Webslinging, Cufflinking, Archie Detergent Guy

July 6, 2017 12:20 AM

With "Spider-Man: Homecoming" opening in 3400 theaters this week, we're being inundated by everything 'arachnid-guy', including the cartoon series from 50 years ago and its ubiquitous theme song (re-purposed by Homer Simpson, Squirrel Girl and others). But five years after, there was an arguably superior musical Spider-production, Buddha Records' 'Rockomic': "Spider-Man: From Beyond The Grave".

A part-audio-play-part-rock-opera, this record featured an all-iconic character cast, including Doctor Strange, the Kingpin, the Vulture, the Lizard, the Green Goblin, Aunt May AND the ghost of Uncle Ben, plus, in the role of Spidey/Peter Parker, a very young Rene "Odo" Auberjonois.

But most notable is the music, performed by "The Webspinners", just another alias for ubiquitous '60s-'70s singer/producer Ron Dante, whose other pseudonymous pop performances included "The Cuff Links" with one 10 top hit "Tracy", the Saturday Morning Cartoon band "The Archies" of "Sugar, Sugar" fame, and the total novelty band "The Detergents" perpetrators of the Doctor Demento classic "Leader of the Laundromat".

Ron Dante settled in as record producer for Barry Manilow's first nine albums and other artists including Cher, and is still actively performing today, currently on tour up and down the West Coast. Amazing.

posted by oneswellfoop (35 comments total)

What's the appeal? Peter Parker doesn't even have a butler.
posted by thelonius at 2:31 AM on July 6, 2017 [4 favorites]

sony really fucking hates uncle ben.
posted by logicpunk at 2:59 AM on July 6, 2017 [6 favorites]

Uncle Ben is a Buddhist parable
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:37 AM on July 6, 2017 [7 favorites]

Well, just imagine if Peter Parker had to respond to the death of Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco Treat.

As for other themes for Spider-Man, if I tried to cover all of them over the years, this would be a megapost, but it must be said that I remember that just about every segment theme on The Electric Company turns into a background funk vamp. And nothing's wrong with that.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:58 AM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I used to own this record, when I was ten. I also really really really like saying Rene Auberjonois out loud.
posted by valkane at 4:33 AM on July 6, 2017

You forgot the most important cover.

Spiderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... may-un
posted by middleclasstool at 5:03 AM on July 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

You missed Spiderman Too: 2 Many Spidermen (The Musical).
posted by Lokheed at 6:25 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

You mean Rene "Clayton Endicott III" Auberjonois.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:26 AM on July 6, 2017 [6 favorites]

I'll just add that Spiderman had his own theme on The Electric Company...

That one is oddly the first one my brain turns to when it thinks "Spidey Theme Song".

Me, too, hippybear! That was my first exposure to Spider-Man, so imagine my surprise when I started seeing incarnations of Spidey who weren't totally mute.

Spider-Man,
Where are you comin' from,
Spider-Man?
Nobody knows who you aaare!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:58 AM on July 6, 2017

Poor old Miles.
posted by Artw at 7:10 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'll just add that Spiderman had his own theme on The Electric Company

This is the Spiderman we deserve.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:11 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ron Dante was recently on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast.
posted by whuppy at 7:28 AM on July 6, 2017

written by Gary William Friedman. This is apparently the extended dance version.

I hadn't heard a version of that theme with the male voice. Clicked on another Youtube link which had the same singer. Freaked me out briefly, as I wondered briefly if the Spiderman theme I remembered existed only in the universe of the Berenstein Bears.

Imagine my relief...

Used to obsess over the "Nobody knows who you aarrrre!" line. At age 4, I wondered if humanity would ever solve this greatest mystery of all time.
posted by honestcoyote at 8:00 AM on July 6, 2017

Poor old Miles.

If the general trend continues of how far superhero movies lag behind superhero comics in terms of the kinds of stories they're willing to branch out into, we should have a Miles Morales movie by 2037 at the latest. So take heart!
posted by middleclasstool at 8:02 AM on July 6, 2017

(and yes, I know about the animated one)
posted by middleclasstool at 8:03 AM on July 6, 2017

This seems like a perfect opportunity to share my favorite spiderman related clip on the internet.

I'm not sure what I like about it the most, the bdsm costuming, the bumblebee man, or Letterman's truly wtf reaction at the end.
posted by R.F.Simpson at 8:05 AM on July 6, 2017

It's shocking that that play wasn't more well received.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:09 AM on July 6, 2017

How many Spiderman movies does this make now? 127? You'd think they'd have hit on the right formula by now. From what I've seen in previews, this one ain't it either.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:26 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

they will continue to re-launch spider-man movies until they cast an actress for aunt may who is younger than the actor they cast for peter parker
posted by murphy slaw at 8:33 AM on July 6, 2017 [5 favorites]

You know who played Spidey on The Electric Company? That's right, muppeteer Daniel Seagren. Here he is (left) with Jim Henson holding Ernie. And here he is being interviewed in 2015 at the Myrtle Beach ComiCon.
posted by chavenet at 8:38 AM on July 6, 2017 [4 favorites]

they will continue to re-launch spider-man movies until they cast an actress for aunt may who is younger than the actor they cast for peter parker

Does it really make sense for a 15-year-old's aunt to be 80 years old, though?

