4/30/2010 - Weird Al Yankovic

Well, this month I have been reviewing songs that may have influenced Weird Al to become the musician he is -- mainly by looking at the Dr. Demento Funny 25/50 for the years 1972-1978. I do realize that Al started submitting stuff prior to 1978, but that was a good cut off. Well, all that background now leads me to a parody of his that I have never heard before today.
I can't find what show this originally aired on, but it has appeared on at least 3 Dr. Demento shows since 1980, all in the last 13 years. But even dmdb.org credits this to coming out from a 1980 submission. It even says it was a live submission but I can't find the show. Oh well.
This is "Won't Eat Prunes Again" by Weird Al Yankovic. It is a parody of The Who (who?) "Won't Be Fooled Again", which was their closing concert song. I hadn't heard either song, so it's all new to me! Enjoy:



Lyrics
It was just the other day
When we went to Joe's Cafe
Just to order up a couple steaks to eat

But we noticed something wrong
All the Worcestershire was gone
But the waitress brought a different kind of treat

She said this sauce was the chef's new creation
Guaranteed, it's a new taste sensation
But she warned us it's made out of prunes
"Try a little if you dare"
"Nothing can compare"
So we had some and now we swear
We won't eat prunes again

That was such a dirty trick
Boy, it really made us sick
Well it looks like we've been done in by the prune

Still the memory lingers on
I been livin' in the john
'Cause I've had the runs since Monday afternoon

I'd sell my soul for some new constipation
Need a cure for this new aggravation
Diarrhea has taken its toll
Still got the runs today
Just like yesterday
Buddy, that's why I'm hear to say
We won't eat prunes again

Won't eat prunes again
No no

Yeah

Eat the new sauce
Same as the old sauce

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4/29/10 - Mary Rice Hopkins

Well, we take a break from this history lesson to celebrate my wife's birthday. I asked her about her favorite funny song and she came up with this one. It's called "Juggling Mom" by Mary Rice Hopkins. I have seen Mary Rice Hopkins live a couple of times at conferences that I have been to. She is a children's singer who tours with a traveling puppet stage manned... or womaned by Darcie Maze.

Here's Mary Rice Hopkins with "Juggling Mom". Happy birthday to my juggling wife.

Take 2: I can't embed this song at all. You can find it on Rhapsody complete or here is a segment from her site:

Juggling Mom

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4/28/10 - Lonnie Donegan

Wow, 2 more days of my month of review. And more interesting - this is my 200th song of the day. It's been a fun journey of exploration so far so I'll keep it coming :)
"Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor" was originally, "Does Your Spearmint Lose It's Flavor" when it was first written in 1924 but because of British copyright laws not allowing the mention of a copyrighted product in songs unless you were the copyright owner, Lonnie Donegan changed it to the generic, "Chewing Gum".
Lonnie Donegan has the honor to be known as the most successful British musician before the Beatles. He had 24 top 30 hits in the UK and the first Brit to have two top 10 hits in the U.S. He was known as a skiffle band, an older form of American Jazz that really had gone by the wayside by the 1950s in the US but was revived by Lonnie in the UK. Usually, Skiffle bands played assorted homemade instruments such as the kazoo, washboard, cigar box, musical saw, with a banjo and guitar thrown in for good measure. Seems to me like something you'd see in old Bugs Bunny cartoons.
Well, "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor" became Donegan's biggest hit and is still popular in Dementia circles, having been played numerous times on Dr. Demento's show as well as his CDs. So here is Lonnie Donegan with "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor". Enjoy:



The Lyrics change on every version I find.... funny :)

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4/27/10 - Sheriff John

I can't figure out how to embed today in firefox. Something's screwy.

I can't say it better than this video, so watch the video, then click on the link below to hear the song. And laugh and be happy!



Laugh and Be Happy

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4/26/2010 - The Ogden Edsl Wahalia Blues Ensemble Mondo Bizzario Band

This is getting right on the edge of the time frame that I wanted to look at. And it is, by far, the longest group name I've ever featured. Even the Roto Rooter Goodtime Christmas Band pales in comparison.
The Ogden Edsl Wahalia Blues Ensemble Mondo Bizzario Band, which will be shortened to Ogden Edsl from here on out, were a Nebraska dark comedy band which started touring the area in the early 70's. The group consisted of Bill Frenzer, Bill Carey and Otis XII. Their shows consisted of music, comedy sketches and appeared to be one of the first to enhance their shows with videos long before MTV and the VCR.
The group toured until 1983 when they retired as a group. They did one last gig together on October 27, 2001 in Omaha, Nebraska as a performance to their induction to the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame. I didn't even know such a place existed.
So, this morning, I woke up and this song was already playing in my head, wondering, why? I thought I'd share the earworm with you! Here is Ogden Edsl with "Dead Puppies." No matter what, the song is fun even if the subject matter isn't.



