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Where did this popular children’s farting song originally come from? (+ the Doctor Who connection!)
06.25.2021
05:42 pm
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Rufe Davis was an American actor, singer and “imitator of sounds.” He was best known for his “rural” comedic radio act, “Rufe Davis and the Radio Rubes” during the 1930s, for being a co-star along with Hoot Gibson, John Wayne, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers in dozens of Hollywood B-Westerns and for his role as “Floyd Smoot,” the train conductor of the “Hooterville Cannonball” on the 60s CBS TV comedy series, Petticoat Junction.

Davis’ rendition of “The Old Sow Song” was his musical calling card for obvious reasons and something that those of us of a certain age might remember from a popular 60s kiddie record made by Mel Blanc and others called Bozo And His Pals (which is where I first heard it—and loved it—as a tyke), although it was originally released as a 78rpm record many years before that. The same song was also given away as a cardboard record in cereal boxes. His version of the song was probably what kept the song alive in the 60s and 70s, and even beyond, but there was another famous version that we’ll get to in due course.

Maybe you heard “The Old Sow Song” from one of your grandparents singing it to you? They might’ve heard it in a vaudeville theater. It might also be something that was passed down from long before that, an actual working class English folk song. I’ve also seen it described as a Yorkshire farmer’s song. It’s claimed by Scotland and Ireland, too. One of the earliest recorded versions was one done in 1928 by Albert Richardson. It was also recorded by Cyril Smith and Rudy Vallee, as well as by opera singer Anna Russell. Novelty songsmith Leslie Sarony did his hit version of “The Old Sow Song” in 1934. Apparently John Ritter performed the song on Three’s Company but sadly I could find no clip of this. According to YouTube comments, Hee-Haw featured more than one rendition of “The Old Sow Song.”

Perhaps many of you learned “The Old Sow Song” at summer camp or grade school, where I am guessing it can still be heard to this day, since children’s songs with farting noises never truly die. This evergreen sing-a-long is up there with “Bingo was his name-o” and “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt” but neither of them has blowing raspberries as an integral part of the song. Can you imagine what the sheet music must’ve looked like?

I’m truly delighted that a vintage visual representation of “The Old Sow Song” exists. I don’t have an exact year for the clip, but it’s described as a “talkie” or “soundie” in the descriptions of the various uploads which might indicate that this was an early sound film, and yet there is a Hitler reference, so I think it might be a bit later than the uploaders think. Maybe an early kinescope?

I high recommend taking any—and all—drugs that you have handy before hitting play. If Rufe Davis’s face doesn’t turn green and if time doesn’t seem to bend like taffy and come to a complete standstill while you watch this, then you clearly haven’t taken enough drugs. So take more.
 

 


 
After the jump, the Doctor Who connection!

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.25.2021
05:42 pm
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Doctor Who’s 1972 pop single on Deep Purple’s label
10.20.2017
09:54 am
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Jon Pertwee starred in the reruns of Doctor Who my local PBS affiliate started airing in the Eighties; perhaps the station decided to start with the color episodes. Ever since, when someone else is playing Doctor Who, even Tom Baker, I miss Pertwee’s lisp and Edwardian dress, his dandyish manner, the wild look in his eyes.

Doctor Who novelty records were born in 1964 on “I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas with a Dalek” by the (Newcastle) Go-Go’s. They intersected with punk on the Art Attacks’ 1978 debut “I Am a Dalek” (“EXTERMINATE! KI-I-I-ILL!”) and reached their creative peak in 1988, when the Timelords’ “Doctorin’ the TARDIS” attained the unsurpassable zenith of excellence in the genre.

Pertwee, who had a long and colorful career as a recording artist, was the first Doctor to release his own single. On 1972’s “Who Is the Doctor,” recorded for Deep Purple’s label, producer Rupert Hine added rock drums to Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who theme, and Pertwee intoned some cosmic verse about how to love your Time Lord, or something:

Is your faith before your mind?
Know me
Am I the Doctor?

 

The 1985 Safari Records issue of “Who Is the Doctor”
 
Neil Priddey’s Purple Records discography explains Pertwee’s connection to the label and notes that one of the artists on Brian Eno’s Obscure label took part in the session:

Jon Pertwee was a personal friend of [Deep Purple manager] Tony Edwards, so he asked Rupert Hine and David MacIver to write and produce this project. They tried to get the BBC involved, but (according to MacIver) they were given the cold shoulder.

