We are very fond of Spike Jones in this house! In particular, the All Girl Band. Puts us in stitches every time. They aren’t too shabby when it comes to playing it straight, either. Their rendition of the main theme from ‘Laura’ is beautifully done.
Oh, Matthew! He was marvelous, and the King of Silliness -- but very talented, indeed. The Great Dane! I've been saving a particularly silly OLD video of him from his youth for just the right moment. Thanks for that clip from the Dean Martin Show. I know I haven't seen that one, and am looking forward to it!
Apparently, Cash and Silverstein were friends. John Carter Cash, Johnny‘s son, included a picture of the two of them together, along with a couple of other friends, in a book about his father.
Mares Eat Oats, Polly Wolly Doodle, Turkey in The Straw.
These came to mind as “sillier” than my original suggestion of the Jimmy Soul song, which is maybe not silly but more comic sarcasm. Silly means “nonsense” and just for fun.🤔
Oh, my dad used to sing Mairzy Doats to me as a kid, and I loved it. Dad LOVED all novelty songs! He also used to sing me The Purple People Eaters! I posted an incredibly silly version of Liberace doing Turkey in the Straw a couple of years ago. And of course the folk songs are full of silliness. I love Polly Wolly Doodle. In fact we call our puppy Molly Wolly Doodle Doggie!
Yep, my almost-4-year-old daughter agrees. Spike was on stage for less than a minute before she exclaimed, "He's silly!" She proceeded to enjoy the rest of the video with much giggling. The headless musicians were particularly exciting for her. 🤪
Chad, that's great! And we all need to keep that childlike joy.. in silly things. My father used to sing me silly songs when I was a child, and I loved that! There's more Spike Jones audios on Youtube, but I think you miss the best of it if you don't SEE as well as hear that act!
I am reading Chesterton's The Flying Inn just now, which contains some jolly songs of silliness. Do you think humans require a certain amount of bonafide silliness, that there is a MDR for it? I loved the Spike Jones bit, though my brain keeps wanting to call him Spike Lee. Now THAT'S silly!😁
It was before the time of most of us on W&S, but Spike Jones was a regular phenomenon in popular music of the 40's and 50's. He kept trying after that, but later popular music didn't lend itself to his "treatment."
I loved the parody of musical history and the general innocence of the fun. It isn't making fun at anyone else's expense, as parodies can often be, except maybe Josef Stalin, and I'm not wasting any sympathy on him.
Spike had a face that cartoonists must have loved to draw caricatures of.
I must be entirely too serious. The only silly performers that come to mind, and I can't say I'm a devotee of either, are the performances of the Canadian Brass (tariff-free version, please) and Leon Redbone's version of Froggie Went a-Courtin'.
Mark, in WWII time, nobody was wasting any sympathy for Stalin. Think of Werner Klemperer doing Hogan's Heroes in the 60's. He had to flee Nazi Germany and was very happy to make the Nazis look like imbeciles!
Yes, where do such silly, slightly macabre, songs come from? How are they transmitted from one age group to the next?
For example,
"Great green gobs of greasy, grimy, gopher's guts,
concentrated turtle meat,
dirty little birdie's feet . . .
That's what we like to eat!"
This one was popular and sung with gusto among the boys in my neighborhood, a housing area for US Army dependents on Okinawa in the 1960s. I blame the military influence, or maybe children's summer camps.
Hahaa! That's a new one on me. It touches on the genre of "Dark Humor," which I used to do a teeny bit of in my college lit course on "American Humor." You find it in the works of Flannery O'Connor, for example, but also in the humor of Mark Twain and of the stories of Davy Crockett and the old "southwest," when the frontier meant Texas and Missouri.
Nice song, thanks. It got me searching for a summary of his long and varied career - acting, band member, and solo - I hadn't realized just how prolific he was in all time record sales.
Wow, Steve! To tell the truth, I call that sublime folk music! And yes, there is a great deal of the silly in folk music, very good-hearted and human stories. I recall hearing that song as a kid! Thanks for bring back something I haven't thought of in 50 years! Tony and our daughter are out buying plants .. but I'm going to share this with them tonight.
Silliness.....but also strikingly wonderful........"The Kiffness" started with a manipulated video of a cat...he began adding bits...then he began getting contacted from all over the world by people who want to collaborate with him.....much of what he does remains silly, but also an example of what the world could be like with peoples coming together...He has tons of shorts, with muscians from everywhere joining in .......
