Let’s face it, “Kalamazoo” is a great word - I’m surprised *more * songs don’t use it. But it’s just a smallish city in the midwest. Two songs on my IPod have shout-outs to Kalamazoo - “I Got a Gal” by Glenn Miller, and “Marylou” by Bob Seger.
If I wanted to do a Kalamazoo-reference playlist, what other songs should I include?
Primus also has a song called “Kalamazoo.” Haven’t heard it so I don’t know if it’s in the lyrics too.
And may I just add that, as a child who grew up singing in school choirs in Kalamazoo, if I never hear that goddamn A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I got a GAAAAAAL in Kalamazoo shit again it will be too soon.
Hmmm. I always assumed “kalamazoo” in Down on the Corner was to “kazoo” as “edumacation” is to “education.” (There’s a name for inserting extra syllables in words like that, and I can’t remember what it is!)
Rooster hits the washboard and people just got to smile,
Blinky, thumps the gut bass and solos for a while.
Poorboy twangs the rhythm out on his kalamazoo.
Willy goes into a dance and doubles on kazoo.
“Doubling” sure makes it sound like it’s the same instrument. Unless the kalamazoo is some kind of string instrument and Willy’s just doubling the rhythm?
And I’d forgotten all about the Pogo reference - a classic! (If, by “classic”, we mean so old that nobody remembers it . . .)
After a little searching around, this seems to be be almost true, though my CD says just ‘Kalamazoo’. At the iTunes store, ‘Kalamazoo’ appears to be an instrumental, the versions titled “I’ve Got a Girl in Kalamazoo” have a vocalist singing lyrics. But that distinction only appears to be true for Glenn Miller releases, others release it onder one title or another with or without a vocal track. There are numerous titles for the same song: I’ve Got a Gal In Kalamazoo
(I’ve Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo
I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo
(I Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo
I’ve Got a Girl In Kalamazoo
(I’ve Got a Girl In) Kalamazoo
kalamazoo
even I’ve Got a Guy In Kalamazoo - with a female vocalist.
A couple of other titles from the iTunes store: Ghost of Kalamazoo
Hullabaloo in Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo to Timbuktu
Whole Lotta Kalamazoo
I don’t believe that can be right, as the word “kazoo” appears in the very next line, and John Fogerty is too smart a lyricist to rhyme a word with a distorted version of the same word. Also, you don’t “twang the rhythm out” on a kazoo; you buzz the melody out. It seems like he’s referring to something along the lines of a washtub bass or a cigar-box & rubber band banjo, but I’ve never heard of any such instrument called a kalamazoo.
And Genghis Bob, I think he means “doubling” in the sense of playing an instrument in addition to your primary one, as in a saxophone player doubling on flute. So Willy’s main role is dancer, but he doubles as the kazoo player.
Then again, at the time this song was in the charts, I thought that line was “And when he goes into a dance, the devil’s on the loose.” Hmm, where’s that So that’s what he’s singing thread?
Misspelled, but in Hot Action Cop’s song “Doom Boom” lies this little lyric:
“Forget about the party- shit’s in Calamazoo,
And I don’t feel like drivin’ any more than you do.”
…Unless there is an actual city by that name, but my search didn’t turn up anything. Always caught my ear since I go to college there.
…and Gibson made a guitar model called a “Kalamazoo”, so that might be the referenced instrument. Other than that, there is a brand of amp called a Kalamazoo.