The Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine / Rice Is Nice

[jocksmen]

GREAT COMMENTS BY SINGER

HE REALLY KNOWS HOW TO

TAKE THE PISS HA HA.

[tlatosmd]

Rice is nice, but it makes me shite at night...

[demonhoopa]

Mr French!!!!!

[Mr7o4]

Lemme just say something...rice is NOT nice. Good god, what an awful song. Rice in my ear??? I think Green Tambourine was it for 'em. Not even the go-go dancer can save that one.

[RetroJoe66]

@Mr7o4 I was not expecting the lead singer to sing the female part of the song! WOW! That's weird. You have to listen to the original recording. I wonder how they did this song live...if at all!



[ToniHunterOne]

This is about the only performance wear they aren't lipsyncing their music. Maybe Mike didn't want them too.

[ncast54]

Ann Miiller's hair never moves, cement hair spray I guess

[yandrsupreme]

@ncast54 That's AQUA-NET baby!! LOL

[ncast54]

@yandrsupreme OH thats right, the hair spray can with fishnet stocking look. Hmmmm ,it gave hair body and volume without being too stiff or sticky. Remember to hold the can 10 to 12 inches from the hair before spraying,lol

[fidfel1062]

Always loved this song since i was a kid

i just noticed the lead singer looks like meathead

from all in the family lol.

[wonderlin1]

@fidfel1062 yes you're right - this is true PSYCEDELIC POP - was a very big hit

[mongo700]

Now it makes sense about oxford.

[bzzzzap]

Mike Douglas is part of an extinct breed. A square with class.

[ragnarb100]

I used to see these fellows play around Cincinnati in my youth. Neat to see these videos.

[GTVAlfaMan]

That Bill Bartlett with the green glasses, the lead singer of Ram Jam,,,famous for Black Betty.

[apsscinc]

@GTVAlfaMan Seriously??

[Littlehuahua53]

I want to go back in time!!!!!!

[McNarsty]

The Lemon Pipers thus begat Ram Jam which thus begat Pearl Jam and...well, there you have it.

[McNarsty]

Obviously, the Beatles blatantly ripped off these guys and never gave them a bit of credit.

[apsscinc]

@McNarsty Oh please...

[JochenRindtFan]

Nice, the guest in studio is "Mr. French" of "Family Affair" (Lieber Onkel Bill in Austria and Germany)

[TopJimmyWinn]

Sounds like hes really singing and the band is not playing. Kinda like karaoke before it existed. :)

[softshoes]

Rivers rising, he's got his floods on

[apsscinc]

@softshoes I thought I was the only one that noticed that! LOL!!

[BBINGHAM032352]

I think I will now become violently ill...I will go look for some Hendrix videos to play.

[DrArnonPalty]

Mr French!!!

[Crumphorn]

And this is why the war against the hippies must never cease!

[BBINGHAM032352]

Also don't forget about "Zig Zag" by The Ohio Express (backward masked freaky music). It was the flipside of Yummy Yummy Yummy.Shades of Pink Floyd I must say.

[BBINGHAM032352]

Music for the insane and fruitloop city.How about ''Sky Pilot'' by Eric Burdon & The Animals.Even ''Icthycoo Park'' by The Small Faces was better than the bubble gum music of the time.By the end of the year 1968 I had bought the Beatles white album and I was into Led Zeppelin,Creedence Clearwater Revival,Steppenwolf and Three Dog Night.

[halbie71]

@BBINGHAM032352 don't forget the all time classic "Yummy Yummy"

[BBINGHAM032352]

Green Tambourine was a great tune but Rice Is Nice sucks.and so did their other hit Jelly Jungle.Most of the bubblegum music of the 1968 ''era'' was atrociously awful.A few exceptions were ''Try It'' by The Ohio Express(which was a Standalls cover version) and ''Quick Joey Small' by Kasenetz-Katz Flying Orchestral Circus.Thank god we had bands like Cream and the Doors to break the monotony.Personally my favorite tunes of 1968 were All Along The Watchtower by Hendrix and Revolution by The Beatles

