While researching my guest article this month at Mad Genius Club, I was reminded of Coleridge's poem 'Kubla Khan' with its reference to Xanadu (now known as Shangdu). That, in turn, brought to mind one of the more memorable pop tunes of my youth. In 1968 the British group incongruously titled 'Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich' came out with their song 'The Legend of Xanadu'. It reached the top of the charts in England and did well in other parts of the English-speaking world, but was less successful on this side of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, it was one of the influences on my musical tastes when I was growing up - whether or not that was a good thing isn't for me to say. Certainly it's the only pop song I know featuring the 'music' of a bullwhip!
Ahhh . . . memories of a more innocent time . . .
Peter
1 comment:
DDDBM&T had surprisingly little success in the States, despite being signed to a major label (Imperial); neither "The Legend of Xanadu" nor an expurgated version of "Bend It" did anything more than Bubble Under the Hot 100, while "Zabadak" did manage to chart, albeit at a lowly #52. I honestly don't know why.
There exists an unrelated instrumental from 1958 called "Bullwhip Rock," by The Cyclones, which opens with four cracks of the whip before turning into a fairly standard boogie-woogie piano number.
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