she-bops...

my mom has never been one to immerse herself in today's popular music. she admits without shame present-day ownership of the freddy fender, glenn campbell and carpenter's greatest hits albums she and my dad ordered from columbia house back in the day. i'm sure there was a great deal of thought put into their purchase.

"what 13 albums can we order for a penny that will thoroughly disgust and embarrass our daughter?" mom no doubt pondered diabolically after i'd gone to bed that night.

"how about air supply?" dad likely answered, totally in on the humiliation tactic. "or maybe roy clark? you know how she gets when 'hee haw' comes on."

so you can imagine my surprise when she firmly told me not to delete 'london bridge' from her computer as i was cleaning up some files for her.

this is the woman who to this day pronounces the name of one of my favorite groups as 'inks' rather than INXS and curbed my ability to listen to prince's 'purple rain' soundtrack when she heard the words to 'darling nikki' ("did he just say? is he talking about...." she sputtered when she heard the song pouring out of the gigantic earphones i hid behind. "oh, you are not listenting to that, missy!"). and now she wants me to keep a fergie song on her computer so she can load it to her ipod and listen to it while hitting the treadmill at the ymca.

and not just the radio edit. no. mom totally goes for the 'oh shit' version.

"how come every time you come around, my london, london bridge wanna go down..." she sang while leaving the room.

am i a music elitist? no. and i have to admit, i was somewhat proud of her for knowing the words to the chorus. usually, she makes up words.

but i do find it disturbing to think that songs i've grown a bit fond of for their catchy yet throw-away lyrics are some of the same songs my mom likes. we're not supposed to have anything in common, let alone music! especially music that hints at sex, for god sake.

excuse me a moment while i compose myself from that thought...

while making sure 'london bridge' stays in her cache of music (tucked nicely among her george straight, alan jackson and tony bennett) she added to my pain by popping her head back in the doorway and asking, "what's that song by that cute boy whose so popular now? you know that one that goes 'i'll let you whip me if i misbehave'?"

yeah. and so i was forced to add 'sexyback' to her playlist.

go 'head mom and get your sexy on.