30 day music meme #29

[beer_good_foamy]

29. A song you remember from your childhood
Electric Banana Band - Banankontakt av tredje graden (Banana Encounters of the Third Kind)

Watch on YouTube

Behold, the magic of early-80s Swedish children's TV. Two comedians being Tarzan and Cheetah's nerdy cousins, fronting a band made up of the cream of Swedish session musicians, doing a funk number about bananas from outer space conquering Earth "to end the misery". Still waiting, guys...
"It's a bird!"
"No, it's a plane."
"NO, IT'S A SUPER BANANA!"

Comments

I'm old

[petzipellepingo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HxB7lxbTnI

Re: I'm old

[beer_good_foamy]

Ha! That one was completely new to me, love it!

Re: I'm old

[petzipellepingo]

I remember it because it's such a sneaky song, you think it's about one thing but it's about something else.

[cjlasky7]

Neal Hefti: Batman theme

"Holy childhood nostalgia, Batman! Is that the same Neal Hefti who wrote the Odd Couple theme?"

"Right you are, Boy Wonder! According the Bat-Computer, Mr. Hefti had a long, successful career scoring movies and television shows."

"Gosh. [Pounds fist into glove] I wonder if I can be as artistic and successful as he was."

[Inspirational music]

"Robin, if you obey the law, eat right and respect your elders, you can do anything you set your mind to.

"Thanks, Batman."

[Batphone flashes]

"Its Commissioner Gordon! Egghead is still on the loose! To the Batmobile!"

[Swirl out to credits]


https://youtu.be/A1dqXwOhj6A

[beer_good_foamy]

Oh yes. Much as I love 60s Batman, I really wish I'd discovered it as a kid rather than as an ironic gen X slacker in the 90s. But US animation was anathema on Swedish TV back then, so...

A (Very) Brief History of Batman

[cjlasky7]

Bats started out in 1939 as a pulp noir detective, modeled after The Shadow. But as we hit the late 40s, the publishers thought the comic should be more kid friendly, so they brought in Robin and toned down the darker aspects.

The 1950s were really weird, as Batman veered into outright science fiction, with Bats visiting alien worlds, undergoing strange transformations and whatnot.

The 1960s brought the TV show and the attendant silliness. But when the series went off the air, the comics took a radical swerve back to the beginning in the 1970s. The Denny O'Neal/Neal Adams version took it back to its pulp roots (with a little Doc Savage thrown in). The more serious tone escalated in the 80s with Frank Miller's Dark Night (and "grimdark" was added to the dictionary).

These days, there's room for all kinds of Batman. You have the Lego movies, the Nolan movies, the Animated Series (my favorite!), and whatever Snyder is doing, and they all co-exist. In the comics, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Catwoman) went on a double date with Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Besides providing some serious character work for these four iconic characters, it was just a lot of fun. And yes, Batman can be fun.

Re: A (Very) Brief History of Batman

[beer_good_foamy]

It's amazing how flexible he is, isn't it? I grew up on 80s Batman* comic books, pre-Frank Miller, when he was sort of pseudo-dark but still Superman's best friend and all that... so in the early 90s when we finally got cable TV I got hit with Burton's Batman, The Dark Knight Returns and the 60s TV series all at once. It was... weird.

* Actually he was called Läderlappen, an archaic word for "the bat", and I'm still bitter that they dropped that and started calling him "Batman" when Burton's movie came out.

Re: A (Very) Brief History of Batman

[cjlasky7]

I always loved the "World's Finest" friendship between Batman and Superman.

One of the best bits in the "double date" comic was Bruce and Clark both confiding in their SOs that the other guy is the better man and he'll never live up to that example. (That brought a tear to this cynical eye.)

[cjlasky7]

I liked the song, but I was waiting for giant, anthropomorphic banana puppets to be lowered on wires for the big finish. Gotta admit, I'm a little disappointed.

[beer_good_foamy]

That would have been awesome, but since the special effects budget on this show was a guy with a hammer and a magic marker, I think that would have been hard.

[cjlasky7]

As an American kid, I guess I was spoiled by H.R. Pufnstuf...