MacIver wrote the lyrics in 20 minutes and Hine produced the session. Simon Jeffes [of Penguin Cafe Orchestra], a good friend of theirs, also played on the tracks with Rupert playing his ARP 2600 synthesizer.

Time is a wondrous thing. MacIver’s 20 minutes of labor paid off again in ‘82, when BBC Records reissued the single with a different B-side, and in ‘85, when the synth-pop label Safari Records repackaged it with Blood Donor’s “Dr . . . ?” Hear its total extratemporal majesty below.
 

Posted by Oliver Hall
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10.20.2017
09:54 am
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Why not have a ‘Doctor Who’ Weeping Angel-themed Christmas tree this year?
12.02.2016
09:24 am
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Weeping Angel tree topper can be found here.

If you haven’t guessed by now, the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who are by far my most favorite predatory creatures from the sci-fi TV series. They’re nastier than the Daleks! I’ve blogged about them a lot here on Dangerous Minds. They’re truly terrifying (don’t blink around ‘em). What I didn’t know though, is that you can actually dress your Christmas tree from head to toe in Weeping Angel gear! If you want a considerable less joyeaux noel tree this year, why not go all the way and make it a terrifying one?

I did a little Internet digging and was able to construct an entire tree festooned of Weeping Angels. It’s easy! I’ve added the links of where to buy underneath each image.


Weeping Angel string Christmas tree lights can be found here.
 

 

Weeping Angel ornament can be found here.
 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.02.2016
09:24 am
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Doctor Who reimagined as Penguin Books
08.08.2016
08:50 am
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Well this is nice. The world’s longest-running science-fiction series Doctor Who reimagined as retro Penguin books from the 1960s-1980s.

I do like Penguin books. They are the acme of paperback fiction. And while I may have an apartment already crammed wall to wall and floor to ceiling with way too many books, I know I could just about find enough space for a few of these.

The covers are designed by Sean Coleman at notebooks from Coleman Designs. A small selection of these vintage designs are available to buy as notebooks.

While there are literally dozens of real Doctor Who novelizations—some even published by Penguin—none are quite as stylish or as desirable as these beauties. Check out more Doctor Who book designs here.
 
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More classic Penguin-style designs, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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08.08.2016
08:50 am
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This is ‘What the Future Sounded Like’: Meet the pioneers of ‘music without frontiers’

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If you’re British and of a certain age then Doctor Who was most likely your first introduction to the sounds of electronic music. Apart from its famous theme tune, Doctor Who used an electronic soundtrack composed by Tristram Cary to underscore the arrival of the Daleks onto TV screens in 1963. At the time, most people considered electronic music as weird, alienating noise. Using it in a primetime TV series like Doctor Who was—as one commentator explains in the fascinating documentary What the Future Sounded Like—a rather subversive act.

Tristram Cary struck upon the potential of tape and electronic music while serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. The son of the Irish novelist Joyce Cary (The Horse’s Mouth), Tristram was one of the earliest pioneers of electronic music during the 1950s. A classically-trained composer, he had scored such movies as The Ladykillers and Town on Trial but found traditional music inhibiting. Reasoning that music was just the organization of sound, Cary began to experiment with electronic sounds, tape recordings and musique concrète, in a bid to create “music without frontiers.”
 
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At the same, two other electronic music pioneers, the aristocratic Peter Zinovieff and engineer David Cockerell were separately testing out their own ideas. The three eventually came together to form the Electronic Music Studios in 1969. Their intention was to produce a versatile monophonic synthesiser, which could be cheaply produced for public use. While this proved tricky, Cockerell did manage to design one of the first British portable commercially available synthesizer—or Voltage Controlled Studio—the EMS VCS3. This once futuristic-looking “suitcase synth” is what Brian Eno was seen using during his tenure in Roxy Music.

Keep reading after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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03.18.2016
10:44 am
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OMG, there are ‘Doctor Who’ Weeping Angel lights that blink at one another
08.20.2015
12:47 pm
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What a brilliant and clever idea: Doctor Who Weeping Angel string-lights that blink at one another.

