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Tiny Mammoth Concert: Top of the Pops’ exceedingly bizarre 1977 Synthesizer Special

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I‘m not sure where to even start on this one, so I won’t. I’ll just show it to you. Skip ahead to 2:18 if you get bored with the countdown and/or dancers — that’s when the action, so to speak, really begins. And don’t worry, the music gets steadily better. Not during that song, no, but over the course of the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyvVKRDjOiw&list=RDWyvVKRDjOiw&start_radio=1&ab_channel=AreSoundsElectrik%3F

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Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
2 years ago

That is one of my favourite TOTP videos. And one of the few they can still show.

But I love the drummer in Space. And there’s quite a good cover of it.

epitome of incomprehensibility

I love the outfits in the first set! For coolness, my favourite is the guitarist on the left with the white boots. And for, uh, something, the keyboardist in what looks like a DIY medieval knight costume.

…YouTube is now showing me Kraftwerk’s The Robots, which reminds me of the (true) story I told for a German class assignment last month. When I was a kid, I thought the chorus to Autobahn went “We’re far far far off the Autobahn” instead of, in German, “Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn” (meaning “we’re driving (x3) on the Autobahn”).

Full Metal Ox
Full Metal Ox
2 years ago

@Alan Robertshaw:

That is one of my favourite TOTP videos. And one of the few they can still show.

Music licensing involving myriad artists, I presume? (That’s famously been a barrier to WKRP in Cincinnati being released in anything resembling its original form—the classic rock songs featured, as well as comprising an iconic soundtrack of the late Seventies through early Eighties, are often integral to the story.)

(It occurs to me that the MCU’s use of expensive classic rock standards is in part a show of dominance: we can afford to whip out Led “IP Rights For Me But Not For Thee” Zeppelin at a key dramatic moment.)

@epitome of incomprehensibility:

…YouTube is now showing me Kraftwerk’s The Robots, which reminds me of the (true) story I told for a German class assignment last month. When I was a kid, I thought the chorus to Autobahn went “We’re far far far off the Autobahn” instead of, in German, “Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn” (meaning “we’re driving (x3) on the Autobahn”).

The mondegreen I heard was “fun, fun, fun, on the Autobahn.”

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

As regards classic rock and taking on the patriarchy, I did both IRL this weekend!

Some older SWM was standing way out from the kiosk I was trying to buy some Aquafina for $5 (!). The whole area is covered in giant BUD LIGHT signs.

So this assholius maximus stands starts asking if they have other beers. The girls (technically a woman, but so young) obediently look in the fridge every time. I can SEE their eyes starting to glaze over and their head and shoulders slumped. Did I mention that the girls had Slavic accents and their English is very basic.

They know this guy’s just doing it to gratify his ego, but they can’t muster up enough English words. Panic in full bloom. He thinks he’s “teasing” them of course.

He “orders” from his spot in the walkway. A mofo Black Russian, listing the ingredients.

Enter CAPTAIN POST-MENOPAUSE. Me, who has had more than enough of it.

I turn around and bellow (thank you theater training) “KNOCK IT OFF, STOP HASSLING THE GIRLS!”

Then he puts on his whiny voice, with the tone that he has been aggrieved, injured and somehow it’s all their fault, or mine and whines — with an actual sudden pout “I’m just trying to get a drink!”

I point dramatically at the full bar right behind him and said “THERE’S A BAR BEHIND YOU, asshole.”

He left, I got my water, the girls looked so relieved.

And everyone applauded. /s

Of course they didn’t. But later I asked a guy if this was indeed the entry to my seat and he complimented me for defusing the situation. He’d seen/heard it but was busy and was so glad I’d stepped in. We both agreed the advantage of getting old was not caring any more about “what will the neighbors think?”

And a tiny way, the Forces of Evil were slowed down just a tiny bit.

I thought of you guys a lot.

Full Metal O
2 years ago

@GSS ex-noob:

Emperor Penguin Chicks=Waitresses.

Giant Petrel=Yakov Smarmoff.

Adelie Penguin: Captain Crone.

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@FMOx: delightful! Due to injuries, I even waddle like the Adelie sometimes.

Mañuel Laver
Mañuel Laver
2 years ago

At the risk of sounding like one of the subjects of this blog: I’m struck by how much more attractive I find some of the women in the audience who seem to be enjoying themselves than the ‘sexy’ dancers who are quite definitely working.

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@Manuel: I think so too. The dancers are in dull costumes doing boring robotic choreography, and they don’t seem to be having any fun — perhaps they’re supposed to be robotic in all ways.

The women in the audience are just freely having fun listening and dancing however they want. They’re people, not people being forced to act like robots.

Full Metal Ox
Full Metal Ox
2 years ago

@Mañuel Laver; @GSS ex-noob:

The show I love for unselfconscious studio audience abandon is Chic-A-Go-Go, a public access music show out of Chicago ostensibly for children; they showcase a wildly eclectic range of music, and it’s a freewheeling come-as-you-wish party for all ages. Babies being danced around by their parents share the floor with adults seizing the opportunity to fly their freak flag or live a decade they may or may not have experienced—Bionic Afroman here doesn’t look as if he was around for the actual Seventies.

Last edited 2 years ago by Full Metal Ox
Lumipuna
Lumipuna
2 years ago

I recently had an off-topic discussion with some other regulars on Lenovo Vantage. Now, I just saw something on the university’s Yammer feed that seemingly supports the suspicions that a) LV is indeed necessary for updating firmware on Lenovo computers b) LV occasionally malfunctions or is otherwise difficult to use.

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@FMOx: Love it! All ages, all genders, all being themselves. The bouncing little Black boy, the impromptu chorus line who look like groups of strangers, people with no dance talent not caring.

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@Lumipuna: I’m scheduled for an overnight update tonight and I removed Vantage during that discussion. Will let you know if the update puts it back. I bet it will. Then I’ll remove it again.

Old School HTML
Old School HTML
1 year ago

Posting 1 March 2023: main post’s video is unavailable.