I have said before: my father's idea of "culturing his children up" was playing us his 45s. One song he played us was "Guitarzan" by Ray Stevens, of which my mother did not approve. Why? Because Jane tells Guitarzan to shut up. My mother did not like us to say "shut up." Of course, she didn't disapprove of "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and it has a bad word in it--go figure.
Aside from the questionable lyrics, this song always had me a little baffled. How does a monkey get "tight"? (Yes, I was a very sheltered child.) And then there's this whole part with a pile of letters that I didn't really understand. I got "He ordered Chet's guitar course C.O.D." Obviously he mail-ordered somebody's correspondence course on guitars and will pay for it on arrival. At the time I didn't know who Chet was, but now I know Chet is my father-in-law's idol. Oh yeah, he played the guitar or something.
The next part says Guitarzan "makes A and E and he's working on B and digs C and W and R and B. . ." What's with all the letters, man? I suspected A, E, B, and C were notes or chords, but the W and R were elusive in my mind. Of course you've already known that A, E, and B are his learning to play the chords, and the other letters are Country and Western (C & W) and Rhythm and Blues (R & B). Yeah, it took me awhile to figure this part out.
One thing that didn't confuse me was the "carry moonbeams home in a jar" because that was another song on my father's list of "culturing his children up." Strangely, it was not the (BEST) Bing Crosby version. Go figure.
I haven't mentioned Jane or the monkey, but they're pretty self-explanatory. One thing I haven't understood yet is this: they live in the jungle--how can they mail order anything? Where'd he get his guitar anyway? Why does he wear B.V.D.s and not animal skin loin cloths? What was his name before he started playing the guitar--Zan? So many unanswered questions. . .
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