Multiple strings can be plugged into each other, so you can basically have as many Weeping Angels in one place as you’d like. Honestly, one is too many for us. And yes, like we said above, the you can set the lights themselves to blink. We’re not entirely sure what that means in terms of quantum locking, but with Weeping Angels it’s pretty safe to assume it probably isn’t good.

In the photographs they show the Weeping Angels strung high on a porch, but I’d much rather see them lighting up a Christmas tree. Why? Because there’s also a Weeping Angel Christmas tree topper. I mean, if you’re going to do it you might as well do it right.

The Weeping Angel light set can be purchased at Think Geek for $24.99.


 

 
via Laughing Squid

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.20.2015
12:47 pm
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Doctor Who’s Weeping Angel Christmas tree topper
11.14.2014
02:22 pm
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Okay, so I’m a bit late on this, sue me. But how late can I be since it’s not even Thanks-fucking-giving yet? Anyway, ThinkGeek is selling a Weeping Angel Christmas topper for yer tree this year for $19.99 + shipping.

You and your family simply CANNOT BLINK whilst admiring your tree.

 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Amazing Doctor Who ‘Weeping Angel’ costume
Doctor Who ‘Weeping Angel’ toilet decal

Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.14.2014
02:22 pm
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Attention Doctor Who fans: Watch ‘The Delian Mode’ terrific short documentary on Delia Derbyshire
04.09.2014
11:58 am
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Canadian director Kara Blake‘s award-winning short documentary The Delian Mode is an audio-visual love letter to pioneering electronic composer Delia Derbyshire, best known for her spooky rendering of Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who theme music for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1963. (Legend has it that when Grainer heard what she’d done—creating each quavering, alien-sounding note by speeding up or slowing down analog tape recordings of a single plucked string, then cutting and splicing it—with rulers, razor and cellophane tape—before embellishing the results with the sound of waveform oscillators and white noise, he asked “Did I write that?” She answered “Most of it.”). It’s an impressive piece of filmmaking, dreamlike, lyrical and especially pleasing to the eye—and ear—for a documentary. Blake wouldn’t have had a lot to work with (I’ve only ever seen one short film clip of Derbyshire) but does a wonderful job of presenting a well-rounded account of Delia Derbyshire’s work and of her influence on electronic dance music.

You simply cannot watch this marvelous film without concluding that Delia Derbyshire was a creative and technical genius, producing complex music that seemed to come directly from another dimension, yet was wholly constructed via analog means (such as a tape loop that ran all the way down a hallway or slowing down the sound of banging on a metal lampshade.)

The Delian Mode is inspiring, it’s a bit sad (depression and alcoholism plagued Derbyshire’s life) but it’s a story that needed to be told and told with respect. That she was a self-created woman working in what was then largely a man’s space makes her achievements seem all the more remarkable and and especially cool. (At one point we hear audio of Derbyshire describing herself as being a “post-feminist” before the concept of feminism even existed, although there were other women veterans of the BBC Radiophonic Laboratory, notably Daphne Oram, creator of “Oramics,” which controlled sound with celluloid plates, and Maddalena Fagandini.)

Blake interviews Derbyshire’s colleagues at the BBC Radio Workshop, Adrian Utley of Portishead, Ann Shenton of Add N to (X) and Sonic Boom aka Peter Kember of Spacemen 3, Spectrum and E.A.R., who brought Derbyshire into his own work towards the end of her life on the E.A.R. albums Vibrations (2000) and Continuum (2001).

After Derbyshire’s death, 267 reel-to-reel tapes and a box of a thousand pages of music and notes were found in her attic. Her life and work will be celebrated this Saturday April 12th on Delia Derbyshire Day at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester.
 

 
More Delia Derbyshire after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.09.2014
11:58 am
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Watch every episode of your cult TV favorites playing at the same time

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Why? How? Who cares! This is just rather awesome!

YouTube user Omni Verse has put together ten minute packages of your favorite cult TV shows in an intense “videoggedon,” where all the episodes are played at the same time!

From Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, to Kolchak—The Night Stalker, Planet of the Apes and Doctor Who. This is like a ten minute sugar rush of cult TV heaven!
 

‘Star Trek’ all 80 episodes played at same time.
 

The Twilight Zone’ all 156 episodes at the same time.
 

