Tracks: 1) Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu; 2) Little Chickee Wah Wah; 3) Little Liza Jane; 4) Just A Lonely Clown; 5) Hush Your Mouth; 6) Don’t You Know Yockomo; 7) Havin’ A Good Time; 8) Don’t You Just Know It; 9) Well I’ll Be John Brown; 10) Everybody’s Whalin’; 11) High Blood Pressure; 12) We Like Birdland.
Excellent article; going to bookmark it for sure. I stumbled upon it while looking for the lyrics for “Havin’ A Good Time” — specifically trying to understand what the bass vocal (Billy Roosevelt?) is singing. It seems to change each time: “Jump on, boy” or “Sing on, boy” maybe? Or “Drop on by”? Anyone know for sure?
I have a selection of novelty songs I occasionally cycle through on Youtube. My favorite is probably Ultimate Showdown (which strangely enough is so old to basically be a classic video by now) I take it though you’re not including bands like Barenaked Ladies, B-52, Jellyfish, Ween etc. under the term “lightweight novelty act?”
I don’t know if you’re ever hanging out in twitch chat or discord, but twitch also has these phases where they’re obsessed with “meme music”, i.e. songs which are guilty pleasures and catchy/annoying in a funny way. Typically not that funny and hard to tolerate if you don’t appreciate that sort of aesthetic (which I largely don’t anymore, but I guess it’s a part of my teenage years). Songs include Darude - Sandstorm and Noma - Brainpower.
Oh, there's nothing wrong with novelty songs or even novelty acts as long as you don't take them too seriously (and no, of course, bands like Ween are not novelty acts, they're more like post-modern iconoclasts). But there's probably also a fine line between "comedy acts" and "novelty acts" somewhere, I'm not exactly sure where. Huey Smith was more of a comedy act, I think, especially considering the serious, if not outstanding, musicianship involved.
Great stuff. Genevieve is certainly a gem. I see the Hey Bulldog style. I seem to recall some Zeppelin too, can't put my finger on it; it wouldn't be too surprising of course :)
Excellent article; going to bookmark it for sure. I stumbled upon it while looking for the lyrics for “Havin’ A Good Time” — specifically trying to understand what the bass vocal (Billy Roosevelt?) is singing. It seems to change each time: “Jump on, boy” or “Sing on, boy” maybe? Or “Drop on by”? Anyone know for sure?
I have a selection of novelty songs I occasionally cycle through on Youtube. My favorite is probably Ultimate Showdown (which strangely enough is so old to basically be a classic video by now) I take it though you’re not including bands like Barenaked Ladies, B-52, Jellyfish, Ween etc. under the term “lightweight novelty act?”
I don’t know if you’re ever hanging out in twitch chat or discord, but twitch also has these phases where they’re obsessed with “meme music”, i.e. songs which are guilty pleasures and catchy/annoying in a funny way. Typically not that funny and hard to tolerate if you don’t appreciate that sort of aesthetic (which I largely don’t anymore, but I guess it’s a part of my teenage years). Songs include Darude - Sandstorm and Noma - Brainpower.
Oh, there's nothing wrong with novelty songs or even novelty acts as long as you don't take them too seriously (and no, of course, bands like Ween are not novelty acts, they're more like post-modern iconoclasts). But there's probably also a fine line between "comedy acts" and "novelty acts" somewhere, I'm not exactly sure where. Huey Smith was more of a comedy act, I think, especially considering the serious, if not outstanding, musicianship involved.
Great stuff. Genevieve is certainly a gem. I see the Hey Bulldog style. I seem to recall some Zeppelin too, can't put my finger on it; it wouldn't be too surprising of course :)
The Lemon Song, probably.
Exactly! That one!