I thought three albums would have been the end of our celebration this afternoon but she’s begging for more, so what’s a musical obsessed Super Dad to do? On with the show! I’m selecting then an album I’m thinking she might enjoy, the ‘Buddha and the Chocolate Box’ album by Cat Stevens. What girl doesn’t like chocolate, amiright?
‘Buddha and the Chocolate Box’ was released in 1974 when I was 2 years old. The title came and concept came to Stevens when he was traveling to a gig on a plane with a Buddha in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other. He pondered that if he were to die in the plane with these being the last objects with him, he would be caught between the spiritual and the material. Of course, I had the same concern just the other day when I found myself in the car with a plastic statue of a hula Jesus and a nearly-frozen bag of chocolate macaroons, but that’s an entirely different story. The album leans towards the spiritual path, and is an indication of the direction his life would follow; not that any of this means anything to a 10-year-old girl of course. She just likes the pictures of Buddha-shaped chocolates on the album cover.
It was a crap shoot really on whether or not she would dig it. I mean, she’s connected recently with Jim Croce, so I figured I had about a 50/50 chance with the Cat. The verdict: “hey, this is pretty catchy”. Booyah! She likes the songs ‘Sun/C79‘ and ‘Ghost Town‘. Huh. Whatyaknow?
Maybe I should be a bit worried though that the album, being heavily influenced by Beat Poetry, is going to end up with her dropping out of school to play the bongos or something. Likewise, perhaps I should be a bit concerned with the amount of time she’s spending checking out the comic strip by Cat himself on the albums back cover depicting a bald kid and flute-playing spider. Gawd. Hopefully, the only airports she sees in her future are the ones she passing though on the way to somewhere else and not while begging for nickles and chanting. On second thought, maybe this album was a bad idea and I should have gone with the Smurfs instead.
Music in Motion 