I mean that both literally and figuratively, the former because the “lyrics” to this song consist mostly of jolly, wordless vocalizing, and the latter because . . . well, just have a look. I’m speechless and giddy all at once, and also strangely aroused and disturbed by delirious visions of a reality I’m not sure I want to know.
(Thanks to Nancy Kalanta for turning me on to this wondrous piece of Youtubia, in a Shocklines post titled “This is all F. Paul Wilson’s fault and I will not suffer this alone.”)
Well, that definitely belongs on a horror blog.
Something from the old ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW viewed as an acid flashback?
JD — Indeed!
Jim — Not a bad call at all. And considering that I worked for years doing video production for the shows in Branson, Missouri — where Andy Williams has long had a theater, and where he currently does a team-show for a few weeks every year with my old boss, Glen Campbell — it’s positively spooky that a Russian version of him would sneak onto the web and end up right here at my blog, where you would enter to call attention to the spiritual resemblance. Now I can’t stop hearing ghostly echoes of “Moon River” being sung as a jaunty series of Pentecostal-ish giggles.
Surprised it did not give its creators nightmares. It is not the wordless song and psychedelic background that I find most distubing, but the singer’s fixed smile and the way he slowly lopes along the stage, as if confident that he can take his prey whenever he chooses.
You used to do video production for these men?
Reading proofs of your collection today. Eager to see it between covers.
I have met people who take pains to appear happy, but this is just sick. It also reminds me of the smiling disease diagnosed in Japan years ago. I guess it stemmed from companies mandating that employees “put on a happy face” during business hours. And then they couldn’t shake it and it became an unbearable addiction. It is no coicidence, to me, that Japan has a very high suicide rate.
Jim – No, I didn’t do video production for the Russian dude. I only know of him via this YouTube miraculous monstrosity. But I did work in Branson, Missouri in the 1990s, where I was Glen Campbell’s video director. I ended up crossing paths and doing work with some interesting people, albeit ones whose general creative direction lies outside my personal realm of interest: Eddie Rabbit, the Mandrells, the Oak Ridge Boys, Billy Ray Cyrus. And, in what sounds quite the non sequitur, Yakov Smirnoff. The list goes on and on.
None were as frighteningly happy as this Russian dude, though. Great call on the seemingly predatory nature of his joviality.
I’m glad the book is working for you. It should be out next month, I think.
bendk – I hadn’t heard of that phenomenon. Thank you for adding an interesting footnote to my day. Makes me glad that I take the opposite tack and court mental health by appearing unremittingly dour during every minute of my workday.
Matt: I knew (or at least strongly suspected) you did not do video production for this fellow. I was amazed that you had done video production for Glen Campbell.
I’m just as amazed as you are. When I was very young (birth to seven or eight years old), my dad was hooked on Glen’s music. “Rhinestone Cowboy,” for instance, was a familiar tune around our house — not least because it was a radio hit at the time. You know how things from those very young and impressionable ages assume a textural and emotional significance of mythic proportions. Then for three years in my mid-twenties I found myself working for the man and directing a video crew during nightly live performances of everything from “Rhinestone Cowboy” to “Gentle on My Mind” to “Wichita Lineman.” Pretty surreal.