I love novelty songs. The first single I ever bought was Loudon Wainwright III’s Dead Skunk. The second was The Cover of the Rolling Stone by Dr Hook, back when he was still with The Medicine Show. On Sunday nights my friend Steve and I used to listen to the radio. Dr Demento was on and I would wait for him to play It’s A Gas, with the jazz riffs and belching produced by Mad Magazine. Music was indeed enjoyable.
A few years ago, Dead Skunk passed its humour to my next generation. Moses was about nine at the time and old enough to be indoctrinated into the amusement of the lyrics of my first record. It was spring, and, we were in Toronto. Driving back from some friends’ house he screwed up his face in disgust at an ambient stench. “Dad,” he asked, “what’s that smell?”
“That,” I announced to teach him about a very North American experience, “is dead skunk.”
And the musical became real.
Annually in Britain there is much speculation and anticipation for the Christmas Number One song. This is not something I have been used to as Toronto radio was more concerned with compiling a year-end chart for the following week. This year, however, I really do appreciate that Ladbaby took the X-Mas No. 1 from acts such as Ariana Grande. And Ladbaby did it with approximately half a million downloads.
Now, a little bit of backstory: Ladbaby is a vlogger from Nottingham. He is not a professional musician. His single is a pastiche of an old Starship tune. The video for We Built This City on Sausage Rolls features Ladbaby, his family, friend/production team having a good time with the performance. The song itself is not perfect, but as far as I am concerned it is worthy of its chart accolade for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it is a charity single with all of the proceeds being donated to food banks. This feeds into the British public’s propensity for doing good.
Secondly, in this time of Brexit, the lyrics concentrate on something quintessentially British. Whatever happens politically, one can take comfort in comfort food.
Thirdly, it is hard not to enjoy a song where the performers are aware of its silliness yet are still having a good time.
Finally, Ladbaby is an antidote to corporate popular music where sound canvases are similar and artists are primped and preened to look alike. It is a protest against the musical establishment and the public voted with their mouse clicks.
Still, I have not been able to convince my younger son Gabriel of the merits of Ladbaby. He finds the song annoying. Perhaps I need to remind Gabe, who enjoys watching cooking shows on television, that he now prefers watching Jamie Oliver to Mary Berry. Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Feast is one of his staples. Jamie makes cooking fun and part of each show is dedicated to the two doing some social food good. These are the same reasons I love novelty songs and enjoyed Ladbaby.
Happy 2019. In the words of Kinky Friedman, “May the best of the past be the worst of the future.”