Saturday morning, the CD on the player was Walk On by The Kerplunks.
The kid’s music band from Nanaimo? Isn’t there something else more profound and having more substance? There probably is, something profoundly and substantially boring.
Walk On is more fun and, in its own way, profound and substantial. Children’s music has come a long way since Raffi revolutionized it with Baby Beluga and Sharon, Lois and Bram did for the genre what Peter Paul and Mary did for folk. For years, Canada led the way and now there are many kid’s music bands living in B.C. expanding its range. The Kerplunks symbolize that.
Their new album embraces rap, reggae and, in Big String Bass, blues and boogie. Not only is it entertaining but sophisticated in that it plays to children not down to them. There also is remarkable freedom. The four Kerplunks are doing what they want.
Often, a band isn’t allowed to be as eclectic. If it scores with reggae, reggae becomes its sound and direction. If it’s rap, it is a rap act. If its heavy rock, it can’t lighten up.
Eventually, it eliminates wit, irony, different personae or anything that makes you think, replaced by a cookie cutter mentality. That’s probably why so many records sound great but say nothing. To many in the recording industry, provocation equals alienation. You have to wonder if Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues - a continuous teenage complaint with a witty arrangement and lyric -were released today if it would get any radio play.
Kids don’t care. Rap, reggae, rock. Without any critical context to interfere, they’re all the same - just music. The kids want to dance, laugh and sing, so anyone like The Kerplunks that can fill that role is ok by them.
The sillier, the better. The Kerplunks seem to understand that, too. As well as a song about dinosaurs, another about salmon or the simple pleasure of cheese on bread, Walk On has one about Lego whose punchline likely delights children.
Most of Walk On’s songs were written by Dinah Desrochers, who has taken her role as a songwriter seriously. Increasingly, children’s records show more depth in the writing, arranging and recording. The records aren’t easily dismissable nursery rhymes but full out pop productions with imaginitive combinations of instruments.
The freedom alluded to earlier also materializes in the diversity of the subject matter. Desrochers and her three other Kerplunks address race, the environment, acceptance, understanding. Most of the songs have some kind of moral as their raison d'etre but it's soft-pedaled. There probably always will be some moralizing but as long as this can be offset by Lego or a song about eggs, and can be seen through the eyes of a child, a little moralizing might be like candy-coated medicine. A little easier to digest and ultimately good for you.