My Gen X Playlist: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm – Crash Test Dummies

Growing up, we lived between two polar opposite neighbors. To the left was the all American family with two kids and a dog. To the right, well . . . let’s just say they were interesting.

We once found the son in our yard in his diapers swinging an ax wanting to cut down our tree. When he got older, he drove around in a ice cream truck. Which would have been fine if he actually sold ice cream. At one point, they raised pigeons in their side yard, which attracted a hundred strays. Our house became collateral damage. The city deemed it a health hazard and had to shut that down. Like I said, they were interesting.

We sensed a broken marriage made life challenging for their family. She was a single mom raising four kids by herself. That couldn’t have been easy. My father always saw the good in people. He occasionally chatted with her when he was gardening in the front yard and I could always hear his laugh and feel his smile. When I was younger, I used to think they were a complete disaster. As I got older, I began to have a better understanding of the situation and now know she was doing the best that she could under the circumstances. When I visit my mother these days, I sometimes see my neighbor and she is pleasant and always greets me with a warm smile. It’s funny how perspective can change over time and thankful it also has the ability to mature. An ax swinging diapered baby, an ice cream truck parked in the driveway, a stray pigeon health hazard – yet, surprisingly in the end, nice neighbors.

I recently retrieved my CDs from storage and came across the Crash Test Dummies. Remember them? They had a hit called Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm. Ridiculous title, I know. It turns out, the song was about children who didn’t feel they fit in.

“Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” centers on three children who have some kind of unique characteristic which basically makes them outcasts.

–SongMeaningsAndFacts

A boy’s hair turns white from the shock of an auto accident. A young girl’s schoolmates discover that her body is covered with birthmarks. Another boy is taken to church, where he watches as his parents flop around on the floor in a religious ecstasy.

“Frankly, the last thing I wanted to do was present the listener with some kind of tidy moral message about what it’s like to be a child,” says Brad Roberts, the group’s leader. “I think that would be condescending and pedantic.

“I think life is a complicated thing and there’s plenty of gray areas and not too many black-and-white areas, and writing pat, easy answers to problems would be trite and didactic.”

– Los Angeles Times

When you are a kid, you view things through a black and white lens and too young to understand grays. It’s also easy to be quick to judge without having all of the information. I don’t know the backstory on the ice cream truck. Maybe he sold ice cream after all. The pigeons possibly were a stress reliever. I’ve heard raising birds can be calming. And the baby with the ax? Well, OK. That’s a hard one to talk yourself out of. Two out of three ain’t bad. . .

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Once there was this kid who
Got into an accident and couldn't come to school
But when he finally came back
His hair had turned from black into bright white
He said that it was from when 
The cars had smashed so hard

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Once there was this girl who
Wouldn't go and change with the girls in the change room
And when they finally made her
They saw birthmarks all over her body
She couldn't quite explain it
They'd always just been there

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

But both girl and boy were glad
'Cause one kid had it worse than that

'Cause then there was this boy whose
Parents made him come directly home right after school
And when they went to their church
They shook and lurched all over the church floor
He couldn't quite explain it
They'd always just gone there

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm