Thursday, July 31, 2008
Good Golly, Miss Molly - Little Richard
Miss Molly is three, going on four. She lives in Kansas City. I found this video on YouTube while I was visiting her house. I was excited, because I danced to the song lo! these many years ago. I showed the video to the other adults of the appropriate age, but they were not entertained. However, when I played it for Miss Molly, she danced away and asked for it again. I believe that some of the lyrics are not age-appropriate for her, but they went over her head, and she and I passed a good time with Little Richard. In truth, I don't know quite what some of the lyrics mean, myself, but I fear that they are not innocent. Enjoy. This is the sort of music that Roman Catholic convent school girls danced to in the fifties in New Orleans. Look at all the white kids in the video.
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Loved seeing and hearing that old song performed again.. I'm sure the less than 'g' rated stuff went over her head. If she ever does get ahold of the lyrics and wants to know what "ball" as a verb means (nobody does use that expression anymore anyway) just tell her it's another word for bowling! :-)
ReplyDelete--Fran
And "Rockin' & Rollin'" is just a kind of music.
ReplyDeleteMost of the band members were White, too. I noticed this was Grenada TV, which is UK, I believe, and the styles look early '60s; therefore, I suspect a "Greatest Hits" tour of the UK.
I didn't have any more idea what it was about than a good RC schoolgirl ("Hey, little schoolgirl; I'm a lil schoolboy, too!"), but I loved it and drove my parents crazy singing it.
Fran, right. A bowling ball. I worked the out the meaning - sort of. Many of the R&R songs that we danced to had naughty lyrics. Since I was a good Catholic girl, I just let them wash over me, without thinking about them too much. I've downloaded some of them from iTunes - "Sixty-Minute Man" and "Work With Me, Annie". They bring back good memories.
ReplyDeleteJohnieb, the video is from the sixties, but I remember the song from the fifties. By the sixties, I was married and settling down. Did your folks know what the lyrics meant?
Thank you, Grandmère! You started my day off right!
ReplyDeleteOh, what good times those were! According to Wikipedia, Little Richard's recording of "Good Golly Miss Molly" was released in 1958, so it's golden in more ways than one now. Yes, the lyrics are completely naughty, but we nice Methodist girls and boys in Casper, Wyoming never paid any attention to them either. We just danced to the music, jumped and hollered and sang along. I'm looking forward to dancing with my granddaughters, too. Go, Mimi! Go, Molly!
ReplyDeleteRick+ and Mary Clara, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Molly is my grandniece or great-niece, whichever is correct, my nephew's daughter. She's a red-haired doll, with an ironic sense of humor already. Imagine!
ReplyDeleteMary Clara, do you have a blog?
"Did your folks know what the lyrics meant?"
ReplyDeleteNot really except on the face of it- she liked having sex and not listening to her mother? And in the end he wants to marry her (the diamond ring)?
Was there supposed to be more meaning than that?
Or are you asking about back then? Actually no, without looking up the lyrics it's hard to be sure what he was saying.. (no internet back then) I just thought it was fun dancing party music..
Actually it was ALOT later that I had heard of the expression "ball" meaning to have sex (I was a sheltered RC girl too going to all-girl RC schools)- so if I could make out what he was saying I probably would've thought he was talking about bowling then! ;-)
That was cool!
ReplyDeleteFran, I meant the dirty bits. Johnieb sang it around his parents. I would not have done that, because I knew that all was not innocent.
ReplyDeleteGood golly miss Molly, sure like to ball,
Good golly miss Molly, sure like to ball,
A-When you're rockin' and a rollin', can't hear your mama call.
From the early early mornin' to the early early night,
When I caught miss Molly rockin' at the house of blue lights,
Good golly miss Molly, sure like to ball,
A-When you're rockin' and a rollin', can't hear your mama call.
That's not all of them, but you get the drift.
I'm not sure I figured out all the lyrics, Mimi, nor sure I was able to render them intelligibly; I think now if they had known all the innuendo, they would have shut down on it. I suspect they had other things to think about, and thought of it as a kids' fashion.
ReplyDeleteI remember the song from the Fifties, too, though I was but what became later known as a "Teeny Bopper".
Woooo Baby; ya knoooow what I like!
Well compared to what's out there now it seems pretty tame ... but of course that was the late 50's.. actually back then I think people got more upset about the rock and roll moves than the words ...shaking the hips was a big deal.. look at how they censored Elvis..
ReplyDeleteJohnieb, the songs with naughty lyrics were legion in the fifties. I thought Teeny Boppers were girls. OCICBW.
ReplyDeleteFran, they were operating under stricter censorship rules, so they often went for the double entendre, rather than the outright dirty, which made the lyrics cleverer and funnier.