Famous Nappers 8: Caspar Babypants
a.k.a. Chris Ballew a.k.a. the guy from the Presidents of the United States of America
I’ve been listening to Caspar Babypants, children’s musician, since 1995. That might sound strange, as I was 15 back then and he didn’t release his first album until 2009 — but as you probably don’t know, Caspar Babypants (a.k.a. Chris Ballew) formed the Presidents of the United States America, a three-piece alternative rock band, in 1993.
I feel like I’ve read that the music you listened to at 19 is the music that stays with you through adulthood, but most people weren’t early teens in the early 90s — suffice to say, a lot of my go-to’s date back to my early teenage years. I wouldn’t say that the Presidents are necessarily my fave, but they’re often somewhere in the rotation. Fun fact: I saw them in Austin at SXSW in 2007, I think — they were amazing live.
In “Peaches,” the third single from their 1995 self-titled debut, he mentions that he “took a little nap where the roots all twist.” Though I’ve been listening to this song for coming up on 30 years, this didn’t occur to me until the other day, when my younger daughter asked Alexa to play ‘Run, Baby, Run” — killer tune. After that song, Alexa decided to play more Caspar Babypants: this time, a song called “Nap in the Afternoon.”
And suddenly it hit me: Chris Ballew has been subversively proselytizing the nap since 1995, preaching to teens, twentysomethings, and toddlers alike. Maybe he even inspired TND — and a good day to you, sir!