Kinda like how Japan is known for extreme social self repression yet have the most bizarre entertainment aesthetics. They reserve their energy for artistic expression.
"Cliff carried nuts in his mouth in a tree every day of his life and he never complained, coz see: Cliff was a magic squirrell, etc." Loved the "coz see."
This is about as perfect as a satirical take on anything could ever hope to be. The melodies as well as the lyrics, their attitudes and body language, their hair, make-up and costumes all completely dead-on! Note perfect...so to speak.
When I first heard that Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest were doing a movie about folk music groups (i.e. A Mighty Wind), I immediately assumed The Ramblers were going to be in it.
❤️ “Cliff The Magic Squirrel” ... precious. Can you believe it was on the B side of the 45? So much better than music nowadays. No, that was the name of the A side, “So Much Better Than Music Nowadays”.
"I'm going down with the ship, just to see what I can see!" My favorite folk group. Love these guys... and gal. Listening to 'em now. (Actually own a pair of B&W pants because of this. Oh, yeah. Nobody understands, but it's okay.) 'Scuse me. Got a 'lil "thinking" to do... and have to listen to my copy of "Five Neat Guys Neatest Hits" I just picked up at Goodwill. I'll be busy for the next few days. (Also found a copy of Stompin' Tom Connors' "Stompin' Best Hits." Oy yay! ...and, maybe some Perry Como.) Thanks for posting this.
I know Cliff the magic squirrel, is their epic ode with secret deep meanings and all BUT C`mon bottle of wine take a slug or two is just relaxing AND I swear A couple of those Ramblers look a lot like ex- 5 Neat Guys.
I remember the Ramblers from 1969. Their songs have lost none of their charm. Cliff the Magic Sqirel was one of the first songs my brother played on his Guild guitar.
It summarizes only the very early beginning stage of the late 50's folk movement....prior to Baez, Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins. That first stage (which is being brilliantly parodied in the video) ended completely when those people I just named came along from about 1960 on....and specially Dylan. He personally ended that early first stage of "folk" for all time. I've always loved folk music, but what I love about it came with the second stage of "folk"....and the people I just mentioned, from approximately 1960 on through the 70's. They were writing modern folk songs about complex and serious subjects, not the kind of cutesy rustic stuff parodied in the video...music that seemed to be calculated to be so non-threatening that it couldn't possibly scare *anyone*. LOL! Well, I liked that early stuff okay...until Dylan and Baez and their like came along. After that, I was completely bored by it. My Kingston Trio records were retired to a box to collect dust. I do appreciate though, that they and other such "folk" groups indirectly led me TO Baez and Dylan and what came after them.
This is an exact match in terms of the roles to the seekers... A double bass player (Athol Guy ) , a lead female vocalist (Judith Durham who was also sometimes in need for little boost heightwise in comparison to the boyz), a banjo player (composer and sometime lead guitarist Bruce Woodley) 🤣, and a 12 string guitar player (Keith Potger ...who could actually play as opposed to Flaherty)
This is TOO good! I wish they'd actually put together a whole album of this dead-on send-up of the folkie era. Hilarious. (hmm, maybe not enough people would've remembered that late 50's early 60's era to make it financially viable?) But it seems clear that this bit is very much linked to A MIGHTY WIND, which was great in itself.
"74.95"= How many times (on the money) one could sing "Ode To A Parking Lot", whilst waiting for a Parking Space @ their local Tex and Edna Boyle Cassette Tape Emporium, if said Emporium had "The Ramblers' in stock.
"Now make a triumphant return with an expiring 2 record LP"..... I've always loved when SCTV threw a "blink and you'll miss it" subtle joke in their work...That quote in particular.😂😂
Cliff the Magic Squirrel is one of my favorite songs, I wish they had made a full length version. They're musical talent is impeccable, an underrated comedy team.
as an upright-bass player everything Martin Short does hurts my very soul. the way he slams it down on the entrance, his finger work, wakey wavey elbows, his plucking is so high on the fingerboard noone but him would be able to hear the bass, Funny as shit though :P
I've been watching SCTV for decades but I never saw this one before!! [:-D] It's funny too knowing that Eugene was later in 'A Mighty Wind' another Folk Music parody. [:-)]
Absolutely wrong. You haven't a clue about this. There is a real sickness in the land when comic corpses like SNL live on in their embalmed state for year after year and genuine talent like SCTV is forgotten.
No. It's because SNL has the INCREDIBLY more difficult task of doing shows LIVE each week. Nothing to do with your conservative brainwashing conspiracy theories.
The Ultimate Reductionist you can’t actually tell me with a straight penis that the political biases of SNL haven’t been part and parcel of their success at the network...they are a feather on the wing of the LEFT
Whenever I'm fed up with government and wanna "stick it to the Man," I sing Cliff the Magic Squirrel.
