Peter Alsop‘s SONGS TO CHEW

    Our ‘Song To Chew’ today is GOTTA LOTTA LIVIN' TO DO.  I wrote it in the late 80's when there were huge fears about contracting HIV from gay men.  Kids and families needed to understand that this deadly virus was not transmitted through the air, but mostly through physical contact, and kids could get it too.  I took my daughters Megan and Willow to sing with me at a California Men's Gathering,...

    This week’s ‘Song To Chew’ is “GO TO SLEEP YOU LITTLE CREEP!” from my 'Stayin' Over' album.  It chronicles one of our most universal human activities; bedtime for children.  Every evening, just after dinner, thousands of little kids all over the world turn magically into "little creeps", and most parents experience some perfectly normal parental irritation towards them!  We all act like creeps...

    This week’s ‘Song To Chew’ is a ‘scream-along’ written by Bill Steele about GARBAGE, from my very first live album 46 years ago!  Since then, we continue to produce excess packaging waste from our food and other commerce. And currently, some of our recycling efforts are  being abandoned because it’s become too expense to recycle our waste!  We scream about the air and the water, and the most p...

    Our SONG TO CHEW today is called 'WISH', about taking action when something needs to change.  It’s from my 'Grow It At Home' album.  Most of us feel concerned about the future of our world, with climate change, pandemics, storms, fires, wars, people arguing with each other, our lives seem to get more and more complicated every day!  It's very human of us, when we're upset, to wish things would...

    I don't usually write 'anthems', but today’s song from my ‘Chris Moose Holidays’ album is an anthem.  It’s called EARTHSONG.  There are billions of life forms and gorgeous features on our planet, and each one has a voice; the rivers and mountains, the animals and plants, all of which have a part in the delicate balance of nature that sustains us.  So really, EARTHSONG had to be an anthem!  And...

    I wrote today's 'Song To Chew' ATTA WAY T'GO BOY! back in the early 80’s for an anthology album called "Bullets And Guitars".  It was produced by Gary Cristall, who ran the Vancouver Folk Festival for years and includes songs by Si Kahn, Utah Phillips, Holly Near, Leon Rosselson and other talented progressive folksingers and activists.  My song’s a satirical 'pat on the back' to our President...

    Today's ‘Song to Chew’ is DEAR MR. PRESIDENT, from my 'Stayin' Over' album.  It's written by Bob Blue in the form of a letter written by a 2nd grader to the President of the United States about how he got in a fight with a friend over who had the biggest 'sticker collection'.  He thought the President might want to consider that fighting about 'having the most' isn't really worth it.  Kids con...

    BURNING TIMES is our 'Song To Chew' today, written and performed by Charlie Murphy, one of the strong clear voices of the early feminist men's movement.  It's about the plight of women in Europe in the Middle Ages, who were labeled as witches by establishment men who feared the influence they had as community organizers.  It's from my "Ebenezer's Make Over' album which is a story with songs by...

  Today's 'Song To Chew' is CHICKENS FOR PEACE, inspired and loved by thousands of children who want a peaceful world, but no one much listens to them, because they can't vote!  We want to protect our loved ones from wars and violence, but when we don't explain scary things to children, it can create more anxiety for them.  It's not easy, but it IS possible to talk with kids about serious subjects...

    On this week's "Songs To Chew" we'll listen to my friend Tom Hunter's song, FIVE MOMS AND THREE DADS.  It's on my 'Ebenezer's Make Over' album.  Tom presents a different vision for how we can support a more caring and fulfilling society by allowing and supporting more diverse kinds of family groups.  The traditional American 'nuclear' family, with two biological parents and their offspring, is...

    Today's short, little 'Song To Chew' is called ANIMAL CRACKERS.  It exemplifies how children act out their anger while they're playing.  When angry, hurt or sad feelings aren't allowed to be expressed directly, they will surface again, often in less healthy ways.  Healthy parents can set clear limits for children about what is okay and what isn't, and still allow kids to express all their feel...

     The SONG we'll CHEW today, from my 'Asleep At The Helm' album, is "THE ONE ABOUT THE BIRD IN THE CAGE' written by Rutthy Taubb.  It's about a man who keeps his "bird" in a cage, dependent on only him.  He feeds her, owns her, says he's going to teach her how to fly, and to sing, but he will have to clip her wings.  And she buys his story and loves him, but then wakes up to find that she is un...

