beedle bomb / Feetlebaum / Whatever

Subject: beedle bomb
From:
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 07:49 PM

tooth paste squessed at the rail nails being hammred against the boards nylons in the stretch etc.

circa: 1950's

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Metchosin
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 07:57 PM

And here comes Beetle Bomb..... Spike Jones did Beetle Bomb, have it on a record somewhere but maybe someone else can come up with the lyrics in the mean time.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Amos
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 08:20 PM

It included such deathless bits as "Lettuce coming to a head, Toilet Paper wiping up the rear....annnnnnnnnd Beeeyadle Bomb...!!!" We played it on a very old 78RPM Victrola disk when I was a kid but I haven't seen it for decades....

A

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Metchosin
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 08:22 PM

Its still around Amos, I have it (blush)

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Metchosin
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 08:31 PM

Amos, do you also remember this as a cartoon on TV as a kid?

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: sophocleese
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 08:34 PM

I got a CD of Spike Jones for my kids for Christmas. They love it William Tell (Mother-in-Law nagging in the rear) as well as Cocktails for Two.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Matt_R
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 09:07 PM

This is no relation to the kickass Blur song "Beetlebum"?

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Amos
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 09:58 PM

Nope - the earliest memory I have of television was a Popeye cartoon in 1953. I always placed Spike as firmly on the pretelbinision side of the line. The old days. When analog reality was the only one anyone knew about.... except for radioland and the Make Believe Ballroom, which I always thought of as a sort of jockstrap for lesbian teenagers....

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 10:12 PM

The Ol' Man was a great Spike fan and of course my Mom couldn't stand him, mainly because Dad was always cranking out some Spike lyric. We had 78's and watched Spike on TV and much to my Mom's chagrin, we'd laugh ourselves silly. I was too young to get it all, but the zaniness was addicting.

This song was done to the "William Tell Overture" and mainly written by "Doodles" Weaver (who happens to have been Sigourney's uncle) and he also did a version about the Indy 500. Weaver played a character called Professor Feetlebaum and the lyric may actually have originally been that name....not sure. Anyway, like Weird Al, Spike would be having a load of fun today!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 11:00 PM

My dad (b. 1925, WWII vet) always used to say "Hey, beedle bomb" and I thought he was saying "beetle bum". Now I know different. Learn something everyday on Mudcat. I am old enuf I should remember this, but I don't. Oh well. Brain damage I guess.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 11:33 PM

"beedelbaum" was presented as a sort of horse race. right?...details are hazy, but I heard it a number of times

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 11:53 PM

Yeah Bill, horses, a horse race.....to the "William Tell"..........and like I said above, Doodles also wrote one for the Indy 500......that's cars, not horses.......just wanted to keep it clear 'cause I know your gray matter is getting down there. Then again, so is mine...........so now that we have that clear, whatever it was, does anyone have the lyrics to either???? I can't find a thing!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 12:08 AM

I can well recall that crazy song...very popular with me and my friends when I was 10 or 12. The thing was, this horse named "Beetle Bomb" was always the very last horse at the tail end of the pack...all through the race...he's always in last place...and then at the very end of the song the announcer screams "And the winner is....BEETLE BOMBBBBBB!!!!" Totally ridiculous and quite funny.

Wish I could find the lyrics too.

- LH

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Metchosin
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 01:16 AM

I will make an attempt to transcribe them. The cartoon of the horse race was ca 1956, because we didn't have a TV prior to then and was of the same ilk as the "dancing skeletons".

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: campfire
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 01:30 AM

I grew up hearing Spike Jones, too, and Like Spaw's mom, mine didn't like it much either. I'm sure Dad still has the album (mostly cuz he hasn't thrown anything away in at least 40 years!).

I'll be seeing Dad in the next few days, I hope. I'll transcribe the lyrics if I do.

campfire

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 01:36 AM

I can't find the source, and I suspect it is due to spelling......

