“I didn’t think anybody would understand “culchah.””
If you said “culchah” I’d have understood it. If you wrote “culchah” I would not have. Well… actually I guess I probably would.
‘When Billy Joel wrote “We Didn’t Start the Fire” a decade or so later…’
Try 24 years later (1965, 1989); I know you hate it when this happens… ;-)
Yes, larK, yes I do.
I listened to Simon and Garfunkel a lot in high school back in the late 70s and knew that song well. But I never realized it was largely a parody of Dylan until I just listened to it now. I also recognized the quote and heard it exactly the way Simon sings it, with that long, drawn out “maaan”, but couldn’t quite place it. I’ve always known most of the references, but never Lou Adler and Roy Halee. Turns out they’re both music producers, which is pretty inside baseball.
Lou Adler produced ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’, which is how I know his name.
Also, from WikiPedia . . . Adler has produced and developed a number of iconic musical artists, including Carole King, Jan & Dean, The Mamas & the Papas and The Grass Roots. King’s Diamond-certified album Tapestry, produced by Adler, won the 1972 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and is widely considered one of the greatest rock & roll albums of all time.
Adler was an executive producer of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running theatrical film in history. He also discovered and produced comedy albums and films for Cheech & Chong.
I’ve no idea what he has to do with baseball, but I’ll take your word for it.
@Demetrios X: ” I never realized it was largely a parody of Dylan ”
Possibly the second greatest-ever parody of Dylan. All-time greatest, of course, is Neil Innes “Generic Protest Song”
(Or at least “third greatest,” if one defines second-greatest as “most songs actually BY Bob Dylan.”)
It was significantly different in the earlier version on The Paul Simon Songbook:
Wrong, wrong, wrong: The greatest Bob Dylan parody of all time is courtesy of Weird Al Yankovic.
Wow. Is it my imagination, or was the earlier version of “A Simple Desultory Philippic” seriously awful?
What I thought, too.
@Andrea: “Inside baseball” just means any sort of deep detailed information on some area that only insiders and experts would know, in this case the music industry.
@Bill: I kind of like the earlier version, though the Dylan Thomas rant is definitely not as good.
Not so much a parody of Dylan, but a send-up:
As for the humor meant to be in the cartoon itself, I took it as just in the refusal to go along with the kind of resolution of “Now that I’ve been here for a whole performance, I see what you all have been saying all along”. As Woozy observes, he’s instead being just impervious to it.
Haven’t heard that in AGES – thanks for the memories!
Andrea – I am curious – Rocky Horror PS was the longest running theatrical movie in history? Do you mean the run time of the film as I don’t remember it running that long, if not, there are certainly movies which have run in theaters over decades longer such as Gone with the Wind, as Rocky Horror PS has not run continually that I know of.
We saw it at the first showing in the US after the theater in Greenwich Village it had been running in. We had gone to see it at the midnight movie at the Mini Cinema in Uniondale as because we went there in general after work on Saturday nights and also because we had seen Barry Bostwick on Broadway the year before (in an unrelated play) and liked him. What a shock at first.
When we were buying Robert a Beta recorder/player as an engagement gift from me (so he could record MASH for me weekly while I was at night school) the deciding factor in where to buy it was a bootleg of Rocky Horror PS.
Far as I know, RHPS has been running continuously somewhere for 44 years. I saw it 13 times at the Oriental Theatre, Milwaukee, WI . . . where it stills runs every Saturday midnight. I stopped going when the audience got too vulgar; the partici . . . . PAtion just wasn’t fun anymore.
I have several of Tim Curry’s albums/CDs; he has a wonderful singing voice.
I often wonder what he thinks of himself, the difference between then and now. YouTube has a great many interview with him and the others in the cast, particularly Magenta and Columbia. I have the DVD, but it lacks something, being watched on the small screen. (Same with ‘All That Jazz’ – some movies just HAVE to be watched on a big screen.)
I was completely floored when I discovered Tim Curry in one of the more recent “Poirot” mysteries. He plays (excellently) a relatively clueless archeologist who is married to an utterly horrible woman who becomes the murder victim.
I’d love to see that. He also played in ‘Monk’, the extremely obese criminal who knew something about Monk’s wife’s murder. However, I think someone else played that character the second time.
Tim Curry was also in the movie “Clue” as the butler and I think the TV show “Psych”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The title sounds familiar, altho I remember it as ‘culchah’ . . . where’s it from??
OK – I looked it up . . .
[Lots of GEEZER ALERTS in that song . . . and I recognize every. single. one.]
It’s not over until the fat lady sings.
Andréa, I didn’t think anybody would understand “culchah.”
Besides, I’m from New York, and that’s how “culture” is pronounced anyway.
