Tearing Down a Wall

It's been my week to drive the carpool. I have two 7th graders and a 5th grader(one 7th grader is a girl,...just so you get the complete picture). Well, my son, the other 7th grader, sits in the front seat beside me. I think his main job is to select music on the multi-disc CD changer that I don't want to hear. He started to put in Nirvana this morning at 7 AM and tho I don't dislike the band,...it's got to be against some city ordinance to play music that even hints of a grinding guitar before 10 AM. Well, maybe that's a little paraphrased from the ordinance,.....okay, paraphrased a lot,.....okay, okay,...I just made it up! For Nirvana's sake as well as mine(it is a disrespectful to play Nirvana as a low volume level, it's like spitting on Kurt Cobain's grave). I relax the made-up rule when my son happens to choose something from my CD wallet. He has recently chosen Pink Floyd's THE WALL from my book. I can easily turn my head,...or a deaf ear, as it were, to the grinding guitar solos(which should not be compared to Nirvana, I know) from Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb(not the most grinding) since I remain in a college flashback throughout our journey to school while it plays. This morning the 5th grader began to comment about and actually sing along with "Crazy,...toys in the attic, he is crazy,...". He said it was kind of scary sounding. I could not disagree with him, since I bought it a year ago around this time and actually played it at Halloween as scary background/mood setting music. I then thought,...I wonder if he talks to his dad about what we listen to on the way to school? I wonder if he may someday hear a muzak version in an elevator and say,...."Hey, that's 'Brick in the Wall'!". So maybe my week to drive is a version of a music appreciation lesson. Maybe by listening to The Wall, I am helping tear down a wall revealing music history these kids may have otherwise never been exposed to? or maybe it's just good music that all generations gravitate toward, no matter their date of birth? (the photo is Pink Floyd's The Wall album cover rendered with Legos). Link to an analysis of The Wall: http://home.mchsi.com/~ttint/