Bradford Brady and John Maron write the weekly On The Record column.
Q: I remember watching a television show when I was a child in the ‘60s that had a lovely theme song that played at the end of each episode. Part of the lyrics were, “Cold winds are blowing, but we’ll be back when the days grow long.” My fuzzy memory of the show was that the main character was a giant. I’d love to know the name of the show and the rest of the lyrics to the theme song.
A: This question proved to be a bit of a stumper for us. Fortunately, though, we finally managed to figure it out. The song is actually an English folk song with lyrics that can be traced back to 1787 and is called “Early One Morning.” The version you quoted consists of two verses. The first has a bluebird happily chirping, “Souths winds are blowing, green grass is growing / Welcome to herald the merry spring.” The second verse fast forwards to fall when that same bluebird sings, “Farewell, we’re going, cold winds are blowing / But we’ll be back when the days grow long.” Like a lot of folk songs, successive generations added their own lyrics to the familiar tune. Another version we found is also known as “The Lamenting Maid,” who sings, “Oh, don’t deceive me, oh, never leave me / How could you use a poor maiden so?” The television show you remember from your childhood was “The Friendly Giant,” which started as a radio program on a station owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1953. The following year, it began airing on the university’s television station before ultimately moving to Toronto, where it aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. from 1958-1985. Bob Homme created the show and starred as a giant named Friendly who lived in a large castle with his puppet friends, Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe, both of whom were voiced by Rod Coneybeare. An instrumental version of “Early One Morning” served as the show’s opening and closing theme song. Homme was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1998 and died in May 2000 at the age of 81. Coneybeare served as a voice actor on a number of other cartoons, including “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Babar,” “The Magic School Bus” and as the voice of Avalanche in the animated “X-Men” series.
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Q: I’m looking for a song that was played on rock radio stations in the late ’80s or early ’90s. It featured parts of the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and a strange spoken word part in the middle. I want to download it, but I don’t know the name of the song. Can you help me?
A: The song is called “Rush” by Big Audio Dynamite II. Led by former Clash guitarist Mick Jones, Big Audio Dynamite went through many personnel changes during their 10-year existence. The second incarnation of the band, appropriately named Big Audio Dynamite II, released “Rush” in 1991, and it went to No. 1 on the U.S. Modern Rock chart. Other than sampling the Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” the song also includes the infectious drumbeat from Tommy Roe’s 1966 hit “Sweet Pea,” the groovy organ and drums from Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham’s 1968 hit, “Here Comes the Judge,” and the aforementioned spoken part by Peter Sellers from his 1959 album, “Songs for Swingin’ Sellers,” in which he says, “I wish I could sing like that...the only important thing these days is rhythm and melody.”
What’s the name of that song? Where are they now? What does that lyric mean? Send your questions about songs, albums and the musicians who make them to MusicOnTheRecord@gmail.com. Bradford Brady and John Maron are freelance music writers based in Raleigh, North Carolina.