Tuesday, August 26, 2014

HE TOOK AN EARLY FERRY: An ABC special on September 7 will finally try to settle a debate that had raged on in my household since the dawn of time: What is the best Schoolhouse Rock song of all time? The answer of course is not a perennial favorite like "Conjuction, Junction" or "I'm Just a Bill", but "A Noun Is a Person, Place or Thing". (Feel free to make the case for your favorite in the comments.)

15 comments:

  1. Marsha4:30 PM

    The answer, of course, is Rufus Xavier Sasparilla. "WE found them, and they found us, and now they are ours and we're so happy - thank you pronouns!" Wonderful melody, insanely clever lyrics, and Bob Dorough. Game, set, match.

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  2. Marsha4:32 PM

    Indubitably.


    (Well, given my comment, not indubitably - but Lolly is easily top 5. I am right now looking at the three keychains hanging on my cubicle wall - father, son, and Lolly (complete with skates)).

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  3. Marsha4:33 PM

    The only one of the Multiplication Rock that I think doesn't work is Little Twelve Toes. I don't have great affection for Naughty Number Nine, but it works.

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  4. Joseph Finn4:34 PM

    While I hold to my choice, this is certainly top 5. That instrumental hook between verses is NUTS at how good it is.

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  5. Watts4:45 PM

    "Three Is a Magic Number" was good enough for De La Soul so it's good enough for me.


    But "Zero My Hero" makes me strangely melancholy. And "Figure Eight" makes me flat out tear up.


    I wouldn't mind, also, if I grew up to be "Interplanet Janet." Especially since the song sounds like a lost track from the Rocky Horror soundtrack.

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  6. Alex_Gordon4:58 PM

    Suppose you're going nut gathering...I was in the demographic when these first appeared, but even back in the pre-Internet, pre-cable, prehistoric days of the 70s, nut gathering was not high on our list of potential activities.

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  7. Marsha5:06 PM

    She's a Galaxy Girl!

    Though my favorite from the Science Rock is definitely Gravity. It's not all that useful for learning stuff, but it's sung by The Tokens! The bridge is fantastic:

    Ga-a-li-laaaaay-o, Galileo Gallili (Gallili, yeah)
    He did experiments with a force he couldn't see (could not see, yeah)
    He found that all things fall to earth at the very same speed (very same speed, yeah)
    He didn't know it yet but THAT was DUE to grav-i-TEE!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFtk6Si0Fk

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  8. The Pathetic Earthling5:44 PM

    Except, I think, my Mom took this song so to heart that she will tell a Homeric poem about things going on in her life without ever once using a proper noun.

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  9. Marsha5:46 PM

    I refuse to accept that Rufus, Raffaella, and Albert are to blame for that.

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  10. christy in nyc8:42 PM

    I have several favorites, notably Interjections! and Fireworks, but I think the most underappreciated one is The Tale of Mr. Morton:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLV3eMvW73g

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  11. Genevieve9:06 AM

    Three is a Magic Number is such a good one and always makes me happy. Elizabeth Mitchell does a lovely cover of it, and I even put it on my labor mixtape.

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  12. Genevieve9:07 AM

    I always thought that was the point, that the child came up with a silly one.

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  13. So many good choices. For me, as far as staying power in the recesses of my mind, and educational value, it's The Preamble.

    But wait, let me go watch them all again RIGHT NOW and I'll get back to you...

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  14. Nigel From Cameroon10:52 AM

    No More Kings, undoubtedly.

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  15. Eric J.1:26 PM

    Did Reality Bites permanently devalue Conjunction Junction?

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