[abelseeman]

How nice to see a live performance unspoiled by inane audience clapping and partyicipation. I can never understand why people pay to see live bands when it is drowned out by idiotic audience participation... you would pay to see a play with random members of the audience saying lines with or without the actors or go to see great painting which have been touched up by random people... moan moan moan etc

[scotfreak]

he is tripping balls here, as always

[Brittneyx897]

what exactly does he mean rice in my hair? i bet its obvious what it is but explain lol. i really dont like how they interupt him...and hes such a nice boy and he seems hurt by it :(

[DIRTYBOY33460]

LOL at wizardglik. too funny you are right he jumped the fence to my side of the yard (gay side)

[WizardGlik]

I like how during "Rice Is Nice" the singer became a homosex.

[hollies65]

@WizardGlik LOL!

[fairfax1960]

@WizardGlik - I was all set to be pissed @ your comment .... then the song started and......... oh hell.. LOL never mind. (and yes, I'm gay)

[xoxhannahxbananaxox]

the guy on keyboard is my grandpa:)

[WizardGlik]

@xoxhannahxbananaxox The guy on the keyboards is Jerry Todd from SCTV.

[xoxhannahxbananaxox]

@WizardGlik uhm no its not its robert nave my GRANDPA. thank you very much check you information

[xoxhannahxbananaxox]

@WizardGlik and if you listen at like 3:13 the guy says what about you NAVE.

[ochladdy]

@xoxhannahxbananaxox Tell him he rules!

[lucidlupin]

Love this song! Inspired one of my parodies - Xerox Machine :)

amiright.com/parody/60s/thelem­onpipers4.shtml

[obnebur]

5.56 to 6:17  arms and feet from guitarist on the right LOL !! great !!

[Rolco64]

Well, at least the vocals are live.

[samson19541]

Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot= Mr French

[TCall2004]

Didn't like the second song...and what was that BS with Ann Miller?

[TCall2004]

Remember the week Douglas had John and Yoko on?

[MrJimmyboy1972]

was going out with a lovely soft girl at this time. beautifull. she was perfect. she made me soup.

[EvilPrince69]

MR FRENCH!!!!!!!!!

[cco10399]

gr8 song from the 60s. Many thx to the ppl @ youtube for having the technology for us to enjoy :).

[inkey2]

I like those bell bottoms that are 8 inches too short

[Gunstar1701]

Sounds flat without the echo.

[sexymama1966]

@Gunstar1701 it sure did..i loved the echo..that's what made it a hit.

[royko22]

Nice nostalgic video. I hope they didn't put off college too long, because I think this was their only hit.

[BudStrong]

If I'm not mistaken, that's actor Sebastian Cabot smelling his fingers in the intro.

[srosenbach]

ssawyan - you're right! On the record, the lead vocals are double-tracked.

[powermousey]

cool! =0)

mellow melting mesh of the rainbow colors. And Rice is Nice when its cooked fluffy rather than hard or sticky. ;)

[meltedmoonlight]

Nerves I think...

[treetoptop]

That is a hell of a wild vibrato on the singer's voice. Did he always sound like that or what he nervous for this live singing on tv do you think?

[BigStar303]

He always sounded like that, and I don't think he was nervous at all. The Lemon Pipers were a real band, and the bubblegum thing was foisted upon them by their producers. It was GOOD bubblegum, don't get me wrong. But check out "Through With You" from their first album for some genuine psych. As this and other clips show, they had a hard time taking it all seriously.

[Khultan]

Does he not know how to dance?!?

[phunkyphreddy]

The Mike Douglas Show!

[christoJihad2]

@phunkyphreddy There were lots of bands that played their hits on Mike Douglas. A friend of mine was in the band "The Electric Prunes" and they played "I Had Too Much To Dream" and "Get Me To The World On Time." There was a gimmick on that show too, when my friend, Preston Ritter, tried to teach "Agent 99", Barbara Feldon a drum part. That kind of campy crap was all over the tube in the mid 60's when it came to rock and roll bands. That and almost constant lip syncing.

