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davidwills
Barney Bubbles and Barney Google and Barney Rubbles: What’s the connection?
I recently played a compendium of Vaudeville tunes and heard for the first time a song with a catchy hook called, “Barney Google with those great big googly eyes” which Barney Bubbles may have been familiar with, he certainly had the googly eyes to match. (Possibly this song was an antecedent of the search engine Google’s name too.) He never mentioned that song – but I know he was a fan of ‘Barney Rubble’ from the Flintstones (he would have been ‘Flintstoned’ no doubt) and their phrase “Yabbadabadoo !” which he frequently used.
.. And here ladies and gints, is the song itself, which seems to imply carnal love of a horse, nabbed from the Wikki entry for ‘Barney Google’, who was the eponymous character from the strip cartoon out of Chicago begun in 1911:
- Who’s the most important man this country ever knew?
- Who’s the man our Presidents tell all their troubles to?
- No, it isn’t Mr. Bryan and it isn’t Mr. Hughes;
- I’m mighty proud that I’m allowed a chance to introduce:
- Barney Google—with the goo-goo-googly eyes,
- Barney Google—had a wife three times his size;
- She sued Barney for divorce,
- Now he’s sleeping with his horse!
- Barney Google—with the goo-goo-googly eyes!
- Who’s the greatest lover that this country ever knew?
- Who’s the man that Valentino takes his hat off to?
- No, it isn’t Douglas Fairbanks that the ladies rave about;
- When he arrives, who makes the wives chase all their husbands out?
- Barney Google—with the goo, goo, googly eyes,
- Barney Google—bet his horse would win the prize;
- When the horses ran that day,
- Spark Plug ran the other way!
- Barney Google—with the goo-goo-googly eyes!
davidwills
There were two different covers Barney Bubbles did
Talking about the Ian Dury song-book covers, Rebecca and Mike reveal an astonishing breakthrough in Barnology that, yes – there were two different covers Barney Bubbles did! Two completely diff flat-arts for the same song-book.
David Wills says: SInce I have nothing to top that. Hold, yet – are those the artist’s ink-and-pen tests on the right of cat and boot, or is it a wacky script? Aha! I pushed the magic buttons, enlarged the words – and they sprung out clear – “London-calling.” The grid reminds me of Barney’s yellow scarf with a red, 0.5 inch square grid on it, Rupert Bear style back in ’63.
David Lowbridge: I’d not seen the one on the right before — are they from the same pressing of the book (which I assume) or different editions?
rebecca and mike: regarding the two versions of the Ian Dury Songbook: they are the same publisher, same year, same ISBN
David Wills: I’d guess the second song-book cover was by another hand with the guidance of Barney. Who was his assistant at the time?
David Lowbridge: That grid is reminiscent of the Lives catalogue too (although it’s easier to see on the poster) which must’ve been done in the same year.
Great to see this, and your ‘London calling’ spot too.
David Wills: For our younger readers,, we should perhaps explain that use of the grid, as does Barney here, was not then quite a viz-cliche, a graphic tick used by every Tom, Sylvia and Brian in town. Barney did’t mind if somebody’d been there before him, but def he’d be the first to use it well.
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David Lowbridge
I’d not seen the one on the right before — are they from the same pressing of the book (which I assume) or different editions?
That grid is reminiscent of the Lives catalogue too (although it’s easier to see on the poster) which must’ve been done in the same year.
Great to see this, and your ‘London calling’ spot too.
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David Lowbridge
Here’s the Lives poster I mentioned (sure you all know what it looks like anyways!) http://tinyurl.com/cmwsvy
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rebecca and mike
regarding the two versions of the Ian Dury Songbook: they are the same publisher, same year, same ISBN
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