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The Benny Hill bit

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    The Benny Hill bit

    As you'll have gathered, I've been listening to an awful lot of Sixties girl group music lately (like, even more than usual).

    It's jogged my memory that several of the very greatest singles of the genre - eg "One Fine Day" by The Chiffons and "He's A Rebel" by The Crystals - are almost ruined about 2/3 of the way through by the type of saxophone break which, in the mind of any British male of a certain age, is inseparable from the image of Benny Hill chasing scantily-clad women across a public park.

    It's the musical equivalent of what, in lyrics, Taylor refers to as 'Big-Birding' (something to do with Neil Young, which he can explain better than I can if he sees this thread).

    Anyway, this is WSC/OTF, you know what to do. Your own examples of unfortunate musical moments which, through resonant connotations or sheer bathos, threaten to ruin otherwise-immaculate songs... or, y'know, just veer off at a tangent, whichever.

    #2
    The Benny Hill bit

    I have the opposite thing with The Chain, which is basically another fairly dreary Fleetwood Mac song, and then, suddenly I'm an excited and excitable 12 year old waiting for Murray Walker to kick in, and Nelson Piquet to drive into Alain Prost.

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      #3
      The Benny Hill bit

      It's not music, but Ted Hughes' version of the Oresteia has a bit where one character talks sonorously and grandiloquently about how a lion rules the city of Argos, "but it is a Cowardly Lion". The whole audience was suppressing giggles.

      OK, you probably had to be there.

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        #4
        The Benny Hill bit

        I still absolutely love Abba's Knowing Me, Knowing You, but it's a real effort to dissociate it from Alan Partridge.

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          #5
          The Benny Hill bit

          That sax break was pretty much de rigeur on Spector productions of a certain vintage. It seemed out of place at the time. The wanky feedback driven guitar solo, much favoured by late 60s–early 70s "progressive" blues bands was even worse though. Fortunately the Bonzo's cardboard bubble that read "[Thinks:] I'm really expressing myself!" always sprang to mind and made them tolerable.

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            #6
            The Benny Hill bit

            "Sympathy For the Devil" is eternally spoiled for me by the "woo-ooh!" harmonies, which are about as un-infernal, and frankly wussy, as you can get.

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              #7
              The Benny Hill bit

              "Geno". The line that goes "But you were Michael the lover, the fighter that won" bothers me not just because KR pronounces the name Macool, but because it is so prescient in reference to the lyrics produced by those two superstars two years later, when Jacko informs Macca: "I'm a lovva not a fighdda." AND HE STILL WON!

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                #8
                The Benny Hill bit

                There's a bit in "Peaches En Regalia" by Frank Zappa where it suddenly turns into the theme from "The Rockford Files" - thing is though, it's brilliant, so forget I spoke.

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                  #9
                  The Benny Hill bit

                  Never mind that, Taylor - what's "Big-Birding" when it's at home?

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                    #10
                    The Benny Hill bit

                    Yeah, I was going to ask that. I vaguely remember the term from the old board, but can't remember exactly what it meant.

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                      #11
                      The Benny Hill bit

                      Listen to this verse from "Helpless" by Neil Young, dig the down-home rural reverie he's trying to create, then just wait for the line about the feathery yellow bastard from "Sesame Street".

                      That's what it means, anyway - the credibility of a song destroyed by a lyrical flourish which (either through carelessness on the part of the songwriter, or unfortunate associations at the listener's end) puts entirely the wrong image in your mind.

                      Like, I always giggled whenever I heard "Christine" by The House Of Love, because I kept thinking it was about the lead singer of The Redskins.

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                        #12
                        The Benny Hill bit

                        SR, nevermind British, almost every male on the planet of a certain age knows that tune.

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                          #13
                          The Benny Hill bit

                          the lead singer of the Redskins

                          Who was a walking Big Bird himself, because he always made me think of Jayne Torvill.

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