A silly song, in an off-the-wall way, obscure now, but which got a lot of air-time in 1966, was “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”, by Napoleon IV (maybe the singer's only song). Incredibly, it reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Kingston Trip, MTa
Anything Danny Kaye sang in ‘The Inspector General’ puts me in fits of giggles, can’t breathe.
We are very fond of Spike Jones in this house! In particular, the All Girl Band. Puts us in stitches every time. They aren’t too shabby when it comes to playing it straight, either. Their rendition of the main theme from ‘Laura’ is beautifully done.
Just found out Spike Jones did his own rendition of Bizet's 'Carmen'.............
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5mE_Kek45o
Long been a big fan of Barney Kessel's jazz version...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9aFv7IwMes
And regards silliness generally, have people seen the films (Mockumentory's) done by some of the same people who did Spinal Tap...
A Mighty Wind (folk music reunion festival)
Best In Show
For Your Consideration
Waiting For Guffman
I don’t know if he wrote any of his own music, but Victoria Borge certainly nails silliness when it comes to music!!
E.g. https://youtu.be/dKeqaDSjy98?si=3qenvzdV0m9i50Wi
Oh, so fantastic...and I don't think it's easy to "make a mess" of things so perfectly.....
Oh, Matthew! He was marvelous, and the King of Silliness -- but very talented, indeed. The Great Dane! I've been saving a particularly silly OLD video of him from his youth for just the right moment. Thanks for that clip from the Dean Martin Show. I know I haven't seen that one, and am looking forward to it!
How about “Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash! And the lyrics were by that great classical poet Shel Silverstein
Ha! Yes, indeed. That's a contender for the right day here, silly or otherwise. I didn't know that Shel Silverstein wrote the lyircs!
Apparently, Cash and Silverstein were friends. John Carter Cash, Johnny‘s son, included a picture of the two of them together, along with a couple of other friends, in a book about his father.
Mares Eat Oats, Polly Wolly Doodle, Turkey in The Straw.
These came to mind as “sillier” than my original suggestion of the Jimmy Soul song, which is maybe not silly but more comic sarcasm. Silly means “nonsense” and just for fun.🤔
Oh, my dad used to sing Mairzy Doats to me as a kid, and I loved it. Dad LOVED all novelty songs! He also used to sing me The Purple People Eaters! I posted an incredibly silly version of Liberace doing Turkey in the Straw a couple of years ago. And of course the folk songs are full of silliness. I love Polly Wolly Doodle. In fact we call our puppy Molly Wolly Doodle Doggie!
Yep, my almost-4-year-old daughter agrees. Spike was on stage for less than a minute before she exclaimed, "He's silly!" She proceeded to enjoy the rest of the video with much giggling. The headless musicians were particularly exciting for her. 🤪
Chad, that's great! And we all need to keep that childlike joy.. in silly things. My father used to sing me silly songs when I was a child, and I loved that! There's more Spike Jones audios on Youtube, but I think you miss the best of it if you don't SEE as well as hear that act!
I am reading Chesterton's The Flying Inn just now, which contains some jolly songs of silliness. Do you think humans require a certain amount of bonafide silliness, that there is a MDR for it? I loved the Spike Jones bit, though my brain keeps wanting to call him Spike Lee. Now THAT'S silly!😁
You're right -- I keep having to dissociate him from Spike Lee and Quincy Jones ...
Now there's a merry mash-up medley!😂
Same! Spike Lee! I think that may be my confusion.
It was before the time of most of us on W&S, but Spike Jones was a regular phenomenon in popular music of the 40's and 50's. He kept trying after that, but later popular music didn't lend itself to his "treatment."
Because later pop music was already too silly for parody!😉
I loved the parody of musical history and the general innocence of the fun. It isn't making fun at anyone else's expense, as parodies can often be, except maybe Josef Stalin, and I'm not wasting any sympathy on him.
Spike had a face that cartoonists must have loved to draw caricatures of.
I must be entirely too serious. The only silly performers that come to mind, and I can't say I'm a devotee of either, are the performances of the Canadian Brass (tariff-free version, please) and Leon Redbone's version of Froggie Went a-Courtin'.
