Missing is an amazing and moving movie, but one scene that perplexes me is at the beginning where the soldiers salute an applauding party from I think the US embassy (correct me if I'm wrong) with "My Ding-A-Ling" blaring full boar from the party.
What's the significance of this song used for this scene?
It does two things. It tells you when this took place (1972) and it sets a tone. In a time when popular music had been relevant (I mean on either side: for every "Ohio" there was a "Ballad of the Green Berets" or similar) this song stood out for its trivial, sophomoric quality. It was like something guys would make up at a frat party. To a lot of us working in radio at the time, "My Ding-A-Ling" represented an example of the lowest to which popular music could sink. Sure, there have been a lot of songs like that on radio, but we'd all just been made keenly aware of the fact that popular music could do a lot better than Chuck Berry singing about his penis.
At that time and in that place, it showed that the people at the party were even more isolated from reality than their fancy clothes and luxurious appointments would indicate. Look at the brooding way John Shea is looking at them. The soldiers protect them, and they appreciate that and applaud them as they go by. They're aware of what's going on, but they're removed from the realities the soldiers deal with.
The next song heard, "All or Nothing at All", is a classic swing years ballad.
You've got me?! Who's got you?!
I wouldn't read too much into it. As Freud might have said, sometimes a song is just a song. At most, it set the time-frame.
shareGreat post, Molly-31, and well worth reading. Thank you!
And yes, I agree. The song is so groanworthy and trivial to a mindboggling degree, that in that time and place, with what's going on around them (an armed curfew and people being hunted and shot in the streets) and in the presence of armed soldiers, it's a sobering moment of the appallingly bad taste that humans can indulge in. I've no doubt it was there intentionally as a shocking dramatic contrast.
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
by Molly-31 ยป Tue Mar 18 2014 ..."My Ding-A-Ling" represented an example of the lowest to which popular music could sink. ... but we'd all just been made keenly aware of the fact that popular music could do a lot better than Chuck Berry singing about his penis.You seem to put it all on Chuck. It was the American public that made that song Chuck's best selling single when released.
The actual top 10 for the week of September 15th, 1973 according to Billboard's Top 100 is the following:
1."Delta Dawn"by Helen Reddy
2 "Say has anybody seen my sweet Gypsy Rose?" By Tony Orlando and Dawn,
3. "We're an American band", by Grand Funk Railroad,
4. "Brother Louie",by Grand Funk,
5. "Let's get it on"by Marvin Gaye,
6. "Loves me like a rock",by Paul Simon,
7."Half breed", by Cher,
8. "Live and Let Die", by Wings,
9. "Higher Ground", by Stevie Wonder, and
10. "Here I am, (come and get me), by Al Green.
Those of the actual songs charting
During the week of the coup.
I was in the 9th grade at the time and all I can recall is they played this song non-stop, day and night on the radio. It was popular at this time for what reason I don't know why!
sharehoov-4 wrote:
I was in the 9th grade at the time and all I can recall is they played this song non-stop, day and night on the radio. It was popular at this time for what reason I don't know why!
Yes it was, ccr. I didn't know he wasn't responsible for writing it, I assumed he did. We used to play billiards at a neighbor girl's house at this time in 1973 and we all loved the song.
shareOther songs popular at this time: "Brother Louie" by Stories, Sept.1973,"Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne", by Looking Glass (Sept 73) "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheelers (May 1973) "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"(April 1973) by Vicki Lawrence, "Dead Skunk" by Loudon Wainwright 3rd(March '73) "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray(May '73).
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