The german Band "Die Toten Hosen" has a song called "Sonntags im Zoo" (Sundays at the zoo). A nice (rock)song about a day at a zoo, well, just in german
This is probably my favourite James Taylor (no, not that one*) track: Unfortunately, the "zoo" in this case has nothing to do with animals ... *Apologies: in-joke for UK zoo nerds
I love The Goodies!! I wish they'd bring it back to NZ tv for me. Its worth pointing out for David Brown that the beardy one is Bill Oddie who is a hard-core birder and used to try and arrange the filming locations of the show to enable him to go birding. When he got older he became a nature show host. He did a really fun New Guinea programme too about 25 years ago as well. Fantastic fellow.
thanks very much. Maybe Coldplay are closet zoo-fans, if they knew enough to use Paradise specially to tie in with the song title?
Classic (hard) rock references not mentioned yet: "She is just down the line zoo station got to make it on time zoo station" U2 - zoostation - from achtung baby cd, zoo station is of course in berlin subway and near the actual zoo. "No matter what you do I am restless like a cat all caged up in a zoo" Jagger - Richards -Terrifying - from steel wheels rolling stones cd "The yellow buddist monk is burning brightly at the zoo" Eric Clapton - Anyone for tennis - Best of cream album. They sure do not write lyrics like that anymore.
George Harrison sings about escaping from the zoo in the Beatles song "Old Brown Shoe": "You know you pick me up from where some try to drag me down And when I see your smile replacing every thoughtless frown. Got me escaping from this zoo, baby, I'm in love with you. I'm so glad you came here, it won't be the same now when I'm with you."
My girlfriend got me a Goodies DVD at Christmas, three hours of comical randomness, just excellent. Here you go a song for you all to sing at the zoo this weekend when you see the rhinos; Mr. Rhino, everybody knows You've got one tail, four feet and twelve toes! Mr Rhino, look what grows, Two big horns on the end of your nose! Ah! You’ve got three friends Mr Rhinoceros – The Elephant, Buffalo and Hippopotamus! You got two bad eyes, but your not deaf In Africa and Asia there’s not many of you left! Mr. Rhino, everybody knows You've got one tail, four feet and twelve toes! Mr Rhino, look what grows, Two big horns on the end of your nose! Five, six, seven makes a herd And on your back rides a white tipped bird! Eight, Nine, Ten, you weigh a ton But you’re as fast as a zebra when you’re on the run! Mr. Rhino, everybody knows You've got one tail, four feet and twelve toes! Mr Rhino, look what grows, Two big horns on the end of your nose! Brambles and nettles, you love to crunch With your many, many teeth you munch and munch You’re the one and only.... Sure as you are born Bigger and better than a Unicorn Mr. Rhino, everybody knows You've got one tail, four feet and twelve toes! Mr Rhino, look what grows, Two big horns on the end of your nose!
I just happened to see the Talk Talk "It's My Life" video from 1984 which features London Zoo with, amongst others, shots of the Casson elephant house (with elephant and black rhino) and Mappin Terraces (with polar bear and aoudads). The song itself has nothing to do with zoos, and the video is more about contrasting the wild life with the caged life, but for nostalgic reasons its worth posting for those who visited London back then.
And the footage immediately after the gibbon is of the pergola on Hampstead Heath. Another song, 'Tell me on a Sunday' by Andrew Lloyd-Webber
Tell me on a Sunday, lyrics by Don Black,another Lloyd Webber /Black collaboration, Sunset Boulevard, which in the scene where Norma Desmond and Joe Gillis first meet, Miss Desmond mistakes Gillis for an undertaker, she thinks he has come to her house to make the funeral arrangements for her recently deceased pet chimp,Don Black also wrote the lyrics for the song Born Free, I understand he has recently written additional lyrics for this song, sung originally for the film by Matt Munro.
Thanks for this, London Zoo with Asian elephant, black rhino, sea lion and polar bear, alas all now history, but at least as Sir David Attenborough is on record as saying, "You can't imagine London Zoo without its giraffes.
It's from 'Tell me on a Sunday' [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Me_on_a_Sunday]Tell Me on a Sunday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
That's correct, Sir Andrew parted company with Tim Rice as he did not approve of his "liaison" with the daughter of the London Transport bus driver, I saw this lady playing Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi in the early nineties and very good she was too. Someone else who took to the wheel of London buses before becoming a professional singer was Matt Munro, just a bit of show business trivia!
Here's a connection: Matt Monro sang in the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK in 1964, Andrew Lloyd-Weber wrote the UK entry in 2009 and in 2003, as the Austrian song was about animals, their introductory film postcard was filmed at Riga Zoo:
"Take me to a zoo that has got chimpanzees", I often think of those lyrics when walking around a well known establishment!, has anybody yet mentioned,"The lion forgot you, the tiger forgot you, the polar bear and kangaroo, but me and the elephant we never forgot you"?
I know its been five years since the last post but while searching on Spotify I came across a band called the kongsmen who did a song called The Zoo. Not only that, it seems every song they did was about primates, mostly apes. This also reminded me of the Kinks song Apeman which has a line about the animals sitting in the cages in the zoo.
It hardly counts as great, but Animal Zoo by Spirit. Yes, I think it's tautological, too. Also, I'm not sure how, but this is the first time I've made the link between @FunkyGibbon and that song (which is amazing btw).
No one mentioned the magnificent "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed with the lyrics : "Just a perfect day Feed animals in the zoo Then later a movie, too And then home"
In Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon by Queen, Freddie Mercury mentions “waltzing to the zoo” and I believe there are a few more zoo references in Queen songs and I am under the impression that Mr Mercury was quite fond of animals, that being said he did once have a man biting the heads off live chickens at a party which I can’t imagine went down well with a certain Dr Brian May.
I saw Bill Oddie walking around London Zoo a few years ago. You can watch The Goodies on Youtube, Chlidonias
