All About the O

A few blog entries ago I wrote about the kids' TV show Make a Wish and its odd opening song. It got me thinking about other memorable songs from kid shows. I loved Sesame Street as a child and was actually on hand to see the first episode when it aired: I was in my kindergarten class one day at Franklin Elementary in Spokane when our teacher, Mrs. Chamberlaine (if memory serves), announced that we were to watch a new children's program. Of course, this was 1969, and I can't remember if the "O Song" aired on Sesame Street that early, but it sticks in my memory as one of the more inventive, playful, and bizarre of their early singalong animations. There's a quirkiness--by turns funny and eerie (in a Roald Dahl sort of way)--to it that I still love, and the song by folky Dan Hicks is wonderful. Some of the folks who have commented on the piece on Youtube ask, "What were they smokin'?", as if the invention of such songs and images must necessarily be spurred by hallucinogens. Perhaps so, but as kids we intuitively responded to the surreality of such works--their violation of rules, their lack of linearity, their frenzied action, their bizarre juxtapositions. It's a tradition that goes back to Lewis Carroll, even beyond, and I am forever thankful that the folks at Sesame Street were smart enough to meet us kids at our level.

Remember it?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIN_eauYq7g

Here are the lyrics:

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-Oooo..
Grow and go Roll over the road
Where the goat explodes all the Os
And the crow flies low
Past the croaking toad
And the boat floats over the ocean
But the wind did blow
And it started to snow
So the toad went home
To the telephone
He spoke to the goat
Who was eating a bowl of bones [foam?], potatoes and soap (o-o-o-o-o-o)
A rope did float
And hooked the goat
And a boy climbed the stone made of Os
The Os turned to smoke
And started to float
Closer to the bulldozer
Who closed up the hole
So the cold wind could not blow
And the sun did show
So the roses could grow
And the whole world would know
That the boat, bulldozer, toad, and the crow
And the boy and the rope, riding the goat
Were all OK (o-o-o-o)
OK?
(o.....)


CD