[TheWhofan62]

@christoJihad2 Yeah, I remember seeing Boyce and Hart on "Bewitched". It kinda disturbed down the continuity of the episode, but I was glad to see Boyce and Hart anyway.

[TCall2004]

@TheWhofan62 - one of them committed suicide a few years ago. Shame.

[myturbodog1]

I lived in Oxford for 3 months in the spring of 1987. Our apartment was called"The Fallout Shelter."

[XxP1mP3rxX]

i love weed is all i have to say

[weenielongus]

I thought this clip was totally fun!! Ann Miller was in early middle-age at the time, and I'm sure she was being as camp as the "Batman' TV show was (and she DID have the legs for the mini-skirt), and the Lemon Pipers were cool with their bubble-gum psychedelica!! I only wish they had lip-synched both records instead of doing the live vocals, the records had good production for sunny bubble-gum pop that was kinda ruined by the live vocals.

[binkle1]

Haven't heard "Rice is Nice" since it was out! What a treat. Thanks so much! :)

[tomkes100]

green tamborine ah great song great era look at mike douglas & sebastion cabot . classic tv and great song . tomkes i know my music

[ZeppelinFromtheLake]

Green Tambourine FTW

Fuck the GoGo Girl! :-(

[frankiegfunk]

it's good that they can make a great song with a tambourine.

[phyllis1753]

I was in High School when this came out. At that time we dismissed it as "bubble gum", and from what I've read, so did the band who were more inclined to a more hard rock style. Wikipedia can tell you more about it. Anyway, this video has all the Sixties cliches I remember and it's worth a couple of hoots at least! Thanks for posting it!

[GalaxyRover1020]

Bill Bartlett from The Lemon Pipers later surfaced in one hit wonder 70's band "Ram Jam" too.

Remember their cover of the Leadbelly tune "Black Betty"

[HippyShake9]

Batman! Batman! Batman! Batman! Batman! Batman! That was the song the girl danced to! lol I love the Lemon Pipers!

[Atomsmasher777]

I always liked "My Green Tambourine", great hit.

Anne Miller...lol...this is irreplaceable. I hope Ed Wood was watching the Mike Douglas show that day.

[goldenseal75]

This song shows what a good producer can do for a record!

[drnrg31]

The guys don't look too pleased with that gogo girl dancing to batman's theme. Rice Is Nice is not a bad song, the way he sings the chorus kinda throws me off a but. Green Tambourine is all kinds of Awesome.

[theblobber]

Good to have a drummer play violin. That's HILARIOUS!!!

[hmnwilson]

"Rice Is Nice". OMG YUCK! How did they play it without retching?!

[cliffistheman]

what was up with that ? they have the go go girl go up AFTER they were done with their song. AND they cut them off short before their ending! wow - that was very rude!

[Tamrons]

"Rice is Nice" is the best written song EVER !

The Beatles (or any band in history) could only dream of having this song.

-Yummy

[HumGuitar]

The "Rice is Nice" song, well, I kinda expected John Belushi to come up and bash the singer over the head with an acoustic guitar during the chorus.

The weird go-go dancer interruption was almost as funny.

[HumGuitar]

He should have brought a vibra-slap on stage instead of the tamborine. That would have been really cool.

[DoubleDutchBust]

The Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine

Pat Tomasulo: The Pat-Down on Cabbies

Rice Is NiceSP

OgWGN

ANOKE

Merv'sNerves

GriffinAnDreas

ANaturalRollSgB/c

[blabblab1212]

In my opinion, Ann is a two bit hack actress who made movies primarily in the 40's. Here she is trying to upstage the band. They gave her a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a gift. Probably for her "fine tap dancing", certainly wasn't her acting, which was mediocre at best. She looked like an asshole!!!!!!!!

[corr03]

Actually met the Lemon Pipers. They didn't even include this song in thier sets....it was a manufactured song and a way to get famous and make some doudh. They were a hard rock & roll band,

[liuzhou]

Rice is Nice sounds like a cover of a Tiny Tim song.

