Wilcox's brother thinks that you cannot feel unhappy listening to The Banana Splits theme song. Yet I find The Wombles theme song far more comforting. Sure, it's more modest in its ambition, it's less showy, yet isn't it more soothing? Or not?
So here they are. Which one do you prefer? Which best nurtures your inner Grade One-year-old? Which will you hum on your death bed, to the affectionate bemusement of your clueless grandchildren?
05 June 2008
Which is more comforting?
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11 comments:
Hi! I'm stopping by from NCLM. I've never heard of either of these shows, but I really like the tune to the banana one!
I see the Banana Splits as belonging to a more innocent, yet mindlessly frantic age. I probably watched that show in 1970-1. But the Wombles came later -'74-5? And so they belong to a more introspective time, and I think the music, coincidentally or otherwise, reflects that.
This is a *very* hard choice. But I think ultimately W's brother is right. The Banana Splits song is for singing wildly as you ride your bicycle to something you're looking forward to but are badly late for, and the Wombles are something to hum as you're walking contentedly holding hands with someone who is not in a hurry.
Death bed? Wombles. Unless I'm riding my bed over a cliff.
My father thought it was very funny in the early 70s to tease me with the suggestion that the song suggested 'the wombles of wimbledon, common are we' i.e. that the wombles were common (in a bad way). The bad news was I didn't greatly care if they were common or not. I liked them regardless.
I just read a long wikipedia entry about the banana splits, all the while thinking 'christ, who cares enough to write this shit', but of course, as is so often the case, i read the shit.
Here from NaComLeavMo
umm i would say the banana one!
The death-bed stuff reminds me of Brideshead Revisited:
"Very good, my lord. Which room shall we put it in?"
Lord Marchmain thought for a moment. "The Chinese drawing-room; and, Wilcox, the 'Queen's bed'."
"The Chinese drawing-room, my lord, the 'Queen's bed'?"
"Yes, yes. I may be spending some time there in the next few weeks."
The Chinese drawing-room was one I had never seen used; in fact one could not normally go further into it than a small roped area round the door, where sight-seers were corralled on the days the house was open to the public; it was a splendid uninhabitable museum of Chippendale carving and porcelain and lacquer and painted hangings; the "Queen's bed," too, was an exhibition piece, a vast velvet tent like the Baldachino at St. Peter's. Had Lord Marchmain planned this lying-in-state for himself, I wondered, before he left the sunshine of Italy? Had he thought of it during the scudding rain of his long, fretful journey? Had it come to him at that moment, an awakened memory of childhood, a dream in the nursery — "When I'm grown up I'll sleep in the Queen's bed in the Chinese drawing-room" — the apotheosis of adult grandeur?
Oooooh, definitely the Banana Splits! NCLM
In keeping with my faith in the transcendental possibilities of interpretive dance, I'm quite moved by the idea of having someone at my funeral - preferably a close relative - waltz my cadaver down to the (open) casket to the tune of the Wombles theme.
(Even if it's not a waltz.)
So, yeah, clarinet over boings for mine.
(Not that I've got anything against boings; it's just that they would not be fitting for a funeral.)
The Wombles win by a mile!
100% Womble.
Jaunty without frenetic.
I would also like to give &Duck and Miss Schlegel a star for their comment, if I may be allowed to wilfully pop about awarding stars at someone else's joing.
I blame that spelling on my hideous cold. That's how I'm talking at the moment.
Thank you very buch.
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