Ringo Starr: silent movie

The original has a different format and just won't fit, but I made a couple of really handsome longer gifs of this short video. I like what he does with the flower. Watch them while you play this song:

I loved Ringo then, and I love Ringo now. From the sad-eyed mutt of the Beatles, he has become ultra-hip and cool without being obnoxious. And he still has his lovely Liverpool accent.


[Intro]
Huh-huh! Huh-huh
(Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah)
(Aye-aye-aye-aye)

[Verse 1]
A lady that I know just came from Colombia
She smiled because I did not understand
Then she held out some marijuana, ha ha!
She said it was the best in all the land

[Chorus]
And I said
"No, no, no, no, I don't smoke it no more
I'm tired of waking up on the floor
No, thank you, please, it only makes me sneeze
And then it makes it hard to find the door"

(Ah-ah-aye-aye)

[Verse 2]
A woman that I know just came from Majorca, Spain
She smiled because I did not understand (Parazzi! Parazzi!) (Olé!)
Then she held out a ten pound bag of cocaine
She said it was the finest in the land

[Chorus]
And I said
"No, no, no, no, I don't [sniff] no more
I'm tired of waking up on the floor
No, thank you, please, it only makes me sneeze
And then it makes it hard to find the door"

[Bridge]
(Aye-aye-aye-aye)
(Aye-aye-aye-aye)
(Aye-aye-aye-aye)
(Aye-aye-aye)

[Verse 3]
A man that I know just came from Nashville, Tennessee, oh (oh no!)
He smiled because I did not understand
Then he held out some moonshine whiskey, oh ho
He said it was the best in all the land (and he wasn't joking!)

[Chorus]
And I said
"No, no, no, no, I don't drink it no more
I'm tired of waking up on the floor
No, thank you, please, it only makes me sneeze
And then it makes it hard to find the door"

Well, I said
"No, no, no, no, I can't take it no more
I'm tired of waking up on the floor
No, thank you, please, it only makes me sneeze
And then it makes it hard to find the door"

[Outro]
Hey, yeah!
"I'll just have another drink, barman, have you got a large brandy?"

High School Hellcats -1958

This was a whole genre in the '50s, "bad girl" movies which showed young women in compromising situations - in other words, screwing their brains out, though it was always implied rather than shown. Usually they came to ruin, but it was fun watching them come to ruin, and also fun to sit there in judgement after being so highly entertained. Nothing more fascinating than watching someone skid out of bounds and crash, then say to yourself, "What can you expect? She had it coming." 

Though the '50s are thought of as a dull, Eisenhower-stifled time, they actually weren't. This type of low-budget, girls-going-wild movie was immensely popular, though few of them became mainstream (except the male-dominated Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild One). The Beat Generation was making itself known and heard. Elvis burst on the scene, a white man singing like a black man, and obscenely thrusting his pelvis so that Ed Sullivan had to show him only from the waist up. Civil rights suddenly became crucial, whereas in the 1940s people couldn't understand why black folks were so "uppity" and unappreciative of all they were allowed to do now that they were out of chains. Cultural metamorphosis was already unfolding, though after the '60s we looked back and saw it differently. The truth is, hippies represented a tiny fraction of the culture then, and the rest of us were paisley-coloured, bead-wearing wanna-be's.

I wonder how many prudish young women watched movies like these and then just decided to burst their chains and become High School Hellcats. Doesn't seem too likely, but maybe somebody did.