{"id":722,"date":"2019-12-27T12:52:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T12:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=722"},"modified":"2019-12-27T12:52:15","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T12:52:15","slug":"circus-songs-an-aata-playlist-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2019\/12\/27\/circus-songs-an-aata-playlist-selection\/","title":{"rendered":"CIRCUS SONGS. an aata playlist selection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Track\nlistings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wild\nBilly\u00b4s Circus Song by Bruce Springsteen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man\nOn The Flying Trapeze by Dick Powell<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circus\nGirl by Gretchen Peters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nWall Of Death by Richard Thompson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cathy\u00b4s\nClown by The Everly Brothers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nTears Of A Clown by Smokey Robinson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death\nof a Clown by Dave Davies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nelly\nThe Elephant by Mandy Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circus\nby Britney Spears<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being\nFor The Benefit Of Mr. Kite by The Beatles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those of us of a pensionable age\nprobably look back fondly on a childhood of days in the park, with street\ncricket, football and games of rounders, whit walks, brass bands, paddling in\nstreams and rambling over open countryside. \nGiven all that, I nevertheless seem to recall that my mates and I\noccasionally dreamed of running away to join the circus. I had visions, I\nsuppose, of being a hilarious but scary clown, or even worse, a one armed lion\ntamer, or a remarkable man on the flying trapeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shape of the three ringed circus in\nthe UK has changed considerably since those days and there are now revenue\nfunded arts organisations, like Rochdale\u2019s Skylight Circus, teaching skills\nthat provide a student with transferable talents and confidence to take outside\nthe \u2018tent\u2019 into the real world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skylight Circus management and staff\nsuch as Circus Jim (Riley),\u00b4 with all round skills that stretch from acrobatics\nand clowning to the wild and zany balancing on rolling barrels, are these days\nsynonymous with a town that is proud to house them. Strangely enough, we have a\nvery similar circus organisation here on the island in Haria, which houses an\nannual festival attracting small circus outfits from all over Europe, and of\ncourse, we have just enjoyed the visit from Circuba, The National Circus Of\nCuba, as reviewed in an earlier post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What with John Lennon, Mr. Kite and an\nold circus poster, the Sidetracks And Detours; Circus playlist would make a\ngreat album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a song we used to sing in the\nNorth West folk clubs about the annual fair held in nearby Rawtenstall. The\nlyrics invited us to \u2018roll up, roll up and see the tattooed lady\u2019 and other\nsimilar delights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fair seemed a collection of\ngrotesques, not unlike the travelling medicine shows, fairgrounds and carnivals\nthat once toured America. Circus, too, is often portrayed  as a travelling cast of slightly odd\ncharacters  being blasted out of guns\nlike cannonballs, or standing petrified as knives hurtle into boards\nsurrounding them, or swinging from tiny perch to tiny perch somewhere up in the\nrafters to the oohs and aahs of the audience below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Springsteen<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Such events have been immortalised in\nsong by American song writers like Joe Ely, Robbie Robertson and Bruce\nSpringsteen. In fact \u2018The Boss,\u2019 arguably ring- masters his own three ring\ncircus called the E Street Band. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Wild Billy\u2019s Circus Song, that\nrecalled his childhood love, and terror, of the travelling circus, Springsteen\nhad bassist Garry Tallant simulate the elephants\u2019 trumpet, and cleverly closed\nlive performances of the  song with the\nring-master\u2019s cry of \u2018All aboard, Nebraska\u2019s our next stop.\u2019  Indeed it was, as Springsteen released his\nNebraska album a few months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He not only gave his name to an item of\nclothing regularly seen in gyms around \nRochdale, but he also was the subject of a famous song called The Daring\nYoung Man On The Flying Trapeze. Jules Leotard was never a rope-climbing member\nof Skylight Circus, perhaps, but he did inspire the song, written in 1867, with\nlyrics by George Leybourne and music by Gaston Lyle as arranged by Alfred Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty years later the song inspired a\nshort story of the same name, which itself led to a Hollywood film, Man On The\nFlying Trapeze, starring W.C. Fields. The song was also sung, twice, by Dick\nPowell, in the nineteen thirties film Twenty Million Sweethearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song has been recorded by a diversity of artists\nover the years, such as the crooner Eddie Cantor, folk singer Burl Ives, Bing\nCrosby and Bruce Springsteen. The song has also occasionally provided musical\nsupport for cartoon films, as when it was the basis of the 1934 Popeye The Sailor<\/a> musical cartoon The Man On The Flying Trapezeand, as recently as 1994, Walt Disney\u2019s in house music\nteam re-invented the song for a Mickey Mouse dvd called Let\u2019s Go To The Circus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is an acclaimed American singer\nwriter most famous, perhaps, for her song Bus To St. Cloud Minnesota  which, with apologies to fellow poets Katie\nHaigh and Gemma Lees, has a much more poetic ring than their, admittedly\nbrilliant, 163 To Middleton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gretchen Peters has written hits for the\nlikes of Martina McBride, Etta James, Anne Murray, Shania Twain and Neil\nDiamond and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2014.