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GOODIES MUSIC REVIEW #9 - SPACEHOPPER
(from C&G #36 November 1998)
Hi there pop pickers and welcome to this month's music review.
WHO?
Your royal pains from October, Cheeky Charlie Mini Mudflaps and Young Her, Annie "Naff Off" Windsor were invited to Southampton for the relaunch of the Goodies' Viking craft which is once again searching for the Lost Island Of Munga (or at least, what's left of it after the most recent series of French nuclear tests a couple of years ago!). The latest word is that Young Her, Annie is still swinging drunkenly from the champagne magnum (a special 25th anniversary re-enactment event!) while Cheeky Charlie has been taken along for the ride so that his ears can be commissioned as outboard motor propellers if the Goodies get sick of rowing!
Meanwhile let's cue to studio two for this month's review by your dizzy DJ's Hopalong Charity (AKA Brett Allender) and Alanis "Fluffy" Freeperson (AKA Alison Bean) of "SPACEHOPPER" by The Goodies.
WHERE? WHEN?
On their '70's album "The Goodies Sing Songs From The Goodies" and in episode 2/12 (#20) 'Charity Bounce'
WHAT?
Lyrics: sung by Bill
Better wave me goodbye, I gotta go away
I don't know why, but I can't stay
I'm going round the world, I can't explain
I'll be meeting a girl, and I'll be back again
'Coz I'm your spacehopper, yeah, bound to bounce right back to you
There's something on my mind, that I must do
I got a lot to find, a lot to prove
I don't know what I'm doing, but when it's done
I'll keep on going, 'til I'm home
'Coz I'm your spacehopper, yeah, bound to bounce right back to you
I'm a spacehopper, baby, I'm a mere elastic band
Look out darling, 'coz I'm your rubber man, rubber man
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
I've done some things, I've seen some stuff
I've had it smooth, I've had it rough
Seen the world, seen it all
And now I'm bouncing on back, just like a rubber ball
'Coz I'm your spacehopper, yeah, bound to bounce right back to you
I'm a spacehopper, baby, and the world isn't flat
Going round and round, 'til that circle brings me back
I'm coming back, I'm coming back, I'm coming back, I'm coming back
I'm coming back, I'm coming back, I'm coming back, I'm coming back
'Coz I'm your spacehopper, yeah, bound to bounce right back to you
[REPEAT ABOVE VERSE]
Hopalong: The Goodies usually have an aversion to travelling very far outside their "Land Of Hope And Glory", especially Tim who frequently cans "wops, frogs, krauts and dagos" in his patriotic speeches. However the lure of the charity dollar is sufficient to send each of them bouncing their way around the world aboard a leisure and pleasure icon of the 70's - the humble spacehopper. While the episode itself hardly has any bounce at all, the Spacehopper song is a brilliant blast of lively lyrics, heavy strumming and ferally fruity brass which certainly would not have been out of place near the top of the mainstream hit parade as a high quality "serious" pop song.
Alanis: From the excitement capital of the world - Adelaide, er, Cricklewood - they came. Three men, with something to prove. Dressed as toothpaste tubes and bouncing up and down on orange rubber things. What a way to travel! What a way to see the world! What a way to fall off and injure yourself in the name of charity! But more importantly, what a song! This song is great - go out there people and allow at least two of your six senses to indulge in this rocky, hoppy, boppy ditty, combining the choicer elements of brass, electric guitar and Bill Oddie's vocal chords, with a side order of piano for good measure. You won't regret it, for this is the kind of song that makes you bop up and down with the anarchic grace of its subject and there ain't nothing wrong with that.
WHY?
Hopalong: In the 'Charity Bounce' episode, the Goodies claim to be bouncing around the world on inflated chunks of orange rubber for the good of the 'Grieving Grannies' fund, but their real reason for getting the hell out of Britain pronto is a threat by Max Bygraves, Des O'Connor and Val Doonican to form 'The Three Tirers' and send the whole country to sleep quicker than 'New Improved Snooze'! However they find to their disgust that France is (dis)graced by the legendary Charles Aznovoice, the Australian outback is infested by a plague of heavy breathing, wobbleboard-playing Rolf Harrises and that the bright lights of America are positively dazzling due to the glow reflecting from the Osmond family's teeth! To make matters worse, because the earth is round rather than flat, they merely end up "coming back" home again to Max and Co, getting ripped off by the unscrupulous Mr Sparklypegs and suffering the worst cases of "numbus bummus" that their doctor has ever seen, but at least they deliver us a superbly funky song along the way!
Alanis: People often associate drugs with the late 60s and early 70s and fair enough too, because a lot of people did take drugs then (or at least the press thought so). And when you consider the lyrics of Spacehopper at length, you would not be drawing to long a bow to wonder whether the lyricist (Bill Oddie, of course) had not indulged in a touch of the old "mind expanding sherbet" at some point during the writing process. The guy think he's a spacehopper for flip's sake! He explains, several times, that he is bouncing round the world, to do some things, see some stuff, have it smooth and have it rough, coz there's something on his mind and he's your spacehopper and he's gunna bounce right back to you, like a rubber ball. No doubt about, definite drug influence there and certainly a new spin on the phrase "tripped out", but hey, it's whatever turns you on, man.
HOW!
Using the Black Pudding Ratings System:
MUSIC: Hopalong: IIIII Superstar; Alanis: IIIII Superstar.
SINGING: Hopalong: IIII Officially Amazing; IIIII Superstar.
HUMOUR: Hopalong and Alanis: Unfair to rate it, as it's sung as a serious pop song (well, as serious as a song about bouncing around the world on a spacehopper can be anyway!)
ALL TOGETHER NOW: Hopalong: IIIII Superstar; Alanis: IIIII Superstar.
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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