====== My Musical Evolution - Part 4 Overdose On Disney ======
I have to admit that I am rather enjoying this exercise in cranial archaeology. To quietly focus on the earliest memories possible and to be able to draw out such things. Well let’s say that this project could be a real journey of self-discovery. I’m resisting the temptation to consult my mother and sisters about any of this until after I’ve thoroughly attempted to document what I believe to be the truth. I did send them links to the site and openly welcome any comments that they wish to post. Now moving forward. Where did all these Disney albums come from.?
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I can only assume that my mother, driven to the brink of madness after hearing The Headless Horseman and Hawaii Five-O for the 102,639th time ran screaming to Mr. Wigg’s and loaded up on anything that might appeal to a 4-year-old and his baby sister.
Of course, I hadn’t thought of these records for decades until the day before yesterday but when I put old Disney records into the Bing image search, I recognized them immediately. The top left here, Walt Disney’s Happiest Songs is an album cover that I spent a great deal of time examining as a four-year-old. I mean it takes place on the castle wall and there are so many stories going on. The tracks included Heigh-Ho, When You Wish Upon A Star, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, Bella Notte, you Can Fly, Winnie The Pooh, Super cali fragilistic expiali docious, I Wonder, Bare Necessities and more. you can imagine this would entertain me at that age. I can remember certain thoughts that the songs would invoke, you know like eating ants. I wonder if Bella Notte was the foundation for my appreciation of Dean Martin. Right now as I try to imagine how Bella Notte [From Lady and the Tramp] goes, it keeps getting mashed up with Deano’s Inamorata. Remind me to tell you about the dream I had when Dean Martin was singing AC/DC. It comes up around 2005, I think.
The Merriest Melodies had more of the same, Whistle While You Work, Cinderella’s Work Song, Babes in Toyland Workshop Song. Wow, I just realized that The Merriest Songs are all about slave labor. Was that a subliminal message that Walt was trying to instill in the children? “Hey, works sucks but if you have a good attitude, you’ll slog through it!”
The last four are albums that were adapted from movies. By adapted I mean that they used the dialog and soundtrack from the films to create an audio version. Basically, string all the songs together with dialog from the film mixed with a touch of narration to get us through the visually heavy bits. Again, who can say why a four-year-old thinks the things he does or why certain elements of these records stood out in such a way. For example, as I look at the Mickey And The Beanstalk cover, the remnants that persevere play in my mind. The Magic Harp singing the location of the key to her would be rescuers, for example. Why is that tiny snippet significant to me? Another highlight is the sound that the giant makes as he plummets to his death. Did he die? Would Walt let that happen? I don’t know for sure. I never saw Mickey And The Beanstalk, I only heard it. He sounded dead to me.
In All About Dragons, I vaguely imagine the magical duel that ends with one of the combatants illegally turning into a dragon only to be vanquished by her opponent becoming a germ. It was the rough quality of the evil witch’s voice that make it stick. In Dumbo, I felt the sadness as Dumbo’s mother sang to him at their parting. I was also annoyed with birds. They always struck me as troublemakers. As for the 101 Dalmatians, my favorite bit was after the car crash and Cruella DeVille is ranting until one of her henchmen says “Shuuut Up!” four-year-olds think that is funny. I couldn’t wait to get to that part. With the exception of the Cruella DeVille song, the rest of the music there escapes me.
So, what does this all contribute to My Musical Evolution? Maybe nothing. I’m trying to be thorough so if any influences or connections are present, they might be exposed. Right now, I’m thinking out the Disney albums we’ve just looked at. Think about the just the music for a moment. disregard the Disney lyrics or the stories that they came from. There are a lot of different styles of music here. From the Italian themed Bella Notte to the Zoot Suit-ish Cruella DeVille to Bare Necessities which sounds like it came right out of New Orleans, the wide variety of musical styles expressed in just these select Disneyland Records is a microcosm of the Eclectic collection. Wow, is this therapeutic? I’ll leave you with this link to some of Walt Disney's Happiest songs.
Next: [[My Musical Evolution – Part 5 The First Taste Of Classical]]