Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Nov 19 - 03:29 PM

Nice video of the lobster but watch out for the nasty ad; it doesn't give you an option for avoiding it.

I've seen blue lobsters and white lobsters but this one is new to me.

Charlie

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 19 Nov 19 - 01:00 PM

... and just when I thought I had really heard everything,

another cotton-candy lobster

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Sep 19 - 05:43 PM

Is that the lyric that goes,

'Tis the Voice of the Lobster,
I heard him declare,
You have baked me too brown,
I must sugar my Hair ...

pace Oxford Don Dodgson / Lewis Carroll

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Sep 19 - 03:46 PM

Maybe it's a rhythm and blues version of "The Lobster Quadrille."

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Sep 19 - 07:51 PM

What kind of music
would a two-tone lobster inspire, anyhow --

a duet?
an ensemble?

barbershop harmonies?

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: GUEST,Charlie Ipcar
Date: 09 Sep 19 - 08:32 PM

Two-toned lobsters are rare as hen-teeth but so far no one has been inspired to compose a song.

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Sep 19 - 02:56 PM

What about THIS lobster??

Two-Toned Lobster (with photo)

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 22 Mar 17 - 01:38 PM

I remember reading this story in the Portland Press Herald.
It is the sort of thing one cannot forget.

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Oct 12 - 04:03 PM

Well, one has to question their taste if they revived this thread.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: GUEST,999
Date: 04 Oct 12 - 02:03 PM

That last post is SPAM from

http://www.arcus.ind.br/index.php/component/k2/comments/report?commentID=159

Subject: RE: Song Challenge: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Dec 11 - 07:54 AM

I'm reviving this old thread primarily for the benefit of a new friends from Down East Maine who knows the principal characters.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 08:37 PM

Here's one to Freda! I'm sure she brought the house down.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 07:47 PM

Freda Underhill sang her Lobster Barbie Ellen song in the Black lion session this Sunday . Great stuff .

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Aug 04 - 07:32 PM

Here's a MP3 sample file link to my personal website which demonstrates how I play "Lobster Barbie:"Click here!


If you decide to record this ballad, please contact me first.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 05:30 PM

I'm sure we could get Charlie the tunafish for a cameo if not the part of the wise old sage.

The Gortons fisherman could find her in his trap and remembering his younger years set her free.

Ah the curse of the creative mind!

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 10:03 AM

Gareth-

Perhaps, you could promote the concept to the Red Lobster chain.

I was idly musing over the Lobster Barbie saga when another old ballad popped into my mind:

Off Mount Desert Isle where I was born,
There was a crustacean fancy-free,
Made every decapod cry, "Well-a-day!"
Her name was Lobster Barbie.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, who clearly has too much time on his hands

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Gareth
Date: 10 Apr 04 - 07:04 PM

On the other hand - It could have a horror ending involving a pan of boiling water !

Gareth

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Apr 04 - 06:21 PM

I'm beginning to think we should pass this one over to the Chief. I can tell that he really cares.

So, who's in charge of product placement? We do need to contact Jim and Chris and work out a plan for sharing the royalties. After all, they are real Maine people, with minds as weird as the best of us Mudcatters.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Amos
Date: 10 Apr 04 - 03:50 PM

Charley,

Chill, baby!! Changing the story around is part of the folk process!!


A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 10 Apr 04 - 03:25 PM

They are the kind and caring, although strictly heterospecial, fischermen that help her realize through granting her wish to be more woman like, that her place is in the sea with some nice young lobster.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Apr 04 - 02:36 PM

But, but, that would be changing the whole tale!

What about Jim and Chris?

Geeze, guys.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Amos
Date: 10 Apr 04 - 12:45 AM

...who turns out to be a cross-dresser...but finds herself in the end...

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 11:35 PM

Sorry,

This one belongs to Pixar as a follow up to Finding Nemo.
Good way to stay current. They could call it
"Finding Barbie"; The story of a young species challenged crustacean trying to find love and acceptance on the stormy coast of Maine!