Please excuse the intro if you wanted just the song. I like the sketch too.

BTW, Roman Hruska was a Senator from Nebraska, so that line is in reference to him.

Lyrics

Dead puppies
Dead puppies
Dead puppies aren't much fun

They don't come when you call
They don't chase squirrels at all
Dead puppies aren't much fun

My puppy died late last fall
He's still rotting in the hall
Dead puppies aren't much fun, no no no
Mom says puppy's days are through
She's going to throw him in the stew
Dead puppies aren't much fun

Dead puppies
(Dead dead dead) dead puppies
Dead puppies aren't much fun

(Come on everybody out there, sing along ok?)

(Dead dead dead) dead puppies
(Dead dead dead) dead puppies
(Dead dead dead) dead puppies aren't much fun

(One more time for Roman Hruska)
Dead puppies
Dead puppies

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4/25/2010 - Larry Groce

Larry Groce is a host on NPR. He sang 4 records of children songs for Disney. But for one song, Larry Groce was a dementia artist. And quite the song it was.
To me, it looks like Larry Groce was a child of the 60's -- he went around as a traveling musician from school to school and ended up getting funding from the National Endowment of the Arts to do so. He did have a song called, "Winnie the Pooh for President" which Disney picked up and released (I'm surprised they didn't sue him into oblivion!)
Well, in 1975, Groce wrote this song and started performing it in 1976, where it reached #9 on the Billboard charts. I can't even fathom comedy songs today making the Billboard charts with the merging of all the stations under one or two companies and no one breaking format, ever. Anyway, here is Larry Groce's tell of a double life -- "Junk Food Junkie".



Lyrics
Well you know I love that organic cookin'
I always ask for more
They call me Mr. Natural
On down to the health food store
I only eat good sea-salt
White sugar don't touch my lips
And my friends is always beggin' me to take 'em
On macro-biotic trips
But at night I take out my strongbox
That I keep under lock and key
And I take it off to my closet
Where nobody else can see
I open that lid so slowly
Take a peek up North and South
Then I pull out a Hostess Twinkie
And I pop it in my mouth!

In the daytime I'm Mr. Natural
Just as healthy as I can be
But at night I'm a junkfood junkie
Good Lord have pity on me!

Well at lunch time you can always find me
At the Whole Earth Vitamin Bar
Just suckin' on my plain white yogurt
From a hand thrown pottery jar
And sippin' little hand-pressed cider
With a carrot stick for desert
And wipin' my face in a natural way
On the sleeve of my peasant shirt!
But when that clock strikes midnight
And I'm all by myself
I'm working that combination
In my secret hide-away shelf
I pull out some Fritos Corn Chips
Doctor Pepper and an Old Moon Pie,
Then I sit back in glorious expectation
Of a genuine junk food high!

Chorus

My friends down at the commune
They think I'm pretty neat
I don't know nothin' 'bout arts and crafts
But I give 'em all something to eat
I'm a friend to old Euell Gibbons
And I only eat home grown spice
I got a John Keats autograph Grecian urn
Filled up with my brown rice
But folks, lately I have been spotted
With a Big Mac on my breath
Stumblin' into a Colonel Sanders
With a face as white as death
I'm afraid some day they'll find me
Just stretched out on my bed
With a handful of Pringle's Potato Chips
And a Ding-Dong by my head!


Chorus

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4/24/2010 - Napoleon XIV

No list like this would be complete without one of the signature songs of dementia - "They're Coming to Take Me Away - Ha-Haa!". I have heard before about how Jerry Samuels would be entertaining friends and would turn into Napoleon XIV, a completely different, deranged personality (but not dangerous.)
There have been a couple of parody/sequels to this song. The most obvious is the B side of the original record, "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" which is the original song played completely backwards (it is the flip side.) The second one is Josephine XV's, "I'm Happy They Took You Away" and then Jerry Samuels made a sequel in 1990 called, "They're Coming To Get Me Again, Ha Haaa!".
The recording wasn't originally considered a song and had to be copyrighted as a lecture. Well, this lecture hit #3 on the Billboard US Charts and #4 on the UK charts. Not bad for a lecture.
Here's Jerry Samuels, aka Napoleon XIV, with "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" Enjoy:



Let's rewind and watch it again:

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4/23/2010 - The Thorndike Pickledish Pacifist Choir

Try saying that name 216 times real fast.

