#053
Crocodile Rock e o Fungagá da bicharada
Fui crescendo num mundo onde os animais falavam. O Dr. Dolittle falava com eles mas nos Looney Tunes patos, coelhos, porcos e pintassilgos proferiam frases inteligentes e bem articuladas. Geococcyxs e coiotes nem por isso mas porque isso não interessava para a trama slapstick tão apreciada por mim e todos os outros “amiguinhos” do Jorge Alves enquanto apresentador do Cartaz TV.
Mais tarde compreendi que a coisa estava ainda mais disseminada. Não era só a Disney que convencia na “animalices”. Os comic books americanos viravam a vida animal de fio a pavio com toda uma sub-industria de “funny animals”: Cerebus the Aardvark de Dave Sim e Howard the Duck the Steve Gerber (para destacar os meus dois preferidos); tartarugas ninja, legiões de super-animais-de-estimação, chimpanzés detectives e um guaxinim espaciótico que mais recentemente foi re-descoberto por milhares de fãs da série Guardians of the Galaxy. Em outras campos das artes plásticas artistas como o nova-iorquino Matthew Grabelsky começaram a pintar imagens surreais e enigmáticas representando cenários do quotidiano urbano combinados com o mundo subconsciente dos sonhos e da mitologia.
They say they don’t need money
They’re living on nuts and berries
They say animals don’t worry
You know animals are hairy?
They think they know what’s best
They’re making a fool of us
They ought to be more careful
They’re setting a bad example
They have untroubled lives
They think everything’s nice
They like to laugh at people
They’re setting a bad example
(go ahead) laugh at me.
Talking Heads – Animals
Entretanto no universo musical a coisa foi sempre uma enorme “macacada”. Do José Cid até aos autores de The House of the Rising Sun, a pop tem uma extensa canópia de biodiversidade capaz de produzir séria inveja nos seus “DJs” mais famosos, de Carl Nilsson Linnæus a Sir Richard Samuel Attenborough. Senão veja-se: The Chipmunk Song (com que acabámos a m4we da semana passada), Running Bear, Pony Time, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, A Horse With No Name, Cat’s in the Cradle, Eye of the Tiger, Karma Chameleon; de Pandas até Pombas choramingas, qualquer rápida amostragem do lugar cimeiro do Top 100 da Billboard atesta o monkey business que proliferou por estas bandas…
Crocodile Rock, ponto de partida da selecção desta semana, foi lançado nos finais de 1972 como cartão de visita do album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, o primeiro de dois LPs que Elton John lançou no ano seguinte, o segundo seria Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. A Billboard na altura fez uma review ao single, afirmando que era um “clever easy beat rocker with a sound and flavor of the 50’s hits”.
Como de costume na altura a canção foi escrita em parceria com Bernie Taupin, o qual mais tarde declarou numa entrevista dada à Esquire que “Crocodile Rock” was a funny song in that he didn’t mind creating it, but it wouldn’t be something he’d listen to; it was simply something fun at the time”.
Recentemente, já em 2021 Elton John revelou que a canção havia sido criada como uma espécie de piada infantil em honra das coisas com que ele havia crescido e que já não tinha nenhum prazer em tocá-la mas que continuaria a fazê-lo em honra dos seus fãs até acabar a sua gigantesca e final digressão começada em 2018, Farewell Yellow Brick Road.
Isto não é nem o jardim Jaleco nem a arca de Noé: não há cá bicharada acasalada, a admissão é singular e intransmissível. Para escolher Fox In The Box dos UND tive de descartar o maravilhoso The Fox dos A Certain Ratio. Da mesma forma que para poder aqui “enjaular” os Osibisa com o seu The Lions Walk tive que largar o cerco que andei a fazer ao Lee “Scratch” Perry que gravou Dread Lion. Ainda pelas mesmíssimas razões preteri Disco Duck (Part1) de Rick Dees & his Cast of Idiots para poder ver nadar O Pato, clássico que João Gilberto me (en)canta desde tenra idade. E aproveito a deixa para pedir umas sérias desculpas ao Rei por deixar fora o clássico As Baleias mas acabei mesmo por arpoar o lado B de um single de Wynonie Harris que contem o maravilhoso Tell a Whale of a Tale, que não fala propriamente do cetáceo em si mas que confirma um truque idiomático que por estes lados é muito apreciado.
