Suck it up, people; I usually *never* spam LJ.

[eregyrn]

I really love how nothing gets fellow LJers' attention like posting a maddening question that involves researching something having to do with popular culture.

katie_m was quickest off the mark, providing the answer that the "Do you ears hang low?" tune is "Turkey in the Straw".

Going to read the Wikipedia entry on that led to the reminder that the tune has been used, amongst countless other places, for the American State Capitols song from Animaniacs. And I discovered -- I don't know why this didn't occur to me before! -- that OF COURSE a lot of those Animaniacs pieces (which I haven't seen since the show was on the air) are now on YouTube. Of course. So...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNUDDaEOvuY
(Wakko does the American State Capitols, to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw")

Plus...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXY3EN6W_oQ&mode=related&search=
(Yakko does All the Countries of the World)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_J5rBxeTIk&mode=related&search=
(The Universe Song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA0nUXXg5qw&mode=related&search=
(The Ballad of Magellan)


I'm actually really happy to find the clip of the Ballad of Magellan, because I never actually saw it on the show -- but I know the song by heart, because the folk-band Broadside Electric put it on their third album, "More Bad News", as a bonus track on the 1997 release, with the following in the liner-notes:

The Ballad of Magellan is an age-old tale of a voyage into the unknown: a man travels to find his way to the East Indies and, in so doing, traverses the mysteries and intricacies of his own soul. We cannot stress enough the effect this deeply moving story had on the three of us. After hearing it for the first time, we entered a state of hyper-awareness where for a short time we grasped the answers to the pressing questions we all ask ourselves about our place in the universe. We woke up three days later in a canoe drifting around in the mighty Schuylkill River with no recollection of our prior activities. *

...

...

* The truth is we heard it on "Kids Corner," one of the best radio shows on the planet, and entered a state of Animaniawareness after which we woke up a year later having watched too much TV. The song itself probably bears little or no resemblance to anything that actually ever happened to anybody.


And, yeah, while it's nice to have gotten to see the original, finally... the Broadside version is better. :)

Comments

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Okay, the funny thing is, I followed exactly the same path. And then I started thinking that there must be a fandom out there that you could vid to Yakko's World don't judge me.

(I'm leaving! No, I'm not, I'm taking a break. But I did just reply to my e-mail, which is part of my daily cleaning schedule! ...I'm just digging myself in deeper here, aren't I?)

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I TOTALLY believe you! Especially since I don't think that house-cleaning can really be accomplished except in spurts with lots of little breaks in between.

Now it's going to bug me, trying to figure out what to vid that to...

Maybe it should be multi-fandom?

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

I was thinking Alias, or some other show with lots of international travel. Highlander?

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

(The best part is if you go to their Wikipedia entries, which are so serious.)

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Wait... Whose? Animaniacs? Or Broadside Electric's?

If the latter's - *snort*; I wonder who wrote the Wiki entry?

(Full disclosure: BE got formed at the alma mater of me and raqs and sazabhadri right around the time when Raqs and I were graduating, and the second lead singer of BE, Melissa, was the girlfriend of Raqs' and my housemate, and thus, she was sort of our part-time housemate as well. Good times, good times. And one of the founders, Tom, was the first cousin of another good friend. So they're kind of college friends; although I genuinely recommend them to anyone who likes folk music, as well.)

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Animaniacs--specifically, the songs in question. There are footnotes.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

You just made my night!!!

*runs off to watch the clips*

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of service! (My night was made, too, when I had that YouTube epiphany.)

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

Damn you to hell. I now have the old Murphy's Oil Soap jingle that used Turkey in the Straw stuck in my head. Except, I can't remember the whole thing, just the last line "I've been u-sing Mur-phy's all-the-time now the dirt is finished but the finish is fine!"

Double damn you!

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Well, my work here is done...

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

My favorite Animaniacs bit is still the Presidents Song, to the tune of the William Tell Overture.