School House Rock, Part Three

Happy Labour Day weekend everyone!!  It’s really the end of summer now.  Back to school for me next week.  Today I have just two songs featured in the final instalment of my School House Rock selections.  Enjoy the weekend everyone!! 

Another Brick in the Wall, by Pink Floyd

This is another no brainer to be included on a school rock song list.  What can I really say about this Pink Floyd classic.  The song tells of an education system that simply treats us all the same, haves us all regurgitate the same information and does not account for any uniqueness.  We are all just bricks in the wall, serving a greater "good".  Fortunately the education system I currently work in has come a long way and we recognize and celebrate the individual strengths and unique attributes of each student.   As a system we may have a ways to go but we are getting there.  Ok, now I am starting to sound preachy.  I’ll end this one by simply saying I love the walking hammers in this video, for some reason they scared the crap out of me as a kid!

Grade 9, by Barnaked Ladies

Canada’s Barenaked Ladies gives us this boppy little number about the awkwardness of adolescence.  Like many of their songs it contains good humour but at the same time I bet there is many a person out there who can relate to the experiences in this tune, me being one of them.   One of the lines in the songs says “I guess I shouldn’t tell them that I like Duran Duran”.  Yes, I was and forever will be a rocker.  At the same time I secretly loved it when my favourite music video programs would play Duran Duran and Michael Jackson .   But I dare not admit that in the halls of the school with my acid wash jean jacket laced with sewed on patches of Def Leppard, Ratt, Van Halen and Quiet Riot.  The Barenaked Ladies continue to record and perform, but Steven Paige, one of the band’s lead vocalists has left leaving the quintet a foursome.