‘Kolchak—The Night Stalker’ 20 eps all at once.
 

‘Doctor Who’ all 178 Tom Baker episodes.
 
More cult TV all at once, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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01.07.2014
02:32 pm
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Doctor Who?: This is the composite face of all 13 Doctors
12.24.2013
11:29 am
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No, this isn’t the face of some F.B.I. most wanted, or distant inbred relation of royalty, or the latest anodyne pop star, no, this is the “real face” of Doctor Who as created by scientists at the University of Aberdeen Face Laboratory, in Scotland.

By using “face averaging” technology, scientists merged images of all of the thirteen actors who have played Doctor Who into one face. According to the Daily Mirror, David Robertson, from the Face Lab said:

“It’s interesting that the face we have developed is not dominated by the features of any one of the actors to have played The Doctor.

“Rather it represents a combination of the averaged features of each actor to have taken on the role.”

For such a quirky and compelling character the result is incredibly bland.
 

 
H/T the Daily Mirror

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.24.2013
11:29 am
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Brilliant men build (and then tragically crash) a life-size flying TARDIS
12.16.2013
10:12 am
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Ah, what a monument to the arrogance of man! Like the engineers of the Titanic, like Icarus with his waxen wings, the folks over at Flyonix (a company that does flying aerial camera work), created this styrofoam beauty, only to let her fall to a tragic death. But for a moment, we saw our nerdy little dreams take flight…

You can watch the construction of the TARDIS here, if only to remind yourself… we can rebuild it... or maybe you  can, if you have a spare $1,600 to blow.
 
TARDIS
 

Via Geekologie

Posted by Amber Frost
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12.16.2013
10:12 am
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Check out the new Doctor Who’s old punk band, The Dreamboys
08.07.2013
01:33 am
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The Dreamboys
Capaldi, unmistakeable, bottom left, and Craig Ferguson top right
 
55-year-old native Glaswegian Peter Capaldi is Doctor Who number twelve! While Tom Baker will always be my first Doctor (you never forget your first!), Capaldi could definitely be in the running for the coolest Doctor.

After moving to Edinburgh in 1980, Peter Capaldi fronted a Scottish punk band called The Dreamboys (with The Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson on drums, no less). It’s all very overdriven and shambolic (with a crudeness emphasized by a cheap record player and probably wonky vinyl), but check out the (totally catchy) tunes below, “Outer Limits,” “Shall We Dance,” and “Bela Lugosi’s Birthday.” It can be a bit like The Damned one minute, with echoes of The Jesus and Mary Chain the next- all bodes well for the next Doctor!
 

 

 

 
Via Noisey

Posted by Amber Frost
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08.07.2013
01:33 am
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I’m Doctor f*cking Who, that’s who!: Hilarious fake trailer for the new foul-mouthed Doctor
08.05.2013
04:33 pm
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Even if you’re not a Doctor Who fan, you have probably by now, been reminded at least 100 times today alone that Peter Capaldi has been cast as the new Doctor. The news is on every goddamned website and blog, so I won’t bore you with it.

What I will show you though, is a fabulous fanmade trailer featuring Peter Capaldi in his career-making role as the political “fixer” “Malcolm Tucker” from The Thick of It recast as a rather foul-mouthed Doctor.

It works, IMO. It works great!

 
Below, a Malcolm Tucker “best of” compilation from The Thick of It:

 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.05.2013
04:33 pm
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Freaky cosplay, dood: The Dude as a ‘Doctor Who’ Ood


 
Holy hell, while twisted and marvelous, The Dude as an Ood is something to… behold!

This remarkable costume was spotted at the annual Doctor Who convention, Gallifrey One, in Los Angeles.

Via Neatorama

Posted by Tara McGinley
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07.18.2013
11:19 am
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Timelord time-stretched: ‘Doctor Who’ theme slowed to 21 minute alien symphony
07.07.2013
04:09 pm
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The original Doctor Who title music from 1963 stretched.

Many of these slowed tracks fail to maintain interest, but Ron Grainer’s theme music, as performed by Delia Derbyshire at the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop, proves its incredible richness and durability, producing a Ligeti-like symphony of dark, menacing, beauty.
 

 
H/T Tim Paxton.

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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07.07.2013
04:09 pm
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