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: MMario
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 11:11 PM

The new guys - the ones that did Shreck - would probably do a better job.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 02:31 PM

Well, we are gratified to see that the ballad of "Lobster Barbie" has appeared in print in the May issue of MAINE BOATS AND HARBORS magazine. The introduce the song as "a throne worthy of royalty, and a pr飩s for a blockbuster novel."

Shall we send a screen play version to the Disney studios? Our former U.S. Senator George Mitchell of Maine is now chairman of the board.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 04:33 PM

Guest Hugh-

You're logically right.*BG* But this is Mudcat and only time will tell when a thread will die...

However, some are still curious about the origin and the lurid details of this story. Here is the earliest printed version I've unearthed, prior to the AP version:

Mount Desert Islander (monthly newspaper), 12/18/03
By Lauren Gifford

'Barbie' lobster is making the rounds

CRANBERRY ISLES – There's something strange lurking on the bottom of the ocean. It has sharp claws, a tough exo-skeleton and wears a tiny pair of pink plastic high heels. It's a 1.25-pound mature female lobster fishermen here have named Barbie, after the popular fashion doll whose clothes she wears.

Barbie has caused quite a stir over the last two months, showing up in traps from Baker's Island to Mount Desert Rock, each time causing a flurry of chatter over the fishermen's radios.

Barbie originally was caught in late September about a mile off Baker's Island by Jim Bright of Islesford and his sternman, Chris Costello. The two had planned to dress up a jumbo lobster and place it in a friend's trap for a few laughs. Mr. Costello, however, showed up for work with a Barbie doll outfit so small it could only fit on a regulation lobster.

Once she was dressed in the blue blouse, red and white checkered skirt and high heels, the men placed the lobster in one of Mark Fernald's traps, a few miles out to sea, west of where Mr. Bright and Mr. Costello first picked her up.

Mr. Fernald found the lobster in September. He was surprised when he first saw her but knew right away it was a joke by one of his friends. He threw her back, wardrobe and all, hoping other fishermen would catch her and get a chuckle. In all, Barbie has been caught about 10 times. Mr. Fernald even caught her two months later about seven miles inside Mount Desert Rock, he said.

While hauling about five miles south of Baker's Island on Nov. 17, Ted Spurling of Cranberry Isles pulled up a trap with Barbie in it. A few days later Steve Philbrook of Islesford caught her about 10 miles south of Baker's Island. "She looked like she had been ravaged several times," said Mr. Philbrook. Her blue blouse appeared to be in rough shape, but she still was wearing her pink high-heel shoes. She had lost her skirt.

Other lobstermen have caught Barbie and tossed her back to keep the gag going. It has been reported that Bruce Fernald of Islesford, Robert Higgins of Southwest Harbor and Todd Goodell of Bar Harbor have hauled her up.

Barbie is not the first time fisherman have had fun with catching the same lobster. It is common to find a large lobster with initials and a date carved in its shell or one with a rubber band on its tail, said Mr. Spurling.

For Mr. Bright, marking lobsters has brought more than a few laughs. "I think it's interesting to see how much they trap," he said.

Like the rest of the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine, Barbie was moving fast during November, a big feeding month when the crustaceans move into deeper water in search of food. It was during that time when several fishermen caught her in succession.

Barbie has not been caught for a few weeks. Fishermen are pulling up their traps for the winter and Barbie has lost most of her outfit so it's likely she will not be recognizable.

"Last I heard," said Mr. Spurling, "the heels were gone but she still had the top."

Stay tuned! We'll see if we can get some closing remarks from Jim Bright and Chris Costello.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 04:19 PM

Small prawn size lobster (salt water) looking thing - harvested on beaches with a "Yabbie pump" which is a suction tube used to lift wet and up to expose them - these are small size and were often used as live bait for line fishing.

