HAVE YOU BEEN SILLY WITH YOUR KID TODAY? : Parachute Express Thinks It’s Time We All Lightened Up

The alarm clock (or is that the baby?) screams. You pry open eyes shut by yesterday’s mascara and blaze a trail through the Tinkertoys to the kitchen where you mount your attack upon the day:

Fax Johnson report. Pick up dry cleaning, drop off dog at vet. (Or is it drop off dry cleaning, pick up dog?) Go to Weight Watchers’s weigh-in. Skip lunch.

And this is Saturday.

Sound familiar? It did to Donny Becker. A Van Nuys father of two and co-founder of the Parachute Express children’s musical group, Becker thinks fast-track parents need to pencil in more time for fun and yes, even silliness, with their kids.

“This is a difficult time for families,” says Becker, a former teacher and youth camp director. “Parents are working too hard, and out of that comes stress. We need to get back in touch with our playful sides, and who better than our children to help us do that?”

Parachute Express was formed in 1983 by Becker and neighbor/singer-songwriter Stephen Michael Schwartz; they dreamed up the idea while taking out the trash. The trio, which also includes Janice Hubbard, spent its formative years as musical backbone for the Gymboree parent-child play program, recording five albums and two videos and playing the occasional concert date.

Recently, it took a giant step into the limelight by signing on with Walt Disney Records’ Music Box Artist Series, which has released the sixth Parachute Express recording, “Happy to Be Here.”

On Saturday, the group’s “Happy to Be Here” concert tour brings it to the Irvine Barclay Theatre for two performances sponsored by the Coastal Orange County Gymboree franchise (Parachute Express plays the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles on Oct. 24).

Despite the career boost it has received from Disney, Becker says the group’s basic premise remains pretty much the same as it was in the beginning--to provide entertainment that appeals on multiple levels and draws families together.

“We have a wonderful little vision that we hold on to (about) the old hootenanny days when people would sit around the home and sing together,” Becker says. “It’s not realistic to think it would happen all the time, but wouldn’t it be great if sometimes instead of watching TV or (playing) Nintendo, the family could just put on an album and get silly: ‘Let’s see Daddy be a donkey and Mommy be a pig and I’ll be a horse this time.”’

Parachute Express has nearly 80 songs in its repertoire of original music. Although a few touch lightly on such larger issues as environmentalism, for the most part the lyrics revolve around ideas dear to the hearts of toddlers through 10-year-olds: playing with pals and riding bikes, daydreaming and growing up.

Meanwhile, Becker says, the sound of the songs--a changing mix of pop, funk, folk and doo-wop--gets parents and older children involved. “It speaks to the good music that we grew up with,” he adds, citing such influences as the Beatles’ simple but expressive lyrics and the Beach Boys’ use of harmony.

But more current sounds aren’t ignored, as is evidenced by the G-rated rap of “Happy to Be Here” and the synthesized harpsichord that backs “Ups and Downs.”

Becker says the group would like to “push the limits of children’s music,” and he cites one of its newest songs, “The Changing Garden of Mr. Ball,” a gentle, slightly melancholy tune about an old man and his garden, written by Hubbard and Michael Silversher.

“When I first heard it,” he recalls, “my reaction was that it’s beautiful, but is it a children’s song? Then I realized that this was a gorgeous piece of music with a lot of imagery, some of which really won’t be understood until the age of 9 or 10--or maybe, to really understand it, (children will) have to talk with their parents about it.

“And wouldn’t that be great?”

Who: Parachute Express.

When: Saturday, Sept. 26, at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine.

Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Jamboree Road and drive south. Turn left onto Campus.

Wherewithal: $11.50.

Where to call: (714) 854-4646 or (714) 832-1587.