It captures the raw emotion of protest, for sure!
They should tour with the 5 Neat Guys 😁
Or The Happy Wanderers.
Or The Recces Monkeys
Two different genres of music, two different audiences.
@Bigbadfordrodman8743 Eugene Levy as Perry Como singing Judas Priest's Turbo Lover!
@Bigbadfordrodman8743 Geddy Lee might even get involved because five bucks is five bucks.
These folks need their own over-long, pledge break-riddled, Saturday night PBS special.
BOOM! 🤣
Way back when the Mighty Wind was a mere puff.
"I'm going down with the ship just to see what I can see" great idea to sink with a ship for sight seeing. These lyrics are hilarious.
See what I could sea...
Cliff the Magic Squirrel moves me to tears every time I listen to it.
Sigh. I know right?
Rhyming "squirrel" with "world" was a stroke of absolute genius.
Martin Short jumping into the scene with the upright bass cracks me up every time.
Yea, that Marty Short is one funny s. o. b., hu?
The exagerrated arm movements, oh my God. LMAO. Looks a lot like Peter, Paul and Mary.
@@nz1229 And Paul.
Reminiscent of Dick Smothers.
Totally
Despite being nice polite Canadians, SCTV was absolutely savage in ridiculing popular culture
Kinda like how Japan is known for extreme social self repression yet have the most bizarre entertainment aesthetics.
They reserve their energy for artistic expression.
Martin nails it with a perfect blend of Dick Smothers and Noel Paul Stookey.
This is a prototype for A Mighty Wind! Eugene Levy as Mitch anyone?
Yes, a mighty wind. Classic.
You dont say.
Hey, wha' happened?
"Wha' happa'?"-----
Mitch Cohen solo album - Digging My Own Grave
"Cliff carried nuts in his mouth in a tree every day of his life and he never complained, coz see: Cliff was a magic squirrell, etc." Loved the "coz see."
"Great, we could use the cash". The battle cry of folk movement.
"Bottle Of Wine" should be a the theme song of 2020.
It should be the theme song for white moms and aunts regardless of year.
@@canaisyoung3601 libshit white karen anthem lol
And 2023 or step up to harder liquor maybe.
Funny as joke, all that doordash, grocery store and package delivery boom. During COVID.
Fucken funny as hell joke.
The original was best.
"bottle of wine sittin' on my doorstep
think i'll have a slug or two
gonna get high lyin' on my doorstep
got a lot of drinkin' to do"
classic!
That's the solution to all of the world's problems, lol
The irony here is that they look
and sound pretty cool. SCTV
still stands supreme.
I still have my 'Cliff The Magic Squirrel' 45.
didnt they put squirrel fur in the first pressing? worth a lot.
Love how the microphone height is set for Joe Flaherty but Andrea Martin has to sing with him.
"Ricky Tippy Tin" still makes me tear up.
We need the message in "Ricky Tippy Tin" to heal the planet from Global Warming. ;)
That song nearly ended the Vietnam War!
There are PBS specials like this, except everyone is 40 years older.
Bwahahaha. Bottle of wine sitting on my door step. Got a Lotta drinking to do
"Bottle of wine, sittin on my doorstep, think I'll have a slug or two"
This is about as perfect as a satirical take on anything could ever hope to be. The melodies as well as the lyrics, their attitudes and body language, their hair, make-up and costumes all completely dead-on! Note perfect...so to speak.
When I first heard that Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest were doing a movie about folk music groups (i.e. A Mighty Wind), I immediately assumed The Ramblers were going to be in it.
I like the subtle touch of Andrea not being able to reach the mic.
A truly brilliant parody. Reminds me of when I was a kid ca. 1962-63 and I watched the TV show Hootenany with all of the folk groups.
❤️ “Cliff The Magic Squirrel” ... precious. Can you believe it was on the B side of the 45? So much better than music nowadays. No, that was the name of the A side, “So Much Better Than Music Nowadays”.
"I'm going down with the ship, just to see what I can see!"
My favorite folk group. Love these guys... and gal. Listening to 'em now.
(Actually own a pair of B&W pants because of this. Oh, yeah. Nobody understands, but it's okay.)
'Scuse me. Got a 'lil "thinking" to do... and have to listen to my copy of "Five Neat Guys Neatest Hits" I just picked up at Goodwill. I'll be busy for the next few days. (Also found a copy of Stompin' Tom Connors' "Stompin' Best Hits." Oy yay! ...and, maybe some Perry Como.)
Thanks for posting this.
These folks were pure talent. I think they are doing the singing as well and not lip sincing.
Martin Short's elbows - legendary!
Flaherty, Martin, Short and Levy.
I’m glad I bought this wonderful collection off of tv many years ago😂
I know Cliff the magic squirrel, is their epic ode with secret deep meanings and all BUT C`mon bottle of wine take a slug or two is just relaxing AND I swear A couple of those Ramblers look a lot like ex- 5 Neat Guys.
