Jerimiah was a what now?

[Fenris]

Ok, I’m probably spending too much effort on this: I mean, it’s a song by Three Dog Night ferchrissake, a group about as sophistcated as The Cattinooga Cats or Josie And The Pussycats* but this has bugged me for years.

What the hell are they talking about in their song “Joy To The World”?

First, what’s this “Jerimiah was a bullfrog” crap? Is it some obsure Christian pun that, being Jewish, I’m missing (Charles Schultz had Sally talking about “Gladly, the cross-eyed bear” and I didn’t get that one for years) or is it just TDN saying “Hey, ‘bullfrog’ has the right number of syllablles–we’ll use it!”? Is Jerimiah some obscure saint who didn’t have arms or something (why would Jerimiah need help to drink anyway), or are we to assume that he is, in fact, a toad?

And whether he is a frog or saint, what relevance does he have to the next verses? We’ve established that the protagonist of the song either helps armless saints or feeds booze to toads, so (assuming the former) it starts like a Christian/religious song (actually I vaguely recall singing the first verse in summer-camp and associated it with Kumbiya) until you get to the second verse where it changes from a quasi-religious kiddie song to something Isaac Hayes would sing as Chef on South Park (“Now if I were the king of the world/I’d tell you what I’d do/I’d throw away the cars, and the bars** and the walls(?)/and make sweet love to you”)

Then, in the third verse it turns into a Jim Croce song–if Jim C. sang about sissies instead of tough guys (“Y’know I love the ladies/I love to have my fun/I’m a high-night(?) flyer and a rainbow rider/a straight-shootin’ son-of-a-gun”–which sounds like they’re trying to do a Bad Leroy Brown’s or Jim (the one that you don’t mess around with) riff, but only have Liberace to model their song on.

Really—anyone ever figure out what the hell this song is about? Even Neil Diamond’s “I Am, I Said” makes more sense than this one (it’s easy–the singer of “I Am, I Said” is suffering delusions (“Inanimate objects are sentient!”) while having an existential crisis. He proclaims his reality (“I am, I said!”) but, in a nod to Descarte, the narrator fears that proclaiming his existance when there’s no-one around to acknowledge it is sufficient (“but no-one heard at all, not even the chair”))

So, who is Jerimiah and what are they talking about?

Fenris

*But infinitely more pretentious

**If he throws away the bars (and, one presumes, the liquor stores, or what’s the point?), where’s he gonna get the wine that he’s gonna help Jerimiah drink?

[Eutychus]

This was all back in the sixties and early seventies, if you catch my drift. We were all pretty, shall we say, heavily medicated.

[Ethilrist]

I don’t know, but he had some mighty fine wine.

[Cabbage]

Hoyt Axton originally wrote the song for an (abandoned) children’s animated TV special, but that’s about all I know:

He (Axton) had mentioned before that he was writing a ninety-minute animated children’s TV show called The Happy Song. It was the story of a bunch of children in fantasy land and their adventures and misadventures. He wrote it so it could be played at any time of the year – Christmas, Halloween, New Year’s – any holiday.

Well, Hoyt never got it together, really, never finished it. So he decided to peddle the songs around to various artist friends. One of those tunes was ‘Joy to the World.’

http://www.superseventies.com/1971_1singles.html

[WhyNot]

Bwaaa haaaaa haaaaaa haaaaaa haaaaa!

[wipes away tears of laughter]

I never knew the words. Just looked it up and read it all. Great synopsis.

OHMIGOD, the next time my dad starts harping on the music that I listen to as “Senseless noise-junk” I have to ask him what the hell this song is about.

No wonder my grandparent’s generation thought the world was going to hell in handbasket in the late 60s! Y’all were nuts!

[supervenusfreak]

@WhyNot

Bwaaa haaaaa haaaaaa haaaaaa haaaaa!

[wipes away tears of laughter]

I never knew the words. Just looked it up and read it all. Great synopsis.

OHMIGOD, the next time my dad starts harping on the music that I listen to as “Senseless noise-junk” I have to ask him what the hell this song is about.

