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March 5, 2008
Satan's Ice Cream Truck
I swear to God I did not pose someone in a creepy frock in front of the truck. They were standing there when I got there. Goths eat ice cream too, you know. Especially when summoned by the music of the dark overlord | photo by Elise Thompson for LAist
The song continues to haunt me. I chased down the truck one day, but I didn't find the answer I wanted. George, the ice cream man, said the song came with the truck when he bought it and he has no idea what it's called. He said he keeps playing it because it is so memorable. Everybody comments on it. So, finally one day I ran outside and taped the music. I also bought an ice cream sandwich. Satan's ice cream truck does sell ice cream sandwiches; it's just your standard ice cream. Except for the the monkey's paw. I really don't recommend that one.
Here is the tune for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.
Photo and audio taken by Elise Thompson/LAist
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Jebus that's creepy!
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"Danny Elfman-ish foreboding." Love it!
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I LOVE IT !!!
imagine if tim burton had decided to be an ice cream man rather than a director... this would be his ice cream truck
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Who knew that buying ice cream could be such a creepy experience?
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Who knew that buying ice cream could be such a creepy experience?
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That is fantastic! At least it's not Mr. Softee, who, if you're a NYer, have been tormented by for hours and days on end.
We had an evil ice cream man named Joe who hated kids. He sort of looked like Franklin Pangborn with glasses and lighter hair ... he'd hand us our cones with disdain.
When I lived in Brooklyn our local ice cream truck used to play Sinatra and Dino!
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ps. there's one called "The Monkey's Paw"? Does it bring dead people back to life?
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Whoa. That IS creepy.
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This is the best post I have ever read/heard.
Nice integration of Simpsons trivia. 1,000 e-cool points.
The only way this story can improve is if, two months from now, he gets busted for abducting children.
ICE CREAM MAN FROM HELL!
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It reminds me of one of those Irish folk songs they used to sing on SNL: "And the fields went black and the milk went bad and the nuns all drank it and died." In fact those lyrics fit the tune!
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Ummm yeahhh Im gonna be sampling this on my next beat.
THANK YOU
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I've heard this before . . . I always think it sounds like "Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he . . . so he called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his fiddlers three." But I don't think that's quite the song . . .
Creepy indeed. I have visions of the pied piper.
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That's definitely NOT "Old King Cole"; The ice cream truck song is in a minor key while "Old King Cole" is in a major key.
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CGabriel - You definitely have to email me an MP3 of any samples!
When I buy an ice cream truck I think I'll play Ride of the Valkyries.
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I try to keep playing it b/c I know that song, but I'm creeping my coworkers out.
Elise, why don't we go into business with theme ice cream trucks?
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The Sinatra one would only sell Spumoni and those trippy bonbons from Tony's Buena Vista.
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Elise- lol @ ride of the valkyries. if i had my own ice cream truck it would be the Benny Hill theme song, on heavy rotation.
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Ali:
You would have to drive really, really fast all the time and the children chasing the truck in circles would never catch you.
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And girls would miraculously lose their clothes and have to run in merrywidows and high heels.
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Really freaky tune! Reminds me of an article about ice cream truck music at this link.
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Interesting interactive format, Nymia.
I have music professors at universities trying to crack that tune, but now I can try the source. I am checking out Nichol's, the company that started making music in the 80s (assuming this music is not pre-80s)
And found this is surprising:
Eight of the most requested vending songs: The Entertainer, Turkey in the Straw, Little Brown Jug, Sailing Sailing, Camptown Races, Redwing, Brahm's Lullaby, and La Cucaracha.
La Cucuaracha?
I remember "Bicycle Built for Two" being popular.
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"La Cucuaracha?"
The standard tune for produce trucks.
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It sounds a lot like the old hymn "Awake to Love and Work."