I remember the Ramblers from 1969. Their songs have lost none of their charm. Cliff the Magic Sqirel was one of the first songs my brother played on his Guild guitar.
they didnt lose their charm cause they didnt have any to start with.
@@mercurywoodrose That's what I meant...
... I want to hear more of Cliff the Magic Squirrel ='(
The censored verses were very popular in Midwest college frat parties.
Me too! That song is just timeless.
@@robkunkel8833 wait, you were able to make out the censored lyrics?
The Recess Monkeys, 5 Neat Guys, The Queen Haters, The Ramblers.... which one was the GOAT?
This summarizes nicely the entire folk movement.
I love folk music AND this parody. :D
That's some searing protesting. I'm surprised the government didn't censor this stuff!
Summarizes to those who never listened. The parody is great, too.
It summarizes only the very early beginning stage of the late 50's folk movement....prior to Baez, Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins. That first stage (which is being brilliantly parodied in the video) ended completely when those people I just named came along from about 1960 on....and specially Dylan. He personally ended that early first stage of "folk" for all time. I've always loved folk music, but what I love about it came with the second stage of "folk"....and the people I just mentioned, from approximately 1960 on through the 70's. They were writing modern folk songs about complex and serious subjects, not the kind of cutesy rustic stuff parodied in the video...music that seemed to be calculated to be so non-threatening that it couldn't possibly scare *anyone*. LOL! Well, I liked that early stuff okay...until Dylan and Baez and their like came along. After that, I was completely bored by it. My Kingston Trio records were retired to a box to collect dust. I do appreciate though, that they and other such "folk" groups indirectly led me TO Baez and Dylan and what came after them.
@@AmyLSacks - Me too! :D
thats the funniest shit i heard all week. 1:32 "they shot him before he Knowed..."
😆
"Jimmy Joad" got me through some really hard times.
Bottle of wine is my favorite
With time, good parodies pass as the real thing. The Ramblers are the real thing!
They say good music evokes the same emotional feeling regardless of how many times you hear it.
What can possibly be said at this point about SCTV? Just brilliant as always....
This show was brill!!
Sctv they were great 👍
Cliff the Squirrel was the Acid dealer for the Jefferson Airplane
Fred,. Is that true?
@@kevinhallisey5201 I just made that up but he could have been some bands acid dealer
the song "white rabbit" was originally "white squirrel".
Later replaced by their Coke dealer Sydney the Spacepig.
Brilliant...
Andrea Martin having to stand on her tiptoes to reach the mic. 😂
Based off of Judith Durham from The Seekers.
All timely hits that remain etched in classic folk rock history!
"I Think I'm Losin' My Hair,"
made it to the top ten, didn't it?
So great the way they all look perfectly awful in the classic folksinger manner. Also the way Levy says "aksed" instead of "asked."
Bottle of wine - gotta lot of drinkin' to do.😃
So painfully accurate :-)
Could you imagine the crowds they'd have drawn if they'd have toured with the 5 Neat Guys?
Definitely foreshadows A Mighty Wind!
"Jimmy Joe, lying in a grave, probably real Cold". lol.
Ode To A Parking Lot always makes me cry.
As someone who's sitting in a parking lot, no bottle of wine since I'm working, I love a good Ode to this Lot!
This is an exact match in terms of the roles to the seekers... A double bass player (Athol Guy ) , a lead female vocalist (Judith Durham who was also sometimes in need for little boost heightwise in comparison to the boyz), a banjo player (composer and sometime lead guitarist Bruce Woodley) 🤣, and a 12 string guitar player (Keith Potger ...who could actually play as opposed to Flaherty)
Flaherty is actually playing a 6 string it looks like...the graininess of the video fooled me at first.
Don’t know Joe. If you ask me this is a spoof of Peter, Paul, and Mary. Andrea nailed Mary Travers
repeatedly....@@inger132
Yes. Andrea nailed Mary Travers.
Repeatedly.
@@inger132
This is TOO good! I wish they'd actually put together a whole album of this dead-on send-up of the folkie era. Hilarious. (hmm, maybe not enough people would've remembered that late 50's early 60's era to make it financially viable?) But it seems clear that this bit is very much linked to A MIGHTY WIND, which was great in itself.
I'm goin down with the ship is a personal favorite of mine. Thanks for posting!
Rock on Max effort ☺️🇹🇭🇨🇦👍
Hit the right “note” that so few of this bygone era’s protest sings really actually protested anything
I didn't know that Eugene Levy couldn't play the banjo.
or that Martin Short could get so much mileage by repeatedly hunching his shoulders over a standup bass.
In Stereo.
