What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?

Subject: HELP! peter paul & mary song???
From:
Date: 22 Dec 99 - 01:07 AM

My mom desperately wants a song by Peter, Paul & Mary that she says was named something like "The Maginificent Toys." I've looked everywhere but I can't find it. If anyone out there knows what the name of the song is or can suggest where to find the CD if that is the right name (I've tried all the usual places online), I would be soooo appreciative. Thanks!

Subject: RE: HELP! peter paul & mary song???
From: ddw
Date: 22 Dec 99 - 01:13 AM

The Magnificent Toy was recorded by PP&M and several others, but if memory serves me it was written by Tom Paxton. I don't have time to do it right now, but you might check if there's a site of his lyrics around.

If there's nothing by the time I come in tomorrow night, I'll see if I can find them in a book at home — I'm pretty sure I have it in an old Sing Out Magazine.

cheers,

david

Subject: RE: HELP! peter paul & mary song???
From: Cow-Cow Patty
Date: 22 Dec 99 - 01:18 AM

The song is "Marvelous Toy" by Tom Paxton and has been recorded by many artists including PPM, Tom himself, and the Chad Mitchell Trio who had a hit with it in '61 or '62. Look in the DT (Digitrad Data Base) at the top of the page under "M" and you'll find the lyrics.

Subject: Marvelous Toy - Peter, Paul & Mary
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Dec 99 - 02:52 AM

Just to make things easy for you, you can Click here to get to the lyrics for "Marvelous Toy." Click here to get to the Peter, Paul & Mary Website, which has lyrics to all the songs they recorded. You'll find the song is on their "Peter, Paul & Mommy," "Around the Campfire," and "Collection" CD's.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: GUEST,M-L T.
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 09:53 PM

I have never ever really realized what the marvelous little toy is... or is it something which only appears in people's imagination?

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 10:00 PM

You mean the thing that goes....

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: Jason Xion Wang
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 10:22 PM

It's a rolypoly...

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 11:24 PM

I never knew just what it was. . . and I guess I never will.

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 11:24 PM

It's a MacGuffin.

What's a MacGuffin you ask?

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 06:53 AM

When I was just a wee little lad
Full of health and joy
My Grandad homeward came one night
And with him brough this toy
it was a marvellous thing to see
All pretty colours bright
I only started to have me doubts
when he pulled off Grandma's tights....

Cos she went oooooh! when it moved
And ahhhhh! when it stopped
And mmmmmm! when it stood still
it was a rubber penis on a Black and Decker drill!

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 07:15 AM

Thanks for my first good laugh of 2011, Al.

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 01 Jan 11 - 09:09 AM

A 'tuber has somewhat the right idea. Yes, those old "gimmicks" have acquired a romanticism of their own, now that genuine robots and video games exert their firm grip on our nurseries, and new ones are being marveled at for no longer than ten minutes.

Alan's idea, of course, is quite convincing as well; note that his grandad shows a remarkable sense of realism in his choice of present. LOL.

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: saulgoldie
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 09:04 AM

Perhaps I infer too much from Tom Paxton's innocent lyrics, but I think the "toy" is a metaphor for life, itself. IMHO. The song is always a hit with "children from 8 to 80" when I play it.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: frogprince
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 11:49 AM

Of course (just to show that I have a real gift for expounding on the obvious) the song is a celebration of the imaginativeness of little children, and their non-critical delight in every new thing they encounter. If everyone was able to form one clear image of the toy from the details given, the very essence of the song would be destroyed.

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 11:50 AM

I loved that song and I am to this day convinced that very toy was buzzing, beeping and flashing lights as it climbed the walls of the house we lived in when I was between 1 and 8 years old (1959 - 1966).

I asked my daddy about the toy every time I heard the song. He denied any knowledge of it.

I suppose the song fuelled my imagination. But the image of it climbing and crawling beside the picture window and then over the master bedroom door is so strong I felt it must be real.

Does anyone know if there was a toy that could climb walls and walk on ceilings back in the early 60s?

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: Smedley
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 11:53 AM

Does anyone know if there was a toy that could climb walls and walk on ceilings back in the early 60s?

------------------------------------------------

Depends which narcotics you favoured, I suspect.

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 12:40 PM

There was such a toy, but it depended on rubbery suction cups for its powers and thus only worked in very precise conditions, and for most people failed miserably.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 01:20 PM

To English folk, this song conjures up a Saturday night in the late 1960's when the family would gather tound the TV and watch the Val Doonican show. Val was an Irish folksinger, and he'd sit on his stool in his jumper with his guitar and and charm us all with this classic.

They were tense times.

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 01:52 PM

A song more rightly attributed to PPM was "Puff, the Magic Dragon", celebrated in many Mudcat threads (also associated with "narcotics you favoured"). That song is indeed about boyish imagination, although for a really imaginative child a piece of wood would do instead of a realistic dragon figure.

When those battery-driven gimmicks came up, our parents proclaimed the very death of childhood, and in fact I was not allowed to have any - except toy trains. The ironic point is that the same objects have later been romanticised as "Marvelous Little Toy"s.

Constructive marveling is in the eye of the beholder, child or adult.

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 02:16 PM

PS: saulgoldie, every toy is a symbol of life itself, that's what playing is good for.

But, frogprince, normal children will never be non-critical. A good toy, like a good life, will give us surprises, or rather allow us to surprise ourselves and each other. If it fails to do so, it deserves to be abandoned quickly. This was and is the sad fate of armies of robots, crying/pissing dolls, etc. Modern downloadable videogames at least have the advantage that we can discard them without polluting the environment, but disappointment still hurts, the children and the givers.

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 10:25 PM

I guess if Paxton "never knew just what it was" the rest of us will never figure it out, but a great fun song for all that!

Subject: RE: BS: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: maeve
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 01:56 AM

Perhaps this thread should migrate upstairs?

Subject: RE: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Jan 17 - 03:14 AM

My dad died last June. As his father was before him, he was an inventor - had 17 patents to his name, all owned by his company. Now, his inventions were always complicated. He designed one of the original PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) valves that put all the plumbing on automobile engines of the 1970s. He had inventions all over the house - and some of them were so complicated, they were dangerous. Now, I'm a believer in simplicity. As Dad grew older, I replaced many of his inventions with solutions that were simpler and less dangerous. I had to sneak about it at first; but then as he reached ninety, he began to ask me to fix things for him. It made me sad in ways to feel that my dad's era of invention was over, but proud in other ways that he would trust me and depend on me.

Over the years, my dad and I shared many "Marvelous Little Toys." The most marvelous, were all the things we built together on my train set, doing things Lionel and Erector and American Flyer didn't intend for use to do. Oh, and then there was the airplane we flew in the front yard and the ice skating rink we built across the street every year. My dad could do anything.

This song will always make me think of my dad, and what a magnificent man he was, all of his 96 years.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: What's that 'Marvelous Little Toy'?
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Jan 17 - 10:15 AM

Thanks for sharing your memories, Joe.