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Idaho 50
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 01:40 AM

Another horse reference in the race was "Banana coming up through the bunch"

Subject: Lyr Add: BEETLE BOMB (Spike Jones)
From: Metchosin
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 02:44 AM

This looses a lot without the music and sound effects and damned hard to hear but here it is

BEETLE BOMB

Its a beautiful day for the race,
Stooge Hand is the favorite today,
Assault is in there in there,
Dog Biscuit is three to one,
Safety pin has been scratched
(ahya ow)
And at twenty to one ….. Beetle Bomb

Now the horses are approaching the starting gate and a …..
There they go!!!!

And its Stooge Hand going to the front
Cabbage is second on the rail
Beautiful Linda is third by a length
And a…Beetle Bomb

Around the first turn
Stooge Hand is still in front
Cabbage is second by a head
(Cabbage by a head!)
Beautiful Linda is third
And a ..Beetle Bomb

Into the back stretch
Dog Biscuit is now leading the pack
Lady Evelyn is second, very close
Banana is coming up through the bunch
(Banana coming up through the bunch!!)
And …Beetle Bomb

At the half
Stooge hand,
Still out in front
Apartment house is second, with plenty of room
Assault is passing Battery
(Assault and Battery!!!)
Notary Sojack? is fourth
And in last place by ten lengths
I believe it is
Yes it is …Beetle Bomb

Around the turn
Heading for home
Its Stooge Hand and Dog Biscuit and Girdle in the stretch
Flying Sylvester is third
And Mother in Law nagging in the rear
(ow ow ow)

And now they come down to the wire
And Its number one and now number two
And its very close
It will be a photo finish
Or an oil painting
And now Lewis leads with a left
And Lewis is in there sluggin'
And it's a battle
And now they are tearing hair
There's hair all over the ring
There's hair all over the place
I don't know whose hair it is
Uh uh…..its Mine!!
And there goes the winner!!!!!……………………….Beetle Bomb

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Metchosin
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 03:17 AM

hmm...invisible posts...weird....

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 03:40 AM

I've been told (I'm too young to remeber!) that there was a fad years ago for records with several grooves (like one of the Monty Python albums): you wouldn't know which groove the needle would pick up, so you wouldn't know what was going to play. They made some discs with a horse race commentary, and at some point they would diverge from each other, as it were, and a different horse would win on each one. You wouldn't know until the end, so you could put bets on the different horses. Whether they had the kind of awful jokes Doodles Weaver perpetrated, I don't know, but the record was a send-up of the idea.

Am I right in thinking that the William Tell Overture is popularly played at the beginning of race meetings in the US? We don't do that kind of thing over here!

Steve

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 06:05 AM

Steve is right about the records with multiple grooves: clubs used to use them for fund-raising "horserace evenings". There were more modern versions using film or video (not sure how the random element worked) and when we had an old Amstrad there was a computer game version.
I'm also a great Spike Jones fan.
RtS

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Bardford
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 01:12 PM

Here is a link to a Spike Jones site with MP#'s, including The William Tell Overture, which is the framework for Beetle Bomb:

Click here

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 01:16 PM

Oh the beedle um bum
Come and see me if you ain't had none
She make a dumb man speak, a lame man run
Sure miss plenty if you ain't had none!

Thread creep? Possibly not...

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Matt_R
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 01:33 PM

Beetlebum...what've you done?
She's a gun
Oh what've you done?
Beetlebum...

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Seth
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 07:31 AM

Born in 1945. Grew up with my Dad listening to Spike Jones. Guess what-my mom thought Spike was really stupid, but Dad and I knew better. I remember Beetle Bomb-I was just young enough to get it or most of it. I remember constantly asking my older brother "What does that mean?" or "Why is that funny?" I knew Spike Jones was funny from day one. Recently, my brother sent me a Henny Youngman record, which is really a horse race game as described above, but with Youngman calling all the races. THis must come from the fifties sometime.By the way, they snapped the cable for the U.S. Asian internet, so you may not hear from me regularly for a while Seth from China

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: bob schwarer
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 02:20 PM

Let's hear it for my favorite City Slicker.

RED INGLE

Finally formed his own crazy band. His direction was away from the Jones work. I think much of it was better.

Finally put out a CD of his work a couple of years ago. Band was Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. Even had Jo Stafford on a few records.

