Spooky stuff
When I was growing up up NZ, I spent some time in the country side, living in a small coastal town of 3000, that had one sole means of support, the freezing works, and of course the surrounding farms that feed the freezing works its raw material.
During that time in NZ there was an emerging new style of comedians, or social commentators, who borrowed from the likes of Monty Python's Flying Circus and the Goons, to create a source of great humour based on the NZ bushman cum farmer, struggling with wethers and weather. My favourite of the time was John Clarke, or as he was also known as, Fred Dagg. Fred brought me songs and skits that I played on my cassette tape in my little old Mini Cooper as I roared around the back blocks of Taranaki. "You don't know how lucky you are" was a song that appealed to the optimist in me; The Gumboot Song taught me the importance of protection during inclement weather, and my all time favourite, in fact one I still sing to myself, or my Aussie children, was the version of a famous Christmas carol, retitled "We three kings of Orient are" which I've always reshaped to be "We three kings of worry and tar" with the next catchy phrase of "one on a tractor, two in a car, one on a scooter..." all following a yonder star, ah them was the days.
Fast forward thirty years and I'm now working for a good law firm in Melbourne. This firm hires fresh young graduates at the rate of about 15 a year and last year they hired the daughter of one John Clarke. I had no idea I was this close to NZ comedy royalty until last week when a person who knew of my strong Kiwi connections mentioned it to me in passing. I was stunned. Like a silly fan, I had to tell her how much I admired her dad. I didn't rush to her office to tell, that would be uncool, so I restrained myself until we met each other at staff drinks.
In true Fred D style we recited the Tractor song, much to the amusement of the uninitiated Aussies, and then moved on to other subjects of conversation. I then excused myself to check out the score of the Crusaders/Chiefs Super-14 match and I thought that I'd tried to listen to the match on the Internet radio. Now why I thought this I'd had no idea, because I'd never done this before, but I Googled for NZ Radio and found the link to streamed radio...this is where it gets spooky. As soon as the Media Player launched, they were playing the TRACTOR Song!!!! I shit you not!!. It turned out to be some program about Arts in NZ and a couple of know-it-alls were lamenting the passing of great talent to foreign shores, but to use that example, at that time, and my hearing it less than five minutes after talking to someone who really knew the songs was just FREAKY.
Needless to say, I'm still stunned. The Crusaders lost, but that paled to almost irrelevance as I pondered the greatness of the world, and how strange things happen everyday that just link us all together in less than six degrees of togetherness.
We Don't Know How Lucky We Are Son
During that time in NZ there was an emerging new style of comedians, or social commentators, who borrowed from the likes of Monty Python's Flying Circus and the Goons, to create a source of great humour based on the NZ bushman cum farmer, struggling with wethers and weather. My favourite of the time was John Clarke, or as he was also known as, Fred Dagg. Fred brought me songs and skits that I played on my cassette tape in my little old Mini Cooper as I roared around the back blocks of Taranaki. "You don't know how lucky you are" was a song that appealed to the optimist in me; The Gumboot Song taught me the importance of protection during inclement weather, and my all time favourite, in fact one I still sing to myself, or my Aussie children, was the version of a famous Christmas carol, retitled "We three kings of Orient are" which I've always reshaped to be "We three kings of worry and tar" with the next catchy phrase of "one on a tractor, two in a car, one on a scooter..." all following a yonder star, ah them was the days.
Fast forward thirty years and I'm now working for a good law firm in Melbourne. This firm hires fresh young graduates at the rate of about 15 a year and last year they hired the daughter of one John Clarke. I had no idea I was this close to NZ comedy royalty until last week when a person who knew of my strong Kiwi connections mentioned it to me in passing. I was stunned. Like a silly fan, I had to tell her how much I admired her dad. I didn't rush to her office to tell, that would be uncool, so I restrained myself until we met each other at staff drinks.
In true Fred D style we recited the Tractor song, much to the amusement of the uninitiated Aussies, and then moved on to other subjects of conversation. I then excused myself to check out the score of the Crusaders/Chiefs Super-14 match and I thought that I'd tried to listen to the match on the Internet radio. Now why I thought this I'd had no idea, because I'd never done this before, but I Googled for NZ Radio and found the link to streamed radio...this is where it gets spooky. As soon as the Media Player launched, they were playing the TRACTOR Song!!!! I shit you not!!. It turned out to be some program about Arts in NZ and a couple of know-it-alls were lamenting the passing of great talent to foreign shores, but to use that example, at that time, and my hearing it less than five minutes after talking to someone who really knew the songs was just FREAKY.
Needless to say, I'm still stunned. The Crusaders lost, but that paled to almost irrelevance as I pondered the greatness of the world, and how strange things happen everyday that just link us all together in less than six degrees of togetherness.
We Don't Know How Lucky We Are Son
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