Mood:
caffeinatedNow Playing: items at hand
Topic: GREAT RECORDS
BIG BIG INFLUENCES TO MY CHILDHOOD:
Around The World With The Chipmunks (Liberty LRP 3170, 1961)
Possibly the funniest Chipmunks LP of all. Though the previous LPs feature the all time classic songs, this concept album is rock solid. The Chipmunks are circling the globe and, if such a thing is possible, engaging in semi-innocuous ethnic humor (Alvin in Scotland upon seeing a bagpiper: "How come the man in the dress is squeezing an octopus?"). The absolute highlight is the amazing "Japanese Banana." I can't recall how many musicians I've heard praise this as their favorite Chipmunks song. In it Alvin craves a food they can't get, and to an Eastern melody decides to torture Dave with the refrain, "Can I have a Japanese banana, it would be so very nice, want a juicy Japanese banana, don't want the cherries and rice. We can see that they have so many things, and we are glad that it's so, but do they grow a Japanese banana, that's what we'd like to know." The banter between an embarrassed Dave and an indignant Alvin is some of their funniest. Alvin: "That's the worst banjo player I've ever heard." Dave: "That's not a banjo, it's a samisan." Alvin: "That's the worst sam-i-san player I ever heard." The other great song is "I Wish I Could Speak French," in which Alvin tries to pick up a mademoiselle by musically lamenting his lack of language skillz with the smooth cadence and delivery of Chevalier. It ends with her going for him, to which he responds, "Oui? Oui?…WOW!" In Italy a gondolier doesn't appreciate the boys singing along and chides, "Hey you-a mouse-a, pipe down!" To which Alvin responds, "Mouse! Mouse! I'm Alvin the Chipmunk!" Gondolier: "Chipmunk, shmipmunk, silencio!" After another exchange the boys (to the tune of "O Sole Mio") sing, "Oh Gondolier-o, we are not mice, we're singing chipmunks, we told you twice!" When Alvin asks the bagpiper to use his "octopus," the piper responds, "Sure laddy!" The boys then start "rocking and rolling," and Dave has the nerve to say, "You're playing in the wrong key, Alvin!" Imagine that…denigrating a child's bagpipe skills during his first attempt to play the thing! This record was available with an awesome foil cover, but I don't think it appeared without the cartoon Chipmunks, as many of these skits were animated in the cartoon that premiered around the time this was on the shelves. (JA)
The Alvin Show (Liberty LST 7209, 1961)
This album, the soundtrack to the TV show, features audio versions of comedy bits and songs that appeared on the very funny program. After opening with the bouncy theme song ("This is The Alvin Show, The Alvin show…") we hear the story of the Margaret Dumont-esque Mrs. Frumpington, an anti-Rock crusader from the pre-P.M.R.C activist group the Society for Quiet and Universal Appreciation of Refined Enterprises." Upon introduction Alvin comments, "And you are he head of the S.Q.U.A.R.E.s, I take it." She then (oblivious of the Chipmunks' identities) demonstrates what she sees as the most heinous of all music by playing snippets of the Chips' rockin' tunes, "Comin' Round the Mountain," "Old MacDonald Cha Cha Cha" and "Witch Doctor." Alvin begins to brutally curse her out but Dave stops him. So Alvin goes into plan B: "I decided Mrs. Frumpington was going to sing my kind of music whether she likes it or not!" He goes to her house, gives her a flower, then starts discussing nature while his brothers hide outside and play instruments. He has her consider her love of the wind through the branches (guitar plucking), the sound of the bullfrog (bass fiddle) and the birds (a fake woodpecker playing percussion). As she starts to get more and more swept up into the rhythmic groove he asks, "Do you like families? Don't you just love a baby, a baby…?" She responds, "A baby? A baby, a baby baBY BABY!" Now that he has her worked up he asks, "And how about a daddy, a daddy…?" "She has now lost control to the demon rhythms of Rock and Roll and starts screaming, "DADDY, DADDY ,DADDY, BABY, BABY, BABY!" A full horn section kicks in as she works herself into an erotic climax, "BABY BABY BABY, DADDY DADDY DADDY BABY BABY BABY! Ohhhhhh!" She can't get out of the groove and howls her orgasmic Rock n' Roll vocals until men in white coats take her away. Thus, the most sexually charged kiddie record ever proves that everything this woman feared was true, Rock music is Satan. The album side ends by attempting to desexualize Alvin a little by reprising "I Wish I Could Speak French," but ending it by having Alvin's sexy encounter with the French gal turn out to be nothing but a (wet) dream. Side two opens with a TV interview. The boys sing a song (a new version of "Chipmunk Fun") to the reporter about what they like to do (play baseball, go swimming…watch Gunsmoke). The song and interview end with David pleased at their good behavior, but as the TV dude signs off Alvin reprises the tune with new, naughty lyrics. "I like to break dishes and fight with the squirrels, I like to pull pigtails when they're on girls, we like to eat candy and talk in school. but we don't like to study math, arithmetic makes me sick…" "I knew it," laments David. Perhaps the squirrel line was a jab at their animated rivals, The Nutty Squirrels. We then meet Clyde Crashcup, a scientist character introduced for the cartoon. His humor is very Ernie Kovacs-esque, but it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the stuff. Dave then starts "Witch Doctor" solo, but the boys stop him and they sing it together. The album ends with a reprise of the TV theme, some goodbyes, and a few more Crashcup jokes. All in all, perhaps the wildest Alvin album ever. (JA)
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