Bob S.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 02:28 PM

They? Who, they? I suspect the Navy...

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Hollowfox
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 05:18 PM

Just to confuse the issue, I looked on my cheepo Best of Spike Jones casette, and it was labeled "Feetlebaum (a Mudder's Day Sport Spectacular". Sigourney's uncle, eh? I knew there was some reason I liked her.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 06:04 PM

Reading this thread spawned an orgy of nostalgia for me, so I looked up the words to "Pal-Yat-Chee" - my personal favorite Spike Jones song, sung by Homer & Jethro - and posted them on a new thread called Spike Jones/Homer & Jethro Songs. I hope someone else can post other songs to that thread, too.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 06:11 PM

I LOVE the internet!...we have been listening to Spike Jones and remembering....

and my amazing wife ,Ferrara, just made my jaw drop by singing along with Hawaiian War chant...from memory....

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 10:57 PM

Thanks for the link, Bardford. Also thanks to Metchosin for the transcription. By the way the boxer should be Louis, as in the Brown Bomber, champ at the time.

It's funny the way each person hears the names. I always imagined it to be "Beetlebaum", maybe because I had friends named ----baum. However, since the title only lists it as the William Tell Overture, I guess it's each person for themselves in interpretation. I did download it and re-listen and re-enjoy it all over again. Spike was a genius, of sorts anyway.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 14 Feb 01 - 12:28 AM

You're welcome, guest Fred. I coiuldn't listen to it as I don't have MP3 capacity, but Beetle Bomb(baum) echoes in my mind from a lip-synch version I did for an elementary school production in the mid sixties. "There's hair all over the place! It's my hair!"
Cheers, Bardford

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Metchosin
Date: 14 Feb 01 - 01:32 AM

I am still curious regarding the cartoon.

It was black and white, had the horse race with the Beetle Bomb commentary and fairly rudimentary animation. I checked the Silly Symphonies that were listed on the Net, but its not there.

There was a site which mentioned that Spike Jones had been involved with a cartoon company called Cinamatone in the 1930's, but I could find no further information regarding the company or any animations listed for it.

This is definitely a job for supersleuth.....Sorcha.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Feb 01 - 07:26 AM

Bit before my time but I got into Spike Jones at the recommendation of an older friend. Wonderful stuff. I love Cocktails for two and Hawaiian War Chant (and now we approach the island of Lulu, spelt backwards, Ulul...). I used to borrow a compilation tape from the local library. Anyone know if a CD is readily available in the UK?

Out of interest anyone know when/why City Slickers changed to Whacky Whackateers or vice-versca?

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Micca
Date: 14 Feb 01 - 06:54 PM

Dave, the gnome, Amazon uk list 30 items , recordings and Cds

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 11:19 AM

This Song was regularly played in the 1950's 1960's 1970's and through some of the 1980's just before - or at least once on the day of - The Melbourne Cup - by almost every Radio Station in Australia, Commercial & ABC.

The First Tuesday in November. Don't know if it's still done (the song that is!). Coming up again - perhaps we could watch out for it...

I also vaguely remember the racing one - which I took to be the Indy 500.

I have one of those racing records somewhere, the races were fairly straight.

Robin

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: kendall
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 03:29 PM

My old flame, I can't even think of her name! What was her name? Larry, Curly Moe...
She would always treat me mean, so I poured a can of gasoline and struck a match to my old flame. Peter Lorre impression.
I always love Spike Jones. Anyone who could get a tune out of a sack of crowbars and a pistol is a musician.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Little Robyn
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 03:52 PM

Then there was Spike Jones murders Carmen. Equally funny!

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Nancy King
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 08:11 PM

I guess my Mom was unusual, because she thought Spike Jones was hilarious, as did the rest of the family and most of the neighborhood I grew up in.

For most of my kidhood, anyone who arrived late was greeted with a chorus of "...And here comes Beetlebomb!"


Cheers, Nancy

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: open mike
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 08:27 PM

that fool's troupe shure is dredging up some oldies but goodies!

