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GOODIES MUSIC REVIEW #14 - WORKING THE LINE
(from C&G #44 August 1999)
Hi there pop pickers and welcome to this month's music review.
WHO?
It's been a while since the last music review in the C&G, but your dedicated DJ's Eammon Old Gibbon Tickler and Miss I.M.A. Gibbon, stamp specialist have been busily doing their stuff (literally) and persistently packing their primates with polythene, pillow down and parsley to the point where there's not a single un-stuffed gibbon left in the entire country.
Their career options are far from stuffed though, as they are now undertaking the onerous task of accumulating enough blubber to pad out all of the Archers scripts.
Therefore, as this should keep them entertained for a couple of years at least, we'll take a stubborn mule ride out to the wild, wild west of Cornwall to your digging DJ Jammy Breville (AKA Brett Allender) and his review of "WORKING THE LINE" by The Goodies.
WHERE? WHEN?
On the 1997 CD 'Yum Yum - The Very Best Of The Goodies', on the 70's album 'The New Goodies LP' and in episode 5/12 'Bunfight At The OK Tea Rooms'
WHAT?
Lyrics: sung by Bill, with contributions from Tim and Graeme
[CHORUS:]
Run down (Run down), working the line
Hey buddy, well we're gonna make money, honey
Run down (Run down), working the line
Working the line today
The first day, we took a trip out west
Second day, we did our best
Third day, I darned my vest {album}; Third day, we took a well-earned rest {episode}
Working the line today
The fourth day, we took a look around
Fifth day, we dug a hole in the ground {album}; Fifth day, we settled down {episode}
Sixth day, my pants fell down {album}; Sixth day, we dug a hole in the ground {episode};
Working the line today
[REPEAT CHORUS]
The seventh day, took a look for gold
Eighth day, dug another hole
Ninth day, we disturbed a mole {album}; [inaudible] {episode}
Working the line today
The tenth day, we tried another spot
Eleventh day, didn't find a lot
Twelfth day, I got terribly hot {album}; Twelfth day, we all forgot {episode}
Working the line today
[REPEAT CHORUS x2]
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
The thirteenth day, we started again
Fourteenth day, another claim
Fifteenth day, it was much the same
Working the line today
The sixteenth day, it was getting tough
Seventeenth day, we'd had enough
Eighteenth day, we all gave up
Working the line today
[CHORUS – repeated several times with overlapping harmonies]
The lyrics differ slightly between the CD and episode versions, but basically the Goodies are out prospecting for gold in the wild wild west (Cornwall!) thanks to yet another of Graeme's loony schemes and are finding that all that glitters are Donny Osmond's teeth! The trip is so fruitless that on the third day, Graeme darns his vest and on the ninth day, he disturbs a mole, while Tim has to contend with his pants falling down on the sixth day and getting terribly hot on the twelfth day. On the fourteenth day they try another claim, but by the sixteenth day it is getting tough and by the eighteenth day, they all give up (according to Graeme in a suitably disgusted voice) until the onset of the great cream rush.
The song may not be as humourous or absurd as many of the others in the series, but it has an excellent twangy tune and some of the nicest harmonies of any Goodies song, making it a perfect backing song for the accompanying visual sequences in "Bunfight", like Bill repeatedly clobbering the others with a sledge-hammer by accident, staking his claim by using his sign like a pneumatic drill and panning in the creek for his breakfast of sizzling sausages and bacon!
WHY?
At the end of their very catchy country-style ditty about prospecting for gold, the Goodies have very little to show for it other than a swag of old tins (from an old tin mine) and a chunk of gold ore ("or something else!"); however soon afterwards they strike a rich vein of Cornish cream and turn Penenink into a boom town. Likewise the lyrics of the song itself might be slightly mined of their usual Goodies-style humour, but the plot is soon milked for some dairy punny lines like "Ice cream, you scream and everyone is creaming it off down in Cornwall" and "So if you don't want to be a clot, whip on down there!" to really make ones stomach churn! There's little margarine for error, especially when the clot thickens, but "Yo Gert, if you can't beat 'em, you're butter off joining 'em!" And that's no Bulla!
HOW!
Using the black pudding rating system.
MUSIC: IIII Officially Amazing.
SINGING/LYRICS: IIII Officially Amazing.
HUMOUR: II 1/2 Fair-y Goodymother.
ALL TOGETHER NOW: III 1/2 Amazingly Goodie.
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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