Muito animal caiu fora do cercado: a Maria Armanda “não viu um sapo”, o tema principal da banda sonora de Skippy the Bush Kangaroo que eu adorava quando criança teve de ir dar uma volta e voltar “bumeranguisticamente” sob a efígie de um outro down-under, Rolf Harris, com Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.
E há mesmo pop suficiente para musicar um extenso curso de zoologia! Canino? Atomic Dog (Special Atomic Mix) de George Clinton! Crustáceo: The B-52’s e o seu Rock Lobster! Ovíparo: Turtles Have Short Legs dos Can ou Chuck Sims a interpretar Little Pigeon! Então e em relação a um invertebrado? Respondo-vos com um Caracol pelo Grupo Bola Roja, uma das “loucuras” de Rafael Machuca, advogado responsável entre 1975 e 1980 pelo selo colombiano Discos Machuca e que produziu alguns dos mais fabulosos e experimentais estilhaços afro-psicadélicos de Cumbia e Champeta.
No caso de não estarem lembrados como é que tudo isto funciona acabo com uma cover de I Am the Walrus que os Affinity gravaram supostamente em 1970 mas só incluído em versões posteriores do album, já sem a magnífica voz da cantora original Linda Hoyle. Imagine-se então o que aí possa estar por vir.
I love to play in his hair
Shiny, black, big brown green eyes
That’s all it takes for me to fantasise
That’s all it takes for me to climb my King Kong
Ooh, my little king
King Kong, ooh, my little
And that is why he and I carry on, ooh
That is why he is my wild animal
Vanity – Wild Animal
Uivem, rujam e miem, cacarejem se não vos apetecer chilrear, guinchem, borreguem enquanto zurram. Que o fim de semana vos inspire a muito som animalesco.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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I grew up in a world where animals spoke. Dr. Dolittle talked to them but in all Looney Tunes ducks, rabbits, pigs and goldfinches uttered clever and well-articulated phrases. Geococcyxs and coyotes were more mute but because that didn’t matter for the slapstick plot so appreciated by me and all the other “friends” of Jorge Alves as presenter of the Cartaz TV program.
Later I realized that the thing was even more widespread. It wasn’t just Disney that convinced us in all this “animalry”. American comic books turned farm and jungle life inside out with a whole sub-industry of “funny animals”: Cerebus the Aardvark by Dave Sim and Howard the Duck from Steve Gerber (to highlight my two favorites); ninja turtles, legions of super pets, chimpanzee detectives, and a spacey raccoon that was most recently re-discovered by thousands of Guardians of the Galaxy fans. In other fields of the fine arts artists such as New Yorker Matthew Grabelsky began to paint surreal and enigmatic images representing everyday urban settings combined with the subconscious world of dreams and mythology.
They say they don’t need money
They’re living on nuts and berries
They say animals don’t worry
You know animals are hairy?
They think they know what’s best
They’re making a fool of us
They ought to be more careful
They’re setting a bad example
They have untroubled lives
They think everything’s nice
They like to laugh at people
They’re setting a bad example
(go ahead) laugh at me.
Talking Heads – Animals
However, in the musical universe things had already gone “ape shit”. From José Cid to the authors of The House of the Rising Sun, pop has an extensive canopy of biodiversity capable of producing serious envy in its most famous DJs, from Carl Nilsson Linnæus to Sir Richard Samuel Attenborough. Take a look at: The Chipmunk Song (with which we ended last week’s m4we), Running Bear, Pony Time, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, A Horse With No Name, Cat’s in the Cradle, Eye of the Tiger, Karma Chameleon; from Pandas to crying doves, any quick sampling of the top spot in Billboard’s Top 100 attests to the monkey business that has proliferated around these parts…
Crocodile Rock, the starting point for this week’s selection, was released in late 1972 as a calling card for the Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player album, the first of two LPs Elton John released the following year, the second would be Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Billboard at the time reviewed the single, claiming it was a “clever easy beat rocker with a sound and flavor of the 50’s hits”.
As usual at the time the song was written in partnership with Bernie Taupin, who later stated in an interview for Esquire that “Crocodile Rock was a funny song in which he didn’t mind creating it, but it wouldn’t be something he’d listen to; it was simply something fun at the time”.
As recently as 2021 Elton John revealed that the song had been created as a kind of childish joke in honor of the things he had grown up with and that he no longer had any pleasure in playing it but would continue to do so in honor of his fans until the end of his gigantic and final tour started in 2018, Farewell Yellow Brick Road.
