They Don't Make... well, *anything*... Like This Anymore;

A certain amount of stupidity can be a wonderful thing, as our parents' generation knew well.

A recent post on the always reliable WFMU blog featured a bunch of strange and joyful bubblegum pop videos, and, in this sad era when all varieties of popular culture seem intractably tangled in the wretched business of trying to be 'clever' and failing, it is my duty, in the name of public well-being, so pass a few of them on.

So if, as the winter drags on, you find your life sinking into a morass of darkness, headaches, hassles, entropy, poverty and procrastination, just take a few moments to enjoy some of the wonderful, wonderful mindless awesomeness below, and, seriously.... you'll find yourself feeling a whole lot better. "Bubblegum therapy", you might call it.

First here's The Gentrys, performing "Spread It On Thick" in the 1967 movie "It's A Bikini World". I refuse to be held responsible for the amount of time this song will spend stuck in your head:



Ah, "you the man?", "I'm the man!", etc, etc. Great stuff. I could happily watch that for a solid hour.

Now, most social historians will tell you that 1970 was a pretty grim year in the UK for any number of reasons, not least the fact that the big hit of the summer was Mungo Jerry, with their (his? their? - oh who cares) eternally hateful ode to drunk driving and taking advantage of girls with poor daddies, "In The Summertime". Not so in Australia, where the discerning public gave Mungo the heave-ho, and instead propelled The Mixtures, with their infinitely superior "Pushbike Song", to number 1 for six weeks. Get pedaling, brothers:

Labels: bubblegum, pop, stupidity, The Gentrys, The Mixtures, videos