Magic number: 42421
Magic word: retrench
Monthly Archives: February 2015
Charlie Chaplin Songs
I just read Peter Ackroyd’s excellent, purposefully pithy biography Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life. I’ve read most of the major Chaplin bios, and Ackroyd gives you as full picture of Chaplin’s long career without getting too bogged down in any one area for very long.
Here’s a mixtape to read Charlie Chaplin to.
“At the Moving Picture Ball” by Joseph Santley and Howard Johnson. “Charlie Chaplin, with his feet/ Stepped all over poor Blanche Sweet/ Dancing at that moving picture ball.”
Katie Herzig, “Charlie Chaplin.” “Each of us has got a little Charlie Chaplin inside us sayin’ “Hey fellas why don’t we go where movies are silent and life is as big as the stage?”
Traditional skipping rhyme:
Charlie Chaplin went to France
To teach the ladies the hula dance
First on the heels, then on the toes,
Around and around and around you go,
Salute the captain and bow to the queen
Touch the bottom of a submarine.
Oldham Tinkers, “Charlie Chaplin.” A multi-verse extension of the jumping rhyme above.
“Charlie Chaplin,” World War I army marching song, sung to the tune of “Little Redwing.”
The moon shines down
On Charlie Chaplin
He’s going balmy
To join the army
But his little baggy trousers
They need a-mending
Before they send him
To the Dardanelles
The moon shines bright
On Charlie Chaplin
But his shoes are cracking
For want of blacking
And his baggy khaki trousers
Still need mending
Before they send him
To the Dardanelles.
Asher Roth, “Charlie Chaplin.” Happy little feet. I don’t want to try to drown whatever’s happening to me. I walk with out a sound, Charlie Chaplin on the beat.” This is actually a reference to Charlie Chaplin the much-sampled reggae star, not Charlie Chaplin the movie star, but the lyric could apply to either.
A video cover of Charlie’s gibberish song from Modern Times.
The Clown Archives: Charlie Chaplin Cover, The Nonsense Song from tim trick on Vimeo.
The lyrics to that Modern Times song, courtesy of http://www.rioleo.org/chaplin-modern-times-waiter.php, which also shows the lyrics of the original French song it’s aping, plus a translation of that French version.
Se bella giu satore
Je notre so cafore
Je notre si cavore
Je la tu la ti la twah
La spinash o la bouchon
Cigaretto Portabello
Si rakish spaghaletto
Ti la tu la ti la twah
Senora pilasina
Voulez-vous le taximeter?
Le zionta su la seata
Tu la tu la tu la wa
Sa montia si n’amora
La sontia so gravora
La zontcha con sora
Je la possa ti la twah
Je notre so lamina
Je notre so cosina
Je le se tro savita
Je la tossa vi la twah
Se motra so la sonta
Chi vossa l’otra volta
Li zoscha si catonta
Tra la la la la la la
“Modern Times,” J-Five. That Modern Times song is sampled extensively in this single, a big hit in France in 2004.
Chaplin’s been the subject of several musicals. The most recent Broadway one was Chaplin: The Musical by Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan, which had its New York debut in 2012 but regional productions dating back to 2006, when the show’s title was Limelight. There was a 1993 musical also called Chaplin that nearly made it to Broadway, starring John Rubinstein, but was mothballed and didn’t get a full professional production until 2012 in London. There was also a 1983 musical called Chaplin, starring Anthony Newley, that closed on its pre-Broadway tour and never made it to New York.
Chaplin’s greatest hit as a composer, “Smile,” has been covered by everyone from Nat King Cole to the cast of Glee to R&B/hip-hop diva Janelle Monae.
Riverdale Book Review
Five Rock Bands That Have Toured Through Riverdale
The Chimps
The Beetles
Britney Pears
The Gig Pigs
Grungy & The Guttersnipes
Rock Gods #340: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene
Best acoustics in town? A church. Several contenders here—really, any church. Folkies play there unamped. Hecklers come through crystal clear when grumbling from the pews, and that irony is delicious.
Tonight: Winged Euonymus at The Bullfinch… The Disenchanted at Hamilton’s (black-clad covers)… An Evening With Sunday Hats and Hair Store, the doo-wop gospel bands, at D’ollaire’s…
For Tomorrow We Shall Die: Diary of a College Chum #290:
We meet after work for drinks.
Scribblers Music Review
Omniflux, “Dance in Your Blood.” Omniflux is Mahsa Zargaran one-woman band born in Tehran and high-schooled in the United States. Interesting that she uses “flux” in her name, because her rangy-singing-over-beats style is reminiscent of Fluxus Group member Yoko Ono. She doesn’t do randomness like Ono does, though; this is a carefully constructed, slowly building, layered effort, passionate and pure but neatly crafted as well.
