Comments on: Happy 75th birthday to Raymond Scott's POWERHOUSE!

By: PKMousie

PKMousie — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:32:00 +0000

Steroid Maximus (J. G. Thirwell, Foetus, etc.) does a lovely version.

By: baronkarza

baronkarza — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:17:00 +0000

“No, no NO!! Not Happy Birthday, please!
ANYthing but that!!!
Not Happy Birthday!!!”

By: zieroh

zieroh — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:15:00 +0000

Another tidbit: Raymond Scott’s “Twilight in Turkey” formed the basis for Professor Elemental’s “Fighting Trousers”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iRTB-FTMdk

(Took some doing to make that connection!)

By: Petzl

Petzl — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:46:00 +0000

Scott led a very complicated life. Check out the documentary on him by his son, “Deconstructing Dad.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1567766/

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:16:00 +0000

It’s funny how the song has had a huge cultural impact on baby boomers, GenXers, and younger types almost entirely though Carl Stalling’s constant revisiting of the Powerhouse well.

I was surprised myself at the longevity of music copyright from the Looney Tunes era. I work on a Warner Bros television show, and at one point we were looking to license a cartoon that would be playing on a TV screen in a scene with a father and daughter watching it. Turned out we never actually saw the front of the screen, so we only needed to license the audio. Initially we figured we’d just license some old Looney Tune, rather than a more modern Scooby Doo (largely because Frank Welker’s voice does not come cheap), but even with the score for Rabbit of Seville being largely composed by the long-dead Gioachino Rossini, the license fee for Stalling’s arrangement alone turned out to be prohibitively expensive… even for Warner Bros Television!

Stalling’s estate does okay off that arrangement, I’d guess, and so does Raymond Scott’s. We ended up paying off Frank Welker after all.

By: Baldhead

Baldhead — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:42:00 +0000

I got Don Byron’s album Bug Music entirely for this song. Of course the whole album is songs found frequently in old cartoons

By: KevinVanCamper

KevinVanCamper — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:06:00 +0000

From http://RaymondScott.com/#913/custom_plain :
Q: Is Raymond Scott’s tune, “Powerhouse,” or others he wrote in the public domain?A: No. All Raymond Scott compositions are still under copyright protection. Under current copyright law, titles copyrighted before 1978 are protected for a period of 95 years from the date of first copyright. “Powerhouse” dates from 1937, and will not enter the public domain until 2033. Scott’s earliest copyrighted title (“You’re My Lucky Charm”) dates from 1933, and many of his electronic recordings from the 1950s through the early-’80s were copyrighted after his death in 1994.

By: KevinVanCamper

KevinVanCamper — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:33:00 +0000

… + a bunch of REN & STIMPY, etc., etc.

By: Andrew Singleton

Andrew Singleton — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Song will not hit Public Domain till what. 2035?

By: KevinVanCamper

KevinVanCamper — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Yeah! It was in 4 episodes of THE SIMPSONS.

By: Jorpho

Jorpho — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:19:00 +0000

What is this? No one’s mentioned Homer Simpson at the bowling alley yet?

By: KevinVanCamper

KevinVanCamper — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:19:00 +0000

^ Not bad for a group of college students!

By: KevinVanCamper

KevinVanCamper — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:18:00 +0000

And here’s the place to start: http://RaymondScott.com

By: KevinVanCamper

KevinVanCamper — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:17:00 +0000

The Rush song that lifts Raymond Scott’s music is discussed in the YouTube comments for the video above.

By: KevinVanCamper

KevinVanCamper — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:14:00 +0000

They are.

By: Wisconsin Platt

Wisconsin Platt — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:39:00 +0000

Devo’s take

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBlVg8T3kZU

By: Jim Schmidt

Jim Schmidt — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:40:00 +0000

I think I just found a new ringtone once Perry the Platypus gets old :)

By: Matthew Beale

Matthew Beale — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:27:00 +0000

I can’t find that his music was actually use in any cartoons, but I’m a fan of Speedy West as well: http://www.rdio.com/#/artist/Speedy_West/album/Steel_Guitar/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedy_West Pedal Steel player who played comic-cartoony western swing. It’s like the “booing” sound at the beginning of Looney Tunes took on a whole musical life. Anyway, I thought he was used in cartoons, but I couldn’t find anything. Still good!

By: Chris Pitchford

Chris Pitchford — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:25:00 +0000

And in case you were wondering, there was a version for an all-harmonica band, The Philharmonicas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-bpjcPD40

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:31:00 +0000

The Dance Orchestra playing Scott’s Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals at Concordia University in Montreal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C46Ugqfx98

There used to be a YouTube video of the original cartoon, but I can’t find it. Picture a bunch of cannibals dancing around a big cast iron pot.

By: Noctilucent Studios

Noctilucent Studios — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:25:00 +0000

Incredible. SO many memories in 2:11. Wow.

By: Carpeteria

Carpeteria — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:21:00 +0000

Raymond Scott, like Bob Moog and others after him, was an absolute mad genius beyond his compositions. He invented numerous electronic instruments, synthesizers, and sequencers, and created processes for recording that hadn’t yet crossed anyone’s mind. He’s definitely best known for “Powerhouse” via the WB cartoons, but he’s really someone worth spending more time reading about, if you’re into that sort of gorgeous muck.

By: Chris Warren

Chris Warren — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:55:00 +0000

No mention of “La Villa Strangiato”? Internet, you have disappointed me. :(

By: noah django

noah django — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:55:00 +0000

they left out my favorite example, the mice in the canning factory

By: s2redux

s2redux — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:31:00 +0000

Hmm; this is kinda weird... You can see that same action at 3:15 in Puss N' Booty, except it's in B&W (and notably so; it's the last B&W from Warner Bros.) Dunno what the color version is. (Oh yeh—the cat is "Rudolph")

By: Nicholas Marritz

Nicholas Marritz — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:27:00 +0000

This is one of those bits of culture, like the “I [Heart] NY” logo, that’s so much a part of our media landscape that it’s sometimes hard to remember that some human being actually at one point said, “Aha!” and created it.

By: unklstuart

unklstuart — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:01:00 +0000

Occasionally, my wife gets to sub on trombone for the Jeff Sanford Cartoon Jazz Orchestra. They play this and many other Raymond Scott pieces.
http://www.cartoonjazzorchestra.com/Home.html

By: Lilibeth loves plus lingerie

Lilibeth loves plus lingerie — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 06:21:00 +0000

So cute. I hope his heirs are still getting royalties.

By: Joseph Francis

Joseph Francis — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:32:00 +0000

Reminds me of this thread
http://ask.metafilter.com/123779/What-Is-That-Song-They-Always-Use

By: KevinVanCamper

KevinVanCamper — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:15:00 +0000

Not sure, but here’s a list from the official Raymond Scott site — must be one of these:

http://RaymondScott.com/#b1d/custom_plain