[smtpgirl]

Sebastian Cabot, Wow, Mr. French

[ncast54]

Lol, Anne Miller looked great, it sounda like the theme of Batman she is doing her go go dance

[bolivianex]

Good old flowery manufactured late 60's pop band.

[gunnerglory]

I disagree, The Lemon pipers had true musical talent and wanted to go their own direction, their record label forces songs like Green Tambourine onto them, they hated singing it, not their style at all.

[liuzhou]

But they took the money anyway.

Rice is Nice is awful!

[psakref]

singer has a great outfit, but I like Boy George. nice voice, then again I always liked Tiny Tim. I`m not being sarcastic, notice I didn`t say a word about the...high waters

[Forestamtul]

Im from London and like this song and I was only a few yrs old when this was a hit.

About five or six to be precise.

[pazzensutra]

Did he sing "rice in my ear?" Cool to hear these guys talk a little bit after wondering who these guys were for......30 years (jeez!!) They seem like really down to earth good guys. Still in school too. wow.

[pazzensutra]

Wow, a guy playing drums AND violin!! How does he DO that?!?!?!? That was cheesy. Thankyou for posting though! Jelly Jungle was one of the albums I wore out as a kid (and learned to play drums to.)

[akovia]

awesome band love the psychedelia

[SconeMason]

I wonder if Bill Bartlett used that awesome Les Paul Goldtop to record Black Betty?

[zippy830]

That was fun. Thanks for the clip. Anne could still move then.

[robbatkinson666]

Must have been bad enough playing a song they secretly hated but having that skanky old hag come out and interrupt their act must have been a double indignity. Hope Douglas and the dancing grannie got hemmoroids that night!

[jpsmart59]

What year this song came out? It sounds like late 60's. The hippie era was closing down and soon the Monkees broke up and Beatles went solo. So it was the end of the era. That is Michael Douglas who had a talk show throughout the seventies.

[joraider08]

October 1967

[PeterCRissKISSgod]

you nothing about the 60's do you?

[jpsmart59]

What are you talking about? I was a kid back then and I watched the Monkees on TV. The Beatles broke up in 1970 but even before that, they were not getting along. I know the groups such as the Turtles, Peter and Gordon, the Zombies, The Supremes, that was the Motown Era. Herman's Hermit, The Lovin' Spoonful. Elvis made his comeback in 1968.

I even knew when "Green Tambourine" came out. I was playing dumb. I know the disco era and beyond. I am music...lol

[PeterCRissKISSgod]

you pointed out the most obvious and known facts that anyone knows about.

making it look like you know nothing...

[jpsmart59]

You probaly don't even know half of those groups or their songs. Did you know the Lemon Pipers didn't even like "Green Tambourine" but recorded it anyway. Let's see what you know? The British Invasion began in 1964 with The Beatles doing The Ed Sullivan Show. The Stones and Herman's Hermits came along.

[Forestamtul]

I liked the Monkees but didnt see it until the 70s and Im from London. I was about 10 when i first watched it and it was so funny and watched it years later and stll found it funny.l

[jpsmart59]

I watched them during my childhood in the 60s

and I also remember some of those sixties songs. I remember "Magic Carpet Ride", "So Happy Together", and the Monkee's songs.

The seventies I remember better and the songs that came out then up to the disco era and beyond.

[Ellipser]

The dancing cougar was probably thrown in as a joke by the shows producers. As for what exactly the psychedelic sunshine bands were suppose to represent at the time, is anybody's guess. PEACE or DOPE? The hippi went on to become the worlds largest materialistic consumer, buying everything it didn't need.Styles have been commercialized since the creation of radio. (I find the 80's fag tranny hair bands best compare to the acid head San Fran bubble head hippi of yester-year) A spiritual fraud .

[deadinapark]

Jesus christ, your comment is dripping with aggravating belligerant presumption and bullshit.

Lets see, what does a psychedelic sunshine band represent? Whimsy, happiness, happy-go-lucky pop music. I think you're being way too judgmental. Peace or dope? Why can't you have both? No, I don't think the hippie went on to become the worlds largest consumer. However some hippies converted to yuppie and then proceeded to become the worlds largest consumers.

