Our sharksploitation festival continues here at the B-Movie Catechism with this little ditty from one of my favorite Muppets of all time, Rowlf The Dog. You know, you really have to hand it to the Muppets. I mean, who else could take what was a fairly vulgar boogie woogie song back in its day and turn it into a comedy sketch fit for kids of all ages? And do it without changing any of the words?
Heck, even the mighty Martin Luther (oh so infallible authority that he was) had to make up new lyrics when he utilized a few ‘de-rhythmed’ secular folk songs as the basis for some of his hymns. These days, we call the process of what Luther (and hordes of others from the middle ages on) did a contrafactum which, according to the Free Dictionary, was “a vocal composition in which the original words have been replaced by new ones, either secular words substituted for sacred, or vice versa. In the 16th century the Reformation was responsible for several changes of this kind, especially from Latin to vernacular words in the conversion of plainsong melodies to hymn-tunes.” And though the term contrafactum isn’t usually applied to more modern works, the technique has continued to be used. And why not, “why should the devil have all the best tunes?” At least that’s what William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, asked when he was chided for replacing the words of popular songs with Christian lyrics in order to appeal to the street people he ministered to. Now I’m not sure if Catholic artist Nick Alexander shares Mr. Booth’s philosophy, but he sure doesn’t mind playing around with constructing contrafacta, especially when it involves that rapidly approaching time of year when we all must consider eating some seafood…
Contrafacta and sharksploitation, two great things that never go out of style.
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