One of my current obsessions is the song Fujiyama Mama, originally recorded by Annisteen Allen, but made famous by Wanda Jackson. And because of the simultaneous nerdiness and awesometasticness of my field of study, I get to write a paper about it.
Fujiyama Mama can really only be described as being, like, pretty offensive on an almost incredibly epic level, but is also an amazing artifact of cold war kitsch. And because irony secretly rules the world, it was a huge hit in Japan. Here are the lyrics:
I’ve been to Nagasaki, Hiroshima too!
The things I did to them baby, I can do to you!
‘Cause I’m a Fujiyama Mama
And I’m just about to blow my top!
Fujiyama-yama, Fujiyama!
And when I start erupting,
Ain’t nobody gonna make me stop!
I drink a quart of sake, smoke dynamite!
I chase it with tobbacy and then shoot out the lights!
Well you can talk about me, say that I’m mean!
I’ll blow your head off baby with nitroglycerine!
Well you can say I’m crazy, so deaf and dumb!
But I can cause destruction just like the atom bomb!
And here’s Ms. Wanda Jackson, performing it in 2006, because Wanda Jackson is one of the more remarkable 70-year-olds that ever existed:
My paper will be a critical reading of the original, comparing it to a recording by this awesome band called Trailer Bride that appeared on a recent Wanda Jackson tribute album. The Trailer Bride version is a terrifying, country-gothic dirge – with the creepiest organ line I’ve ever heard, and a vocal line that is always not-quite-flat-but-almost (sadly, their version isn’t online, but this song gives a pretty good idea of what Trailer Bride is all about). I want to look at how, if at all, alternative versions of this song can lead to subversive readings. (As an aside, creepy country music is one of my current favourite musical genres.)
So, anyhow, tonight I’ve been doing a little preliminary research, and what I’ve found has been pretty much blowing my mind because – who knew? – there are apparently a whole bunch of totally weird covers of this song, immortalized (at least for as long as we have interwebs) on the Tube of You.
We have . . .
The Clash and Pearl Harbour:
Petty Booka, Japanese Ukulele Duo (Fujiyama Mama starts at about 2:55):
Sheena and the Rockets:
This really great version done by one Miss Cookie Kowalski:
Um, some hilarious old Japanese men:
Makoto Ayukawa, a Japanese rock star who has clearly learned the words phonetically:
And, most absurdly . . . Lulu and Lena Zavaroni. And . . . an emu puppet. I . . . I don’t even know.