May 31, 2008 / Perspective / Parenting / Dooley Noted

Deedle Deedle Dees sing to Bridge

By Thurston Dooley III

for The Brooklyn Paper

The Brooklyn Paper / Julie Rosenberg

The Deedle Deedle Dees celebrated the 125th birthday of The Great Bridge.

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When I was a younger man, children sat by the phonographic device and listened to pretty much whatever their parents put on the turntable.

Mozart or Montovani. Bach or the Beatles. Herb Albert or the Hollies — whatever came out of the tinny speakers was always good, but it wasn’t always “for children.”

Was that such a backward time?

Evidence indicates that perhaps it was. Indeed, if the early part of this 21st century has proven anything (anything beyond the need for computer-verified elections, of course), it is that the newest generation of parents feels that every one of its children’s musical whims must be catered to.

While that impulse has led to such gross misfortunes as Raffi, it has also led to glorious triumphs from Dan Zanes, Randy Cohen, AudraRox, Suzi Shelton and the Deedle Deedle Dees.

The “Triple Ds,” as I alone call them, performed as part of the 125th birthday party for the Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park — a fitting event, given that so many of the Dees’ songs are inspired by the historic era of the building of the Great Bridge.

Even without their keyboardist Chris Johnson, the remaining Dees — Anand Mukherjee on guitar, Ely Levin on drums, and Lloyd Miller on stand-up bass — ran through a blistering set that included Civil-War-inspired songs like “Henry Box Brown,” an off-tempo ode to a slave who mailed himself to freedom in the north.

I also appreciated their newest single, “Brooklyn Bridge,” which told a bittersweet tale of a youngster walk across the fabled span with her hand in dear old dad’s.

It brought a tear to the eye of this grizzled and sometimes embittered scribe, remembering those very walks over that very, though much younger, bridge.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper

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