Open the Door, Get on the Floor ...
June 11, 2010 8:09 PM   Subscribe

Boom. Boom. Acka-lacka-lacka-goom. Boom. boom. Acka-lacka-BOOM-boom.
posted by WCityMike (39 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- loup



 
No way... I was just randomly singing "Walk the Dinosaur" to my daughter THIS MORNING. I have absolutely no idea why this song came to mind when I woke up.

Get out of my head, WCityMike.
posted by educatedslacker at 8:16 PM on June 11, 2010


I don't know nothing 'bout no dinosaurs, but here's where my baby gets his Boom Shaka lacka lacka BOOM BOOM

I'm assuming this what Walk the Dinosaur references
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:29 PM on June 11, 2010


In case ya didn't know, Don Was is a pretty fascinating cat.
posted by mikoroshi at 8:33 PM on June 11, 2010


Me three, I was just looking this up two days ago. *eerie whistling noise*
I would feel a little more tight, but I'm watching Miami Vice.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:41 PM on June 11, 2010


man, i totally loved the album this track was on. you never knew what was going to come next.

earth to doris/robot girl

hello, dad, i'm in jail

what up dog?

i can't find a video for the opening track--'somewhere in america there's a street named after my dad' but that's pretty awesome, too.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 8:42 PM on June 11, 2010 [1 favorite]




OMG I HATE THIS SONG SO MUUUUUCCHHHHH......

This gets stuck in my head at LEAST once a month, thought I have managed to not even hear it since about 1989.

Curses!!!1!
posted by tristeza at 8:47 PM on June 11, 2010


My Nephews singing the chorus. For some reason they heard this song, and learned the chorus, and had to have me take a video of them. This was from March of 2009.
posted by SuzySmith at 9:05 PM on June 11, 2010


Okay, this song is totally about masturbation, right?
posted by mrnutty at 9:06 PM on June 11, 2010


That is creepy. Just two days ago I was asking my boyfriend how exactly one did walk the dinosaur. I am pleased to see it is about what I expected.

Kind of similar to walking like an Egyptian, though. Mid to late 80s must have been a great time for cardio.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 9:07 PM on June 11, 2010


Dammit.

*heads off to iTunes*
posted by That's Numberwang! at 9:12 PM on June 11, 2010


Never heard this before now. This song is some kind of modern take on the worst of the 80's, right? RIGHT? Ackalackalackaboom. This could not have been manufactured to push more of my hate buttons than it does.
posted by bobobox at 9:48 PM on June 11, 2010


It was a great time for cardio, but that was back when girls just wanted to have fun.
posted by mannequito at 9:56 PM on June 11, 2010


"No way... I was just randomly singing "Walk the Dinosaur" to my daughter THIS MORNING."

Was not.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 10:02 PM on June 11, 2010


boom-lacka-lacka-lacka-boom-lacka-lacka-koo-boom

And now... LIVE.

This post fucking rocks. I loved Walk The Dinosaur when it came out. Gotta see if it's on the karaoke list at The Mint
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:13 PM on June 11, 2010


This song is some kind of modern take on the worst of the 80's, right?

Bobobox, the reality is much worse than you can imagine. Back in the 80's, everybody, by law, had to walk the dinosaur. It was a Reagan thing. The police would come to your house in the middle of the night..and you had to open the door, get on the floor, wait while they searched you for contraband, then stand up and...walk the dinosaur. It was degrading, it was humiliating, and this protest song was a rallying cry for a whole generation.

When the crackdown came, it was brutal. And that's when they made everybody Wang Chung.
posted by PlusDistance at 10:28 PM on June 11, 2010 [10 favorites]


I'm calling you from JAIL!
posted by Hello Dad, I'm in Jail at 10:55 PM on June 11, 2010 [3 favorites]


The second best Was not Was song is "I Feel Better than James Brown".

"I was attending Mardi Gras with Fidel Castro... buxom cross-dressers threw fake gold coins at our feet as we discussed the fate of the revolution..."
posted by Meatbomb at 11:15 PM on June 11, 2010


sock puppet of lester - the three you list are my three favorite Was (Not Was) songs. In college, I used "Hello Dad" as my outgoing answering machine message. I figured it would weed out people who were calling for less-than-vital reasons from leaving anything on the recorder. I was right.
posted by tzikeh at 11:16 PM on June 11, 2010


Argh - except Meatbomb listed my fourth favorite song in my top three favorite songs by Was (Not Was).

