We’ve begun listening to Raffi songs in the car on the way to preschool. Some of these songs are pretty famous and while I don’t think I really heard them myself growing up as a child of immigrants, it’s hard to miss them when you’re a parent nowadays: Baby Beluga, The Wheels on the Bus. He also sings other songs, Michael Row Your Boat, his own version of Baa Baa Black Sheep, which involves white sheep.
Interestingly, and strangely unsurprisingly, Naomi’s favourite song is the Bananaphone song. These are the introductory lyrics to it:
Ding-a-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling
Boo-ba-doo-ba-doop
Boo-ba-doo-ba-doop
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone
It sounds a bit like it would be annoying song but it’s not! I mean, it’s okay, it’s not terrible, it’s not terribly annoying. What is interesting, though, is this fascinating subtext and subculture to raising kids, this world that you existed on the periphery of, and are now a relatively willing entrant to. Songs about bananaphones. Real bananas that you pretend are phones. And we all make as though this is totally normal.
Further lyrics:
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone
Boop-boo-ba-doo-ba-doop
Ping pong ping pong ping pong ping panana phone
It’s no Bologna, it ain’t a phony
My cellular bananular phone
making wild rice 