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GOODIES MUSIC REVIEW #44 - RUN
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(from C&G 185 April 2011)
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Hi there pop pickers and welcome to another Goodies Music Review.
WHO?
It seems like it's been a hell of a long time between music reviews (though still nowhere near long enough!) for Emperor Caligula (aka Brett Allender) and Peaches Stiletto (aka Linda Kay) – that's because they've been encased in a 350 foot-high block of concrete all the while thanks to the evil (some would say merciful!) work of Harry Highrise. Some would also say that's about the usual amount of concrete that surrounds the Emperor's brain at the best of times – and they'd be right too! – but he's been doing it tough since becoming a monk and retreating to the solitude of the lavatory, especially since the supply of "mystic scents" ran out several months ago. To make matters worse for him, Peaches had also "got religion" and was refusing to eat any vegetables (so he was safe for starters!) but she soon got desperate and starving hungry; chasing him around, sticking apples in his mouth and carrots in unmentionable locations. That's when he came up with the bright idea (well, he's got to fluke one occasionally!) of cooking up the furniture and it's sofa so good at any rate. (Groan … anyone got the number of that concrete company handy?!)
Anyway, courtesy of a joint chorus of massive "turps for burps", their concrete tomb has been reduced to a pile of rubble (like a well-Eckythumped Max Bygraves record – sure do!) and we can now cross to our dashing DJs for their review of "Run" by The Goodies.
WHERE? WHEN?
Unfortunately "Run" hasn't been included on any of the Goodies' commercial releases; however it can be heard as backing music in the following episodes: Hunting Pink, Way Outward Bound, Goodies In The Nick & South Africa
WHAT?
Lyrics: sung by Bill
(Version from "South Africa")
Ooh, ooh, what do you do
I'm comin' runnin' after you
I'm gonna chase you til your hair turns grey
Round, round, don't slow down
Through the city, through the town
I'll never ever let you get away
Run ... run ... run ... I'm coming to get you
Run ... run ... run ... I'm runnin'!
Oh, oh, don't get slow
Ain't about to let you go
Gonna chase you til your knees turn blue
Up the hill and round the bend
Gonna get you in the end
You'd better look out, baby, when I do
Run ... run ... run ... I'm coming to get you
Run ... run ... run ... I'm runnin'!
[Instrumental break]
[Repeat first verse and chorus]
WHY?
(Peaches Stiletto):
It’s inevitable that reading the lyrics to the song Run will jog memories of The Goodies running about in fast speed either trying to catch someone or something or to keep from being caught themselves (either by one another or a nasty person or even, perhaps, a rampaging giant Twinkle or Dougal.) Whether or not this specific song played in those scenes is irrelevant . . . the song evokes a general recollection of all such Goodies moments. The chase scenes in The Goodies were an iconic part of the program, not in a small part because they were most often set to Bill’s contagious music, a technique which harkens back to The Monkees romps which were, in turn, inspired by Richard Lester’s fast-paced editing on the musical segments in both A Hard Day’s Night and Help! One can actually trace the roots of the comic musical chase scenes back to the Keystone Kops when Mack Sennett kept audiences laughing with high-speed antics set to anything from a single piano to a full orchestra, depending upon where the short films were screened. Chaplin went one better by composing his own music to accompany his silent movie antics. Even Scooby Doo could be classified as a predecessor to this kind of crazy, musical mayhem, with bubblegum pop played behind silly animated scenes of “the gang” trying to escape a monster or ghoul (actually an old man in a mask or a bizarrely high-tech 3-D film projector.) Oddly enough the chase scenes in The Goodies which used this song rarely involved the guys chasing after any girls, which is what the lyrics are implying (although, frankly, I’m not sure what the appeal is of eventually catching a grey-haired, blue-kneed, knackered woman would be!) And like The Beatles, Bill promises his quarry that he will “get you in the end” (which naughty-minded persons can interpret in their own way . . . and don’t even suggest he “pass the baton!”) But I’m getting way off track now . . . .
(Emperor Caligula):
If you reckon that you're having a rough trot and that you've done your dash, at least try to be a happy scamper and spare a thought for those gasping Goodies after their wild chase scenes. You just canter imagine the amount of energy expended in pursuing the likes of runaway gibbons, beanstalks, pirate mail, housewives and loony colleagues in all of those madcap marathons, and that's just putting a few of them into sprint. And lope and behold, there are even more instances where the lads have to scuttle off at full tilt to avoid giant geese, US troops, Salvation Army ladies, a wooden dummy of Nicholas Parsons (hang on, that could have been the real Nicholas actually … !), dancing police and an oversized Dougal among many others, so all of this frenzied fleeing deserves a really top tune to back it up. While the incidental music was usually well-chosen anyway, this is the one really funky tune that is on track to lead the charge in any Gallop Poll of chase scene choices for our favourite fugitives from the Old Dart. It's hard to believe that this catchy tune never bobbed up on one of the Goodies' 70s albums, but it's sort of appropriate that it was covered many years ago by an Aussie group called Spiderbait, as being dressed up as mice for Kitten Kong Bait would be the ultimate excuse for the Goodies to pop this song on the nearest gramophone, get into the groove and promptly go like the proverbial clappers in the opposite direction.
HOW!
Using the Black Pudding Rating System:
IIIII - Superstar (Peaches Stiletto)
IIIII - Superstar (Emperor Caligula)
THE BLACK PUDDING RATINGS SYSTEM
IIIII - Superstar.
IIII - Officially Amazing.
III - Goody Goody Yum Yum.
II - Fair-y Punkmother.
I - Tripe on t' Pikelets.
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