Friday, September 04, 2009

THE WEEKEND JUKEBOX: "IF I HAD A HAMMER" as interpreted by DEBBIE REYNOLDS


A tip of the bouffant to Larry Aydlette for slipping this video into my jewel-encrusted purse and hoping against hope its message of working toward freedom and justice and civil rights doesn’t get outsparkled by the design and utter commitment of performance featured in this dazzling production number. When we speak of the incongruous clashing of imagery, we speak of Bunuel and Dali, yes, or of Eisenstein's theory of montage, and maybe one day soon we will also speak of Debbie Reynolds, Pete Seeger, and “If I Had a Hammer”… For sheer decimation of text and subtext, this one may go long unmatched.



Good night, everybody!

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10 comments:

Tucker said...

Thank you.

Greg said...

My favorite version, thanks to Golden Throats (remember those compilations), will always be Leonard Nimoy but I cannot deny that he at least understood what the song was trying to say and made some reasonable attempt to say it. Debbie apparently thinks it's a number from High Society.

blaaagh said...

Oh my God, that is so fucked up. Hahaha!

le0pard13 said...

This is wrong on soooo many levels. It's a gem, Dennis. Thanks.

Ali Arikan said...

Brilliant.

The Kid In The Front Row said...

Not heard this version before! Very cool. I love your blog by the way!

Classic Maiden said...

So great really!

Peter Nellhaus said...

Could this be what inspired Andrew Bergman to have Bert Parks sing "Maggie's Farm" in The Freshman?

Marilyn said...

I'm ... speechless ... all over this land. Will someone hammer that out of my head? Please!?

Devon Rosene said...

Hey Dennis, could you point me to where you got the screen shot of Shoshanna (Inglourious Basterds) laughing? Thanks much!