Bonjour, mes Sneakers! Welcome to our actual, true, one hundred percent real fourth anniversary episode – Episode 208. This week things start out really smooth before getting really rough. Ian and Dave bring you more candy talk as they crunch on Popeye cigarettes and remember mouth-gashing O-Pee-Chee bubblegum; Ian calls for a re-think on the name “Black Friday“; they discuss doughnuts; Dave doesn’t want to offend anybody but…Nazis; Dave has a Donovan story and tells us about Buffy St. Marie on The Johnny Cash Show; Ian wants to know about K-Tel Records – Dave is there to misinform him; Ian likes “As Made for TV” stores; Dave listens to an old show and thinks they sucked; favourite dragons gets a call back; and, finally, the fourth anniversary is…
Here is Buffy on The Johnny Cash Show:
And here is the classic “I Love Onions”:
And the commercial for Turtles chocolates that Ian and Dave fondly remember (Take a drink!):
Thanks for listening.
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Great show. A few random thoughts.
True story:
Me: (about 8 years old, sucking on a candy cigarette) I’m smoking, just like Grandpa!
My Slightly Older Cousin: (deadpan) Grandpa doesn’t eat his cigarettes.
My favourite use of a novelty song used in an advertising jingle: “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight?). Its tune was used to ask the musical question, “When You Eat Your Smarties (Do You Eat The Red Ones Last?)
That “In your face, Custer!” Johnny Cash/Buffy Sainte-Marie song is wild. I don’t think you mentioned in the podcast that Buffy is of First Nations heritage (or Native Indian they’d have put it back then). In the early 70s, people were starting to look at Native American history differently. (See movies like Little Big Man and Billy Jack.) I like how the song touches on how the Battle of Little Bighorn was an “Indian victory” or a “bloody massacre-y” depending on your point of view. The “Battle of New Orleans” is another song that shows to the victor go the spoils of gloating over a massive loss of life via a comic ballad.
I’m partial to Donovan’s song, “Brother Sun Sister Moon” written for the 1972 Franco Zeffirelli bio-pic of St. Francis of Assisi of the same name. As the current pope has named himself after him and in honour of the first Sunday of the Advent season, here is the song from the movie at the point where wealthy young Francis just says “no” to medieval Italian society and runs off across the countryside towards sainthood.
I have another Australian band for you: Crowded House! The Finn brothers were originally from New Zealand, but the other members were Aussies and as far as I know the band itself was considered Australian.
Similarly, the BeeGees were actually born on the Isle of Man (a British Dependency between Great Britain and Ireland), then lived in Manchester for a while as children (which is where they first discovered their singing talents) before moving to Australia at ages 11 (Barry) and 8 (Robin and Maurice). So technically, the Brothers Gibb are Manx/British and their music-making started in England. However, the actual band the BeeGees (originally BGs or BG’s) was formed in Australia, so… I guess it’s complicated. :o) (Sincerest apologies, but boring people to tears with BeeGees info is a specialty of mine.)
Speaking of The BeeGees, they had at least two coal-related songs: New York Mining Disaster 1941 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCRqAzCevsY), and Coalman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tfVbN6rwUM).
And finally, happy 4th anniversary! I have listened to every episode, although I didn’t start from the beginning. I came in toward the end of Compleatly Beatles and was one of those weirdos who went back and listened to all the old episodes. Sorry about that, but I really needed something to listen to at work and cheer me up from rotten life stuff, and you guys worked wonders.
Thanks, Kitty! That makes my day whenever we get feedback like that. Glad we could help out a bit and thank you for listening to the show – and especially for listening to all the shows. Sorry if mine and Ian’s inbuilt Canadian over-modesty makes us seem like jerks about that. It is just unbelievable to us that anyone would really want to listen to THAT many hours of our nonsense. (See! I did it again! Reflexive humility.) My daughter Mary has also gone back to the beginning and listened to all the shows.
And thanks for the Bee Gees tip. I’ve heard “New York Mining Disaster 1941” many times, but I don’t think I’d ever heard “Coalman” before!
Let me second that thanks! Hope the rotten stuff has gotten less so.
Those sugar cigarettes were called ‘Fags’ in Australia (the British slang for cigarettes) until the early 90s when the American meaning of that word made it… awkward. They changed to ‘Fads’ with no other packaging change, presumably because that was the cheapest option. That would have been an interesting brain-storming meeting to be in. I don’t remember seeing any Popeye lollies of any kind here… I do have dim memories of seeing Buffy Sainte-Marie on Sesame Street in the 70s, though.
I didn’t put the Bee Gees on my mix-tape because I was trying to avoid the obvious, but your mention of them reminded me that you missed their “New York Mining Disaster 1941” in your ‘underground’ music wrap-up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps-Qq7ucMA0
And eating onions? Meet our (thankfully) former Prime Minister: http://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/good-onions#.khpn5DMqn
So, when can we expect a ‘Sneak Wars’ shirt in the store, guys? 😉
I think we can take an order for that shirt pretty much right away.