In the song Monster Mash, the Monster Mash itself is a dance. It’s also the name of the song being sung.
We conclude then, don’t we, that the characters mentioned in the song are dancing to some other groovy music from the time.
With me so far?
But…here’s the thing. When you hear the song, what do you imagine? I imagine a group of monsters and ghouls etc dancing *to* the song Monster Mash. Just like Pan’s People (see the video in comments).
I put it to you (grabs own lapel a la Rumpole of the Bailey) that it is not possible to imagine anything else!
And yet…the only song in the world that the monsters are definitely NOT dancing to is the song, Monster Mash!
And also – we are none the wiser on how to actually do the monster mash dance. The song doesn’t tell us.
Ah, yes: but the dance must have already existed – since the lyric referring to it is in the past tense! Viz: “They DID the Monster Mash, it WAS a graveyard smash”, etc.
(Collapses on bench, mopping brow with colourful silk handkerchief)
You just made me actually go and look at the lyrics. At one point it says “They played the Monster Mash” . But the song itself is the Monster Mash. This is like two mirrors facing each other.
Yes! Almost exactly like that! However –
“Chorus:
They did the monster mash
(The monster mash) It was a graveyard smash
(They did the mash) It caught on in a flash
(They did the mash) They did the monster mash”
The Narrator is relating a past tense story throughout the song – logically, in the world of the song, the dance must already have existed! QED
The existence of the dance is not so much the issue here – it’s the song.
But…but…oh, I got nuthin’…
The song is indeed very meta. Shit’s got more levels than NCP, yo.
Your shit may, indeed, have levels, sir – but I suspect that you may be unique in that particular!
(Collapses on bench, mopping brow with colourful silk handkerchief)
I believe the original acapella version was sung by a gang of pumpkins and it was the coffin-bangers with the Crypt-Kicker Five who released an electrified version which gave a huge jolt to the whole monster fraternity.
But as Drac says “Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?” Was it never recorded?
Doesn’t move the discussion on at all, but Leon Russell was a Crypt-Kicker.
I’m annoyed with myself now. I know I’ve seen something, a film or a sitcom, in which the characters resolve to make their fortune by writing the song which the monsters were dancing to in The Monster Mash. I know I’ve seen it in the last week or two as well, but can I remember what it was? Can I bollocks, even though I can remember every work of The Monster Mash despite not hearing it for many years and never paying much attention to it when I did.
Ted! It’s from the new TV series of Ted! You can all rest easy now. I know I can.
Please tell me someone told you, and that you didn’t actually watch this?
I enjoyed it. I’ll admit that there’s nothing for you there if you didn’t enjoy the films, but there were a couple of lines each episode which made me laugh out loud.
It’s a song that’s about a song, but isn’t actually that song, like Tenacious D’s Tribute or Avril Lavigne’s Skater Boy or… (over to you I’m sure there are loads more)
Did The Twist exist before Chubby Checker’s song about it?
“Like we did last summer” – sounds like it may have done or is he twisting our melons too?
There’s The Twist and then Let’s Twist Again. The sequel record is more famous than the original. I think there was a third one that bombed, so it’s like the Godfather trilogy of twist records.
Chubby Checker’s version is a cover, isn’t it?
Having seen teenagers in Tampa, Florida Hank Ballard wrote “The Twist”, which became the B-side of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters’ single “Teardrops on Your Letter”.
So what song/tune were the teenagers dancing to originally?
Had a quick look online. Sounds like, as with many dance moves, the Twist evolved organically over time from a number of different sources. The earliest known inspiration is apparently a pelvic dance motion called the twist that came to America from the Congo during slavery.
Ballard apparently just noticed kids twisting their hips while dancing. Don’t think it was to a specific song.
Checker probably wasn’t chubby on that slave ship.
Isn’t there anything else that involves considerable pelvic movement that could have inspired such dances?
….am I the least vanilla person here?? Please no…
The vertical manifestation of a horizontal desire.
Your poor poor wife.
A dance doesn’t have words – it just has music.
When Bobby “Boris” Pickett wrote it, according to e̶x̶t̶e̶n̶s̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶s̶e̶a̶r̶c̶h̶ lazy wikiing
“A variation on the Mashed Potato was danced to “Monster Mash”, in which the footwork was the same but Frankenstein-style monster gestures were made with the arms and hands.”
The song is, if you like (and even if you don’t) a form of fiction, as opposed to documentary. Mr. Pickett is conjuring in your imagination the idea of monsters dancing to what all beat kids of the era would know as ‘the mash’. *whisper* It didn’t really happen */whisper*, but let’s pretend it did.
Sez you, Mr “Facts”, with your glasses and your shirt…
Do The Strandski.
I’ve been diggin’ my potatoes…..
Could be worse:
Let’s stonk, to the rhythm of the honky tonk
Stick a red nose on your conk
And let’s stonk
Further noggin melting… The narrator of the song is Bobby Pickett doing a Boris Karloff impression. But here’s Boris Karloff doing an impression of Bobby Pickett doing and impression of him!
Nice work @Bigshot! What a find! That really was one from the vaults!
Or the lab…
In a similar vein I was always intrigued by the song The Tennessee Waltz which tells the story of something that happened while, “I was dancing, with my darling, to the Tennessee Waltz… ” How can this be? Even more intriguing to me was the lyrics refer to the title song as “Beautiful” Talk about presumptuous.
Of course sometimes you need the updated version.
I was dancin’ – with my darlin’
To the Tennessee Waltz
At the annual Fireman’s Ball
All the people – they was starin’
Because my girl wuz wearin’
A newspaper dress – that was all.
Oh! she had comic strips
From her knees to her hips
Where her want ads were – I can’t recall
Then her dress – it caught on fire
And it burned her entire
Front Page, Sports Section and all.
That amused and intrigued me! So I Googled.
It’s TENNESSEE WALTZ #2 (Parody)
Recorded by Homer & Jethro
Original words and Music by Pee Wee King & Redd Stewart
Alma Cogan’s “rock” version topped the Swedish charts for 5 weeks in 1964 and the song has been a favourite of Swedish “dansband” stars ever since-
This Bizarre (Tennessee) Love Triangle has been a consistent best seller since 1948.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Waltz
Even Leonard Cohen has done a cover.
In computer programming there’s this thing called a recursive function, which calls itself. You have to be very careful with these things otherwise your pooter can go ‘pop’.
This is a musical version of recursion I reckon.
Douglas Hofstadter is the God of recursive thinking
And here is a link to a self-referential story by David Moser in a book by Hofstasdter.
Those crazy IT guys have been doing that since the Eighties. Take the GNU software written for the Unix operating system: GNU = “GNU’s Not Unix”.
The long winter evenings just fly by. Thank fuck I’ve retired.