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Homeless
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 08:37 PM

kendall - Spike didn't just "get a tune out of a..." My dad knew one of the musicians that worked in the band for a while and that fella said that he took the job because he thought it would be fun, but found it was the hardest work he'd ever done. For example, it was not uncommon for Spike to test a dozen different calibers of handgun and various powder loads in the blanks to get just the right sound for a gunshot sound effect. Other effects were just as meticulously tested and planned. And when recording, everything had to be just perfect.

But I agree, even given all that testing and planning, to get a tune from all the sound effects is amazing.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: kendall
Date: 22 Sep 03 - 10:11 PM

He was more than your average "Wangdoodle" all right.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Hrothgar
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 05:47 AM

I remember this from long, long ago (but not in a galaxy far away) and when we were kids we thought it was somebody taking the mickey out of American race callers because they werre greatly inferior to Australian race callers.

(I think they still are, but that might be because in Australia it is esteemed as both art and science, while it is not so highly regarded elsewhere).

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,HiHo_Silver
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 08:15 PM

I remember hearing portions of this back somewhere in the late 40"s or early 50's. In my area it was pronounced Beezel Bomb apparently referring to some type of motar bomb from the war era. Perhaps someone could try to research this spelling. Interested in the correct lyrics myself.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,rides again
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 08:20 PM

In New York it was Fiedlebaum.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Mudlark
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 10:07 PM

Guest, rides: In California too...must be a coastal thing.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,Bronco Benny
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 11:08 PM

Maybe it's "Bi-Coastal Disease". Very polarizing.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Homeless
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 09:52 PM

Taken from IMDB...

"Joined Spike Jones' troup in 1946, recording his horse and auto race routines ('William Tell Overture' and 'Dance of the Hours.') ... Was very dogmatic that his famous horse character was Feitlebaum (not Beetlebaum)."

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 10:04 PM

Just as a footnote: Notary Sojack was an expression used in the comic strip "Smokey Stover."

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 07:31 PM

This has been driving me nuts for several days....I'm sooooo glad I found it here!

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 11:45 PM

Rapaire, you beat me to it. I also remembered that "Notary Sojack" came from the Smokey Stover cartoon. I believe it would be written on a sign in the background of a scene. It was never referred to or explained.

The cartoonist who did Smokey Stover put enigmatic personal things in the strip. The only one I know about was a memorial to a dead ladykilling friend. The friend's suite was 1616, and the phrase "1616 nix-nix" would appear in the strip as a warning to virtuous girls.

Ah, the good old days.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 01:22 PM

In Ireland, i heard a record of it as Feedlebaum - it was a favourite in our family too, and later, when I took to cycling, then driving, bringing my own young son to school, we'd pretend to be Feedlebaum racing the cars, in between exciting games of shouted times-tables: "Six fours?" "Twenty-four!" "YEAH!"

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 11 Feb 04 - 04:58 PM

According to my physician, Dr. Demento,who still plays quite a few of Spikes recordings (Cocktails For Two and Dance Of The Hours are on his anniversary collection) it's Feetlebaum.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,greatlakesgal
Date: 04 Nov 08 - 01:47 AM

would love to have more biographical detail on Spike Jones and the lyrics of Beetle Bomb which we used to love as kids.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: kendall
Date: 04 Nov 08 - 02:42 AM

I have an LP of some of his stuff. Been a fan for many years.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 04 Nov 08 - 11:40 AM

I have a remastered CD of Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones' "greatest hits?" I remember listening to him on the radio as a youngster, during the 1940's and, perhaps, early 1950's. He had started his musical career as a fairly straight drummer during the 1930's. Starting with pots and pans and various other percussion oddities, he eventually took over what became known as his "City Slickers." The first big hit was "Der Fuhrer's Face," recorded just prior to a two-year recording blackout caused by a musicians union strike in the early 1940's. What most people may not realize is just how good he and his musicians had to be to pull off some of the craziness they were noted for. He was definitely the "Weird Al" of his day. They harpooned everything from classical favorites to Vaughn Monroe's "Ghost Riders in the Sky," where they actually nailed him, by name, in the last verse.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Nov 08 - 12:11 PM

I didn't realize that chanted race commentary was ever done outside Down Under (I remember it from New Zealand). It's a pretty remarkable skill. Maybe we ought to encourage it in folk clubs so that the poets can get it over with quicker?

