In this week’s Sesame Street video voting, Kermit’s “Bein’ Green” should be a lock to walk away with honors, but I was never that crazy about it. Second place will go to “Rubber Duckie”; I think I have to cast my vote for Ernie, though it’s tough to bypass the earworm “What’s The Name of That Song?” Cookie Monster’s version of the “Theme from Shaft” rocks; Big Bird’s “Alphabet Song” is a delight, and “Everyone Makes Mistakes” serves a useful pedagogical purpose; I’ll never get the Ladybugs’ Picnic” out of my head (“They talked about the high price of furniture and rugs / And fire insurance for ladybugs”). I’ll go cast my vote, then check the leaderboard.
(Missed my guess; “Rubber Duckie” is currently leading, followed by “Bein’ Green.”)
Is Rubber Duckie more fun? You bet. Overall, I’d much rather spend an evening with Ernie than Kermit. But Bein’ Green is a real song — a gently profound one occasionally covered by real artists. The fact that it was included in a children’s program seems like a big deal in cultural context. It’s a song with some moral depth without having an imposed “moral.” It takes children’s feelings seriously without talking down to them. To borrow a culinary metaphor, I feel like it’s neither candy nor spinach. And the fact that it addresses what color a character is, without overtly talking about race, was a real gift.
John, I’m partway there with you, but “Bein’ Green” always sounded a shade too self-conscious for me to admire it fully. If I were to go on describing it, I’d have to use adjectives that are more forcefully dismissive than I feel; I do like and admire it to an extent, but that extent is attenuated by a lingering aura of delliberateness that puts me off.
I’m particularly fond of Put Down the Duckie, and, having remembered that fact, I shall head out into the day singing it to myself. Hope you all join me.
2 friends of mine took part in the original crew, Sam Pottle from New Haven and Joe Raposo who was a college friend. Unfortunately for the creative world, they are both now dead.
Cheers, I didn’t mean to make it such a downer!