When Bo Derek's character in 10 avers that Ravel's Boléro was the most erotic piece of music ever, I don't think she had this Prince Buster rip off "Wreck A Pum Pum" in mind. Quite astonishingly raunchy and graphic for 1968.
Whereas Tomita's treatment is subdued and almost sedate
Mostly though it's proggers and then metalloids who've taken it up
Crikey - well I guess Jim Lea had proggoid potential, having been in jazz youth orchestras and such
A very early 'rock' version
There's a guide for anything and everything on YouTube!
Well, obviously this below is by infinite distance the best use of That Rhythm:
Then again, the video claims that "School's Out" by Alice Cooper is a Boléro
It seems to pop up quite often as a momentary passage - like the middle-eight or the bridge bit - an intensification of rhythm... bammity-bammity
The idea that the Ravel piece is about sex is not an invention of Bo's character in 10
postscript:
Ed in comments points out that Buster's "Wreck A Pum Pum" is a rip-off of "Little Drummer Boy" rather than "Bolero". Which plain fact (the paruppa pum pum bit!) eluded me somehow! On the other hand, the two tunes / rhythms have a proximity such that people have combined them
Indeed a webzine tracking all the versions of "Carol of the Drum" aka "Little Drummer Boy" (there are many, many - and this list doesn't even include the Pentatonix take) says this:
"Written already in 1941, loosely based on a Czech fairytale. In one of Martin Luther's christmas carols, children play as little drummer boys near newborn Jesus. The tune is related to Spanish song Tamborilero and to French song Le Jongleur (Middle Ages), it also somewhat reminds Ravel's Bolero (1928)."
Here's a female answer song / counter-cover of the Prince Buster tune - the lyrics are just as raunchy - slackness before slackness
If ears could puke...
Paul Morley is a huge Ravel fan, and in his Classical music book he wrestles at length with Bolero's conflicted status as an avant-garde masterpiece of 1928 and kitsch lounge music from the 80s onwards. He has an alternative Bolero Top Ten list, which includes some of the Rock references mentioned in those videos.
ReplyDeleteA few of those examples from YouTube just seem plain wrong, though. The intro to Diamond Head's Am I Evil, for one, is very obviously borrowed from Holst's Mars, The Bringer of War from the Planets, written about a decade before Bolero.
Just having a diddy-dee-dum diddy-dee-dum rhythm doesn't automatically make a tune a bolero.
I think Wreck A Pum Pum is a spoof on The Little Drummer Boy, which has had plenty of reggae covers. Making excellent use of the song's innocently repeated line "parappa pum pum", which works as an obscene double entendre in Jamaica.
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