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: open mike
Date: 04 Nov 08 - 12:40 PM

for those of you who do not "get" the Wierd Al reference:

http://www.weirdal.com/

Wierd Al Yankovic , son of "the Polka King" Frankie Yankovic,1915-1998
http://www.polkas.com/yankovic/index.html

but i see his brother had some trouble lat month:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/10/robert_yankovic_son_of_polka_l.html

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,Marilyn from Kentucky
Date: 08 Sep 13 - 07:26 PM

The first time I heard Spike Jones was at a babysitter's house when I was nine and home from school with the chickenpox. It was "Hawaiian War Chant" and "Cloe." Then they came to town, and I had to be there! Rode the bus home from boarding school, my mom drug me across the winter streets, and we laughed our heads off for several hours. If you like parodies on classical music, check out a Barbershop quartet called the Gas House Gang. They do Bethoven's Fifth, William Tell, and that famous "night music" Mozard thing I can't spell. They're hillarious. Some lyrics, I'm sure, by David Wright, if you're in to barbershop, you know who I'm talking about.

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Leadfingers
Date: 08 Sep 13 - 08:01 PM

CD on Amazon

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Sep 13 - 10:07 PM

On YouTube...what isn't these days?Feitlebaum!!

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Sep 13 - 10:21 PM

...and in Smokey Stover it was "1506, nix, nix" and notary sojack was often spelled ytranon cajaos...(not a precise respelling,,,but I'm 'almost' sure it was like that)

"Notice - scramgravy ain't wavy!"

Subject: RE: beedle bomb
From: GUEST,wally malloy
Date: 28 Jan 17 - 06:19 PM

By the way, it's not Beetlebomb...Too many Homer Simpsons in the world.

Is's "Feitelbaum", from the Milt Gross cartoons/stories of the 1920s/1930s, especially "Nize Baby".

Subject: RE: beedle bomb / Feetlebaum / Whatever
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jan 17 - 07:31 PM

I think I understood it as "beetle bomb" or "feetlebomb" when I was a kid. I don't believe I ever heard the Spike Jones performance of William Tell Overture when I was a kid, but other kids would yell out "the winner feetlebom" at the end of races, and that's how I learned the term. I don't think I heard the recording until we discussed it in another thread at Mudcat (linked above).

Many lyrics sites list the winner as feitlebaum.

Wikipedia says the "humorous horse race calls (were)performed by Doodles Weaver in the style of the famous announcer Clem McCarthy." Wikipedia says further:

Perennially trailing the field with distant 20-to-1 odds is the horse Feetlebaum (one of Weaver's radio-show characters was Professor Feetlebaum). The horse's name is always spoken in a deep, two-note "foghorn" cadence. During the race, Feetlebaum keeps falling farther and farther behind the field.
As the race nears its finish, the announcer goes on a tangent, impersonating broadcaster Clem McCarthy, who had called the famous Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race in 1938 and also the famous Joe Louis-Max Schmeling boxing rematch of the same year. In this case, Weaver's now gravelly-voiced track announcer begins describing a boxing match.
The song concludes with Weaver announcing the winner... Feetlebaum!

I think we can say with certainty that there is no agreement on the spelling of the name of the horse that won this imaginary race. For the first half-century of my life, I had no idea the name came from a Spike Jones recording. I thought it came from some kids I knew in second grade in Detroit.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: beedle bomb / Feetlebaum / Whatever
From: Thompson
Date: 29 Jan 17 - 03:54 AM

And on YouTube, Feetlebaum under the title "1948 HITS ARCHIVE: William Tell Overture - Spike Jones (Feetlebaum!) (with Doodles Weaver)"

Subject: RE: beedle bomb / Feetlebaum / Whatever
From: GUEST,Evie
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 04:25 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be7O9g2sphw

A priceless treasure: The Spike Jones Orchestra on the All Star Show performing Tchaikovsky Medley. Complex and wonderful!