Music clips

"Well, it was touching to see the queen both blush and smile, and look embarrassed, and happy, and fling furtive glances at Sir Launcelot that would have got him shot in Arkansas, to a dead certainty"--A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Time for some more music clips!

The Carter Family, "Wildwood Flower." Shania Twain is not country; this is country music!

Harold Arlen, "You're a Builder Upper." This song-- which I originally heard on The Gong Show!--comes from the 1934 Broadway revue Life Begins at 7:40.  Arlen, who sings the song here, co-wrote the show's songs with Yip Harburg (with the assistance of Ira Gershwin) and the cast included Bert Lahr and Ray Bolger.  Five years later these same people would be working together on the movie musical The Wizard of Oz.

Woody Guthrie, "I Ain't Got No Home in This World Anymore." A great radical folk song from the desperate '30s!

Ewan McColl, "North Sea Holes." Another of McColl's working-class folk songs, this time about fishing.

Henry Mancini, Theme from Peter Gunn.  This 1958 private eye TV series' jazzy theme was the start of a long partnership between Mancini and Blake Edwards, who produced the show and soon became a movie director.  It's one of the great TV themes of all time. (One TV theme I wish I could hear again is for the short-lived, otherwise indifferent 1977 show Big Hawaii, which I recall liking a lot.)

Pete Seeger, "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy." This is the song that CBS tried to keep off The Smothers Brothers Show in 1969:  the network relented, but the show soon got cancelled.  I admire how angry it clearly is:  the anti-Vietnam War subtext is clear.

The Irish Rovers, "The First Love in Life" from The Unicorn.  One thing I like about Youtube is that when you listen to one clip they'll suggest similar ones!  After I found "The Wind That Shakes the Corn" I thus found this other song I remember from The Unicorn!  It's about an Irish lady's man whose true love (surprise, surprise!) comes in a bottle...

Frank Zappa, "Broken Hearts Are For Assholes" from Sheikh Yerbouti.  A lot of people have been asking me, "What's your favourite Frank Zappa song?" Actually, nobody's asked it, but I'll tell you anyhow.  This one came out in 1979 and has a certain punk influence.

Devo, "Big Mess" from Oh No, It's Devo! A song based on a real-life DJ's obsessed fan, from an underrated album.

Joe Jackson, "Chinatown" from Night and Day.  A stylish off-beat number from Jackson's masterpiece album, produced by him and David Kershenbaum.