    Our song today is called "AAARGH!", from my live concert album "Family Roles".  It's for all the 'family heroes' out here in the world, often the 'first borns', who have learned to seek approval from our parents.  We grow up feeling that we need to be perfect, but striving for perfection can become an obsession, and then everything we do becomes a test of our worth.  We have to study hard and...

    Our 'Song To Chew' today, PEEL BACK THE SKIN, was written by my friend Stuart Stotts.  He sings for grown-ups and kids in schools about how we can help each other live happier, healthier lives.  I really love this song because it makes a really important point.  When we hurt ourselves, before we put on a bandage, we have to make sure the wound is clean, or it won't heal properly.  And when I s...

    Have you ever noticed how much 'name-calling' goes on when cultural and social change is in the air?  I thought today we might chew on a Tedd Judd and Sandy Pliskin song I recorded on my "Ebenezer's Make Over" album.  It's called YOU AIN'T BEEN DOIN' NOTHIN' IF THEY HAVEN'T CALLED YOU GAY!  The form is based on a song written by Eliot Kenin back in 1982 called "You Ain't Been Doing Nothing If...

   Today we'll listen to a song written and sung by Holly Near, from our "Ebenezer's Make Over" album.  She wrote FOOLISH NOTION in 1980, and it's still completely relevant today.  Here we are, 40 years later, still asking the same, age-old question; "Why do we kill people, who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?" We'll chew on that idea after the song! I've never hit any of m...

    I have a friend who refuses to say "good-bye".  She says "it sounds like we'll never see each other again!"  So today's "Song To Chew" is AU REVOIR, from my "Uh-Oh!" album, because "au revoir" in French means "until I see you again!"  Much less scary!  Separation from someone we love, can bring up fears that we might not see that person again; that we might find ourselves all alone and abandon...

    On this week’s episode of SONGS TO CHEW, we have a couple of short songs to chew on.  In my family of origin, we grew-up with a lot of 'teasing' and 'making fun' of each other.  Everyone in our family was 'fair game' as a target, and sometimes we'd all laugh so hard that we'd start crying.  Most often, our clumsy attempts at being clever, were just dumb and ridiculous, and a bit cruel, and we...

    Our 'Song To Chew' this week is called "Dyin' To Be Thin".  I wrote it as the title song for a 1986 NOVA documentary on anorexia and bulimia that won an Iris Award for excellence.  In the US, an estimated 8 million people suffer from anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorders and that includes at least three out of every 100 adolescent girls.  "Dyin' To Be Thin" was used in a musical version...

    Today's Song To Chew from my Fan Club Favorites album, has been a big hit in junior high schools all across this country!  It's called LET'S TRADE BUTTS, so of course, it's humorous. When teens are asked about their bodies, they often express self-criticism, and strong feelings of inadequacy, jealousy and shame.  Our adolescent years are difficult because our bodies AND our role in society are...

    Today our 'Song To Chew' is sung by an ecological activist, Snowy the Frostman!  The kids and I are hanging out at the mall during the holiday season, listening to Snowy 'stutter-sing' his way through "G-GEE IT'S WARM OUT HERE" from my "Chris Moose Holidays" album. It's about climate change and global warming!  "So why does Snowy the Frostman stutter?", you may ask. I think 'stuttering' sounds...

    Let's chew on the 'Wonderful Diversity of Human Sexuality' with MY SECRET, a song from my very first album.  I often use humor in my songs to share tidbits of information that I've found valuable.  This song is loaded with bad puns and exaggerations.  We humans have a huge range of diverse sexual behaviors, many of which are common, but there are some secrets that people hide, out of fear that...

    Today's 'Song To Chew' is NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE, about having hope when things look 'the darkest'.  Hope is a very powerful force in our human world.  Our attitude can limit us when we're negative about ourselves, but it can also expand and open doors for us, when we're optimistic and hopeful about our future.  Our expectations actually have an effect on what does happen!  One of the many wond...

    Today's Song To Chew is YOU GET A LITTLE EXTRA WHEY YOU WATCH TV, from my 1983 "Wha D'Ya Wanna Do?" album.  It's about all the hidden messages delivered to us constantly through our televisions and internet.  Commercials and news and sit-coms model for us how the rest of the world around us operates, right?  But we see what the producers and marketers want us to see!  Have you noticed how extr...

    Today on 'Songs To Chew' we'll listen to a song called SO LONG, and talk about sadness and loss and grieving.  We know that things in our lives have beginnings and middles and ends, and so it is with people.  Leaving people, places and things behind can be scary and sad and exciting all at the same time.  Sometimes leaving things or people that created problems for us becomes even more complic...