I'm watching that because for some reason, in the comments to "Let's explore ADHD with owls," tim in vermont said:
If you want to be a writer that Althouse enjoys, make sure you are born with the right voice, and I am not using ‘voice’ figuratively. You have to have that Spike Jones type voice mentioned in “Up On Cripple Creek” that tuned on Bessie.Tuned on? I think that was supposed to be "turned on," but you know what they say, "tune on, turn in, drop over."
Anyway, I love the old Band song, with the lines "Now, me and my mate were back at the shack/We had Spike Jones on the box/She said, 'I can't take the way he sings/But I love to hear him talk.'
So I was looking for a video with Jones talking and not singing, and "Cocktails for Two" has no singing by Jones but it also has no talking. Ah, here — you can hear him talk:
He's explaining how he got the idea for his sound-effects and music routine watching Igor Stravinsky conducting "Firebird" while wearing squeaky shoes. Another thing I learned in that clip is that the opposite of "corny" is "subtle." Which makes perfect sense.
I didn't set an endpoint in that video, so watch as long as you want. Hang in long enough and — trigger warning — there will be Nazi salutes. Lots of them.
Now that just gave my heart a throb/To the bottom of my feet....
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So why did he break up with Bessie?
Up on Cripple Creek she sends me
If I spring a leak she mends me
I don't have to speak she defends me
A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one
Maybe he started to going to AA. And he had to avoid Bessie because she reminded him of that demon rum.
tune on, turn in, drop over.
Heh.
Get em up move em out wake em up get em dressed get em shaved comb their hair..
Best Spike Jonze. Bonus: Walken!
"Here comes Beetle Bomb".
One of Spike's co-conspirators was Doodles Weaver, brother of TV mogul Pat Weaver and uncle of Sigourney Weaver.
"So why did he break up with Bessie?"
As Lyrics Genius annotates the lines "You know where I want to go?...To Lake Charles, Louisiana/Little Bessie, girl that I once knew/She told me just to come on by/If there's anything she could do":
"He left Bessie on good terms; she encouraged him to make the old-fashioned equivalent of a booty call if he ever came back to her town. Sure enough he does, and the rest of the song describes their adventures together."
Tune in, drop over, turn in.
Get the chronology right, or you're sleeping alone.
Hitler, he only had one ball,
Goering, had two but they were small,
Himmler was somewhat simmler,
But Goebbels had no balls at all.
Da da da da.
Hitler, he only had one ball . . .
Memories of Basic Training.
I saw Spike Jones and his band play in Chicago when I was a kid.
Their comedy was very visual. While playing, they had a microphone with "WIND" on a sign with wind blowing it around. Those were the call letters of a local radio station.
They put on quite a show.
The "nazi salutes" that are in in der fuhers face is actually the band members flipping hitlet the bird.
You have to look close as it is palm out. Pretty risque for early 40s
John Henry
We had a stack of 78s in my house when I was a tot and there was a Jones record among them. It was my fave. Something about a kid refusing to go to sleep.
cripple creek clip omits the spike jones stanza
“cripple creek clip omits the spike jones stanza”
Oh no!
Hell, if The Band knew what they were doing, they coulda got rid of all that corny stuff and flipped-the-shit out of that song to make themselves a Rap hit.
Oh well, opportunity lost...[snicker]
I always wondered what Spike Jones sounded like.
I am betting that this was the exact show that Robbie Robertson was watching with his girlfriend when she made that comment. I can’t stand to hear him sing, but he does have a velvety voice, notwithstanding the old fashioned accent, and he is interesting.
Crack, that’s what Vanilla Ice said about Rick James. I kid, I kid...
You know who else I can’t stand to hear sing, but is interesting when she talks? Yoko.
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