Name this melody.

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Okay, this is hard to explain, as melodies don't have names, and this one isn't from a song -- and to be quite honest I don't know where it came from, but it's really popular and I'm sure you'd all recognize it instantly.

It's the melody that you use when you knock on someone's door, "knock knock, knock knock knock" and then you expect them to answer with "knock knock." I think it might come from old TV shows, maybe played at the end of an episode or a bad joke.

Yes, I know this is all vague, but if you can identify it I will award you a cookie.

― David Allen (David Allen), Saturday, 24 April 2004 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

It's the Bo Diddley. One thousand million songs to choose from.

― sexyDancer, Saturday, 24 April 2004 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Also referred to as the "shave-and-a-haircut" beat.

― m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Saturday, 24 April 2004 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Robert Palmer has a whole chapter of his Rock hist book on the "six bits" beat, tracing it back through the churches of coastal Georgia back thru africa etc. Funny how it's used as a punchline on tv. Or the only good scene in Roger Rabbit where whatsizname from Taxi is torturing the titular bunny with the ol' sanctified tattoo. Or any novelty dance number by a b-movie actress/page-three girl. or fookin u2. or any band worth their salt, really.

― sexyDancer, Saturday, 24 April 2004 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a little melodic-rhythmic thing that is used quite heavily in Arabic music that sounds like a variation on this. (I'm not complaining its origin is Arabic.)

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 April 2004 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

These rhythms are kind of like a slightly more fractured son clave.

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 April 2004 16:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Most predictable posts of the day?

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 April 2004 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 24 April 2004 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, it works!

― sexyDancer, Saturday, 24 April 2004 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

i've always wondered where the 'snake charmer' melody came from.. you know the one i mean.. its all like DUH NUH NAH NAH NA DUH NUH NA-NA NA-NA NA. yah...

DONT PRETEND LIKE YOU DONT KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT

― astroblaster (astroblaster), Saturday, 24 April 2004 22:09 (twenty-two years ago)

one time I rode my bike to school and the teacher said what r u doing here school is cancelled today so i biked back home and my mother asked why i wasn't at school and i said school is cancelled and she said the hell it is get back to school so i biked back to school and the teacher said go home school is cancelled so i biked back home and my mother said what fuck you get back to school now so i biked back to school and the teacher said go home so i biked back home and my mom said go the hell back to school so i biked back to school and the teacher said no school so i biked back home and my mom said go to school so i biked back to school and my teacher said NO SCHOOL GO HOME FUK so i biked back home and my mom threw a spatula at me so i biked back to school and...

― felchy chris, Saturday, 24 April 2004 23:22 (twenty-two years ago)

That's a good question about the snake charmer music melody. It does sound pretty stereotypically Arabic. (Compare the classic Oum Kalthoum song "Ana Fe Entazark," for example.)

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Saturday, 24 April 2004 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Aren't the snake charmer lyrics something like: Oh they don't wear clothes, on the other side of Joes ?

― jim wentworth (wench), Sunday, 25 April 2004 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

You mean "there's a place in France/where the naked ladies dance/there's a hole in the wall/where the men can see them all" ?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 25 April 2004 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

No, it's: "Oh, the girls in France/Don't wear any underpants/When they climb up poles/You can see their heiny-holes."

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Sunday, 25 April 2004 00:14 (twenty-two years ago)

My grandfather told me the "hole in the wall" version when I was a kid, perhaps after deciding that songs about girls' heiny-holes might give me the wrong idea.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 25 April 2004 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.