Lyr Req: Larry the Polar Bear

Subject: Larry the Polar Bear
From: Lucius
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 09:40 AM

A charming song as I recall. It's all about an escapee from a zoo, VIA documentary film.

Anyone know the tune/word/author?

Thanks a'bunchum

Lucius

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Larry the Polar Bear
From: Wolfgang
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 09:52 AM

click here, Lucius, for lyrics and perhaps author.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Larry the Polar Bear
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 12:13 PM

Very strange one.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Larry the Polar Bear
From: Lucius
Date: 22 Sep 00 - 07:58 PM

Fred Small--Thanks Wolfgang. I've forgotten how the text doesn't scan without Fred Smalls' great delivery. I'm off to see if his album(s?) available.It's a great site that you've directed me to. Eydie Gorme, Guns & Roses on the same site???

Lucius

Subject: Lyr Add: LARRY THE POLAR BEAR (Fred Small)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Aug 02 - 12:00 PM

Copied from http://www.jg.org/folk/artists/fredsmall/heart.of.the.appaloosa.lyrics.html

LARRY THE POLAR BEAR
(Fred Small)

In nineteen thirty-two at a zoo in Los Angeles,
A polar bear named Larry performed for the crowd.
They'd cheer aloud.
He'd go slipping and sliding, jumping and diving.
The people would laugh. They took his photograph.
Larry was born at the zoo.
He never knew, as he grew older,
Anything colder
Than Los Angeles,
Which is warmer than Alaska,
Where Larry's parents were born.

CHORUS: Larry the polar bear,
He'd never harm a hair on a child's head.
He'd do tricks for them
At the Los Angeles zoo,
As he'd been taught to by his keeper Fran.

Fran would teach him new tricks:
A funny pose,
Scratching his nose.
He knew there'd be a fish at the end.
Fran was his friend.

One day she said, "Larry, you'll be in the movies,
With real movie stars and a few simple tricks,
And lots of fish,
To be filmed on location in Alaska."

And so they rehearsed for Larry's big scene:
He's supposed to be mean
And growl at a woman who was rescued by a man who scared him away.
It was stupid,
But fun to do.
The director would frown,
And jump up and down,
Kind of like the chimps at the zoo.

CHORUS

At last came the day of the trip.
They put Larry in a crate,
Twelve foot by eight,
And he sailed aboard a steamship.
The journey was long
And boring.
Fran would visit.
She'd talk to him
And bring him his favorite fish.
Then the noise and the rumbling stopped,
And they lowered him down,
Set the crate on the frozen ground,
And opened it

Fran said, "Larry, we're here.
It's time for your tricks."
And Larry appeared.

He looked out at the gray Bering Sea.
He squinted and puzzled,
Put his nose to the wind,
And the scent of the seal made him tremble.
He smelled the fox in its lair,
And the weasel and hare,
Felt lichen and snow 'neath his paws,
And he looked at the tundra and ice,
Looked at the loon in the sky and he ran.

Slowly at first,
Kind of lumbering.
He ran,
Gathering speed,
Gathering memories from within,
Old and dim,
Growing stronger,
To run and to swim,
To dive and to float,
The cold at his throat,
But warm inside,
'Neath the fur and hide,
Ocean and ice all around him.
He ran.
He ran.
He ran.
And he swam away.

[As sung by Fred Small on "Heart of the Appaloosa," Rounder CD 4014, 1991.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Larry the Polar Bear
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Aug 02 - 04:46 PM

"Fred Smalls' great delivery"??? I beg to differ. I saw him perform this song in Philadelphia a couple of years ago, and he repeated the phrases at the end of the song for several minutes – "he ran and he ran and he dove and he swam and he swam and he ran and he ran and he ran and he ran and he dove and he swam and he dove and he swam and he swam and he ran and he ran and he ran and he ran"... you get the idea. It was all I could do to keep from standing up and shouting, "Okay!! We get it!!! He got away!!!! Now PLEASE sing something else!!!!!!!!!"

I think that Fred was mesmerized by the sign-language interpreter standing next to him and making the motions of running and diving and swimming while he sang. I wonder if the interpreter was as ready as I was to do anything to make him stop.... probably she was more ready, being close enough to smack him if only she'd dared!