Also larger (fresh water) specimens harvested from dams (in Oz, a man made pond - not necessarily associated with a stream or running water) casually (especially by kids years ago) or now farmed commercially from large ponds. These were usually called "Lobbies" -
Tasty.

Robin

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 11:06 AM

Wassa yabbie then, duck?

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: freda underhill
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 11:05 AM

what about yabbies - do you have these in .. the rest of the world?

freda

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: GUEST,Hugh Jampton
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 10:16 AM

Amos and Charley,
                  You have said it all. Let the challenge stop there.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 10:03 AM

Sandra - Are you intimating that our beloved Barbie is no longer (Gasp!) virginal! I'm sure she just got it caught in a trap door and it was a matter of life or death that made our swet innocent barbie remove her dress. Why, she blushes everytime she takes a bath (in hot water with a little salt, garlic, and thyme)!

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 09:42 AM

a (gentleman) lobster? or maybe a jealous lady lobster!!

sandra

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 09:03 AM

I just wanna know who pulled her skirt off...


A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 08:06 AM

Bob-

Nay, let's continue the drift!

"He was the one who re-named crayfish as "Rock Lobsters" for export..."

Smart man to rename your native crustaceans. Reminds me of my Uncle Tessim Zorach who credited himself for reviving the Alaskan giant crab fisheries back in the 1950's by renaming the "Spider Crab" the "King Crab." There's probably a song in that too!

As an update on the Barbie Saga I received this e-mail:

"Thanks for the ballad of lobster barbie. Barb Fernald, our correspondant on Islesford knows the guys and I will forward your
remarkable ballad to her so she can get it to them. I can also run it in the paper.

Earl D. Brechlin
Editor, Mount Desert Islander"

Barb Fernald is probably related to Mark Fernald, the first lobsterman to haul in Lobster Barbie. Actually, Mark was reported to have hauled in Barbie two times, the last time a month later and by then she had lost her red-and-white gingham skirt. At any rate we're getting close to contacting the creators of this "strange tale true" who will either love this ballad or hate it.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 09:26 PM

G'day Charlie,

We almost have a musical cross-link in the matter of Aussie (rock) lobsters ... local species Palinuridae - normally called "crayfish" or "crays" down in Tasmania, which produces the best ones. (And I don't know about "Iron Chef" ... but the last time I could afford cray/lobster was when I was in Tasmania at the time the last Japanese Emperor was dying ... and the Japanese had cancelled all fancy business dinners - so Tasmania had a glut of their best crays that normally are all air-freighted off to Japan!)

Anyway, the bloke who dealt with all these fisheries matters in the '70s also wandered along to the Bush Music Club for some folk music ... he was a banjo-playing Canadian named Don Francois who had been appointed head of Fisheries Research at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research organisation). He was the one who re-named crayfish as "Rock Lobsters" for export (and revitalised the local trout hatcheries by reintroducing vigorous survivor genes from the Australian trout streams.

Incidentally, he seems to have come from somewhere close to your northern borders (indeed, a lot reckoned he was really a Yank pretending to be a Canadian, because that drew less flak!) so he might be an old banjo-plucking friend of someone out there.

Anyway ... back towards the thread!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: MMario
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 08:44 PM

On the 'Iron Chef' they claimed that the American lobster was the sweetest and most tender of the various species.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 05:39 PM

Chief-

No has reprinted our ballad yet; we'll probably have to wait a month or two. But I'm not sure which article you're trying to find since I've provided so many links.

My dear friends from Oz-

Clearly we'll have to do a lobster-bake-off, a competition held on neutral grounds, say Guam, where an unbiased person such as Naemanson samples the various steamed lobsters. We may want to start a new thread if this challenge gets serious.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, who knows there's NOTHING sweeter than a steamed Maine lobster

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 10:00 AM

Charley,

Can't find the article to which you referred.

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: freda underhill
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 09:25 AM

not only do we have lobsters, we have tropical rock lobsters and champagne lobsters..

being a vegetarian of 30 years i can't remember what they taste like. but my brother assures me they're delicious!

