For the past week I’ve been enjoying a trawl through the albums of Rush in chronological order. A Passage To Bangkok from 2112 makes use of that little rinky dink motif that signifies something oriental. It also appears – more or less – in Carl Douglas’s factually incorrect Kung Foo Fighting (I asked my grandmother, and she denied ever having engaged in Kung Foo, let alone fighting), the Vapours’ Turning Japanese and Bowie’s China Girl. It also appears in the Aristocats movie, during the famous Siamese Cats’ number.
Various musicologists have tried to establish where this motif originated. One traced a version back to an 1847 musical show called The Grand Chinese Spectacle of Aladdin, or The Wonderful Lamp. It appears to be a westerner’s version of how they think Chinese/oriental music might sound rather than being authentic in any respect whatsoever.
Are there any other versions of this slightly dubious riff in pop?
Absolutely fascinating stuff.
I wonder if there are any other snippets of music that have been used in the same way. For example to signify an Arabic setting.
Och aye, there’s many others, here’s a few –
Todd Rundgren-Eastern Intrigue
David Bowie-Moss Garden
Spandau Ballet-Innocence and Science
I don’t think the exact riff you’re referring to is in this piece, because this reflects Chinese music as she actually is – not some flaccid borderline racist western construct :
http://youtu.be/cQsKZeq02Dg
That riff also pops up in Dr. Feelgood’s version of ‘I’m a Hog For You, Baby.’
How about an older version of “Chinito Chinito” that I first heard in the first cd I got from the word. It came from Ry Cooder’s concept-album “Chavez ravine” the lyrics are made to sound like a chinese speaking spanish, but the video of the older version by Tin Tan is even worse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhdgLe57F4Y
My mistake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayCJiQRnBl4
I’m no keyboard player but just messing about on a keyboard isn’t it what happens when you just play two of the black keys with a space of one black key between them and just go up and down the keyboard a bit. I’m sure anyone left alone with a keyboard for half an hour would stumble across it and go “Oh that sounds Chinese”.
Guitar wise I think the guitar chords in This Must be the Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads are very similar.
Someone who understands music may be able to translate the above into something approaching coherence.
This pretty much what Baldy wrote in the OP.
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/08/28/338622840/how-the-kung-fu-fighting-melody-came-to-represent-asia
But it’s a fascinating read anyway.