I Can Hear The Sleestaks Pounding at My Door...

baylorsr has featured Rand and Adam's "View Master" for her weekly Verse Thursday post today. Fun to see people responding to the song with the same delight I did when I first heard it in a late-night filk circle back in 1994.



Deb, Jodi and I first heard Rand and Adam sing "View Master" at Astronomicon in Rochester in 1994, the first weekend we met, and we went right home after that con and learned the song and we covered it in UT concerts for a few years after that. Always great fun to sing and play.

Due to the ten year age difference between Rand and Adam and me, though, some of the references in the song escaped me. Didn't know what a Sleestak was. Had never heard of "Electra Woman and Dyna-girl". Loved the song, anyway, and now I do know what a Sleestak is. Actually, that's always been my favorite line in the song:

"I can hear the Sleestak pounding at my door,
Since Puff, the Magic Dragon ceased his mighty roar."

I passed a mp3 of "View Master" from Ookla's website onto baylorsr last week when she was commenting on Star Wars toys and beheading a Han Solo action figure in my LJ post about SW memories. It seemed like a song she needed to know :). I sent her the "Poor Man's Copyright" version, rough around the edges though it is, because that's the one that's on-line. Maybe it's just a living room recording, but I'm sentimental about it, because I listened to those "Poor Man's Copyright" tracks over and over again in 1994 before Ookla put out their first CD. Adam had even painted those original tapes with flames on one side and icicles on the other (the hot side and the cool side). I'm very fond of my copy, even despite the four Ookla CDs I own now. Anyone who hasn't heard those early tracks can find them at OTM.com.

I encourage you to go to http://www.livejournal.com/users/baylorsr/191642.html and tell Baylor your stories about "View Master", Ookla The Mok and the references in the song.