So yesterday's post (about "The Great Space Coaster") unleashed a litany of childhood television music memories that I found could only be sated by finding You Tube clips of what I consider to be the 1970's most amazing educational programming.
I only intended to watch the opening sequence from "The Electric Company," just to remember what it sounded like, but I ended up finding some of my favorite childhood songs of all time.
Watching these video clips makes me feel a bit sorry for the kids today, with their lame, milk toast Barney and Blue's Clues and Dora. The 70's were about a million times cooler, as you will see...
First -- from "The Electric Company," here's "The Short Circus" singing "Knock Knock Rock." Please note the utter hipness of host DJ Mel Mounds (who is Morgan Freeman in disguise, in case you were wondering.) The white boy is my favorite member of the group, mostly because he's just soooo into it...
And then... my favorite favorite educational singing group from elementary school and junior high... does anyone else remember "Mulligan Stew"?!?
They showed this movie (yes, a real movie on the movie projector) every single year as part of our health and nutrition education. I absolutely loved this particular song (4-4-3-2!) and remember singing it on my own for days after watching it. I can still sing along to about half the words. Needless to say, "Mulligan Stew" made a big impact on me -- although not my eating habits. Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that the food chart they show is just a camera pan onto a sheet of paper tacked up to a post... some high-tech graphics!
And finally, who can forget "Free to Be... You and Me"? I have no idea when they finally stopped showing this in schools, but I would look forward every single year to "Free to Be You and Me" day. Personally, my favorite segment was always Rosie Grier's tear jerking "It's All Right To Cry" to which I also knew/know a lot of the words... and I have to say, even for a cheesy/sappy song, it's still got some serious 70's panache. I mean, check out Rosie's super-retro outfit, his rose-tinted glasses, and his semi-afro. (And, please, try not to focus on the fact that he's holding the guitar and not even trying to really strum it. It's just a prop after all... the man was a football player, not a musician!)
So anyway, that's my flashback for today. God bless late 70's & early 80's children's TV programming. Kids today don't know what they're missing!
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3 comments:
The Banana Splits are still my favorite. For years I thought I had hallucenated them but thanks to you tube I know I didn't.
I loved loved loved the electric company. I still sing a song. T-I-O-N. tion tion tion tion.
what do you think that kid is doing now? is he on broadway?
I do love the Electric Company as well - i learned how to speak english watching that show. That vid was awesome - that kid is totally on broadway now.
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