This is neither a Jaleco garden nor Noah’s ark: there is no mated animal here, the admission is unique and intransmissible. To choose Fox In The Box by UND I had to discard the wonderful The Fox by A Certain Ratio. In the same way that in order to be able to “jail” Osibisa with their The Lions Walk, I had to let go of the siege I’d been doing to Lee “Scratch” Perry who recorded Dread Lion. Also for the same reasons, I neglected Rick Dees’s & his Cast of Idiots Disco Duck to watch O Pato gracefully swim, a classic that João Gilberto has been singing to me from an early age. And I take this opportunity to apologize to the King for leaving out the classic As Baleias, but I ended up harpooning the B side of a single by Wynonie Harris that contains the wonderful Tell a Whale of a Tale, which doesn’t exactly speak of the cetacean in itself, but it confirms an idiomatic trick that is much appreciated in these selections.
A lot of animals fell out of the enclosure: Maria Armanda “didn’t see a frog”, the main theme of the Skippy the Bush Kangaroo soundtrack that I loved as a child had to go for a walk and come back “boomerangistically” under the effigy of another down-under, Rolf Harris, with Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.
And there’s even enough pop to set an extensive zoology course to music! Canine? Atomic Dog (Special Atomic Mix) by George Clinton! Crustacean: The B-52’s and their Rock Lobster! Oviparous: Turtles Have Short Legs by Can or Chuck Sims playing Little Pigeon! So what about an invertebrate? I’ll answer you with a Caracol by Grupo Bola Roja, one of the “crazes” of Rafael Machuca, the lawyer responsible between 1975 and 1980 for the Colombian label Discos Machuca that produced some of the most fabulous and experimental Afro-psychedelic sonic shards of Cumbia and Champeta.
In case you haven’t remembered how this all works, I end up with a cover of I Am the Walrus that Affinity supposedly recorded in 1970 but only included in later versions of the album, already without the magnificent voice of original singer Linda Hoyle. So imagine what might be in store.
I love to play in his hair
Shiny, black, big brown green eyes
That’s all it takes for me to fantasise
That’s all it takes for me to climb my King Kong
Ooh, my little king
King Kong, ooh, my little
And that is why he and I carry on, ooh
That is why he is my wild animal
Vanity – Wild Animal
Howl, roar and meow, cackle if you don’t feel like chirping, squeak, stew while braying. May the weekend inspire you to a lot of animalistic sounds.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Osibisa – The Lions Walk
Can – Turtles Have Short Legs
The Jazzinvaders – Zebra Boogie 2
Thiago Nassif – Pele De Leopardo
The B-52’s – Rock Lobster
Natural Bridge Bunch – Pig Snoots (Part 1)
Grupo Bola Roja – Caracol
The Crew – The Jaguar Hunt
John Kongos – Confusion about a Goldfish
Concorde – Oiseaux Sauvages
Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra – Baby Elephant Walk
Elton John – Crocodile Rock
Neneh Cherry – Buffalo Stance (12” Mix)
Sapan & Jagmohan – Giraffe Trapping Music
Steve Miller – Fly Like An Eagle
Scott Walker – Butterfly
Chuck Sims – Little Pigeon
Chicago Afrobeat Project feat. Tony Allen – White Rhino
Bow Wow Wow – Chihuahua
The Egyptian Lover – 5¢ Camel Ride
UND – Fox In The Box (Telespazio Remix)
Tomorrow’s Gift – Ants
Wynonie Harris with Orchestra – Tell a Whale of a Tale
João Gilberto – O Pato
Rolf Harris – Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
José Barata Moura – Fungagá da Bicharada
George Clinton – Atomic Dog (Special Atomic Mix)
Laid Back – White Horse (U.S. Edit)
Vanessa Daou – Snake Charmer
Rufus Thomas – The Preacher and The Bear
Squeeze – Cool For Cats
Grim LTD – Milk Cow Blues
1974 Chevrolet Advert – Impala
Aifferson J-Plane – White Rabbit (V’s Into The Hole edit)
Sequin – Flamingo
Smilin’ Smokey Lynn – Run Mister Rabbit
The Shandells – Go Go Gorilla
J.M. Band – Computer Monkey
Aphex Twin – Pancake Lizard (Peel Session)
Affinity – I Am the Walrus