Bond//Cars, Part Two

[featherynscale]

I've had a rhythm stuck in my head for the past several years. Not all the time, you understand, not constantly, but chronically -- every once in a while it will pop into my head, and I will go "What the hell song *IS* that?". And I will try to think of what lyrics go with that rhythm, and fail. I thought it was something about "our fine feathered friends", but there was an extra syllable between what I thought was "fine" and what I thought was "feathered", which always left me puzzled. Our fine fine-feathered friends? Our fine bright-feathered friends? No clue. Nothing made sense.

Until this morning, when I hopped in my car to come to the office and had All Things Considered on my radio. They were doing a story about the guys who wrote the music for Mary Poppins which was mildly entertaining, and met my criteria for NPR I can stand to listen to in the morning, which is to say that it wasn't about the current administration doing something reprehensible that might make me want to vomit (I don't listen to a lot of NPR in the morning anymore, since most of it tends to fall into that category).

Then the story moved on. The brothers, it seemed, had also been contracted to write music for a film based on Ian Fleming's only children's book, the story of a flying car called Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. The composer talks about writing the theme song based on what the engine of the car was supposed to sound like, and the song started to play in the background. I'm listening idly...

Oh Chitty You Chitty
Pretty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
We love you.
And Chitty, in Chitty
Pretty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang what we'll do.
Near Chitty, far Chitty, in our motor car Oh what a happy time we'll spend.
Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Our fine four fendered friend.

Holy crap! Five years, ten years maybe, this has been rolling around in my head, looking for something to connect to, and there it is. It was like that point in a symphony where the music, having wandered through a number of key changes that make the listener feel a little bit confused or irritated, and they don't know why, finally resolves into its original key, and you're like "Ah, things are right with the world again". Tonic, and all. So anyway, thanks NPR, for allowing me to regain another little bit of processing power that had been tied up in a useless process for a really long time.

Comments

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

I had a similar experience this year, but not one with quite that longevity. There was this little sound byte with an excellent guitar hook that Channel One used over and over for a segment they did on the presidential election. After several weeks, nodeal57 was able to retrieve from his often fused memory banks as "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor. Finally, I found some peace. Then I downloaded it on my school computer, which probably violates several policies, if not actual laws, and played it for my class. (Dear FBI: I played it once, then deleted it.)

My students were impressed--nay, dismayed--at the lengths to which I would go to research such a useless bit of information. In education, we call that "modeling." Or something.

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

Damn you. Now I will have the songs from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang running through my head all day.

All of them.

Especially that damn "Toot Sweet" song from the scene in the candy factory. ARRRGH!

I've been kindof wanting to watch some movies from the bad old days of Disney -- specifically Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Pete's Dragon. I may have to recruit malvito for this endeavor, though, because I can't imagine anyone else would want to watch them with me.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Hehe. Sorry.

I don't remember the Toot Sweet song, so I am safe from the ravages of your earworms, haha!

And I could probably be talked into a bad Disney film every now and again. Just not all at the same time.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

oh! ohohohoh!

And Truly Scrumptious. And...um, the weird little S&M song. I love Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, along with most of the Herbie movies.

[kcwitch.livejournal.com]

speaking of herby movies, they are releasing a new one soon with linsey loheim in it. i can't wait!

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

Kinda in a similar vein, I realized that I was quoting Jimmy Buffett before I ever heard his voice.

Rather than saying "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," I always said, "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it." I liked the weird idea of coming to a bridge you needed to cross and then burning it before you got to the other side.

And it turns out, that's the title of one of his earlier songs.

And I'm reasonably sure I came up with it all by myself.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

One could also attribute it to Brooks and Dunn, but that might be going a bit too far.

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

Yes. That is officially out of the realm of possibility for me, as until very recently, country music has had a very, very ugly effect on me.

idiomatic anthropology

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I've also said "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it" for a long time, and I certainly never heard it via Buffett.

As near as I can tell, it's either something I read somewhere, or a family saying. Of course, agrnmn and I have lots of "family sayings" in common, despite not having really grown up together, or being related in any meaningful way, or even growing up in the same decade, effectively.

Re: idiomatic anthropology

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

Perhaps there's someone wandering around planting the thought in our heads as children.

Or perhaps we're all just really smart and come up with such witty things on our own.

I prefer the second idea, personally.

Re: idiomatic anthropology

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Your brain is hardwired for certain figures of speech. They're like archetypes.

Re: idiomatic anthropology

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

*Gack!*

Archetypes? Noooooo!!!! Anything but those!

Re: idiomatic anthropology

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

AAAH! No! There shall be no advancement of the theory that brains might be similar, since, you know, human beings share most of their DNA and stuff! Run away!

Laughing out loud

[lightonthesill.livejournal.com]

Bless NPR!

Yet another great mystery laid to rest...

[wildnsquirrelly.livejournal.com]

And you didn't even need those meddling kids! Now if you can only uncover the meaning behind that odd bit of metal you recovered from your leg the mother ship would be along shortly. ;)

The odd bit of metal

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

You hush about that, now. I'm trying not to draw attention.

[kcwitch.livejournal.com]

LOL! you amaze me sometimes with how your mind works.

The way my mind works

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Really, what amazes me most often is the way in which it fails to work :)

Wait, what?

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Looking through your tags, and I just now caught that *Ian Fleming* wrote CCBB.

Wow. Paradigm shift, table for one.