5
May 08
THE WURZELS – “Combine Harvester (Brand New Key)”
Much like “No Charge”, this wears an idea too thin: but at least it’s a good idea. Spotting the potential for Wurzelisation in the ramshackle whimsy of Melanie’s “Brand New Key” was a stroke of pop genius that deserved the reward of a No.1. “Combine Harvester” kicks off with surely the best (or maybe worst) innuendo to grace a chart-topping record and rides a wave of sheer goodwill until at least its third verse.
The Wurzels had only turned to this kind of pop adaptation because original Wurzel Adge Cutler had died – his original comic folk songs had made the band a West Country hit and with no songwriters to replace him, “Combine Harvester” was the beginning of a new and narrower remit for the band. Given a national stage, the bumbling yokel humour the group trade in as much reinforced stereotypes as mocked or indulged them, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that “Combine Harvester” is one of the more thoroughly enjoyable comedy records we’ll be meeting.
5
This is what happens when you stop the rain from falling if they ask you to.
Alright alright, I’ll see what I can do :)
But don’t start it raining yet. I’ve only just got my sandals and summer skirts out in the last two days!
Snow expected next Monday!
No, he only got to #2.
65 posts to get to the punchline. Is that a record?
No, a record is a black vinyl disc wi…
Tom – I’d do anything for you, your wish is my command.
Words cannot express how much regular Popular updates mean to me!
Yeah, Marcello, but maybe given time you’ll have a change of heart.
If it takes forever, Tom, will we be prepared to wait?
“Hottest overall summer (June-Aug): 1976.”
Ah me…playing tennis in Baxter Park with Sally Ann, burning up on Monifieth beach…happy days.
Drucius – seriously, that sounds like a lyric to an evocative song, maybe something on an early Springsteen album. Good stuff.
I’ve got some of those type of memories, but they belong further on in the summer. The Wurzel weeks were more a case of sitting in a school classroom trying to cool down, or watching the Windies rack up several hundred mainly due to Viv Richards.
For a second I misread that as “burning up on Kelly Monteith.”
He was a very popular funnyman in 1976 also.
I know what Erithian means. As a Surrey CCC member (well, a junior member back then), I was present at the Oval Test, when the words of one Tony Greg came back to bite him seriously on his Springbok botty:
“These West Indians are great cricketers, but when they’re down, they grovel. And I intend to make them grovel!” Cue Mr Greg crawling across the Oval turf…
How sad the Windies are so wretched these days. Those Clive Lloyd-led sides were simply magnificent.
Waldo – yes, we always yearned to beat them when they were at their peak, but it’s a lot less satisfying now they’re in their current state. And some commentators were saying last year you can’t even put it down to the influence of American sports.
A favourite piece of commentary from Richie Benaud on Richards batting in a one-day game: “(Excitedly) It’s in the air … (long pause) … it’s still in the air … it’s six!”
I’m fairly sure Kelly Monteith came later to British television. 1978/9 maybe? I always liked his show when I was young, until he did the strange meta-comedy series in which he seemed to be working through the aftermath of a messy divorce, without much comic distance.
Erithian – My own diagnosis is that few modern West Indian Test players supplememnt their trade by playing County Cricket in England, whereas in the seventies, they all did. I have every reason to suppose that the sport still thrives in the islands but the skills are simply not nurtured adequately; and when rather untested (no pun intended) talent, no matter how enthusiastic, finds itself locking horns with Australia (the most sports-happy nation on earth) or even England, the slaughtering of the innocents is the result.
Do you think they’re appreciating the Wurzels over at the Richie Benaud appreciation society? :)
Waldo – not that I’m obsessed with Viv having mentioned him three times now, but this time last year he was on TMS during the Headingley Test, and during the frequent rain delays he talked very eloquently about his time as a youngster at Somerset, being coached alongside Botham by Brian Close. The affection was clearly very genuine, and it was great radio. (It was also possibly the coldest day’s Test cricket ever!)
I can recall passing through the car park of the Kelsey Kerridge Sports Centre, which overlooks the Fenners gound in Cambridge, while a match between Cambridge University and Somerset (ob. Wurzels) was in progress. Just as Joel Garner – no mistaking him – was coming in to bowl off a short run. Two steps up to the crease, and middle stump was flying towards the fine leg boundary.
Heineken spot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbh8VzOXYEk
I’m very impressed you know where fine leg is, Rosie. It was always euphemistically known as “Gooch’s Gloomy Place”.
I loved that!
Erithian – I’ll never forgive Sir Viv for what he and Somerset (ob. Wurzels) did to Surrey in the 1981 B&H Final. It was a demolition job, although I do have a happy memory of it. This was chiefly caused by running into Somerset fans equipped with giant containers of their home-made (ahem!) “apple juice”, which my 20 year-old self was only too happy to sample. On reflection, it is amazing that I remember anything at all!
Erithian #79 “Drucius – seriously, that sounds like a lyric to an evocative song, maybe something on an early Springsteen album. Good stuff.”
Thanks very much, good of you to say so. I was going to evoke “the smell of a teenage catholic girl’s long, lustrous hair”, but I thought that was probably too much information, as it were.
Veering into Sinead O’Connor territory, but feel free to elaborate!!
Light Entertainment Watch Update! I’ve found a more detailed catalogue… Other appearances included;
THE BIG TOP VARIETY SHOW: Featuring Lionel Blair, The Wurzels, The Krankies, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Bernie Winters & Schnorbitz (1980)
KEN DODD’S WORLD OF LAUGHTER: Featuring Ken Dodd, The Wurzels, Faith Brown (1976)
THE RONNIE CORBETT SPECIAL: Featuring Ronnie Corbett, Jim Davidson, The Wurzels, Beryl Reid (1979)
SEASIDE SPECIAL: Featuring Tony Blackburn, The Wurzels, Peters & Lee, Frankie Vaughan, New Edition, Roy Hudd, Larry Grayson (1976)
SEASIDE SPECIAL: Featuring Tony Blackburn, Jim Davidson, The Wurzels, Vera Lynn, Tony Selby, New Edition(1977)
THAT’S LIFE: Featuring The Wurzels (1977)
3-2-1: Featuring Ted Rogers, The Wurzels, Les Dennis (1981)
The Big Top show was a Billy Smart production, I note…
I have a performance of this on an old Cheggers Plays Pop i got off uknova.
[…] know as “scrumpy and western.” “Combine Harvester” features what Tom Ewing, writing at Popular, calls “surely the best (or maybe worst) innuendo to grace a chart-topping record” and […]
AS good a place as any, I think, to mention that I passed my NPTC Tractor Competence test today.
:) well done rosie!
Hurrah! No stopping you now, Rosie…oi, get your grips off my turnips!
Nice going, Rosie! Acres of land await.
Turns out, the Wurzels didn’t even write this one. The original rewriter was Brendan O’Shaughnessy, and it had been a number one hit (in Ireland) for Brendan Grace the year before.
i was taking my o levels in June 76 and can remember sweltering in the school hall. thankfully it meant I did not have much time to encounter this song with its self-satisfied assumption of shared bonhomie.