The 9th of February, 2015
Magic number: 52389
Magic word: syllogism
Shovel Song
It’s snowing again, for the third Monday in a row. Many lists of “Snow” songs exist in the world. Here’s the other image of the day. For a while, it looked like this list would be overwhelmed with metal songs about digging shallow graves, but happily the shovel-pop genre turns out to be broader than that.
Shovels & Ropes (band name, Charleston South Carolina)
“I Gently Shovel Snow,” The Walkmen
“Shovel,” Aesop Rock
“Heel on the Shovel,” 16 Horsepower
“The Days of Sand and Shovels,” Bobby Vinton.
“Mudshovel,” Staind. It’s a crass sexual term.
“The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel,” Gravediggaz
“Shovel Headed Kill Machine,” album by the metal band Exodus.
“Shovel Knockout,” Children of Bodom.
“Bitter Shovel,” Outspoken.
“The Man With the Shovel,” traditional folk song included in the book Songs and Romances of Buffalo by John Charles Shea.
“The Broom, the Shovel, the Poker and the Tongs,” Edward Lear nonsense verse.
“Shovel Knight,” theme from the free-software video game of the same name.
“The Shovel Vs. The Howling Bones,” album by Lincoln Durham, who records eccentric folk/blues tunes on antiquated sound equipment.
“One Woman and a Shovel,” empowerment ditty from folksinger Carrie Newcomer
Midnight Shovel Routine, metal band from Kentucky.
Rock Gods #339: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene
Someone fleeced the Bullfinch, and Q got the fleece back. The hero is being all “no big deal” and “no comment” about it, but it’s all out there in the police reports, and the praise has raised Q’s stature from barback (and occasional show promoter) to Assistant Manager. Might’ve been an even better offer, but Q’s made no secret of wanting to spend more time on his Think-Q record label and his own (mostly unheard) music projects.
So remember Josh the bartender? He was stealing from the bar, pocketing other bartenders’ tips. In the boldest stroke of all, he was taking the large amounts of cash he’d been given to pay deliverymen for shipments. He’d say “I’m new, they didn’t tell me you were coming, I don’t have the money,” and they’d believe him.
It was the kind of scheme that could only work once, and Josh had to know in advance that his employment would be short-term. In fact, he’d done this elsewhere (which is one reason why we haven’t had to use the word “allegedly” in this account) and after bolting from the Bullfinch (and this town altogether) last Tuesday, had already lined up his next target, a bar about 75 miles away.
Which is where Q came in. He’d been calling other clubs in the state to start a mini-touring circuit for a few of his favorite bands. He called this place upstate and who answered but Josh? His distinctive accent is part of the “charm” which has gotten him far in his criminal business.
Here’s where Q was cool. He got so curious so fast that he was able to avoid Josh knowing it was him and keep him on the line a little while so he could formulate his own plan. Under the guise of the No Man Distillery, Q arranged a delivery. He then hipped the bar to the scheme, and (despite some misgivings from the owner, who understandably wanted to fire Josh on the spot), it was decided that Josh should be caught in action with cops standing by around the corner. Real sting stuff. And very successful. So that Josh might avoid jail time, much of the money has already got returned.
But not all of it. Q’s first Bullfinch booking as Assistant Manager is a “Josh Scam Marathon” multi-band benefit to recoup a couple of grand and pay off the distributors.
Tonight: Thank You for the Eels and Musk Turtles (same band, different sets) at The Bullfinch… The Story Needs and Dame Rumor, college jazz rock, at Hamilton’s… Stop & Sop and Mid-K at D’ollaire’s, high-priced jams…
Riverdale Book Review
There is much speculation as to why Prof. Flutesnoot is obliged to teach both Science and Music at Riverdale High School. Is he some comic book version of Paul Hindemith, modeling his compositions on principles of physics or astronomy? Or was it simply an editing error? In the panel gag “The Corney Cornetists,” collected in the IDW hardcover Archie Joke Book Volume One: Great Gags from Great Archie Artists, Archie and Jughead are in the school’s music room (playing cornet, badly), when in walks their music teacher… Mr. Fluteweed. He looks nothing like Prof. Flutesnoot—he has a pointy rather than bulbous nose, a small mustache and dark hair (though both men are bald on top). But their surnames are enough to cause considerable confusion. I wonder if they got each other’s paychecks by accident.