\nHowever, it\u2019s as a Circus Girl that Gretchen joins our current Sidetracks And\nDetours; Circus playlist. She used the phrase as the name of a \u2018Best Of\u2019 album\ntitle track in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the lyric she became a\ncircus girl because \u2018I guess I never wanted no ordinary life.\u2019  However, she paints, in a more subdued shade\nthan the bright hues we have used, circus life as a \u2018lonely world.\u00b4 \u2018It ain\u2019t\neasy being a circus girl.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She justifies it all, though, in the\nfinal verse by saying she climbs that ladder right up to the sky, without\nlooking down and without asking why, until she seems to stand on top of the\nworld and can believe, just for a moment, \u2018I\u2019m a circus girl.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most readers will never have seen a\nmotor cyclist ride The Wall of Death and the lyrics of that song are probably\nmore  intended to recapture the notion of\nthe travelling American Carnivals of the twentieth century than any \u2018circus\u2019\nelement in England. Nevertheless, like all Richard Thompson songs, the words\nwork on several levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song is a very obvious description\nof the oval, wooden circuits that motorcycle riders would climb until they were\nin such a terrifying position that death seemed inescapable. On the other hand,\nof course, the song works as a metaphor about risk-taking being the very\nadrenalin of life, and that, in asking his love to come riding on The Wall Of\nDeath, Thompson is in fact proposing a partnership that would be a life of\nadventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe\u2019s trick uni-cyclists, like\nAmerica\u2019s riders of The Wall Of Death, were employed to draw in the crowds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thompson\u00b4s song was recorded by American\nNanci Griffith, on her album Other Voices Too, A Trip Back To Bountiful, on\nwhich she also covered Who Knows Where The Time Goes, by Sandy Denny, who\nworked alongside Thompson for a while in Fairport Convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we should never contemplate a\nplaylist about Circus without any songs that reference clowns, whether happy,\nsad, or scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time we heard the song over\nthe radio, we lads who had ever been jilted, knew that when the singer(s)\nharmonised the line \u2018I don\u2019t want your love anymore,\u2019 The Everly Brothers were\nsimply putting on a brave face. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We knew more about unrequited love even\nthan we did about who played what instruments on our favourite songs, but\nCathy\u2019s Clown included players who went on to become legendary country music\nsession men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Floyd Cramer played on piano, Floyd\nChance on bass and Buddy Harman, alone, on drums. We emphasise that he was\nalone because technological loops of wizardry in the studio made the dense\npercussion sound like two drummers were playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song spent eight weeks at number one\nin the USA, and is thought to have inspired the way The Beatles delivered\nPlease Please Me several years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than fifty years on, poet, dancer,\nactress and painter Pam Ashton recorded her own homage to Phil and Don Everly\non a recorded compilation, Eight Days In July, of original works by a\nTouchstones creative writing group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we continue with our playlist\ncelebrating circus we reach the part of the show where all the clowns are the\nring. We have seen the upside down smile on the brave face of Kathy\u2019s Clown,\nbut Smokey Robinson over there cannot force a smile at all and is, instead,\ncrying the Tears of A Clown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clowns, of course, often seem\ntragi-comic figures with their upside down smile frowns and this song captures\nin sound what clowns in the ring capture in appearance. The sad lyrics, for a\nlost love, are set against a very jaunty circus-like music riff, and give the\nsong its memorable hook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song was recorded by Smokey with his\nband The Miracles and on its 1970 release became a big hit, though from 1973 he\nalso enjoyed an illustrious solo career. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles was\nthe first band signed by Tamla Motown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another, similarly themed, song that was\na huge hit for the musicians was Tracks Of My Tears , though in this song\nSmokey acknowledged that people would be able to see the real truth behind the\nforced smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1987\nWilliam “Smokey” Robinson Jr. was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> and two years ago was\nawarded the Library of Congress<\/a> Gershwin\nPrize<\/a>\nfor his lifetime contributions to popular\nmusic<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have already seen clowns in various\nguises whilst exploring circus through song. We have met Cathy\u2019s Clown and have\nseen Smokey Robinson shedding the Tears Of A Clown, but there\u2019s another one in\nthe ring now. \u00b4His make-up is dry and it clags on his\nchin as he\u2019s drowning his sorrows in whisky and gin.