Rick Springfield . . . really?

in catching up on my gossip mags, the ones strategically placed around my mother-in-law's house, I came across this interesting piece of news.

Apparently, Rick Springfield is releasing an album inspired by his sons.

Apparently, Rick Springfield and I are walking parallel paths.

my initial thought was "oh crap" I'm totally going be treading water in Rick Springfield's backwash.

However, where maybe tens of hundreds of middle aged soap opera fans may flock to best buy for Rick's album, I'll probably be lucky if I can convince my mom to download it on iTunes instead of having me burn her a CD.

But after my initial reaction, I got to thinking about similar lines of thought among artists.

Writing about one's children isn't exactly new. I'm sure if you think about it you could come up with a pretty decent top ten list of songs that are directly or indirectly about our little youngins and how they affect our lives. It's a deep well to dig around in.

But there are rules.

This about isn't about my son.
It's about his perspective. It's the raw emotion that he deals with everyday in order to navigate his way around the universe. It's his autobiography. As told by a ghost writer. who happens to be his dad. who happens to like changing things.

It can't be sappy.
Oh sure, Im gonna use sappy language from time to time, and I may even have to get a little sentimental, but this ain't the cats in cradle. I'm just sentimental sometimes.

It has to be fun to play.
The melodies have to soar. I have totally given up on trying to be cool with this one. frankly anyone who knows me, knows I wasn't cool, i'm not cool now, and the coolness forecast looks dismal. So if it's not cool, it has to be fun.

That's pretty much it for the rules.

They're good rules.

but I've found lately that I'm defending my idea to myself over and over. It's as if I'm atually a frightened about how this will all turn out.

Which is true. I am really uncomfortably with this whole idea. And all the people around me think it sounds interesting.

Interesting . . . not in the captivated audience kind of interest . . . but the "My first reaction is negative, but I'm gonna say something noncommital, just in case it's awesome or an absolute disaster."

Even if I'll never be cool, I guess I'm cool with that.

Just like Rick Springfield. Whose coolness factor is directly related to one's sense of ironic humor.

He did use the word "moot" once in a song.

That's pretty cool.