A good job too. 🪕🎯
And Joe Flaherty gets so much out of that guitar without strumming or changing chords. Impressive indeed!
Andrea Martin trying to sing into that "tall" microphone cracks me up.
Wow, $29.95 for a cassette tape! If this was from 1984, with current inflation that would put that tape around $74 USD!
pjchmiel and worth every damn penny!
"74.95"= How many times (on the money) one could sing "Ode To A Parking Lot", whilst waiting for a Parking Space @ their local Tex and Edna Boyle Cassette Tape Emporium, if said Emporium had "The Ramblers' in stock.
It's a double album dude.
they needed the money
That's Canadian currency, so with inflation and exchange rate, they are actually paying you to take the damn tape already.
Oh God...I just got a double CD from the library paying tribute to the early-60s coffeehouse scene. Much of it sounds like this!
"Jimmy Joe, Jimmy Joe they shot him before he know"
Martin Short killin' it on the double bass
"Now make a triumphant return with an expiring 2 record LP"..... I've always loved when SCTV threw a "blink and you'll miss it" subtle joke in their work...That quote in particular.😂😂
Google says 3/27/84 for this SCTV. "The Folksmen" (the group depicted in A Mighty Wind) first appeared on SNL in November of the same year.
wonderful farce of the Weavers
Hilarious.I wonder if Levy was behind the theme of Guest’s A Mighty Wind
i remember watching when it was first on tv. i think on my little portable b&w...
Cliff the Magic Squirrel is one of my favorite songs, I wish they had made a full length version. They're musical talent is impeccable, an underrated comedy team.
I now realize the joke is these songs weren’t protesting anything at all. Not sure I totally got this when I was younger.
I've got a tape of outtakes, I should digitize them. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Please do!
as an upright-bass player everything Martin Short does hurts my very soul.
the way he slams it down on the entrance, his finger work, wakey wavey elbows, his plucking is so high on the fingerboard noone but him would be able to hear the bass,
Funny as shit though :P
if peter, paul , mary saw this ... they would die laughing
Yea, the guy as Noel... lol
she daid, son
daid as ken be
And all Way before “A Mighty Wind”!
Would you believe, this is the seeds of A Mighty Wind, and Glee?
Cliff The Magic Squirrel sent me here to subscribe. Thanks you little wacky rascal!
A Mighty Wind was a blowin.
My mother bought this album and I think we have it in the attic. Must be worth a lot of money.
its worth a lot of money to us for you to keep it in that attic.
They're like a hybrid of The Main Street Singers and The Folksmen.
I still turn out the lights...put on my black light and groove to these protest songs.
Was there anything that this cast couldn't do great? I think not!
I've been watching SCTV for decades but I never saw this one before!! [:-D] It's funny too knowing that Eugene was later in 'A Mighty Wind' another Folk Music parody. [:-)]
Marty Short is the greatest bass player since Danny Bonaduce.
Absolutely! Great reference
Tell me Chris Guest didn't watch this and come out with Mighty Wind, glad he did no complaints.
It’s up to us to solve this world’s great big problems “bottle of wine sittn on the doorstep , got a lot of thinkin, got a lot of drinkin to do.”
Ricky-Tippy-Too is a happy pop song, but it burrows into your brain.
It's the song you'll hear on autorepeat for eternity in hell.
This is very inspiring. Why I've got a bottle of wine. I gotta a lot of drink'n and a lot of think'n to do.
With that username you were already destined to be a folk singer. ;)
@@AmyLSacks No, that's just what he does around the house.
Little Jackie Paper loved That rascal Cliff
This one skit from SCTV is funnier than anything SNL has down in a quarter of a century! AND SNL IS STILL ON THE AIR!!!!! Why god, WHY??!!??
Absolutely wrong. You haven't a clue about this. There is a real sickness in the land when comic corpses like SNL live on in their embalmed state for year after year and genuine talent like SCTV is forgotten.
SNL is execrable.
No. It's because SNL has the INCREDIBLY more difficult task of doing shows LIVE each week.
Nothing to do with your conservative brainwashing conspiracy theories.
The Ultimate Reductionist you can’t actually tell me with a straight penis that the political biases of SNL haven’t been part and parcel of their success at the network...they are a feather on the wing of the LEFT
Agreed
If I could download that album I would. Thanks well done clip. Love the folk music haters.
This is so spot on, and I will add rather listenable too, on its own merits!
Wow. "Bottle of Wine" sounds a lot like the "Big Yellow Joint" song from "Arrested Development."
.........Going down with the ship, to the bottom of the sea, just to see all the fishs down there. 0:41
Bottle of wine sitting on my doorstep gotta lotta drinking and thinking to do.
Hysterical. Never saw this. Just brilliant. Predated Spinal Tap and Mighty Wind. This is up there with the Smengy ? Brothers. They were nuts.
“Hailed by some…”