When I was a boy growing up in Portland, Oregon I would sit in front of the TV each Saturday morning and watch the cartoons that would continue till early afternoon. My favorites were Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle and Popeye.
During the early days of Television a large part of the cartoons were those that were taken from movie houses from decades earlier. It was only later when studios started churning out ready-for-TV cartoons. Most of those seen were short pieces which had been shown before major motion pictures. Most, if not all, were in black and white or maybe it seemed like it because my family had a black and white TV.
What I especially liked were all the music numbers which were played as accompaniment to these animations. Lots of shows had classical scores, or quasi-classical scores which was great for learning the classics, in a fun way. Of course we kids didn't know we were learning we just saw Bugs Bunny conducting and some silly orchestra doing silly things while the music played.
The other music that was used quite a bit were old jazz renditions. The animators would do great things to emphasize the sounds being produced. Lots of times the chimney of a building might belch smoke in the tempo of a song, or the same being true of a locomotive chugging up a hill in time to the music. Animals on the side of the railroad might sing like the background singers. These cartoons were filled with sight gags in time to the music.
In 1974 my family moved to Eugene, Oregon and my daughter, Jennifer, spent her years 2 through 5 there. I had loved the Paul McCartney songs like "When I'm Sixty-four" and "Honey Pie" so I found myself messing with the old jazz sounds one evening in the practice rooms of the University of Oregon.
My mind went back to watching Saturday morning TV, with those old cartoons and the words just flowed. "I always wanted to be in an old cartoon, and watch the mice waltz down the street"....etc
The phrase "I'm in love with Betty Boop" was so true. I truly was in love with that early cartoon icon. Even though she had that silly old fashioned hair-do, she had those cute cheeks. Looking at her pictures now I see that she was quite sexy with a beautiful figure, legs,..........wow, quite a knock-out even by today's standards.
When I wrote it I was in a group in Eugene called "ME". We did mostly original music that I had written, but this was a song contribution which was not easily performed for most modern dance settings. Our gigs were restricted to dance band jobs because of the few performance venues available in that university city, Eugene. People did appreciate it, however, as a quirky kind of song, more for listening than for dancing.
Within a few years of living in Eugene I eventually moved to southern California where I wrote another song similar to "Old Cartoon"..............."I'm Too Shy To Send You My Valentine". But, that's another story for another blog.
Old Cartoon on Amazon.com
During the early days of Television a large part of the cartoons were those that were taken from movie houses from decades earlier. It was only later when studios started churning out ready-for-TV cartoons. Most of those seen were short pieces which had been shown before major motion pictures. Most, if not all, were in black and white or maybe it seemed like it because my family had a black and white TV.
What I especially liked were all the music numbers which were played as accompaniment to these animations. Lots of shows had classical scores, or quasi-classical scores which was great for learning the classics, in a fun way. Of course we kids didn't know we were learning we just saw Bugs Bunny conducting and some silly orchestra doing silly things while the music played.
The other music that was used quite a bit were old jazz renditions. The animators would do great things to emphasize the sounds being produced. Lots of times the chimney of a building might belch smoke in the tempo of a song, or the same being true of a locomotive chugging up a hill in time to the music. Animals on the side of the railroad might sing like the background singers. These cartoons were filled with sight gags in time to the music.
In 1974 my family moved to Eugene, Oregon and my daughter, Jennifer, spent her years 2 through 5 there. I had loved the Paul McCartney songs like "When I'm Sixty-four" and "Honey Pie" so I found myself messing with the old jazz sounds one evening in the practice rooms of the University of Oregon.
My mind went back to watching Saturday morning TV, with those old cartoons and the words just flowed. "I always wanted to be in an old cartoon, and watch the mice waltz down the street"....etc
The phrase "I'm in love with Betty Boop" was so true. I truly was in love with that early cartoon icon. Even though she had that silly old fashioned hair-do, she had those cute cheeks. Looking at her pictures now I see that she was quite sexy with a beautiful figure, legs,..........wow, quite a knock-out even by today's standards.
When I wrote it I was in a group in Eugene called "ME". We did mostly original music that I had written, but this was a song contribution which was not easily performed for most modern dance settings. Our gigs were restricted to dance band jobs because of the few performance venues available in that university city, Eugene. People did appreciate it, however, as a quirky kind of song, more for listening than for dancing.
Within a few years of living in Eugene I eventually moved to southern California where I wrote another song similar to "Old Cartoon"..............."I'm Too Shy To Send You My Valentine". But, that's another story for another blog.
Old Cartoon on Amazon.com