The BEST version of 'Baby, It's Cold Outside is from Elf.......Leon Redbone and Zooey Deschanel (who actually has at least one full length CD out).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxyb7nce9-g
I agree about Spike's face! And there are so many silly folk songs. We could do a Substack on those alone, haha!
Mark, in WWII time, nobody was wasting any sympathy for Stalin. Think of Werner Klemperer doing Hogan's Heroes in the 60's. He had to flee Nazi Germany and was very happy to make the Nazis look like imbeciles!
And his father is the conductor of what is, in my opinion, the finest recording of Beethovan's 9th Symphony.
I remember there were silly songs that children learned and sang, like the one that has this for its refrain:
O Dunderbeck, O Dunderbeck, how could you be so mean
To ever have invented the sausage-meat machine!
Now all the neighbors' cats and dogs will never more be seen,
For they've been ground to sausage-meat in Dunderbeck's machine!
And all the silly songs sung around the campfire while in the Scouts (you know, when the Boy Scouts really were the Boy Scouts).
Yes, where do such silly, slightly macabre, songs come from? How are they transmitted from one age group to the next?
For example,
"Great green gobs of greasy, grimy, gopher's guts,
concentrated turtle meat,
dirty little birdie's feet . . .
That's what we like to eat!"
This one was popular and sung with gusto among the boys in my neighborhood, a housing area for US Army dependents on Okinawa in the 1960s. I blame the military influence, or maybe children's summer camps.
Boys trying to gross out girls???
Hahaa! That's a new one on me. It touches on the genre of "Dark Humor," which I used to do a teeny bit of in my college lit course on "American Humor." You find it in the works of Flannery O'Connor, for example, but also in the humor of Mark Twain and of the stories of Davy Crockett and the old "southwest," when the frontier meant Texas and Missouri.
Mark Twain's short stories are brilliant...and even having read most of them many times, they still make me laugh....
Favorite--The Facts In The Case Of The Great Beef Contract
Yes, Mark, I agree. I fondly remember Twain's the "McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm."
we loved Spike Jones. We would play his "best of" with our children, so we all got a big laugh!
He was absolutely GREAT at what he did!
Would you say "Don't Let the Rain Come Down" qualifies?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDnDVlTtP6Y
Makes me think of the Phil Collins song, 'The Roof Is Leaking'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm9OYVlAr2I
Nice song, thanks. It got me searching for a summary of his long and varied career - acting, band member, and solo - I hadn't realized just how prolific he was in all time record sales.
He does a terrific job on the Motown classic, My Girl too...
Wow, Steve! To tell the truth, I call that sublime folk music! And yes, there is a great deal of the silly in folk music, very good-hearted and human stories. I recall hearing that song as a kid! Thanks for bring back something I haven't thought of in 50 years! Tony and our daughter are out buying plants .. but I'm going to share this with them tonight.
Silliness.....but also strikingly wonderful........"The Kiffness" started with a manipulated video of a cat...he began adding bits...then he began getting contacted from all over the world by people who want to collaborate with him.....much of what he does remains silly, but also an example of what the world could be like with peoples coming together...He has tons of shorts, with muscians from everywhere joining in .......
The Kiffness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8lXySB8QC4
The Kiffness Numnum Cat International mashup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GArzu9ttQ0M&list=RDEMg0UOqcBbNDdesP7kegtIEg&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S61ENc51Z1Q
Not silly, but sweet...
The Kiffness Every Day I need The Blood of Jesus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7cUuVUo11c
Some silly Beatles songs, which come to mind: Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Her Majesty, Bungalow Bill, Rocky Raccoon, Yellow Submarine, Octopus's Garden.
Yes! Maswell's Silver Hammer is a silly song in the style of rather "dark" humor! I love all of these playful songs!
A silly song, in an off-the-wall way, obscure now, but which got a lot of air-time in 1966, was “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”, by Napoleon IV (maybe the singer's only song). Incredibly, it reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Watch what you call silly......I live in an Octopus's Garden LOL
In the shade??
Naturally.....not a big fan of being in the sun.....
Some silliness from Bollywood films...
3 Idiots--All Izz Well........ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PzwOiW8-n0&list=LL&index=9
3 Idiots--Zoobi Doobi....... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gITHJlFqXCc&list=LL&index=10
Like Stars On Earth--Bum Bum Bole........ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ1NIIdHhXs