7/10/08

She's kick bad word

Bill has an ability to love something quite fervently, in spite of that thing's very obvious shortcomings. Most of the time, it's very lucky I have a husband with this quality as I am usually the thing he loves with the obvious shortcomings! Sometimes, though, I pay for this abundant love of his - I'd like to reference his deep love for the Detroit Tigers, which made it through the disappointing 1990s unscathed (he still watched almost every game), and also his affection for one particular songwriter and his band.

Bill loves this band (which I'll keep unnamed because I don't want its name to be smeared by the wife of its biggest fan) so much, and others love it so little that he has been to at least one concert where there were only 7 people in the crowd. Personally, I don't really dislike the band...I just can't muster up the same level of devotion for it that Bill can, and this sometimes pains him (like the time when there were 7 people in the crowd and not 8...).

Luckily for Bill, though, we've been able to make fans for this band. Just the other day I was driving in his car with Emma and she started belting out the lyrics to one of the songs! I felt so glad for Bill, that he had someone to share this music with (who doesn't live on another continent, apparently their fan base is much larger on other continents). I was so glad...until the next song came on.

Why does my husband blare the song "She's Kick Ass!" at full volume each day while driving Emma to school? He does change the lyrics to make them appropriate for her life - instead of "She don't ever need another man" he sings "She don't ever need another DAD" - but that is overshadowed by the fact that he sings the next lyrics at the top of his voice - "She's Kick ASS!" The song goes on to repeat this line, 12 times until it is suddenly over. It is this charming lack of lyrical variation which dampened my affection for the songs in the first place.

Luckily for me, Emma warned me after I had heard that first line that "he just says that over and over and that's the whole song!" (I had changed the song, horrified, after the first line.) Later, when Bill was around, I launched into my lecture -This is not a good song for our kids! Not to mention that I kind of liked the phrase "kick ass" and now it's ruined for me as I hear it in this guy's droning voice only. I don't care if Emma KNOWS it's a bad word and has promised not to use it. (When she sings the song she sings "She's kick BAD WORD! She's kick BAD WORD! She's kick BAD WORD!)

The song has given a nice frame of reference though... The other night I thought the kids were sleeping and allowed myself to cry about the upcoming chemo treatment and how much I didn't want to do it, only to find out they were awake and worried. I had to explain to Emma (she wasn't as easily reassured as Katie was) that there are 2 me's. One is the regular mom she knows and the other is a totally different girl- a super tough cancer patient. Regular mom might be scared of feeling sick or getting poked or other things, but the super tough girl isn't. I turn into the tougher girl for a few days to get through the treatment because she can handle it. She's kick bad word!

2 comments:

Grant said...

I have got to know who this unappreciated and obviously highly talented band is. I've searched Google for those lyrics and all I come up with is your blog! Help me out please!

-Grant

Grant said...

Well, I spent some time listening to this unnamed band today and I have to say that they are pretty good except for the swearing (which is an obvious affront to anyone that grew up as part of the Court family!). Maybe next time there actually will be 8 people in the crowd.