This is such an odd little song. First time I heard it, I hearkened back to my youth when I used to climb the trees every morning and wake the neighbors doing my Tarzan yell! I was a weird little kid back then. This is also the opening theme to Robin Williams' singular film, "Club Paradise" which I really liked, the critics notwithstanding.
I've always been fascinated by Tarzan. He's a hero figure and kind of a lonely guy living there among the apes. It's hard not to become one of the apes if you ever grow up to have any power over others, especially when the apes used to push you around when you were little. The great temptation is, as another song I posted earlier put it, to be "sittin' around in some junglescape, dumb as an ape doin' nothing." I admit it. The whole jungle thing appeals to me.
So here are The Kinks with a live version of their classic, "Ape Man".
The first time I heard this song was in a Danny Kaye movie musical, "On the Riviera", but I think the definitive version is in the little known and highly under-appreciated Gene Wilder/Gilda Radner movie, "Haunted Honeymoon". It's a little dance number called "Ballin' the Jack". I don't know what that means, but Gilda Radner and Dom Deluise (in drag) demonstrate it if you want to see how it's done. Deluise was hilarious in this clip and Gilda kept up with him every step of the way.
If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It's hilarious. Sheila and I watch it every Halloween.
It's one of our favorites and it's become a holiday tradition. We also
watch John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man every Saint
Patrick's Day, Christopher Reeve and Roseanna Arquette in The Aviator
every Thanksgiving and Albert Finney's fantastic musical version of
Scrooge at Christmas. There are other holiday movies for other holidays that we watch, but I digress.
I heard this song and realized it was my baseball theme song. I was the nerdy skinny kid with glasses who always got picked last. Like the guy in the song, I made it my practice to ask to play right field. That way it was my choice to go out there and pick dandelions. I even had one of those "ball dropped right in my glove" moments once. It was my personal equivalent of Willy Mays' famous over-the-shoulder catch*
Here's Peter, Paul & Mary with "Right Field".
It's an eerily accurate depiction of the plight of guys like me in elementary school. I love Paul Stookey's sense of humor. He's a really lovely guy.
Tom
*NOTE: For those of you who missed it, here's the Willy Mayes catch. I actually saw this happen one day when I was accidentally watching a baseball game. Always wanted to do that. Nearly got a concussion trying to make that catch - twice. Fortunately I have a thick skull.
Willy Mays' over-the-shoulder catch - the man could play center field.