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This melody was definitely used in a kid's video from the '80s -- I immediately recognized it from Wee Sing's "King Cole's Party", which YouTube conveniently has a copy of. Scroll forward to 1:17 of this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_BKHxIYhvI
Also, amusingly, credit for the music for this video is to "Bill Scream". :-)
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PLEASE tell me this truck also has jars of pickles and pigs feet! this is just awesome. could i talk you into YSI that clip to me? i've been dieing for a new ringtone and this, sir, it will be XD
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Kinda reminds me of the Swedish Rhapsody numbers station call signal. Different, but just as creepy.
http://www.vimeo.com/217265
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It sounds very much like one of my favorite English folk songs, "Bedlam Boys":
http://www.thebards.net/music/lyrics/Bedlam_Boys.shtml
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Found it.
It's sometimes called The Waits Carol and sometimes The Waits Song
Under the first name, it's the second track on The McGarrigle Christmas Hour, the words of which are here.
There is a 30s clip, but not all of the melody, on the Amazon.com website for the McGarrigle album. However, I did get a MIDI version of it, considerably less scratchy than that recording. I notice that the MIDI resolves into a major chord at the end, that would only happen at the end of the last verse (if at all) when sung of course.
The words are rather "all flesh is grass" and gloomy for something so hedonistic as ice-cream consumption, but there you are.
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from Trawnpanda's input, I found a bunch of Amazon Mp3s with versions of the song... also known as "The Moon Shines Bright"
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_dmusic/102-0067395-9804944?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=%22the+moon+shines+bright%22&x=0&y=0
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Whoops: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_dmusic/102-0067395-9804944?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=%22the+moon+shines+bright%22&x=0&y=0
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In Denver we have a similarly melancholic ice cream tune called "Red Wing":
She watched for him day and night,
She kept all the campfires bright,
And under the sky, each night she would lie,
And dream about his coming by and by;
But when all the braves returned,
The heart of Red Wing yearned,
For far, far away, her warrior gay,
Fell bravely in the fray.
I think it's supposed to make you so sad you need a treat to help you face the day.
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I would love an mp3 of this. No not the Renbourne version, which is nice, but your recording.
Great entry congratulations on being posted on Boing Boing.
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thardist was correct, it is "Old King Cole" (I remember the tune from watching this mother goose video as a kid).
I found a slightly jazzed up version of the tune on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tujv2fWn0YM
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As bloodredrose said, i'm pretty sure this is a version of Bedlam Boys. It was one of the first things I thought of when I heard it.
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You have to get Arlo a copy of this so he can play it at Mr. T's between bands.
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This reminds me of Freezing Man - the techno-ice cream truck from Burning Man. Their theme - Bass Kittens - is sort of creepy in a futuristic way.
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as soon as i heard this i remembered this song from my childhood that i first heard on a "wee sing" tape. it's from "king cole's party." here is a clip from youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7AbxQ5v9r4
you think it matches?
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The instrument itself sounds like an amplified music box.
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It sounds like a simplified version of Bach's "Bourree" in a minor key.
And maybe I'm weird, but not that creepy?
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It sounds like a simplified version of Bach's "Bourree" in a minor key.
And maybe I'm weird, but not that creepy?
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I'm amazed that someone figured it out. I, too, thought it was Bach ... it sounds baroque-ish, in a way - "Broken Baroque"?
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ps. Elise, "Turkey in the Straw" is the main one on the East Coast.
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(I posted this to the Boing Boing thread tracking down the origins of the tune, and figured I'd repost here, as it more or less sums up several of the suggestions. Plus, shiny MIDI link! Soooo shiiiiiny....)
I'm pretty sure that this is indeed The Waits' Carol (AKA The Waits' Song or The Moon Shines Bright or The Bellman's Song, MIDI located at http://share.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5567/belm.mid )--which is not to say that it's not also Old King Cole (or at least a version of it--the one I learned as a kid was in a major key). The Waits' Carol is a several centuries-old folk melody, and has become attached to several different sets of words. I'd bet that it's related to both Bedlam Boys and