# Real Musical Moments Stranger Than Fiction
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 25, 2016, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805 "2016-09-25T08:18:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/1 "2016-09-25T08:18:22Z")
[Dick Dale and Gail Farrell performing “One Toke Over The Line” on the Lawrence Welk Show in 1971.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tdmaEhMHE) No, not that Dick Dale. Yes, that “One Toke Over The Line”.
[brewerandshipley.com has more information](http://www.brewerandshipley.com/misc/OneTokeWelk.htm), including the fact that 1971 was the same year Spiro Agnew denounced the song as subversive.
Really, the video has to be seen to be believed. The duo perform it in the usual Lawrence Welk “Platonic essence of squareness” style, apparently thinking that the repeated references to “Sweet Jesus” made the song a modern spiritual. There’s something transcendental about being less in tune with the modern youth culture than Spiro Agnew; old Dickless at least knew that the song represented all that was wrong with the world, whereas the Champagne Music exponents didn’t have a clue.
Anyway, does anyone else have any moments where musical reality outdid fiction?
---
### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/2 "2016-09-25T08:38:13Z")
There was that time David Bowie visited Bing Crosby and they sang [“Little Drummer Boy”](https://youtu.be/DiXjbI3kRus).
---
### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/3 "2016-09-25T09:36:19Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#):
>
> There was that time David Bowie visited Bing Crosby and they sang [“Little Drummer Boy”](https://youtu.be/DiXjbI3kRus).
[This upload of it is available where I am.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADbJLo4x-tk) Yeah, it’s just one google away, but what the Hell…
Showmanship never changes. They worked extremely well together despite the gap in decades and cultures between them.
---
### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/4 "2016-09-25T09:36:32Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> The duo perform it in the usual Lawrence Welk “Platonic essence of squareness” style, apparently thinking that the repeated references to “Sweet Jesus” made the song a modern spiritual. There’s something transcendental about being less in tune with the modern youth culture than Spiro Agnew; old Dickless at least knew that the song represented all that was wrong with the world, whereas the Champagne Music exponents didn’t have a clue.
I choose to believe that the band _knew_ what the song was about and were all snickering at Larry behind his back.
---
### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/5 "2016-09-25T09:39:22Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> I choose to believe that the band _knew_ what the song was about and were all snickering at Larry behind his back.
If that’s the case, they must have been master performers to not break down laughing partway through.
---
### Author:  [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/6 "2016-09-25T12:05:03Z")
Maybe not so strange, but the time Bill Clinton was running for president in 1992, and came out on Arsenio Hall playing his sax with **Heartbreak Hotel**. It was a spectacular bit of flash and really helped plant Bill as the next president. IMHO.
I remember being really knocked out at the time!
---
### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/7 "2016-09-25T12:18:19Z")
I can’t recall what year, but during the Grammys, they decided to use the latest emergent technology to satellite hookup to performances in other cities. It would be awesome!
I seem to recall the first couple of hook ups went off smoothly. But then…there was Diana Ross at the podium attempting to throw it over to Steevie Wonder, who was playing a venue in a distant city. But there’s a problem, the audio feed is fine but there seems to be an issue with the video.
So that leaves Diana, who appeared to have had a few, on national Tv, looking directly into the camera and asking, “Stevie, Can you see me?” …and…cut to commercial.
When the broadcast returned to air, there was Diana, looking sober indeed, and apologizing profusely!
---
### Author:  [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/8 "2016-09-25T13:45:36Z")
Joe Cocker singing gospel with the Crusaders at the 24th Annual Grammys, after a long absence from the music scene. For me and many others it was quite an emotional come-back performance, and totally unexpected.
When Pat Boone tried to be a Heavy Metal bad boy. :eek:
eta: I was not prepared to start crying when Kermit sang _The Rainbow Connection_.
---
### Author:  [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/9 "2016-09-25T16:05:48Z")
Altamont
---
### Author:  [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/10 "2016-09-26T02:07:16Z")
One surreal performance that appeared on Japanese TV in the 90s (maybe 80s): Emmanuel and Emmanuelle.
Emmanuel Lewis (from the TV show “Webster”) performing his song “Telephone” (which was inexplicably popular in Japan) for Sylvia Kristel (who was seated on stage in the iconic wicker chair from the Emmanuelle movie poster).
Never have I seen two faces more clearly scream “WTF am I doing here?”
---
### Author:  [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2016, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/11 "2016-09-26T02:19:47Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> If that’s the case, they must have been master performers to not break down laughing partway through.
Lenny Bruce had a really funny bit about a jazz saxophone player trying to join the Lawrence Welk band.
“I hate to be a drag man, but can I get some bread up front?”
“Ya hungry? Ya vanna sandvich?”
“Man, I gotta come clean with you, I gotta monkey on my back.”
“Oh dat’s all right, ve like animals in da show!”
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-musical-moments-stranger-than-fiction/766805/12 "2016-09-26T02:26:01Z")
The Lennon Sisters vamping through [Wilkommen from\* Cabaret\*.](https://youtu.be/BkYaDwXokeY?list=RDBkYaDwXokeY&t=167)
And from the related world of dance, yes, there really were [dancing cigarette packs.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrh3x8I0E-s)