Peter Alsop‘s SONGS TO CHEW

    Today, for your audio pleasure, we'll LISTEN TO THE BEET, as our 'Song To Chew' from my 'Grow It At Home' album.  I entered this song in a contest put on by the L.A. Unified School District where the winning songs would be included in a CD compilation, to be distributed to all the elementary school kids in Los Angeles, to get them to eat and enjoy more vegetables!  My motivation to write usual...

    Our Song To Chew this week, 'IF IT DOESN'T HAVE ME' was written by my buddy Bill Harley.  It's from our “In The Hospital" album that helps kids understand more about hospitals and doctors and nurses, and builds compassion for other kids and people who have medical difficulties.  The original inspiration for this project came from two wonderful pediatric nurses, Diane Grimm Gates and Penny Pefl...

    Today our Song To Chew' is SOMETIMES SI, SOMETIMES NO!  from my 'Grow It At Home' album.  It's originally from a DVD I made for the Loma Linda University Medical Center in San Bernardino, California.  We made a video with my songs and stories to entertain andeducate the families of their patients.  Most of their patients are families from local neighborhoods in San Bernardino, that were loaded...

    Our SONG TO CHEW this week is POOP GOES THE WEASEL.  I wrote it to help parents engage their little kids in the process of getting toilet trained.  When I perform this song live, I use a weasel or otter hand puppet to demonstrate as we sing together.  Laughing at poop and fart jokes and anything to do with the toilet seems to appeal much more to guys than to girls.  We probably think they're f...

From my “Chris Moose Holidays” album, our SONG TO CHEW this week is THE TOOTH FAIRY, EASTER BUNNY, SANTA & GOD.  They're all stories that most of us have heard since we were little.  Each of them a bit mysterious and none of them willing to simply show themselves, to prove to us that they're real.  They require some level of belief.  We've seen hints of their existence; a dollar under our pillow,...

   Our 'Song To Chew' this week, is NO EXCUSE T'USE BOOZE from my “Stayin' Over” album.  There are an estimated 5.3 million kids under the age of 17 in this country who have a serious drinking problem.  When I wrote this song, 'Honky Boy Pete' popped into my mind, told he was a 'recovering alcoholic' and he wanted to talk to the kids, if I didn't mind.  He explains some of the down-side things tha...

    Our SONG TO CHEW this week, HIGH STANDARDS, was written by my dear friend Bob Blue.  This song was part of my conference presentations and part of my personal story.  Our parents who love us, want us to do the best we can, but sometimes they forget that kids need time to play and relax and explore our relationships.  Getting straight 'A's' in school, doesn't mean we know how to have a happy an...

    This week's 'Song To Chew' is LET 'EM LAUGH from my "Take Me With You!“ album.  One of the toughest things we face as humans is being laughed at and 'shunned' or ridiculed by others.  Usually, the 'butt of the joke' is someone who appears or acts differently than most people.  There's never a good excuse to single someone out for ridicule, especially for differences over which they have no con...

    Our 'Song To Chew' this week is IT'S NO FUN WHEN YA GOTTA EAT AN ONION.  Our individual taste differences are tailored by what we learned to eat with our families when we were little.  If we associate certain foods with comfort and good times, we look forward to having those experiences of chewing and savoring the taste of foods that reminds us of those pleasant times.  It's the stories about...

    Our Song To Chew this week is FAMILY OF FRIENDS, from my “Uh-Oh!" album. I wrote this song because we each hold a story about our family of origin.  Some of us grew up in a family that was warm and safe.  Some of us had a family that did not 'feel so safe'.  Many of us had a family that was a mix of those two styles.  And some of our families were scattered and hard to define, or we had a numb...

    Our Song To Chew this week is LET THE WOMAN IN YOU COME THROUGH from my “Asleep At The Helm” album.  We're trained to perform as others of our birth gender have in the past.  Boys and girls are told stories about how we should behave, and those stories guide us as we mature and grow.  In fact, there are many other stories that might be 'our story', that are much different than the ones we've b...

WAS ST. PAT SCARED?  Let's listen to our "Song To Chew" for today and find out!  This song's from my “Grow It At Home” album, to help us understand how we humans have taken over most of the world by eliminating any other creatures that threaten us or our expansion.  The Irish myth about St. Patrick, 'ridding Ireland of all the snakes' is a wonderful place to start this discussion.  It's 'fear' tha...

This week our SONG TO CHEW is "WHAT IF?"  When we don't understand what's going on around us, we create stories to explain what might be going on!  And that's when our over-active imaginations take off and amplify our worst fears.  This process can stop us in our tracks and make things worse!  So, this song takes a look at how we can change our stories, and our reactions, and learn how to 'respond...

