So I was watching the delightfully disturbing “Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” today (if you’re not familiar with Leonard Nimoy’s (yes that Leonard Nimoy) tribute to Tolkien from the 70s, just search for “Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” on Google). My friends and I were trying to make out some of the buttons that the hobbits wear, but without a great deal of luck. Does anyone know what those buttons say?
I seem to remember “Hobbits of the World Unite” and at the end, Nimoy wears a “What’s a Leonard Nimoy?” button.
I think these are all the buttons used in the song, but I don’t know the words on all of them :
At the start:
“Hobbits Unite!”
In the ‘shrugging’ at the start of the second verse:
Yellow one, can’t make it out.
“[Elect?] Leonard Nimoy to the U.N.!”
Near the end:
“What’s a Hobbit?”
“Frodo Lives”
Green one, almost impossible to see what’s on it.
“What’s a Leonard Nimoy?” (Nimoy pins on himself at the very end)
There’s also a tiny whitish one on Nimoy’s lapel (not readable, possibly no writing on it).
Wasn’t that video just the creepiest thing? Where’s it from?
The past.
The Past is scary.
I believe that video is from the BBC, but I don’t know for sure. And yes, it is the scariest, most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen!
panamajack, that is the exact conclusion I came to, as well: I was unable to make out the yellow or green, as well as the first word on the U.N. one, and I couldn’t tell what the lapel pin was. Even stepping through frame by frame I couldn’t decipher these. I was hoping someone maybe had access to a better copy, or else remembered for some god-awful reason. 
Has Nimoy ever offered an explanation for this madness?
That video is Exhibit A in the case for why, despite what one hears, the 1960s really weren’t cool.
The song is from the 1968 album The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy. Note in the music video that Nimoy has the pointed sideburns he and the other male cast members were required to wear on Star Trek.
The buttons say “What’s a HOBBIT?”, “What’s a LEONARD NIMOY?”, “Frodo LIVES”, “Hobbits UNITE”, and “Admit LEONARD NIMOY to the U.N.”
Historical context to last button: From 1965 to 1971, the U.N. voted on several proposals on whether to admit the People’s Republic of China to the U.N. General Assembly, in place of The Republic of China (Taiwan).
Historical context on the song: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were first published in authorized paperbacks in the U.S. in 1965, and became bestsellers, especially among the college crowd. At the time, those works had fallen out of copyright in the U.S. and were in the public domain, so a person could write a “tribute” song to Bilbo Baggins without fearing copyright infringement. (In 1994, copyright was automatically restored in certain foreign works that were then in the public domain in the United States but were protected by copyright or neighboring rights in the source country.)
Thanks to Kazaa, I have seen what no man should see…ever.
My god, that was creepy! And were the dancing women wearing…SPOCK ears? Or was that just my imagination?
MetalMaven
And I seriously doubt that the video of The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins was made for, or shown by, the BBC. The novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were (and are) still under copyright in the U.K., and an unauthorized “tribute” song like that would be a copyright infringement. (I would be glad to be corrected that the song was authorized by Tolkien, but I know what he thought of merchandising his works.)
My guess is that the music video was made for, or shown by, one of the pop music shows on American television like American Bandstand or Happening '68.
Well, since the only reference I can find to it online is someone’s third-hand recollection, I’d be happy to retract that BBC statement.
The Horror, the Horror…
I made it as far as the “shrugging,” then I had to stop the video. That was bad.
And I think I missed all the buttons.
Okay, in 1976, Celestial Arts published I Am Not Spock, by Leonard Nimoy. I haven’t read the book, but to me, the title suggests a man who’s trying to avoid being typecast, to emerge from the shadow of the enormously popular character with whom he’s ubiquitously identified.
So he gets into music. Puts out a full-length LP of songs, some original, some covers, all showcasing his musical talent (well, more than Shatner, anyway). He wants people, when they hear the name Leonard Nimoy, to think of more than just a pointy-eared fictional character in a fantasy world.
Now, with that in mind, does it seem at all bizarre that he put out a song about Bilbo Baggins AND made a video for it that featured himself wearing pointy ears? It’s like he’s looking you in the eye, puffing out his chest and going “Call me Spock, motherfucker. I dare you.”
And the video is still one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen, with or without the Spock/Baggins fugue going on.
The tune sounds like it’s pretty much lifted from The Ballad of Davy Crockett.
Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins,
King of the wild frontier
I had heard the song before, but was blissfully unaware that a video existed.
I was unable to read any of the buttons, due to the fact that 15 seconds into the song my contact lenses leapt from my eyes and scuttled out of the room, whimpering.
And now I have to try to go to bed and NOT dream of go-go dancers with pointy ears and Leonard Nimoy bouncing around cheerfully burbling, “Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins! Killed him a b’ar when he was only three!”
It’s still not nearly as bad as I Want to Spend my Christmas with a Dalek.
I watched it again…(I know I probably shouldn’t have),but that one part where ol’ Leonard’s climbing up the rock and gets all smoochy with the go-go dancer is just so creepy as to make me wanna blow chunks or something. Eew!
I think I’ll go wash out my brain with Drano now…
MetalMaven