The Pie-Eyed Piper at The Gates Of Dawn

For reasons unknown, the phenomenon of pied pipers, from the legend of the 14th century to 20th century recordings, cartoons and movies which used the Pied Piper of Hamelin name, is today's topic.

There are lots of pied pipers - Brian Wilson spoke of one in a musical fairy tale penned for Mount Vernon and Fairway, the EP that accompanied the 1972 Beach Boys album Holland. Count us among the enthusiastic fans of Brian's late 1960's and early 1970's songwriting and arrangements, especially SMiLE.





Another was a prominent singing group within Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra. At one point, Frank Sinatra sang with them.



Someone no doubt familiar with the Pied Pipers and big bands was recording artist, bandleader and frequent Louis Armstrong collaborator Jack Teagarden, who provided a memorable vocal and trombone solo to the Walter Lantz Swing Symphony The Pied Piper Of Basin Street, directed by Shamus Culhane.



British humorist Paddy Roberts made a record about The Pie-Eyed Piper, a randy flutist if there ever was one. He also made an album titled Songs For Gay Dogs featuring a dog on the front cover. It's tough to not love a guy who recorded a tune titled "Merry Christmas, You Suckers."



Numerous cartoons cast their series' headliners as pied pipers - and Porky Pig turns up more than once in this role. Pied Piper Porky, directed by Bob Clampett, strikes this viewer as less a Pied Piper story than an excuse to give the porcine protagonist a wiseguy rodent adversary with a voice patterned on Eddie Anderson from Jack Benny's radio show.

Porky Pig - Pied Piper Porky (1939) from WB Cartoons on Vimeo.

Clearly influenced by the aforementioned Looney Tune cartoon, the following Columbia Fable by future Bob Clampett crew storyman Lou Lilly also stars a loudmouthed wiseacre mouse. Some of the over-the-top gags seen here turn up in one of the Clampett cartoons Lou Lilly storyboarded, Buckaroo Bugs.

Having the Daffy Duck/Bugs Bunny character be as extreme as possible while breaking the fourth and fifth walls repeatedly anticipates Tex Avery's "let's turn the animated cartoon upside down, backwards and sideways" Screwball Squirrel series, featuring a character so extreme and obnoxious Avery eventually bumped him off. Maybe Lou and Tex were friends.



Director and longtime Warner Bros. ace animator Robert McKimson and crew return to the Pied Piper of Hamelin legend in Playing The Piper.

The animated cartoon closest to the original story, not surprisingly in the least, was produced by Walt Disney, always intrigued by fairytales, folk stories and legends. This cartoon, which I first saw on a VHS collection of Silly Symphonies way back when, is surprisingly chilling and effective. Watch it to the end.

One of the hot new record releases of August 1967 was Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, referring more to Pan than to the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Given that it was 1967, everyone was pie-eyed, especially the band's founder, Syd Barrett.



At Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we enjoy this early experimental version of Pink Floyd and especially Barrett's guitar playing. This psychedelic incarnation of the group was filmed three times in 1967 to promote songs from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and later to promote the second Pink Floyd album, A Saucerful Of Secrets in 1968.



Just how today's post transitioned from Brian Wilson to Tommy Dorsey to Walter Lantz Swing Symphonies to Paddy Roberts to Looney Tunes to Columbia Fables to Silly Symphonies to Pink Floyd, we don't know. And the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog has no clue why we forgot all about Crispian St. Peter's Pied Piper tune, either.