    Our SONG TO CHEW today is called NEW GAMES, from my “Pluggin' Away” album. Almost all games we play in this world of ours are competitive, and it would be great to change that, so we have more choices about ways we can collectively play together.  Most games are designed with very clear rules, structured so players can build skills in outsmarting or outmaneuvering each other in order to win. ...

    Our SONG TO CHEW this week, LETTER TO MR. BROWN, is from my “Take Me With You” album. When I wrote this in 1986, there was a backlash going on because so many child sexual abuse cases were coming out in the news.  Everyone who worked with children; teachers, boy scout leaders, choir directors, even parents became very careful about not touching children at all, unless it was absolutely necessa...

    Today our SONG TO CHEW is called A FRIEND LIKE ME, from my 'In The Hospital' album.  The idea came from two nurses at Seattle Children's Hospital, Diane Grimm Gates and Penny Pefley.  I asked my buddy Bill Harley to join us, and we won a Parent's Choice BEST CHILDREN'S ALBUM award that year.  We included a booklet full of helpful notes about how the songs and stories help school-age kids and f...

    This week’s SONG TO CHEW is called HYPERACTIVE, from my “Pluggin’ Away” album.  This song is a satire.  The chorus says "Sugar's good for me and you!", but the verses point out that refined sugar is not healthy for our bodies.  Kids understand satire, and know that sugar is not healthy for them.  They have heard their parents say it a million times, "No!  You've had enough sugar!"  This song i...

    Our 'Song To Chew' today is IF I WAS IN CHARGE.  Have you ever seen someone do something, and you thought to yourself, "I think I could do a little better than that!" Even when we were kids, we could see grown-ups around us messing things up.  We could have handled it!  Except that when we grew-up and we finally had a chance to be in charge, we found out things are a lot more complicated and d...

    Today's SONG TO CHEW is written and sung by Amy Fix. 'YOU ARE MY SPOON' is part of my "Ebenezer's Make Over" album; a feminist version of Charles Dickens' classic, "A Christmas Carol". His story is actually a 'make over' about how crochety Ebenezer Scrooge changed his stingy ways after being visited by three spirits during the night.   I use that story along with songs from the feminist men's...

    Our SONG TO CHEW this week is "I NEED A HUG” from my “UH-OH!” album.  When we get older, we're not supposed to need as much 'emotional support' as we did when we were kids, but there are lots of us walking around who 'just need a hug' to help us keep going!  It's a physical message that we're loveable, and that we're doin' okay!  It's called reassurance.  All over the world different cultures...

  Our SONG TO CHEW this week is 'ROOTS AND WINGS' from my “Grow It At Home” album.  I took the imagery from watching trees and birds in nature.  In order to 'stay in balance' as we move through our lives, we need to be 'realistic and grounded' at times, (roots), and still be creative enough to sail out on the wings of our imagination.  Of course, it's only possible to pass these skills on to our c...

    This week our SONG TO CHEW is from my “Pluggin’ Away" album.  It’s called I CAN IF I WANNA.  The chorus is 'call and response' with a little character we call the 'Neggy'.  It's that little 'voice' inside us that undermines our self-confidence and says "you'll never accomplish what you're trying to do!"  It's different than hearing 'an opinion' from someone who thinks we ought to change someth...

    Our SONG TO CHEW today, SHOULDER TO THE WHEEL, was written and performed by Geof Morgan, from my “Ebenezer's Make Over” album.  It came out on his Flying Fish recording, "Finally Letting It Go" in 1981.  I named this podcast 'SONGS TO CHEW', because if we listen to a song and just 'swallow it' without 'chewing it' a bit, we don't really get to 'taste it' or savor its nuances.  I heard Geof sin...

  Today's 'Song To Chew' is "I LOVE MY FAMILY" from my 'Grow It At Home' album. Many kids say they're "embarrassed by their parents", or "my brothers and sisters are soooo annoying!", and yet after all the complaints, they still love their family!  When a family has a healthy sense of humor, we laugh WITH each other about some of the ridiculous things we do as human beings.  This helps us see a 'b...

This week’s SONG TO CHEW was written by Geof Morgan.  It's known as THE PENIS SONG or IT'S MY PENIS.  I met Geof many years ago at one of the National Association of Men Against Sexism Conferences.  He's one of the main voices of the feminist men's movement.  We toured together a while through California with Kate Wolfe and Nina Gerber.  His songs are wonderful and insightful.  I do my 'sing-along...