When Billy Joel wrote “We Didn’t Start the Fire” a decade or so later, he should at least have bought Paul Simon a drink.
Well, *I* woulda (unnerstood ‘culchah’).
@ O.C.1911 – I remembered Dick Motta’s use of the phrase but I never knew that he was quoting someone else.
“And the joke is…?”
the Wizard says what he thinks. How refreshing…
I guess.
“I didn’t think anybody would understand “culchah.””
If you said “culchah” I’d have understood it. If you wrote “culchah” I would not have. Well… actually I guess I probably would.
‘When Billy Joel wrote “We Didn’t Start the Fire” a decade or so later…’
Try 24 years later (1965, 1989); I know you hate it when this happens… ;-)
Yes, larK, yes I do.
I listened to Simon and Garfunkel a lot in high school back in the late 70s and knew that song well. But I never realized it was largely a parody of Dylan until I just listened to it now. I also recognized the quote and heard it exactly the way Simon sings it, with that long, drawn out “maaan”, but couldn’t quite place it. I’ve always known most of the references, but never Lou Adler and Roy Halee. Turns out they’re both music producers, which is pretty inside baseball.
Lou Adler produced ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’, which is how I know his name.
Also, from WikiPedia . . . Adler has produced and developed a number of iconic musical artists, including Carole King, Jan & Dean, The Mamas & the Papas and The Grass Roots. King’s Diamond-certified album Tapestry, produced by Adler, won the 1972 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and is widely considered one of the greatest rock & roll albums of all time.
Adler was an executive producer of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running theatrical film in history. He also discovered and produced comedy albums and films for Cheech & Chong.
I’ve no idea what he has to do with baseball, but I’ll take your word for it.
@Demetrios X: ” I never realized it was largely a parody of Dylan ”
Possibly the second greatest-ever parody of Dylan. All-time greatest, of course, is Neil Innes “Generic Protest Song”
http://www.montypython.net/scripts/protestsong.php
(Or at least “third greatest,” if one defines second-greatest as “most songs actually BY Bob Dylan.”)
It was significantly different in the earlier version on The Paul Simon Songbook:
Wrong, wrong, wrong: The greatest Bob Dylan parody of all time is courtesy of Weird Al Yankovic.
Wow. Is it my imagination, or was the earlier version of “A Simple Desultory Philippic” seriously awful?
What I thought, too.
@Andrea: “Inside baseball” just means any sort of deep detailed information on some area that only insiders and experts would know, in this case the music industry.
@Bill: I kind of like the earlier version, though the Dylan Thomas rant is definitely not as good.
Not so much a parody of Dylan, but a send-up:
As for the humor meant to be in the cartoon itself, I took it as just in the refusal to go along with the kind of resolution of “Now that I’ve been here for a whole performance, I see what you all have been saying all along”. As Woozy observes, he’s instead being just impervious to it.
Haven’t heard that in AGES – thanks for the memories!
https://youtu.be/RKZKmwQ0eZc
Andrea – I am curious – Rocky Horror PS was the longest running theatrical movie in history? Do you mean the run time of the film as I don’t remember it running that long, if not, there are certainly movies which have run in theaters over decades longer such as Gone with the Wind, as Rocky Horror PS has not run continually that I know of.
We saw it at the first showing in the US after the theater in Greenwich Village it had been running in. We had gone to see it at the midnight movie at the Mini Cinema in Uniondale as because we went there in general after work on Saturday nights and also because we had seen Barry Bostwick on Broadway the year before (in an unrelated play) and liked him. What a shock at first.
When we were buying Robert a Beta recorder/player as an engagement gift from me (so he could record MASH for me weekly while I was at night school) the deciding factor in where to buy it was a bootleg of Rocky Horror PS.
Far as I know, RHPS has been running continuously somewhere for 44 years. I saw it 13 times at the Oriental Theatre, Milwaukee, WI . . . where it stills runs every Saturday midnight. I stopped going when the audience got too vulgar; the partici . . . . PAtion just wasn’t fun anymore.
I have several of Tim Curry’s albums/CDs; he has a wonderful singing voice.
I often wonder what he thinks of himself, the difference between then and now. YouTube has a great many interview with him and the others in the cast, particularly Magenta and Columbia. I have the DVD, but it lacks something, being watched on the small screen. (Same with ‘All That Jazz’ – some movies just HAVE to be watched on a big screen.)
I was completely floored when I discovered Tim Curry in one of the more recent “Poirot” mysteries. He plays (excellently) a relatively clueless archeologist who is married to an utterly horrible woman who becomes the murder victim.
I’d love to see that. He also played in ‘Monk’, the extremely obese criminal who knew something about Monk’s wife’s murder. However, I think someone else played that character the second time.
Tim Curry was also in the movie “Clue” as the butler and I think the TV show “Psych”.