trivia: Bo Diddley beat is frequently compared to "shave and a haircut"
ZapRat
newsgroup and thereby bringing it to my attention.
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Shave and a Haircut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shave_and_a_Haircut
Sheet music for Shave and a Haircut.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Shavenotes.png
Shave and a Haircut, and the associated response, "two bits", is a
simple (7 or 8 note) musical couplet sometimes used at the end of a
musical performance (or, much less often, at the beginning). The
seven-note variant could be considered the world's shortest complete
song, having an introduction (one note), a question (two notes), a
response (two more notes), and a conclusion (the final two notes).
The first known occurrence of the tune is from an 1899 Charles Hale
song, "At a Darktown Cakewalk." Other songs from the same period also
used the tune. In 1939, Dan Shapiro, Lestor Lee and Milton Berle
released "Shave and a Haircut—Shampoo" which featured the tune in the
closing bars, and is thought to be the origin of the lyrics. Over time
the phrase has permutated through several variations. (For example, the
A-flat is often replaced by an A-natural.)
The tune is associated with a profane insult in Mexico. Whistling the
tune or using a car horn to play it is considered highly
offensive.[citation needed] The insult is "Chinga tu madre, cabrón"
(where cabrón represents the final two notes, and can be used as a
response), which can be translated as "Go fuck your mother, you bastard."
References
The tune has been used as a "wrap-up" countless times on numbers
performed through the years - to the point where that knowledge could be
assumed, such as the Far Side cartoon, in which a conductor tells the
orchestra: "All right, I don't know who's doing it, but in the concert
we will NOT be concluding the symphony with Shave and a Haircut!"
The tune is strongly associated with the stringed instruments of
bluegrass music, particularly the 5-string banjo. Earl Scruggs often
ended a song with this phrase or a variation of it.
A few notable examples include:
* There are either 7 or 8 notes, depending on whether the 3rd note,
the F-sharp, is used. When it is used, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th notes
become a triplet, as in the West Side Story example below. Also included
are the notes based on the sheet music shown above:
7 6 6 -6B 6 | R -7 567 R
C G G Ab G | R B C R
"Shave and a hair-cut, two bits"
7 6 -5# 6 -6B 6 | R -7 567 R
C G F# G Ab G | R B C R
"Gee, Off-i-cer Krup-ke, Krup you!" (from West Side Story)
* "Shave and a Haircut" featured in many early cartoons, played on
things varying from car horns to window shutters banging in the wind.
Decades later, the couplet became a plot device in the film Who Framed
Roger Rabbit, the idea being that Toons cannot resist obeying cartoon
conventions. Judge Doom uses this to lure Roger Rabbit out of hiding at
the Terminal Bar by circling the room and tapping out the five beats on
the walls.
* On the Smothers Brothers album Curb your tongue, knave! the first
track on the A side is Church Bells in which the brothers reminisce
about the bells of three different churches rang at night in their
hometown. The song ends with the bells ringing in succession the
familiar "shave and a haircut, two bits."
* Nardwuar the Human Serviette ends each interview with a spoken
tune of "doot doola doot doo..." to which the interviewee must respond
with the final "doot doo!" before Nardwuar will let them go.
* In an episode of M*A*S*H, Radar was talking to Hawkeye as he was
finishing up his shave. Hawkeye sang the phrase: "Figaro, Figaro,
Figarooooooooo . . . Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits." Radar, who didn't
realize Hawkeye just added that ending to be funny, said: "Oh! So that's
where that comes from!"
* In the film What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Gilbert sings the tune
to his mentally handicapped brother to calm him down, using the words,
"Match in the gas tank" (to which his brother replies, "Boom boom").
* An early recording used the 7-note tune at both the beginning and
the ending of a humorous 1915 song, by Billy Murray and the American
Quartet, called "On the 5:15".
* Dave Brubeck's "Unsquare Dance" not only incorporates the phrase
into the song's unorthodox 7/8 time signature, but includes a little
musical twist by inserting it twice in rapid succession, taking
advantage of the fact that it begins and ends on the same note.
* The shortest record is by Les Paul and Mary Ford, from the 1950s,
with "Shave and a haircut" on one side of the record, while "Two Bits"
is on the other side of the record.
* Although the Bo Diddley beat is frequently compared to "shave and
a haircut", in fact the Bo Diddley beat is based on the superficially
similar clave beat characteristic of Latin American music.
--
As of the day this message is being posted there are, lacking an
unexpected alternate outcome, 231 days remaining in the imperial
presidency of George W. Bush
ZapRat
Newsgroups: alt.fan.frank-zappa
Subject: Re: "freaked me out"; was - Re: If Bo Diddley be Bo Diddlin'
wit FZ up in hebbin'...
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 13:36:46 -0700 (PDT)
I did a blog posting on Bo Diddley today that you're all invited to
read. (While I would never say I knew the guy, I met him at least
seven times and had some fun conversations with him.) My blog is at
http://ttuerff.blogspot.com
KingDaevid
> * Although the Bo Diddley beat is frequently compared to "shave and
> a haircut", in fact the Bo Diddley beat is based on the superficially
> similar clave beat characteristic of Latin American music.
...as I recall, at the time of "Bo Diddley" hitting the R&B and
jukebox charts, Johnny Otis loudly dismissed the rhythm s a cheap
novelty, and then a couple of years later employed it in "Willie & The
Hand Jive," which turned out to be Otis' biggest commercial hit
ever...
kdm
http://kingdaevid.podbean.com/
http://amp.az/home/User/KingDaevid
http://1480kphx.com
peace 'n oranges...
Bob Feigel
<mac...@q.com> magnanimously proffered:
>On Jun 2, 1:01 pm, ZapRat <zapratRATZAP...@newsguy.com> passes along:
>
>> * Although the Bo Diddley beat is frequently compared to "shave and
>> a haircut", in fact the Bo Diddley beat is based on the superficially
>> similar clave beat characteristic of Latin American music.
>
>...as I recall, at the time of "Bo Diddley" hitting the R&B and
>jukebox charts, Johnny Otis loudly dismissed the rhythm s a cheap
>novelty, and then a couple of years later employed it in "Willie & The
>Hand Jive," which turned out to be Otis' biggest commercial hit
>ever...
And still one of my favourite r&b songs ... I wonder if any of the
footage from the original 50's Johnny Otis tv show still survives. The
music was superb. All I've been able to find on youtube is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEeeGMpM_Nk
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
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