The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 10/08/26
Oddie-ly Enough...
Did I ever tell you about the time Bill Oddie saved me from a beating? If I did, then you must have read this piece I wrote for Transdiffusion nearly twenty years ago.
No need to read that now (feel free to visit it later), here's a recap: imagine the scene at the Saturday lunch table: I'm sitting on a chair with a cushion on it to bring me up to the required height (I was about seven years old). Sitting opposite me is my father, a steelworker in his late fifties. In comes my mother with the food. She hands me my plate. The hot gravy runs onto my thumb. "Bloody!", I yelp. My mother blenches. "WHAT did you say?", she shouts menacingly, back of hand ready to strike. Thinking with uncharacteristic swiftness, I say, "Bill Oddie!". Mum looks at me, thoroughly unconvinced. "I-i-it's a man on the radio!", I pleaded. She still isn't convinced, but decides to let it lie, and lunch progresses. It was wasn't until some four years later, when she first saw The Goodies, that she finally believed me.
Anyway, I was struck that, in all the obituaries and tributes, Bill Oddie's musical talents were understated (except for mentioning the run of hits he wrote for the Goodies in the mid-70s; and, let's face it, five top-thirty hits in twelve months is quite an achievement for anyone). For Bill Oddie had proven himself a very able songwriter right back in his varsity days, when he composed songs for the famous Cambridge Circus (née A Clump Of Plinths) revue which hit London in 1963, and struck Broadway with similar force the following year.
In that same year, he issued his first solo record, a satirical take on the mods v. rockers fists-and-chains fights which were breaking out in English seaside resorts that year:
The year after that, he came up with this somewhat unnerving parody of Shirley Ellis' The Clapping Song:
He then surprised us in 1966 with a serious song done in a serious way - and one which deserved to be a hit - although it could be claimed that he was emulating - though not actually sending up - the vocal styles of Gene Pitney, the Walker Brothers and Barry Ryan:
Real pop satirising was to return in 1970 with his take on Yorkshire's unofficial anthem in the style not only of Joe Cocker (a son of the white-rose county), but of Cocker's biggest hit:
Thereafter, of course, he concentrated on writing songs for the Goodies, including this send-up of the Lachrymose School of country and western which lacks good taste in both the literal and metaphorical senses:
All genres and styles were ready prey for his attentions, however, as this glam-rock take-off illustrates:
I'm going to by-pass the hits and jump slightly forward to 1976 and the group's final LP, which features this bubbly little number (the number in question being 'two', if you follow through on the concept):
I'll conclude with this track from their second album from the previous year, which is my favourite Oddie composition, a work of genius which creates an amnbience of late-sixties English pastoral psychedelic pop mixed with Beach Boys-style vocals. It's been my earworm for a couple of weeks since its author's demise:
Whilst Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor continued to work in comedy after the Goodies rode off into the television sunset in the 1980s - appearing alongside each other on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and If I Ruled The World, to name but two - Bill Oddie withdrew to concentrate on his interest in wildlife, presenting a number of highly successful television series. This absence from the 'funny business' seems to have led to his contribution to comedy being somewhat overshadowed by his later fame. Nonetheless, his part in the heights of comedy over a period of three decades - in words and in music - was immense.
Goodbye, Bill. Give Timbo our regards, and may you spend eternity watching the birds of Paradise.