[robbatkinson666]

Jeez, you liberals are as bad as fundamental Christians with your self righteousness and condemnation of others. If someone buys more than they need what business is that of yours? These "consumers" whom you condemn are also "producers" or else the couldn't buy anything. The problems we're having today are with those who want more than they can afford. People too lasy to work and save and make goals. They just whip out the old Visa and swipe till they're in debt for the rest of their lives.

[THYRDEYE]

psychedelic sunshine pop rules.... IF you are into this type of music you must check out my ultimate collection of overlooked pop gems.Not corporate spam but a personal devotion to spreading this great sound around the world. The growing site is called SONGHEADS and you'll find links to a sublime universe of musical magic!...SONGHEADS

[elmatadorwangmachino]

That's rich when the music stops and the gogo girl runs up and starts dancing to...the batman theme? What the fuck? lol

[fancymanbluess]

check for the song "danger" it`s really great.

[torchkit]

Actually this was written BEFORE the Who's Tommy. By about a year.

[soldmeout]

Correct. Johnny Thunder from VGPS by the Kinks also has a very similar guitar riff. Green Tambourine came out the end of 1967, the Kinks' VGPS came out in November of 1968, and the Who's Tommy came out in May of 1969. Green Tambourine was released first.

[porkinwitz]

a big jump from this to ram jam.

[carolinapdx]

he is really singing.

theres no echo at the end of "Now listen While I Play..."

I Wish I Had A Tambourine..

[mkinstlinger]

Doesn't it sound like the lead singer is actually singing ?

[siasti]

Better playing bubblegum pop than fighting the Cong in Nam...

[shrn666]

haaa!!! i still have these records. this is an early ep of the mike douglas show, which i recall running home from school to catch. what's interesting about the lip synch is that the dude is singing along with it...sorta like what i did at home!

how about sebastian cabot? looks rather spry, i'd say!

[wonderfulhuman161]

Hi-throw some my way- tee-hee tee hee

[bendobrin]

can't seem to post a comment on green tambourine...go watch it. you can't buy this stuff in a syore.

[torchkit]

Please explain how this is in any way a ripoff the The Who's "Tommy."

[ckcelite]

the "rice is nice" part sounded like Tiny Tim

[patubo]

They're doing it LIVE, sounds great.

[jeffkahl]

not quite. the vocal is live but the drummer can't actually be playing the kit and also play the violin at the same time.

[7upIsLove]

yeah, not real sitar either, definitely the sound is the same electric "sitar" from the record. still excellent job on the vocals! i don't even miss the echo on the "play play play" part...shame this band got derided as "bubblegum"

[bot51993]

guys its an old recording so you can't really say much. because this is when audio recording stuff and video recording stuff. and besides the only thing he's playing while he plays the violin is the kick drum which you play with your feet

[NewOldVinyl]

This is amazing video. The guy is actually singing! Thanks for posting it.

[GuitarZzann]

of course he's singing are you retarded?

[NewOldVinyl]

He's actually singing it live, as opposed to "lip syncing" to a prerecorded vocal track, which was the usual way back then.

I may or may not be retarded, not going to disclose that info. ;)

[GuitarZzann]

only modern chumps do that, or someone edits the studio track into a concert video so it makes you think its lip synced.

[hihats]

the great bill bartlett on sitar,ladies and gentlemen

[cruptbside]

it's interesting to hear them sing this live. actually, the guy didn't have a bad voice.

[ZakusDog]

I have the gold record for green tambourine. =)

[NightGallery]

No way! That is so cool, Where'd you get it?

[bot51993]

i'll pay you $250 for it

[marksecunda]

I was always impressed with the high notes of "give me pennies, I'll play anything"... yet this version has a key change and takes it to an impossible-to-sing range. Very nice.

[kennyplay]

Go-Go dancing to the Theme of the original "BATMAN" theme...

