136. Advertisement Calypso (Original)

I wrote this song in the 1960s so it is very much out of date. The products referred to were all well-known at the time, and some may still be advertising. I'm not sure, as I don't watch much commercial television these days. In case they and their slogans have faded into the distant past, I have provided notes below the lyrics.

Lyrics:

When I was young many years ago
A camel* was, I'll have you know,
A noble beast who walked the sands
Of deserts hot in far-off lands,
But now a camel is, I learn,
Something you stick in your mouth and burn.

When I was young and just a boy
To see the dawn* was all my joy,
To see the sunrise in the morn,
That was what they called the dawn.
But now the dawn is not so sunny.
It's a roll of paper you've got in your dunny.

When I was young I thought that love*
Was sent to us from up above.
They told me love was a wondrous mystery.
Now, my friends, that's ancient history.
How can I fall in love, now that
It's just some sort of muck that I feed my cat?

Oh, life is now what it was yesterday.
All the romance has fade-fade-faded away.*
Everything is lost, say the advertisements,
'Cause I ain't got no Colgate ring of confidence.*
I was watching a singer* on the TV screen.
It turned out to be a sewing machine.

Well I sat all night and watched the TV screen.
I saw Mister Ed* and I saw Mister Sheen*.
Suddenly my mind went "Snap! Crackle! Pop!"*
When I saw twenty-nine advertisements non-stop.
I grabbed an axe, and, out of my wits,
I smashed the TV into a thousand bits.

Camel: A brand of cigarettes. Obviously before cigarette advertising was banned from our TV screens.

Dawn: A popular brand of toilet tissue.

Luv: A brand of pet food.

Colgate: An advertisement of the time asked whether romance was "fade-fade-fading away" due to bad breath. The solution was the "Colgate ring of confidence".

Singer: A sewing machine.

Mr Ed: A talking horse, and not even advertising anything!

Mr Sheen: A brand of polish, represented by a little bald-headed cartoon character.

Rice Bubbles: They made the sound "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" when milk is poured on them - or so we were told.

You can hear a playlist of my original songs (in alphabetical order) here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B9F8E3B7A8822951

For lyrics and chords of my songs please see my website: http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• advertising
• commercials
• television
• media
• cigarettes
• toilet
• paper
• pet
• food
• humour

[gombakhillbillies]

Very nice.

[raymondcrooke]

@gombakhillbillies Thank you.

[SirCoughsalot]

Very funny.

[raymondcrooke]

@SirCoughsalot Thanks for watching. It's one of the first songs I wrote.

[misterstewball]

Hello

Raymond...

As a Musicologist,I find this type of topical song to be the perfect material for adaptation by way of the folk song process. A mere modification in the product names with more contemporary ones would most certainly embellish this song which,in my opinion,remains most relevant even today.

Pax,

Max

[raymondcrooke]

@misterstewball It could certainly be easily updated, but I'm not sufficiently up-to-date with the commercials of recent times to do it myself. Maybe someone more familiar with modern television advertising could do something with it.

[raymondcrooke]

@truckingsonofagun Thanks for the smiles.

[truckingsonofagun]

nice one((smiles))