George Awards- "I'm musical. It means if you hit me in the head with a pipe, I make a noise"

 

Warning

This is not a post for children.  Kids, take a hike.

This post contains bad, foul, filthy and unacceptable language - the words that “will curve your spine, grow hair on your hands and maybe, even bring us, God help us, peace without honor.”

This is also not a post for those adults who are offended by this type of language.  Do yourself a favor, and go read some of my cute stuff before moral outrage can kick in.
Just about everything else on this blog is clean…Stupid sometimes, but clean.
End of Warning.

Now it's time for a deviation in the George Awards for profanity in film, or at least a question. On the 13th group of these, is it time for another expansion? A return to a childhood favorite has left me wondering if we need a sub category for Musical Theater, or music in general?

I have mentioned that Mom constantly played rock 'n' roll records when I was a kid. Included in that were the albums of two Broadway plays she had seen. One was Grease. I didn't notice the questionable language in that one until I was doing juggling shows at a Special Olympics event and the batteries in my cassette boom box died. (Yes, I am that old.) I picked tracks the DJ working the event had and thought "Greased Lightning" would be great to get the crowd into the club routine. 

The completely shocked look on the little girl in the front row's face let me know that the DJ did not have the "Radio Edit" of that number.

The other show album she played was Two Gentlemen of Verona. (1971) It was an extremely groovy, Seventies take on Shakespeare's play, with a Book by John Guare and Mel Shapiro, Lyrics by John Guare, and Music by Galt (Hair) MacDermot. It starred  Clifton Davis, who I knew from his Seventies TV series, "That's My Mama" and then ended up seeing as the Sultan on Broadway in Aladdin. The other male lead (I had seen on Sesame Street and them MANY other places) was an early appearance of Raul Julia. 

The music was much more "modern" for the time period of my early youth, and added some funkiness to the "Old Time Rock And Roll."

I particularly remembered one number with a bunch of nonsense lyrics in the chorus as being epically catchy.

Fast forward to the present where I have become a much larger fan of musical theater than my childhood, teenaged, or early adult self would ever have imagined. When being annoyed that I can only purchase digitally for some new albums, I stumbled upon Two Gentlemen of Verona, and decided to add it to my playlists for old times sake. I also made a CD of it and Grease for mom, as digital music will never be entering her "I do not use text messaging" lifestyle. 

I heard it in the car a couple of times, enjoying the catchiness I remembered and apparently not paying much attention to the content.

Kim was in the car with Mom one day, and Mom relayed her being stunned at the filthy lyrics in one song, and the fact I heard it as a youth. 

With no idea what they were talking about,  I put the album on again. 

The song in question was "Thurio's Samba."

When written out, the nonsense lyrics look like this :

"She said

Boom chick-a chick-a chick-a

Pah pah-ka wa-ka wa-ka

Ka ka-ka wa-ka wa-ka

Poo poo-soo woo-sa woo-sa

Pah pah-ka wa-ka wa-ka, wow!"

Note- I'm going to totally ignore the album cover itself, which I didn't figure out until recently either.

I cannot stress how little those written lyrics look like what they sound like when I actually paid attention-

Which was stuttering exclamations repeatedly belted out over and over again, by an excited and happy chorus, throughout the entire song of

of "cock" , "pussy" and "fuck."

(click to listen here)

Well, I always said I had an incredibly educationally diverse childhood.

That nets this show or song a George Award.

So, what does everyone think? Should there be an annual George Award for songs? 

For plays?

And who should this one be named after?

Later thought- There have been times (Including the very first George Awards) that had musical endings. I should have just done that. 

What a fuckin' maroon.

Anyway...

Come back next week for the closing of this year's George Awards for the TV entries in the Dana Award subcategory.