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 08:53 PM

Thanks, Gareth.

Maine Boats and Harbors magazine also is nibbling on this ballad:Check out their website

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Gareth
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 06:50 PM

Then theres the divorced Barby Doll - A little bit more expensive but it does come with :-

Ken's House
Ken's Car
Ken's Yacht
Ken's Dog
Ken's Bank Account
and half of Ken's Paycheck.

Gareth

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 05:25 PM

Aussie lobsters are very good....

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Amos
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 02:00 PM

Charley:

Well, you set the guideline of being true to the original tale, so I guess you're entitled to decide how far it should bend as well! :>)

A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 01:54 PM

Amos-

Freda and JennyO are from Downunder and should be excused for their lack of good taste. They are only familar with crabs and Morton Bay Bugs, not the true Lobster Barbie. I owe both of them a lobster dinner down at the Five Islands wharf in return for their warm hospitality.

Oh, and I just realized the timeline is screwed up in verse 5. Here's a quick patch:

There was an apron neat, a blue blouse sweet, a red checkered gingham skirt,
And to go with the deal some pink high heels, for a classic Barbie flirt!
They grinned at them wraps as they hauled their traps, and passed the jug impatient,
And WELL BEFORE day on the deck boards lay, a svelte female crustacean!

And I've learned that there was no "Louie"; "Mark Fernald" was the good buddy who was the first recipient of Lobster Barbie. "Mark" doesn't make it as a rhyme so I propose that he rename himself "Louie."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Amos
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 01:39 PM

This discussion is entirely too Barby-arian for my tastes! :>)


A

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: JennyO
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 11:40 AM

If you have a long line of them, would it be a barbie-queue?

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: freda underhill
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 10:50 AM

do you have barbequeues in Maine?

if so, you will have to throw another barbie on the barbie..

(groan)

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 08:39 AM

I like "traded barbs."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 08:48 PM

A judge with a sense of humor wrote his findings on a lawsuit by Mattel against a rockband and their publishers (MCA) who wrote and published a song called Barbie Girl.

The following excerpt is a classic of judicious language:

10502 MATTEL, INC. v. MCA RECORDS, INC.

"After Mattel filed suit, Mattel and MCA employees traded
barbs in the press. When an MCA spokeswoman noted that
each album included a disclaimer saying that Barbie Girl was
a "social commentary [that was] not created or approved by
the makers of the doll," a Mattel representative responded by
saying, "That's unacceptable. . . . It's akin to a bank robber
handing a note of apology to a teller during a heist. [It n]either
diminishes the severity of the crime, nor does it make it
legal." He later characterized the song as a "theft" of "another
company's property."

MCA filed a counterclaim for defamation based on the
Mattel representative's use of the words "bank robber,"
"heist," "crime" and "theft." But all of these are variants of
the invective most often hurled at accused infringers, namely
"piracy." No one hearing this accusation understands intellectual
property owners to be saying that infringers are nautical
cutthroats with eyepatches and peg legs who board galleons
to plunder cargo. In context, all these terms are nonactionable
"rhetorical hyperbole," Gilbrook v. City of Westminster, 177
F.3d 839, 863 (9th Cir. 1999).

The parties are advised to chill.

AFFIRMED."

Subject: RE: SONG CHALLENGE: Barbie Lobster Tale
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 04:31 PM

Parodies arising to either protest an article or to poke fun at something are all not covered by the copyright laws / trademark laws. They're trying to protect an image by suing. Unfortunately I've never seen a barbie doll do enough work to merit all those fancy cars, RVs, Salons, ranches, jumbo jets, etc. At least G.I. Joe has Uncle Sam footing the bill. I've told my wife that Barbie is a high priced hooker. It's the only way to explain away all the wealth she seems to have amassed. She could have gotten it from her parents but that doesn't seem to be in line with the independent image they have promoted over the years.