maypole music

when i was a yout i thought this song was the silliest of trifles



but now I think it's really cool  - especially in combo with the lavish video

on the radio here they play the 'extended version' which is more dance-dubby in the early 80s mode and much more crisp and detailed



Did Men Without Hats do anything else of note?







but going back to "The Safety Dance", it got me thinking about maypole songs

now would you believe (embarassing to admit, being a hauntologist and all) I only recently saw  the whole of The Wicker Man for the first time

two things astonished one about it

1/ it's pretty much a musical, isn't it? a horror musical



2/ I had assumed - having seen only the end bit in the past - that it was your standard plot of stranger gradually realising something is awry leading up to a horrific revelation at the end (and last minute rescue and/or twist).  But in fact (spoiler alert) you are shown right from the start - and Edward Woodward's visiting police sergeant sees right from the start - that Summerisle is a pagan community based around a cult of Nature and fertility - it's all upfront, from sexual shenagigans in the cemetery at night, to strange totem shaped confectionery in the sweetshop, to the teacher teaching the schoolgirls about phallic symbolism in their rites and revels ....  There is nothing to discover, nothing to unveil... and what's odd about the plot (apart from all the songs and dance routines interrupting - not the Hammer/Tigon norm) is that Edward Woodward plods along in full awareness that something utterly-aberrant is a-going on, seemingly determined to meet his fate.

And of course instead of the last-minute reprieve you're expecting, he's goes up in smoke along with The Wicker Man