The 33 1/3 Shortlist

The list is here, and my proposal for one of my favourite albums of the 1970's, "Free To Be ... You and Me" by Marlo Thomas and Friends, is not on it. This was hardly a surprise for me, as I was fairly dissatisfied with what I wrote and knew that my ideas weren't fleshed out with enough clarity to make for a high quality proposal. But it's 2009, the year in which I try to stop micromanaging my writing and return to being more loose and spontaneous, so I really wanted to submit something, at least to put my conscience to rest. I can easily tolerate trying and failing (even with what was far from my best work), as opposed to not trying and not failing (which of course, means that you don't succeed either). But never mind me ... congrats to all whose proposals are still in the running, and best of luck to everyone!

I wanted to write about why so-called "children's music" is almost completely absent from all serious music criticism. Obviously this has a lot to do with the fact that people grow out of that music and never revisit that it again when they are older, but I see no a priori reason why this should be so. People grow out of music and can learn to love it again (and in a different way). This is actually fairly common! I really believe in this idea, or at least some idea about this much-loved but rarely mentioned album, so maybe next time (if there is a next time), or maybe I'll write about it elsewhere (such as here).