I know that Wordless Wednesday is tomorrow, but I couldn’t wait to post this photo I took today at the Babies R Us in Union Square, New York City. Besides, I want to add some words.
That’s right: It’s a pink KISS T-shirt for toddlers. And it makes me giggle.
See, my brother, Scott, was a big KISS fan back in the day, much to my father’s chagrin. Our dad, who has stated more than once that rock and roll is to music what comic books are to literature, hated KISS and their crazy makeup, platform boots and, most of all, their same three chords over and over again.
“That’s not music!” he would protest whenever Scott played “Christine Sixteen” on his record player. Also, “They can’t sing!” and some other words I can’t print here. This is a family show.
To my father, who admits to sneaking out of school to go hear the jazz bands in Newark, New Jersey, back in the forties, KISS was may well have been the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse.
Plague, War, Famine, Death, “Shout it Out Loud.”
Scott, however, thought they were really, really cool. Also that their ballad, “Beth,” was high class because it involved violins and these compelling lyrics:
Beth, I know you’re lonely
And I hope you’ll be alright
‘Cause me and the boys will be playin’
All night
But now KISS appears on a T-shirt for toddlers — pink, no less — in Babies R Us, not to mention on a web site called “Oldies.com,” where I fact-checked their albums and songs for this blog entry.
And that makes me giggle …nay, snicker. In part because Scott used to give me records for Christmas that he wanted, including, but not limited to, KISS’ “Love Gun.” But also because the very thing that had caused so much teenage and parental angst in my childhood home has been reduced to an ironic T-shirt located on the same floor as the Bugaboo strollers and the diaper pails. A T-shirt for little girls.
So, thank you Babies R Us for making my day. And thank you, KISS. I hear you callin’. I really do.
Nice post, i have found it on yahoo