Today's the 53rd anniversary of "The Day the Music Died". This post has nothing to do with that day. I just thought I'd mention it even though 53 doesn't exactly have a nice ring to it like a 50th or 100th anniversary. My thin connection is that Don McLean wrote "American Pie" and this post deals with a song he recorded but didn't write.
In my post on January 7th, I recommended a great book about Teddy Roosevelt's 1913 adventure in the Amazon region of South America. It gives me a flimsy excuse to follow it up with a song about the Amazon. It's on the silly side but I like it anyway. Maybe it's the inner kid in me that delights in hints of naughtiness. If somehow you stumble upon this blog and question my taste in writing about such a juvenile song, I'll probably just agree with you - and play the song again.
"On the Amazon" is a song from the 1929 English musical, "Mr. Cinders". Don McLean's self-titled 1972 LP includes the only version of "On the Amazon" I had ever heard until a few days ago. A search of the ASCAP database indicates that the song was also covered by Bobby Short. Other sources indicate that one of the English songwriters recorded it, a man named Vivian Ellis, and also Denis Lawson, another Englishman. You can hear 90 seconds of the Short and Lawson versions on i-Tunes, but not McLean's. "On the Amazon" is not among the over 200 McLean songs available there but you can hear it on You-Tube. Don gives a great vocal performance with appropriate intonations that add to the humor. Never released as a single, "On the Amazon" was written by Greatrex Newman, Clifford Grey and the aforementioned Vivian Ellis.
How did Don find this song "On the Amazon"? Back in the early 70's he couldn't sit down at his PC and google songs about the Amazon River. There were no PC's, no internet. Don was born in 1945 so he didn't attend the original play. Maybe his parents or grandparents knew of the song and passed it down to him. Did he hear Bobby Short's version? (Couldn't find out the year Short first recorded it.)
A cduniverse review of Don's album said in regard to "On the Amazon" that "the song's nonsense lyrics employ multisyllabic words as if they were the names of animals". It's a hoot! What more can you say about a song that describes a place where:
prophylactics prowl - Don sings it "pa-rowl"
hypodermics howl - a shot from the doc as a kid made me howl
you hear a scarab scowl and sting - he sings "scowl" like his voice is scowling and "sting" like he's stinging the listener's ear.
the lyrics also describe:
stalactites and vicious vertebrae
stalagmites and parasites from Paraguay
snarling equinox - he sings with a snarl
and freezing fahrenheit
duodenum lurk in the trees
the jungle swarms with green apostrophes
it's a place where:
the pax vobiscum bite
epiglottis fight and
hemispheres slink where the agnostics drink
hippodromes hunt metronomes then kodachromes drink their blood,
velocipedes scare you and menopause ensnares you
Frenzied adenoids - he sings a dainty "fuh-renzied" before concluding,
"everyone avoids the deadly stethoscopes
oh, the Amazon is calling,
yes, the Amazon is calling,
oh, the Amazon is calling me-ee!"
They don't write 'em like that any more.
other posts about Don:
2/3/09 - Don McLean's Other Songs
4/29/10 - Don McLean's Bio
other posts about songs I think are funny:
3/8/09 - Fun Country Songs
4/25/11 - Waikiki Cowboy
Comments