1. I see on Memeorandum — my favorite starting point for finding bloggable things — that the French love Obama: "Obamania Sweeps France."
2. I think about blogging the item — you know, the obvious (being supported by the French isn't helpful for a guy who's getting called elitist) — but first, since I'm already in the middle of an iChat with my Obama-supporting son John, I quote the title of the article to him. He's all "Who's Oba?" And I'm "What's nia?" He wonders if it's pronounced "Obama - NIA" or "oh - BAH - MAY - nee - uh." I observe that "Obamamania" would have the word "mama" in it. The blogging gears of my head are trying to engage. Is some fear of the mother figure causing resistance manifested at the orthographic level? Fear of Hillary? And then John responds "Obamamamamania."
3. Suddenly, all I want to do is listen to the song "Papa Oom Mow Mow," but I don't know how to spell it. (I miss the "Oom." I think it's just "Oo.") And you have to spell to do internet. But I happen to know that song is by The Trashmen, and I know another song by them that I can spell, so I figure I'll get into YouTube that way, and the hard-to-spell song should come up in the suggestions. So I look up "Surfin' Bird."
4. I get distracted by The Ramones:
5. I listen to The Trashmen version.
6. YouTube reminds me that the song was used in "Full Metal Jacket":
7. I start to think that the use of "Surfin' Bird" in "Full Metal Jacket" is a more interesting subject for blogging than the French (who, by the way, are responsible for Vietnam).
8. In the film clip, "Surfin' Bird" turns into "Papa Oom Mow Mow" and I refocus on my simple desire to hear a cool song from my younger days.
9. John comes through with the proper "Oom" spelling and a link to Wikipedia, which doesn't mention The Trashmen version of the song, only the earlier Rivingtons doo wop version. It turns out that the Rivingtons also made the precursor to "Surfin' Bird," which they called "Bird Is the Word." I barely remember the doo wop "Papa Oom Mow Mow," but I find it on YouTube as the soundtrack to a video about coffee. Coffee distracts me:
10. I still can't find "Papa Oom Mow Mow" by The Trashmen. By now, I realize that the available recording of "Surfin' Bird" ends, as it does in the movie clip, with "Papa Oom Mow Mow." But I am almost certain that The Trashmen released "Papa Oom Mow Mow" as a free-standing single before "Surfin' Bird." Yet this 1964 album of theirs makes me doubt my own memory. But I had the 45!
11. I realize my post is going to be the story of my little Sunday morning journey across the internet and into the canyons of my 1960s memories. I'm going to post it as a list, perhaps an 11-item list, and then, I'm going to sit back and see what it causes you to talk about.
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Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do.
Mann!
"There are 289 members registered in Paris, against 64 for Hillary Clinton."
"Sweeping" France, LOL, with 289 members, all tinkling vin glasses at the French Obama meetup! And the article quotes the head of the ex-pat Democrats and the head French Obama supporter to prove their point!
Could it be that website editor Kern is an Obama fan?
I myself have every version of Louie Louie, I think.
And there's Limbaugh's version (real audio) of Lieberman doing it.
Great free association there, Ann.
just one question: When were you diagnosed with ADD?
;-)
I have a huge collection of surf music (all paid for) and "Surfin Bird" is one of my all time faves. I'm pretty sure there was no song called "Pappa Oom Mow Mow", but I've been known to be wrong. I've wondered about that silly word "Obamania" for some time. I keep seeing it in print and I've always guessed that it's pronounced "Oba-mania" but it just seems dumb to me. I'd much prefer Obamamania. Perhaps it's a word that ONLY works in print.
Ooh, meta.
Obamamamamia would be the love for the African-American candidate who's into ABBA.
I'm also suddenly reminded of "Rubber Biscuit" sung by the Blues Brothers!
"Surfer Bird" got me thinkin' about "Surfer Joe", which got me thinkin' about Brian Wilson, then Woodrow Wilson, then Mr. Wilson from Dennis the Menace, and then Mookie Wilson, and hey, isn't there a ballgame on?
That's bloggertainment!
The song "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" was originally by the Rivingtons.
The song "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen features that wonderful blubbering vocal break, which dwindles into silence and then revs itself back to life as "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow." I'm pretty sure the Trashmen never recorded a "real" version of "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow."
I also have the original Trashmen 45 of "Surfin' Bird" (Garrett Records 4002). Don't forget its b-side, "King Of The Surf," which features one of the lamest electric guitar solos ever captured on vinyl.
And to further attest to the mystical allure of that Rivingtons song, there was a 1981 single called "Drumhead" by the Athens, Georgia band Mood Food, which also incorporates "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow."
And one final bit of "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" trivia. The song was covered by many bands, but none with a better name than Detroit's King Uszniewicz & His Uszniewicztones.
And that's enough pop pedantry for today.
I just looked at that link to the Rivingtons... wow.. I was never before aware of the previous version of "Surfin' Bird" and the song "Papa Oom Mow Mow". Fascinating. I greatly more appreciated the Trashmen version of it, but I also looked at the Trashmen songlist on Amazon and listened to snippets. Boy, they really weren't very good. The only decent songs are all covers.
I know this isn't likely to fix a "Papa Oom Mow Mow" jones, but:
1. This post made me think of other songs with odd catch phrases.
2. The first comment made me think of "Won't somebody tell me what Diddy Wah Diddy means?"
3. I decided to try to find the Ry Cooder version on You Tube, but wasn't successful.
4. What I got instead was this cool Leon Redbone version from the Tonight Show, with brief Johnny Carson intro.
5. If I had done the Professor's trip, I wouldn't have made it past the coffee.
Seeing the camera crew in "Full Metal Jacket" reminded me of Coppola doing the same thing in "Apocalypse Now!"
"Don't look at the camera!"
Play "Papa Oom Mow Mow" backwards and you get "Elvira."
I can recall sitting in a graduate level math class some 40 years ago at the University of Minnesota. Perhaps it was in automata theory - the prof was wandering off on some tangents resulting from a Noam Chomsky paper on the Theory of Languages.
I wondered, "Just how in the hell does her mind work?"
Now I know the answer!
[O]bamalama.
Ding dong. (That was as irresistible as Roger Rabbit busting through the wall to knock "-- two bits!!!!")
A-whamma-lama-bama-rama...ding dong?
You beat me Brian.
I thought that "papa oom papa oom papa mow mow" was invented by the Statler Bros. How lame is that?
I took a date to see "Full Metal Jacket" when I was in high school. Good movie, but that was an error in judgment. Perhaps not as bad an error in judgment as the time I took a date in high school to see Eddie Murphy's "Raw", but definitely an error in judgment.
Hey, you think that's bad, try taking a date to A Boy and his Dog.
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