I feel better than James Brown
I feel better now

posted by tzikeh at 11:19 PM on June 11, 2010


A-liki-boom-boom-down....

Oh wait. Wrong thread.
posted by Wild_Eep at 11:41 PM on June 11, 2010


I can't find a better genre for Was (Not Was) than nerd soul. But that still doesn't feel right. Anyone else want to take a stab at it?
posted by thecjm at 11:46 PM on June 11, 2010


Fnn post, but man those University of Rochester dudes in the final "lacka" link are fucking terrible.
posted by Nothing... and like it at 12:34 AM on June 12, 2010


Let me try this again: does anybody remember/know how to point me to a pared-down version of "Out Come The Freaks" I'm convinced I heard on WNYU way back when, and that I've never managed to find again?
posted by progosk at 12:49 AM on June 12, 2010


Laso, lester: here are two links to videos of "Somewhere in America..." - but I'm region-blocked from both so I can't tell if they're what you're after.
posted by progosk at 12:55 AM on June 12, 2010


Laso=Also, 'course.
posted by progosk at 12:56 AM on June 12, 2010


My favorite Was (Not Was) song, Zaz Turned Blue, is actually just Mel Torme and his pianist.

Born to Laugh at Tornadoes is one of those records that makes me wish I didn't get rid of all my vinyl in the '90s.
posted by Balonious Assault at 1:11 AM on June 12, 2010


I always loved their first album the most. Tell Me That I'm Dreaming!
posted by mykescipark at 1:28 AM on June 12, 2010


Okay, this song is totally about masturbation, right?
Yeh, okay, well if you insist.
Just don't get your Bronto saurus.
posted by Twang at 2:37 AM on June 12, 2010


This song actually doesn't need more cowbell.
posted by avoision at 4:03 AM on June 12, 2010


Daggit, I favorited this on principle before watching the videos and now I'm frustrated I can't favorite it again.
posted by escabeche at 5:41 AM on June 12, 2010


Needless to say, the party broke up.
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:06 AM on June 12, 2010


progost, i think what you heard was the last track on their album called 'are you ok?', called 'look who's back.' kind of a hand clapping acoustic version. it's pretty short, though.

it also looks like you have the right links for 'somewhere in america', but alas i am not in italy.

i also forgot about '11 mph'. my college actually taught a class on jfk's death. the song pretty much lists the whole course material.

meatbomb 19 tequilas later we had a deal. i also really liked 'maria navarro'. alas, no link there, either.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 9:32 AM on June 12, 2010


>I can't find a better genre for Was (Not Was) than nerd soul. But that still doesn't feel right. Anyone else want to take a stab at it?
posted by thecjm at 1:46 AM on June 12 [+] [!]

i've always referred to them as 'new wave soul', which, as much as i could tell came out in the 90s--where some artists tended to blend soul with certain aspects of electronica or rock. i think the time did this as well, especially on 'it's your world'. there are some other examples on the pandemonium album.

another good example would be what tackhead did on the 'friendly as a hand grenade' album--the best example being 'tell me the hurt' tackhead's really an industrial group, but when they worked with bernard fowler, it added a new element.

i'm sure someone's going to tell me i'm an idiot for calling it this, but i don't care.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 9:47 AM on June 12, 2010


whoops. bernard fowler.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 9:50 AM on June 12, 2010


Never heard this before now. This song is some kind of modern take on the worst of the 80's, right? RIGHT? Ackalackalackaboom. This could not have been manufactured to push more of my hate buttons than it does.

Hey now, take it easy. Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody Wang Chung tonight.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 10:55 AM on June 12, 2010


Thanks, lester's, though that's not it. (Basically I remember a more syncopated version, in which there was no female choir - just the guy's voice - on the "woodwork squeaks" refrain. Maybe it was even somebody's cover of the track...)
posted by progosk at 2:56 PM on June 12, 2010


*turns around*... Doris! You have a call...!
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 8:10 AM on June 13, 2010


I just wanted to say that "Walk the Dinosaur" owes a fair bit to James Brown's, and Dan Hartman's, and Captain Midnight's "Gravity."

Which is one of the best songs ever.

On the third planet
From the Sun
I've been tryin'
To get the funky job done

posted by Trochanter at 8:35 AM on June 13, 2010


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