| re: Query about Shipoopi | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 07:38 pm EST 02/12/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Query about Shipoopi - keikekaze 06:55 pm EST 02/12/22 | |
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| ...and most people even in 1957 knew damned well that it was "toxic" (although nobody in 1957 would have used that word in that sense). They knew it was "wrong"--but the character who sings it doesn't know it, and that's the comic point. He is merely stating what he thinks--correctly or not--"the Rules" were in Iowa in 1912. And one of the many things I particularly like about that comic lyric is the rhyming juxtaposition of the very blunt "hussy" with the suddenly prissy and indirect "anything but fussy." Frankly, I think even you are way overanalyzing the song. The way I've always heard the song, it's exactly that - just a diegetic song - that we have to surmise has probably been around for a good while before July 4, 1912. Marcellus is merely the one leading it, he's not making it up, or "stating what he thinks" about "1912 Iowa rules." Much like we're supposed to understand that "Lida Rose" and "It's You" and "Sincere" are old songs that everyone in 1912 would have known, and that all of a sudden the School Board can't resist harmonizing on. (Willson was quite smart to juxtapose those made-up songs he wrote with real ones like the Minuet In G and Rustles of Spring and Columbia, The Gem Of The Ocean to give it all a real-life context.) Also - in that same regard, "Shipoopi" is and always was a bawdy song. It was meant to be that in the context of 1912 let alone in 1957 or 2022. For the youngsters who are mostly the ones dancing, it's a chance to challenge their elders -- just as in the myriad of current (and hysterically funny) Youtube videos that show teens playing "WAP" for their parents. And for the older characters singing the song, it s an equal chance to let it all out and be a little naughty too. If it worked that way in Willson's sorta-fictionalized 1912 River City, it should still have a similar level of shock value in 2022. And that's why changing the lyrics was just a stupid thing to do. |
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| Previous: | re: Query about Shipoopi - Chatty2007 11:06 pm EST 02/12/22 |
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