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one is Dave Davies and he is part of a group who put together a sensational\nmid-sixties soundtrack to my adolescent youth. Sunny Afternoon, Autumn Almanac,\nDead End Street, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Waterloo Sunset and Wonderboy,\nwere even followed a few years later by the amazing Come Dancing, and all\ncourtesy of The Kinks. This was a band that included the songwriting talents\n(and tantrums) of brothers Ray (now Sir Ray) and Dave Davies, and Death Of A\nClown was in fact Dave\u2019s debut solo single. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world weary lyrics were said by Dave to reflect his disillusionment with\nthe demands of touring with the Kinks. It was when his single\nreached number three in the charts that Dave began to to consider a solo\ncareer. However, after subsequent singles met with less success, the idea was\nset aside until his debut album in 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Nellie the elephant?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I wonder how many readers of thereabouts\npensionable age, especially those who love a novelty song, might know who was\nMandy Miller? We offer you a few clues. The song in question was written by\nRalph Butler and Peter Hart. Butler also co-wrote Hey Little Hen and Run Rabbit\nRun but it might help you to remember that this article is one of our series on\ncircus related songs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This particular number was recorded in\n1956 with George Martin producing it, long before he met The Beatles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1982 it was recorded as a punk\nversion by Toy Dolls that became a top five hit over the Christmas of that\nyear, though its quote from Kipling about \u2018the road to Mandalay\u2019 was not as\neasily discernable as on the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lyric tells an unlikely tale, though\nin March 2012, in Cork, a forty year old female elephant named Baby behaved\nexactly as described in the song, but became confused in traffic and was soon\nfound and brought under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The singer we are discussing was born in\nEngland and christened Carmen Isobella, but became known as Mandy Miller and\nwas a child film actress performing with the likes of Alec Guinness and Kenneth\nMore, before recording Nellie The Elephant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been contemplating, whilst compiling this\nplaylist, whether I would ever have really run away to join a circus. Well, had\nI known Britney Spears might have been there I\u2019d have raced there as fast as my\nsixty seven old legs would carry me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008 Britney\u2019s sixth album was released with\nCircus as its title track and was generally well received by the critics,\nthough production values were given more acclaim than the lyrics. The title\ntrack was the third release from the album and climbed to number three in the\ncharts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the lyrics were Britney\u2019s own work as she\nsought to create a pop-influenced album as she re-united with collaborators she\nhad worked with earlier in her career. Having previously had her work ethic\ncalled into question she told the press, whilst in the recording process, that\n\u2018I\u2019m writing every day, right here at this piano in this living room.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accompanying video for the single release of\nCircus portrays\nSpears as a ring-leader of a circus accompanied by different performers, and\nfeatures scenes of Spears in different circus settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video received positive\nreviews from critics, but was criticized for featuring “cruelly trained\nanimals.\u2019 However, these claims were instantly dismissed by her management and\nCircus won a Best Video award on Fuse TV<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Skylight Circus, and their multi\ntalented performers, housed in the town the link between Rochdale and Circus\nremains at least as strong as the link between John Lennon and a poster that\ninspired a track on The Beatles\u2019 \nSergeant Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band\u00b4 album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
a cosmically beautiful circus poster<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A piece in the Manchester Evening\nNews by Jakub Qureshi on February 9th<\/sup> 2013 explained how an\nexhibition that would shortly be shown at the Museum Of Science And Industry in\nManchester would reaffirm how one of The Beatles best loved songs was inspired\nby a Rochdale event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Lennon wrote Being For The\nBenefit of Mr Kite after being inspired by a vintage poster about 19th century\nshowman Pablo Fanque. The circus master, Britain\u2019s first black big top boss,\nstaged an 1843 show in Rochdale featuring renowned acrobat William Kite, who\nwas also depicted on the advertisement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While recording the Sgt Pepper album,\nJohn Lennon stumbled across a vintage poster for the Rochdale show in an\nantique shop, which featured the legend \u2018For the Benefit of Mr Kite\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lennon later told an interviewer:\n\u00b4The whole song is from a Victorian poster, which I bought in a junk shop. It\nis so cosmically beautiful.\u00b4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Track listings Wild Billy\u00b4s Circus Song by Bruce Springsteen Man On The Flying Trapeze by Dick Powell Circus Girl by Gretchen Peters The Wall Of Death by Richard Thompson Cathy\u00b4s Clown by The Everly Brothers The Tears Of A Clown by Smokey Robinson Death of a Clown by Dave Davies Nelly The Elephant by Mandy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-circus","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}