”What is the deal with kids and dinosaurs?”
I don’t think Jerry Seinfeld ever covered this topic in his TV or comedy (he certainly didn’t in his recent interview with Bari Weiss). But I think it’s well worth a punchy debate with George and Elaine at Tom’s Diner.
Dinosaurs are dead — very dead. When they lived, they looked like the most terrifying monsters of myth and legend. But unlike demons and dragons, they actually walked this earth, and you can go visit their bones. On all accounts, dinosaurs should be peak creepy.
But somehow, children love dinosaurs. You could point to Barney, the PBS-based purple carnivore who nevertheless wanted to make children feel loved. You could point to the vaunting success of 20th century paleontology which tantalized generations of kids with the unfolding mysteries of our prehistoric past. And I’m sure that there are many more intelligent theories out there that could be gleaned from a casual google, or from a poll of Beyond the Music readers.
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To my mind, the youth fascination with the dinosaur is because it is the ultimate “safe-scary” thing. Children will never have to worry about dinosaurs attacking them, so they can engage with the rough-and-tumble world of Jurassic life as a very distant mirror of uncertainties or fears that they have in their own, emerging lives.
Dinosaurs and kids are also similar. Kids are learning to govern themselves, to wield their yetzer. Sometimes they roar or run wild like their prehistoric predecessors. The well-mannered dinosaur is, in a way, a psychological embodiment of the well-governed self which children, guided by parents, are attempting to cultivate.
Isaiah envisioned the lion lying down with the lamb. Maybe if he had grown up going to the Smithsonian, he could have envisioned the T-Rex playing tag with a toddler.
Fortunately, we don’t need Isaiah to envision the domesticated dinosaur. Jewish children all over the world know that dinosaurs are punctilious about Sabbath observance. How, might you ask? What follows is the story of how the dinosaurs first came to celebrate Shabbat.
I recently became curious about the origins of “The Dinosaur Song,” the Tot Shabbat classic which, together with “Bim Bam,” has ascended to the pantheon of Jewish children’s music.1 Thanks to an introduction from my old classmate and colleague, Cantor Jamie Marx, I was introduced the woman behind the viral spread of the song — Andi Joseph.
The story of “The Dinosaur song” is one of a popular American melody adapted by Jews for practical use. What was the melody? A children’s song from ‘90s Disney Channel composer, Linda Arnold, who wrote the piece as part of her live show, “The World of Make Believe.” Here’s the original, starring Linda, Tyrone-asaurus Rex, and Linda’s daughter, Ariel:
So how did this song get transformed from a Disney Channel hit into a Tot Shabbat treasure? To hear the story, listen to my podcast interview above with Andi Joseph who tells how she first heard the song, and her unique role in adapting it and spreading it throughout the Jewish world.
But wait, there’s more!
The dinosaurs featured at Tot Shabbat are not the only known Sabbath-observant reptiles. Cantors, socialized as we were in the Jurassic Era of Jewish Music, often describe ourselves as dinosaurs - longing for a musical age that feels extinct. But in our constantly changing and polarizing era, old forms of all types stand fast with their timeless wisdom. In honor of the “Chazzan-osaurus” among us, here’s my newest addition to the evolution of the Dinosaur song, with Barney-levels of love and appreciation for what makes a cantors’s heart sing.
The B section of the kids song “Bim Bam” is actually an excerpt from “Shabbat Shalom” by Shalom Secunda (1894-1974) composer of Bei Mir Bist Du Sheyn), sung by Richard Tucker on “Welcoming the Sabbath: Friday Evening Service” (1956). The well-known refrain begins at 1:00. I do not know where the “Bim Bam” part of the kids song comes from — as it is melodically distinct from the first minute of Secunda’s song.
UPDATE: BTM reader Cantor Josh Breitzer helpfully directed me to an online reference identifying the originators of “Bim Bam” as cantors Naftali & Reuven Frankel: "Naftali [Frankel] was multi-talented. After graduating from the Juilliard School of Music and, later, Columbia University where he received his Ph.D., he became an accomplished musician, cantor, and composer. He spent many years as the director of music at Camp Ramah in the Poconos where he and his brother Reuven wrote the song “Bim Bam” -- one of their first Jewish compositions." (See the quotation here under “Frankel Family Fellowship”).
These Ramah-nik cantors would have been well versed in Richard Tucker’s cantorial output, giving context to their adaptation. I plan to expand on this in a future article on “Bim Bam.”
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