I mean yes Hollywood wanted a hot woman in the movie for Tony Stark to hit on, which is weird and gross, but then again, Marisa Tomei is 52.
posted by Automocar at 8:44 AM on July 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I always assumed Aunt May was actually Peter's great-aunt. I'm sure that's been disproven by lots of comics continuity, but at least it makes sense.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:02 AM on July 6, 2017 [5 favorites]

Since I got beaten to the Electric Company Theme (in the very first comment! this is my kind of thread), my musical contributions shall be (1) the other 1970s Spider-Man rock opera, Rock Reflections of a Superhero and (2) Michael Giacchino's Homecoming Suite, which features a lovely little orchestral riff on the '67 opening.

Also, I went to see Turn Off the Dark with a friend on a lark and it managed to be transcendentally terrible and the most fun I've had in a theater at the same time.

Without being able to ask Lee or Ditko, I'm guessing Aunt May was meant to be in her 60s or thereabouts, which was a lot more elderly in 1962 than it is today. (For a live action version of this, compare William Hartnell as the Doctor in 1963 vs Peter Capaldi as the Doctor in 2013/4 -- the actors are the same age, but you'd never know it from the way the roles are written and performed.) It's one of those weird cultural holdovers that crop up in serial comics, except instead of being an explicit timeline issue that needs to be retconned, like the Punisher starting out as a Vietnam War vet, it just gets quietly ignored. Although I think it is established at this point that there was a big age gap between Ben and Peter's dad, enough that Ben and May are basically his grandparents.

My thoughts re: another tiny Peter movie and the lack of tiny Miles movie have not changed since December so I'll just link to that comment instead of repeating myself.
posted by bettafish at 9:36 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think Aunt May is PP's aunt rather than great-aunt. Wouldn't she have been the sibling of one of his parents? Her aged appearance in the original comics was part of the "oh no, Aunt May is so frail I daren't tell her my secret!" melodrama that Stan Lee loved to inject.

A 52-year-old May is about right, per Automocar. And, really, any chance to feature Marisa Tomei must be counted a Good Thing.
posted by the sobsister at 9:38 AM on July 6, 2017

ubiquitous theme song

what's the opposite of a desert island disc? I guess, the muzak track they play in hell, stuck on infinite repeat. That's rather how I feel about the f***ing ubiquitous Spider Man song, and it's been that way since about age eight, in 1968, when it was brand new. What. An. Awful. Song. And no doubt, it informs my skepticism toward the whole damned franchise -- Spiderman, the whining adolescent that never grows up. I prefer punk rock. At least it allows me to thrash around ...
posted by philip-random at 9:52 AM on July 6, 2017

ubiquitous '60s-'70s singer/producer Ron Dante

Indeed so ubiquitous that when "Sugar, Sugar" was #1, "Tracy" was climbing the charts. Dante sang lead on both, uncredited. The dude was competing with himself.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:02 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

As of yet, both Hollywood and Broadway remain uninterested in my original idea for a spider who is bitten by another, different spider and gains all the powers of a spider.

Spider-Spider, Spider-Spider,
She's a very efficient hider.
Spins a web, very small --
Cannot catch crooks at all.
Hey, there! There goes the Spider-Spider.

Is she strong? Get it straight --
She can lift twenty times her weight!
Can she swing from a web?
Feel her land on your head.
Hey, there! There goes the Spider-Spider.
posted by kyrademon at 10:24 AM on July 6, 2017 [12 favorites]

Don't you mean Rene "Father 'He was drafted' Mulcahy" Auberjonois?
posted by jonp72 at 10:34 AM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

My favorite cover is from Moxy Früvous.

They made some spectacular music, I might actually put together a post about them someday...
posted by ZakDaddy at 10:35 AM on July 6, 2017

For me, he will always be Rene "arrogant, naive, doomed American businessman John Quincy Harrington," from the 1991 BBC adaptation of Somerset Maugham's Ashenden stories.

They're kind of obscure. You probably haven't heard of them.
posted by Naberius at 11:05 AM on July 6, 2017

They made some spectacular music, I might actually put together a post about them someday...

Fair warning that one of their members was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and is a known dirtbag. Their music is fun but the post may not go how you'd prefer.
posted by middleclasstool at 12:41 PM on July 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

Don't you all mean Rene "Le poisson, le poisson, how I love le poisson" Auberjonois?
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:01 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

One more thing for "Spider-History"... a 12-minute video of chronological "Spider-Man Movie & TV Evolution".
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:39 PM on July 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

in summary, Rene Auberjonois is a land of contrasts
posted by murphy slaw at 8:19 AM on July 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm carefully not looking until I can see the film in a couple of days, but here's the fanfare post for Homecoming.
posted by bettafish at 11:12 PM on July 8, 2017