Artist: The Roches
Song: My New Bicycle
Album: Will You Be My Friend? (1994)
Noted for their lush harmonies, quirky songs, and impressive stylistic range, the three Roche sisters -- Maggie, Terre, and Suzzy -- were among contemporary folk music's most endearing artists. The Roches began singing together while growing up in New York during the late '50s and early '60s, taking to the streets of the city each holiday season to regale passersby with Christmas carols. At the end of the decade both Maggie (the oldest) and Terre (the middle daughter) quit school to begin touring professionally as a duo. In 1970 they met Paul Simon, who tapped them to sing backup on his There… more
The three Roche sisters, Maggie, Suzzy, and Terre, have made one of the most enduring kids' records in a long time that speaks as easily to kids as it does to parents. Will You Be My Friend? is packed with melodic and inventive ditties that touch on meaningful subjects ranging from doing the laundry and facing disappointment to befriending the friendless (told as a story about a toad and turtles). The downright playful tune "Uncle Dave" sounds like an early American folk song plunked out by a fledgling kids' band (when was the last time you heard a couplet that rhymed "Brooklyn" with "good lookin'"!?!). The real prize here, among the many gems, is "Greetings," an imaginative look at our solar system told from the viewpoint of someone living on Mercury (which makes us the "aliens"). There hasn't been a space song this cosmically compelling since the Monty Python troupe sang "The Galaxy/Lighten Up." --Martin Keller
My New Bicycle is a folk tune, in a juvenile vein, has fun lyrics and nice harmonies.
My new bicycle is race car blue
It used to belong to my big sister sue
She grew a little too tall
Then traded it to me
For my old basketball.
Riding that thing
I gotta sing
It's a blast
I never believed
I could go so fast
Up and down hills
Zipping through the town
Past the reservoir
When the sun slips down
I'm flying!
Back home I collected some rags
I snuck them out of my ma's old clothes bags
Bucket of water
And a squirt of soap
My bicycle's as clean
As the soul of a pope
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