No wonder my grandparent’s generation thought the world was going to hell in handbasket in the late 60s! Y’all were nuts!

Yes. In the same time period, Chuck Berry was singing about his dingaling. Funny how we remember all of the good stuff and forget about the bad…

[Fenris]

Nifty link Cabbage!

Of course, it leads to a couple of new questions and comments–

1)Apparently, Three Dog Night doesn’t know the meaning/origin of their own name (They think it’s because there’s three guys in their band-- :rolleyes: ). There’s either a phrase or a punchline that preceded the group which talks about how shepherds on a cold night out with the flock curl up with their dogs and the colder it is, the more dogs are needed to keep warm–a warmer night would be a “one -dog-night” a colder night would be a “two-dog-night”, and so on. This’d be like The Rolling Stones not knowing the “…gathers no moss” phrase.

2. It makes sense that Hoyt Axton wrote “Joy”–it’s got a good melody and somewhat gibberish, kinda pretentious lyrics (listen to “Della and the Dealer”). Very, very typical of Axton. On the other hand, I, personally, as someone who would have been the target audience for the proposed TV special (at the time, I woulda been the right age group, more or less), would have loved to see 'em animate the second (Isaac Hayes) verse. But was the viewing public ready for a TV broadcast of a “Fritz the Cat” style kiddie cartoon as the singer, after getting the toad drunk makes sweet love to someone?

3. :: snerk ::

As he stood there, playing the song for us, I remember not liking it that well. There are certain songs where you can say ‘that’s a smash’ but you wouldn’t want to sing 'em. I knew it was gonna be a hit, but ‘Joy’ was too light for my taste. I tend to lean toward heavier sorts of music.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! “heavier sorts of music” BHAHAHAHAHAHA! TDN just barely * achieved the same “heaviness” as The Archies fer crying out loud! The closest that TDN ever got to “heavy” was "A child is black/A child is white/The whole world looks/upon the sight/A beautifuuuuul siiiii-iiiiii-iiiii-iiii-iiight/And now a child/can understand/that this is the/upon (of all?) the land", which, despite the noble sentiment is as ham-handed and, well, dumb as The Archies “Hey Mr. Factory/dontcha care?/Soon the children won’t have/any air/Hey Mr. Motorcar/Stop a while./We can’t breathe another mile.”

Or, if they’re talking musically “heavy” as opposed to lyrically, um…they never got beyond the plunky sound of a kid’s toy piano. Frankly the bulk of their ovure sounds like the ghastly “(Put Another Nickel In) Music! Music! Music!”. I mean, “An Old Fashioned Love Song” is hardly 'Eleanor Rigby" with it’s multilayered orchestral tracks or most of the stuff Chicago or The Moody Blues did at exactly the same time.

Let’s face it–the only difference between TDN and 1910 Fruitgum Company or Ohio Express is that TDN took/take themselves seriously.

Fenris

*What is this “law” of which they speak? That kids are born in pairs of black and white children? Wha?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Hey, I liked Three Dog Night. They had great musical taste. On their first two albums alone they recorded songs by Sam Cooke, Laura Nyro, Elton John (before he was famous), Dave Mason, Otis Redding, Steve Winwood, Neil Young, and a bunch of others. Their arrangements were impeccable and their versions are often definitive. And sometimes even heavy, as with Rod Argent’s “Liar.”

And what in that link suggests that they didn’t know the meaning of the name? I was around in those days and I know that from the beginning everybody referred to the Australian three dog night story.

Go back to comics, man, and leave the 60s to those who can handle them!

[Ethilrist]

@Fenris

The closest that TDN ever got to “heavy” was “A child is black…”

Aw, c’mon. What about “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know”?

[Fenris]

@Exapno Mapcase

Hey, I liked Three Dog Night. They had great musical taste. On their first two albums alone they recorded songs by Sam Cooke, Laura Nyro, Elton John (before he was famous), Dave Mason, Otis Redding, Steve Winwood, Neil Young, and a bunch of others. Their arrangements were impeccable and their versions are often definitive. And sometimes even heavy, as with Rod Argent’s “Liar.”