The Thorndike Pickledish Pacifist Choir consists of Robert O. Smith, a radio DJ from Seattle, Washington. He is also a voice actor. In 1966, he released this little spoken word ditty called, "Walter Wart, The Freaky Frog". Very interesting indeed.

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4/22/2010 - Rose and the Arrangement

There's always something eating a city in songs. Eggplants that eat Chicago, tomatoes that eat New York. Babies that eat Los Angeles. But nothing compares to the horror of the cockroach that ate Cincinnati.
Rose and the Arrangement was a Las Vegas band that in 1974 released "The Cockroach who Ate Cincinnati" under the alias, Possum. Little did they know that this song would become their biggest hit thanks to the play it found on the Dr. Demento show. The year it was released, it hit #22 in the funny 25. Then it went to #8 in 1975 and 1976.
So here's "The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati" by Rose and the Arrangement. Chad Ocho-Cinco approves:



Lyrics
Uh-uh, don't touch that dial!

I must offer to you a confession,
I like movies that give me a fright.
If the subject is horror, I got to see more or
I won't be contented all night.
You may call it my ghoulish obsession,
It's a subject on which I get chatty.
But the worst one it seems, haunting all of my dreams
Was the cockroach that ate Cincinnati!

I've seen ghouls and hobgoblins and witches
And some moth-eaten werewolves with fangs.
There were creatures that chattered and others that clattered,
And Japanese monsters with fangs (ah-so).
Frankenstein gives me the shakes,
And Count Dracula's driving me batty.
But they're not on a par with the worst one by far
The cockroach that ate Cincinnati (ha ha ha ha)!

Oh, he must have needed a seltzer.
It's amazing how much he got down!
For lunch, he'd just chew up a suburb or two,
And for dinner, he ate the whole town (BURP!).
Willard just sent me out laughing,
I thought Ben looked a little bit ratty (sorry, sorry about that),
But they're not half as bad as the worst scare I've had -
The Cockroach that ate Cincinnati!

Oh, my heart nearly stopped; he would never be topped -
The cockroach that ate Cincinnati! OLE!

Ole? That's dumb!

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4/21/10 - National Lampoon

A few years back, my wife and I bought a National Lampoon book of funny stuff printed in newspapers. We were rolling on the floor, especially with most of the wedding announcements. The people at National Lampoon have a great sense of humor.
Leave it to them to come up with this parody. In the 1920's, Max Ehrmann wrote a poem of encouragement that Les Crane set to music as spoken word with a prose set used as the backing chorus. National Lampoon took this song of encouragement and turned it on its ear, turning it into a song of the hopelessness of a deteriorating world and the futility of life. This is "Deteriorata" by National Lampoon.
I am seeing conflicting reports of who actually wrote the original lyrics. One place says it was Christopher Guest (of SNL and 6 fingered-man fame). Another says Tony Hendra. What they do agree on is that the spoken part is by Norman Rose (Juan Valdez's voice) and the singing is by Melissa Manchester.
Here's "Deteriorata" by National Lampoon:



Lyrics
You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here.
Deteriorata. Deteriorata.

Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself,
And heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss, and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do.
Wherever possible, put people on hold.
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment,
and despite the changing fortunes of time,
There is always a big future in computer maintenance.

Remember The Pueblo.
Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate.
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
Especially with those persons closest to you -
That lemon on your left, for instance.
Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls
Would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love therefore. It will stick to your face.
Gracefully surrender the things of youth: birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan.
And let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
Hire people with hooks.
For a good time, call 606-4311. Ask for Ken.
Take heart in the bedeepening gloom
That your dog is finally getting enough cheese.
And reflect that whatever fortune may be your lot,
It could only be worse in Milwaukee.

You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not,
The universe is laughing behind your back.

Therefore, make peace with your god,
Whatever you perceive him to be - hairy thunderer, or cosmic muffin.
With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
The world continues to deteriorate.
Give up!

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