[uselessjoe]

Is the fat guy at the beginning Paverotti, the opera guy?

[DoobieKing420]

Looks liek Ahmet Ertegun !

[talkrite]

It is Sebastian Cabot. He was on a TV show then as a butler. I forget the name of the show.

[uselessjoe]

YEAH..ITS MR FRENCH.."FAMILY AFFAIR' WITH JODY AND BUFFY..way to go

[talkrite]

yes..you have a great memory!! thanks for jogging mine.

[2DD]

oh, he was the voice of the panther in disney's jungle book too.

[nobodynose]

Could someone please tell me what a Lemon Piper is/was? It sounds filthy.

[JakeANowhereMan]

Pretty Badass

[CrucieFiction]

Groovy! Psychedelic! Those were the days.

[Dogsledfan]

These guys were acutally a pretty good psychedelic-oriented band. They just needed a better label than Buddah. Buddah didn't allow them to really do what they wanted to do. This happend a lot, unfortunately.

[reluctantpopstar]

Dang! This is nice and I love the video effects the director had whipped up. Psychedelic. Very cutting edge for its day.

Won't somebody put out a DVD of these Mike Douglas Show performances, like they did with the Dick Cavett stuff? I've seen a bunch of other Mike Douglas clips and they were quite lovable.

I grew up watching the Mike Douglas Show in the 1970's, every afternoon after school, I was an infant when this clip was recorded though.

[1970groupie]

Great video. Had Rice Is Nice 45 and this is first hearing in 35 yrs. One of my fav's

But can't remember the B side. Anyone help ?

[PrinssiFO]

The B-side of "Rice is nice" was "Blueberry Blue".

[1970groupie]

Yes, thanks for that!

[krazeykriss]

I can date this to the week of January 20, 1968, two weeks before "Green Tambourine" hit #1. The singing is live, but they used a backing track.

[WizardGlik]

Ann Miller was such a M.I.L.F. in 1968!

[SEAOFGREEN]

Yes---It was genius! ULTRA-MELODIC (A supremely lacking trait in post-1974 and certainly post-1985 music!) This is wonderful...Colorful arrangements which sparkle and chime like the best otrherworldly and ultra-dimensional adventures! Up there with the 1966-68 Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd/Kinks/Strawberry Alarm Clock/Jefferson Airplane/Left Banke/Monkees/Love/Merry-Go-Ro­und/Mamas & Papas/Yardbirds/Partridge Family/Cream/Sagittarius/etc. TURNED-ON WOWNESS!!!

[DMMeltzer]

This is the most surreal example of the cultural shift that was taking place in America in 1968. Old-school/mainstream Mike Douglas and Sebastian "Family Affair" Cabot meet pyschedlic wannabees (but really bubble gem) Lemon Pipers. And thrown in for good measure is Ann Miller, who had her heyday in the 1940s and 1950s. By 1968 she was old-old school.

[ElvisFanaticIsMe]

Let psycedelic live burn all that emo goth punk rap s**t

[PAULLONDEN]

What did the 1910 Fruitgum Company sell to us :

Electric Prunes

Lemon Pipers

Moby Grapes

Strawberry Alarmclocks

Any other fruits out there ?

[arclamp]

Re: Green Tambourine... Maybe the group should have lip-synced all their TV performances. The singing on this version is so off the mark, it almost sounds like bad karaoke. A so-so performance of an otherwise great song.

[neutrascrub]

Wrong

[hattree]

it's because the recording is multitracked and doublevoiced.

[SEAOFGREEN]

Ivan was 100% right-on vocally, but (maybe he was high? LOL) he chose to jump to the "3rd" harmony, rather than the lead melody line. I personally like it. It does sound weird though!

[Entropy56]

And we gave up Benny Goodman for this? Progress? Just do a YouTube search and tell me Goodman does not really swing.

[skipplet]

Stoned in the morning, Stoned in the evening, Stoned before supper time.

[tubemeokay]

stoned all day long!!! At least they come from a great city like Cincinnati!!

[bitterchew]

On "rice is nice" he morphed into Tiny Tim