I didn’t say they weren’t fun to listen to, I said they were pretentious. I have no problem with bubble-gum music, I enjoy it for what it is–what bugs me about a bunch of their stuff is pretentious and I’ve read some quotes (no cites, sorry) that suggest that they think of themselves as a group more on with, say, The Who or The Rolling Stones, when they’re more akin to Tony Burrows–Burrows had a ton hits from doing other people’s songs (“Beach Baby”, “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” and “My Baby Loves Lovin’” to name three off the top of my head). Burrows did definitive versions of his songs (Wayne Newton’s version of “Love Grows” has got to be heard to be believed) but Burrows doesn’t take himself as seriously is TDN.

And what in that link suggests that they didn’t know the meaning of the name? I was around in those days and I know that from the beginning everybody referred to the Australian three dog night story.

I took

“Not only did Three Dog Night have three lead singers, but also three distinctive styles.”

to imply that.

Looking at it again, maybe not.

Go back to comics, man, and leave the 60s to those who can handle them!

Pffffbt.

[Fenris]

@Ethilrist

Aw, c’mon. What about “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know”?

Heh.

With the next lyric “Two can be as bad as one/it’s the loneliest number/since the number one.”?

Rhyming “one” with “one” isn’t exactly Cole Porter or Lorenz Hart, is it? And talk about redundant lyrics, it’s right up there with “The heat was hot” from “Horse With No Name”.

It’s hard for me to consider a song that makes me snicker “heavy”.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Well, give them a break. What sounds light now could be ‘heavy’ then. Remember, people originally lumped Queen as heavy metal.

On the OP. I always chalked it up to that good good feeling of brotherhood that can be acheived under the um…right…incentive, if you get me.

I have certainly had experiences where sitting and having a philosophical discussion with a bullfrog would see to make perfect sense, in context. And the result of that discussion is a sense of happiness that makes one wish for all people to be joyful.

Makes you wonder about those early christians, doesn’t it?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

“One” was written by that ol’ hack, Harry Nilsson.

[Fenris]

@Exapno Mapcase

“One” was written by that ol’ hack, Harry Nilsson.

I’m surprised you think he’s a hack. To me, the fact that he wrote some lame lyrics doesn’t invalidate his other good stuff or his tuneful melodies. His The Point album is a classic.

[Fenris]

[jayjay]

There were a LOT of sort-of-make-sense-but-not-really songs in that time period. If you want a group that really makes TDN look like art musicians, try America.

Horse With No Name and Ventura Highway (alligator lizards in the air?!?!) blow ol’ Jeremiah right out of the incomprehensible pool.

[CapnPitt]

Hey, saint or toad, I’ll help anybody drink their booze. 'Specially if they can’t drink it themselves. And since toads and/or armless saints have problems with bottles…well, hell, that wine’s not going to drink itself, so I guess I’ll have to. Damn.

[carnivorousplant]

@supervenusfreak

Chuck Berry was singing about his dingaling.

But he has a cut on the most famous album of all time.

Voyager Golden Record

[Chefguy]

@jayjay

There were a LOT of sort-of-make-sense-but-not-really songs in that time period. If you want a group that really makes TDN look like art musicians, try America.

Horse With No Name and Ventura Highway (alligator lizards in the air?!?!) blow ol’ Jeremiah right out of the incomprehensible pool.

Sing it, brother. Great sounding tunes with gibberish for lyrics.

Another classic drug-induced ditty was MacArthur Park.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Fenris

I’m surprised you think he’s a hack. To me, the fact that he wrote some lame lyrics doesn’t invalidate his other good stuff or his tuneful melodies. His The Point album is a classic.

Hmmm. Not sure if the smiley in the next post meant that you belatedly got it, but just for the record, I was waxing sarcastic at your dissing of his lyrics and pointing out yet another great songwriter than TDN covered.