AJ�s current favorite song has reminded me that I need to set aside my angst for a while. It�s the last track on one of those Putamayo kids CDs that seem to be de rigeur as gifts for educated urban mommies-to-be. Fortunately, most of them are actually quite good and interesting, and I say this from an ethnomusicologist�s point of view. Our token Putamayo disc is entitled World Playground. Twelve different countries are represented, but the selections seem to have been made in the interest of emphasizing cross-cultural commonalities, rather than cultural differences. For example, the most obviously Irish-sounding song is listed from Canada, without benefit of an explanation that it is from the Cape Breton region, which is one of the most lively outposts of Celtic music today. Also included is a Greek song, which despite the language difference, bears a striking resemblance to Chassidic tradition of niggunim. [If you don�t know what niggunim are, the best example of in popular culture is �If I were a rich man� from Fiddler on the roof � just the daidle-deedle part. Click the link above to go to askmoses.com if you�d like more info. Or if you have a burning desire to chat with Moses. We now return to our regularly scheduled entry.] And the song that represents France is sung in English and exhibits obvious influence from Cuba and Africa.

The last song on the disk, AJ�s favorite, is one of two American songs on the disc (the other is Buckwheat Zydeco�s �Mardi Gras Mambo,� � another example of the multicultural fusion that pervades this album). �Just Keep Goin� On,� performed by blues singer Eric Bibb, imparts the essential message that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. Except it is (fortunately) a little less saccharine. Also the guy has a voice that could melt butter. The song is almost all chorus, with one brief verse sandwiched between multiple repetitions:

Chorus:
Just keep goin� on
Just keep goin� on
Just keep goin� on
Just keep goin� on.
Take every knock as a boost
And every stumbling block as a stepping stone
Lift up your head and hold your own.
Just keep goin� on.

Verse:
I say to every young woman
Also to every young man
Sometimes you get discouraged
Don�t stop and wring your hands
Your privilege cannot be taken
Your rights cannot be banned
If someone like me can make it
I know you can.

Whenever the song comes on the CD player, AJ insists on cranking the volume to eleven while he throws back his head and sings at the top of his lungs. Frankly, I often attempt to do the same, although the range such that I either end up growling like a pit bull or singing an inappropriately operatic soprano. The tune is incredibly catchy, and its acoustic setting with a small backup chorus is homey. I�m not certain whether this is a traditional song, but it certainly sounds like one. [The liner notes actually suggest that it is but don�t state it outright which implies to me that perhaps the publisher wasn�t sure either. I could probably find out easily enough with a little research, but it ain�t happening today.] And it�s moving, damnit. The simple line �If someone like me can make it, I know you can� is what everyone wants to hear. It�s the perfect song for fast driving on a sunny day, the aural equivalent of a golden retriever with his head out the passenger window, ears streaming in the wind. Because even if your life feels like crap, there�s always someone farther down the food chain than you.

The song�s placement at the end of this particular disc (it also appears on one of Bibb�s albums, a totally different context) gives it a slightly different spin, however. After a slew of songs from around the world, including one sung by a mixed Ethiopian and Israeli children�s choir that tells the story of 1991�s Operation Solomon and immediately precedes Bibb�s song, �Just Keep Goin� On� sounds too didactic. It sounds like it�s saying to wealthy Americans who buy over-marketed CDs for high-rent baby showers, �Get off your pampered asses and stop whining about your life. You don�t know what trouble is.� This may, in fact, be good advice, but I doubt if it�s exactly what Bibb intended. I�m also fairly certain that hearing has nothing to do with AJ�s extreme infatuation with the song. So why does AJ like the song?�

�It makes my hands clap.�

Simple.

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