Is John Lennon the Cookie Monster?
Posted by simontyler on 13 July 2008 - 12:34am.
Listening recently to Hold On, from the Plastic Ono Band album, I was struck that Lennon actually does a reasonable impression of the Sesame Street cookie monster in the middle of the song. For no obvious reason as can be gleaned from the lyrics.
Does anyone know why.
...and are there other "sesame street in rock" examples out there..apart from that Ernie and Bert are based on Simon & Garfunkel,I mean everyone knows that!
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"Old Brown Ears Is Back"
Rolph The Dog is supposed to be based on Tom Waits.
there's a song called Big Bird
not sure who did the original, I recall The Jam covering it - maybe on their live album. I doubt it was the same BB, but you knever now.
It was
Eddie Floyd, and it's about an aeroplane.
Oscar the Grouch
There is definitely a touch of Lou Reed in there...
Elmo = Bono
Placido Flamingo = guess
Polly Darton = ditto
Bip Bipadotta. "This wild, orange-haired Muppet gets easily carried away when singing with others. Best known for the "Fat Cat Sat Hat" sketch." = Mick Hucknall
The Muppet house band
are a rich source ..
Dr Teeth is surely Dr John
Janice is Joni Mitchell circa 1972
Animal is Keith Moon
As for Lennon's "Cookie", Ringo uses this when referring to Lennon in 'Early 1970' if you can sit through it that long ...
For what it's worth apparently it is a reference to Lennon's fondness for the Cookie monster. See:
http://askville.amazon.com/John-Lennon-Ringo-joked-Cookie-Monster-songs/...
"The consensus is that Lennon was briefly interested-to-obsessed with the Cookie Monster during the summer of 1970 when he was undergoing "Primal Therapy" in the US. This makes sense, as one of the points of Janov's therapy was to regress the patients to childhood, and "Sesame Street" (having premiered November 1969) was gaining traction. It would also be a very Lennon thing for him to drive the band (which included Ringo) to distraction with descriptions of the show and its characters (which would not have migrated there yet) while recording "John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band." Thus, a few years later, when Ringo made his shout out, it would've just been a memory from "Early 1970.""
Thats god damn Awful...bless Mr Starkey.
Thanks for sharing that Steven. What period Ringo was that? Please tell me it was Pre - 1980!
and very good call; Janice is Joni.
1971
It was the B side to his first solo single, "It Don't Come Easy", which is actually pretty great, although probably that was down to George Harrison. The only interesting about the B side is that it mentions the other three and so makes the pretty extensive list of songs they all wrote about each other after they split - maybe that's another thread.
There is a bootleg version with Harrison's lead vocal complete with Hari Krishna backing vocals - which is still there trivia fans buried in Ringo's version at 1.26 in the video below.
Grover...
is Mark Ellen, due to his habit of waving his arms around a lot.
COOKIE
Of course, Cookie Monster inspired an entire genre
The Muppet guitarist
Looks like a kind of Sgt Pepper-ified Duane Allman...
Ever notice that all the musicians are left-handed?
He's called
Floyd Pepper according to my neice. Looks a bit like Jeff'Skunk' Baxter too I always thought.
Floyd
His full name is "Sgt. Floyd Pepper", and you'll notice he wears a top based on the Beatles Sgt Pepper outfits. George's, to be precise.