 🙂
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this sounds like yet another good reason to get myself a mobile phone. Thinking of exploring this after the current WIP is finished… I have been putting it off, for I didn’t think I needed yet another source of technical frustration, but…
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It is pretty good having so much great music to hand.
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I was always into all kinds of different music too, and my daughter has quite an extensive knowledge of 80’s music!!!
The problem is, my knowledge of ‘modern’ music is pretty grim! 🙂
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Sadly, I’m not up to date either on anything other than some of the Indie rock.
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It is fun talking music with your kids. Keeps me up to date.
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I gave up on trying to do that years ago when they got into drum n bass 😉
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Reblogged this on Sun in Gemini and commented:
Had to chuckle at this tongue in cheek post from Sue.
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They still play “Stairway to Heaven” as the last song at school dances in my town. Oh, the memories when I was a teen. 🙂
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It’ll never get old that one 🙂
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Agree
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I think you’re right to praise eclectic musical tastes. For one thing, it’s a great way to make friends with a wide variety of different kinds of people.
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Or be murdered by your own son after showing him just how eclectic your tastes really are …all morning… 😉
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There’s always that danger. 🙂
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!)
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That list of rock artists you mentioned…pretty much the play list at our home for decades. We weaned our kids on that stuff, they added their own to the mix. Perfect. And I’m loving that illustration for Stairway ! Thanks for the a.m. music. ❤️ 💛 💙 💜
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After inflicting some of my odder tastes upon him this morning… and having him compare some to a strangled cat, pat me in sympathy for others and brandish the carving knife to cut his own ears off after the rest, he may be regretting giving me access to his sound system 😉
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Ah, a wonderful way to spend a morning, and in some excellent musical company too 🙂 We’ve always brought up the gorgeous girl with our music – she is choosing her own path now in terms of what she listens too, but she has been exposed to a wide range. Her first concert was Slash haha – she had a great time though 🙂
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That’s a brilliant way to start!.There is too much good music out there to be limited to one genre.
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Absolutely! And the more you hear, the more you get to know what it is you really love 🙂 My own taste is pretty eclectic too, so I guess she gets that from me.
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I believe I left my son with mixed emotions after hijacking his system today… 😉
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Haha, excellent! Hopefully he’s been immersing himself in several decades worth of music since you left…
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Quite possibly, though I can almost guarantee that Bauhaus, Bernard Cribbins and Spike Milligan won’t feature on his playlists 😉
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Hahaha – not even Bauhaus? Oh well – at least you got him to listen to them once. 😀
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Depends… he was a tad worried that I actually liked the one I played him 😉
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Seeing a side to you he hadn’t before? Now he’s imagining you hanging in some smoky club, all black eyeliner and ennui, isn’t he 😀
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There was never any ennui 😉
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😆
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Talking music and comparing, what a time you spent with your son! ❤ ❤ ❤
Moms have eclectic tastes and are real people, not just moms.
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I think he was traumatised by some of the musical revelations 😉
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Somewhat akin to realising your parent’s had sex … at least once for every child! 😀
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That comes under the heading of those ‘Nick unfriendly’ topics we never allude to 😉
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You mean because you’re hip music-wise or that your repertoire is so extensive? 🙂
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…more because it is so weird 😉
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Ha ha.I don’t think it’s weird at all.
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You didn’t hear what else I played him 😉
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That’s okay. A great afternoon well spent.
😀
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Indeed. It was fun 🙂
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Reblogged this on Kate McClelland.
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🙂
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We lived through the greatest rock n’ roll. It’s nice to share it with our kids/ my youngest likes our music almost more than the contemporary. 🙂
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We did… and the boys have always been around it till they found their own. Now it is rediscovery 🙂
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Beautiful story Sue, and love the video. 🙂
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What I did to him next day he may never forgive me for… I don’t just like rock 🙂
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🙂
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Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
Sue Vincent and Led Zeppelin bridging the generation gap.. One of my favourite tracks and delighted to hear that Sue more than held her own in the battle of the bands!
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Parents and kids sharing music. Though the genre was quite different, it reminded me of growing up with my parents and their music always playing.
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Me too… although my mother’s were mostly the old 78s
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So fun to read! And yeah to your son for listening to your music and realizing (I hope) that you are a rocking mom. My son still enjoys The Beatles and classic 60s music, since he listened to it with me as a young boy, and we all sang the songs out loud as I drove him and his sister to school. Music brings us all together, no matter the generation.
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The boys grew up enduring eclectic musical tastes.. I’m glad they are starting to appreciate them now 🙂
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Fantastic. It’s great to know good things can stand the pass of time. A lovely time. Thanks for sharing, Sue.
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I enjoyed sharing with him 🙂
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