Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Before I finally go insane

In the absence of any plausible earworms these days, I make up my own. For some reason I can’t shake from my head the notion of Frankie Howerd singing ‘Black Betty’ although – as far as I’m aware – he never did. No worries, because 90s electro-japesters Fortran 5 had a similar idea. The whole point of their version of ‘Layla’ revolves around the moderately amusing fact that ‘Derek and the Dominos’ sounds a bit like ‘Derek Nimmo’. So this is what they did:



A straightforward concept, perhaps, and the execution was even simpler: just plonk Mr Nimmo in the studio with a pink gin and a lyric sheet and you’re done. A little tougher was their attempt at recording Pink Floyd’s song ‘Bike’, replacing the ethereal voice of Syd Barrett with the rather earthier tones of Sid James; the problem was that James had died in 1976. They resorted to some rather elegant splicing of existing recordings, effectively resurrecting the old rogue as a whimsical hippy:



Which rather throws down the gauntlet, doesn’t it? Should I root around the thricenays and oohmissuses of Howerd’s audio oeuvre to make real the bizarre performance that’s banging around my brain? Or is there a more fitting combination of 70s rock anthem and dead comedian that might more profitably occupy my time? Do let me know.

6 comments:

Robin Tomens said...

Jesus...they're both awful, but I held on for about 5 seconds of each.

Rog said...

I'm now inspired to pick up the challenge with a mash up of Frank Spencer in Beret fronting The Sweet. "Mmm Black Betty - wham bam" etc.
Oh hang on - Michael Crawford's not dead....

Martin said...

Without giving it too much thought, how about Sid Field singing the Ultravox number,'Vienna'?

Martin Lower said...

How about 'Jumping Jack Flash' by Arthur Mullard?
I'll get my coat.....

Charles Edward Frith said...

There's always a little old rogue in whimsical hippies and vice versa.

But seriously there's no way this post was written other than to piss someone off/let off steam without giving the game away too egregiously.

Rol said...

There's a very odd dance record where Richard E. Grant puts the ham in Hamlet's To Be Or Not To Be soliloquy... the Derek Nimmo reminded me of that somewhat.

And then, of course, there's Shatner. His Common People is a work of genius.

I'm aware that neither of the above were dead comedians from the 70s though.