The Story Behind "I Beg Your Pardon" by Kon Kan

 80s, Canada, Flashback Fridays, Hi-NRG, House Music, Music, Retro, Synth-Pop, Video  3 Responses »
Mar 222013
 

Cana­dian synth-pop duo Kon Kan released “I Beg Your Par­don” in 1988. The first sin­gle from their debut album, Move to Move, peaked at #19 on the Cana­dian Sin­gles Chart, #5 on the U.K. Sin­gles Chart, and #15 on the U.S. Bill­board Hot 100.

Kevin Wynne sang lead vocals on all but two songs on Move to Move. Barry Har­ris also pro­vided vocals, key­board, and gui­tar. Har­ris recorded two more albums using the Kon Kan moniker before he formed Outta Con­trol. He gained his most suc­cess as Thun­der­puss 2000, one-half of a remix duo with DJ Chris Cox. Wynne left the band after the first album and worked on the busi­ness side of the music indus­try. Today, rumor has it he’s a semi-pro video golfer.

The song gen­er­ated con­tro­versy for Kon Kan’s sam­pling of “Rose Gar­den” by Lynn Ander­son, “Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)” by GQ, “Get Up and Boo­gie” by Sil­ver Con­nec­tion, “Call Me” by Spagna, and the open­ing bars of theme from movie The Mag­nif­i­cent Seven.

The band’s name is a play on the abbre­vi­a­tion for Cana­dian Cotent (Can­Con), which requires a third of all music played on Cana­dian com­mer­cial radio sta­tions must be Cana­dian in origin.

Ver­sions
I Beg Your Par­don [Radio Mix] 3’59
I Beg Your Par­don [Club Mix] 6’39
I Beg Your Par­don [In the Green — House Mix] [Theb-4We Re-Mixitmix] 7’43
I Beg Your Par­don [I Beg Your House] 5’16

Music Video
The music video for “I Beg Your Par­don” is rather straight for­ward. Wynne sings into the receiver of a pay phone while Har­ris dances about and plays a portable key­board. A 70s lounge lizard offers comic relief, while a cow­girl who resem­bles the love child of Roy Orbi­son and k.d. lang lip-syncs to the Lynn Ander­son sam­ple and plays an accor­dion. A group of young men and women pro­vide some arm motions dur­ing the bridge

Mem­o­ries
I remem­ber walk­ing into the Sound Ware­house on Hulen Street in Fort Worth after I fin­ished my shift at Tar­get and the Move to Move album was play­ing. I believe “Puss n’ Boots/These Boots (Are Made for Walk­ing)” was the song play­ing at the time I walked in. I browsed the record bins and by the time “I Beg Your Par­don (I Never Promised You a Rose Gar­den) [12″ Mix]” played, I decided to buy the CD.

When I first started hang­ing out with my col­lege room­mate, Chris, he kept ask­ing me if I had ever heard this cool song he wanted to find. He’d try to hum the melody, but he could never get it right. One day, months later, I put my Kon Kan CD on to lis­ten while I cleaned house and Chris came run­ning out of this bed­room as soon as “I Beg Your Par­don (I Never Promised You a Rose Gar­den)” began to play, shout­ing, “That’s it! That’s it!”

For my 23rd birth­day, Chris took me to din­ner and to see the movie adap­ta­tion of Car­rie Fisher’s Post­cards from the Edge. When we came back to the apart­ment, Kon Kan blasted from my stereo along to a strobe light. My friends Trixie and Susan were wait­ing to kid­nap me and take me to a com­edy club. It was a fun night!

What are your mem­o­ries of “I Beg Your Par­don” by Kon Kan?

 Posted by at 7:00 am

The Walking Grateful Dead Toys Debut in Time for Holidays

 80s, Canada, Family, Humor, Kids, Music, Parents, Parody, Pop Culture, Tall Tale Tuesdays, Toys, Zombies  No Responses »
Jul 242012
 

Rhino Enter­tain­ment and Ken­ner Prod­ucts have joined forces to cre­ate a new toy that will appeal to small chil­dren and baby boomers by reimag­in­ing the danc­ing bears from the back of the Grate­ful Dead’s His­tory of the Grate­ful Dead, Vol­ume One (Bear’s Choice) as zom­bies.  Ken­ner, who has pro­duced the pop­u­lar Care Bears, for the past 30 years, will offer a line of ani­ma­tronic, multi-colored, zom­bie bears in time for the hol­i­day sea­son known as the Walk­ing Grate­ful Dead.

The toys will march slowly across the floor, attracted by move­ment, while play­ing Grate­ful Dead songs, with altered lyrics.  For exam­ple, instead of “Uncle John’s Band,” the bears play “Uncle John’s Brain.”  Other revised songs in the Walk­ing Grate­ful Dead set list include:  “Johnny Taste Good,” “Munchin’,“Let Me Bite Your Eyes Away,” and “The Zom­bies Never Stopped.”

So far, prod­uct test­ing has proven the Walk­ing Grate­ful Dead to be a win­ner.  “Tod­dlers just squeal with delight as they run from the lum­ber­ing zom­bie bears,” said Karen Pardeau, Man­ager of Prod­uct Test­ing at Ken­ner.  “And it’s so cute to see them gig­gle when the bears cor­ner them and gnaw on their lit­tle hands and toes.”

Some Dead­heads have expressed dis­dain for the idea.  “I think Jerry Gar­cia would roll over in his grave if he ever saw walk­ing orange teddy bear in ripped tie-dye t-shirt march­ing across the linoleum with a decay­ing veg­gie bur­rito while it played bas­tardized ver­sions of his songs,” said Sky­lark Sun­shine, 57, a real­tor and tarot con­sul­tant in Tus­con, Arizona.

Other fans, seem to be okay with it.  “You know, Tele­tub­bies really creeped me out and they sold well and small chil­dren really seemed to be engaged with them,” said Mindy Mohan, 42, Edi­tor of Toy Chest, an indus­try that reviews and rates edu­ca­tional toys and mater­nity bras.  “How dif­fer­ent are Tele­tub­bies from zom­bie Care Bears?”

Hol­i­day sales will be the true indi­ca­tor of whether Rhino and Ken­ner are onto a hit.  Mean­while, Atkin­son Film-Art of Canada is already pro­duc­ing the toy’s first ani­mated spe­cial for tele­vi­sion, No Place to to Run from the Walk­ing Grate­ful Dead on the Fes­ti­val Cir­cuit.

Senator Scuttlebutt Proposes Bill to Keep Canadians Out of the Great State of Georgia

 Canada, Humor, News of the Weird, Parody, Pop Culture, Tall Tale Tuesdays  No Responses »
Jul 102012
 

State Sen­a­tor Boyd Scut­tle­butt of Kissim­i­coochee, Geor­gia, plans to pro­pose a bill that would pre­vent Cana­dian cit­i­zens from enter­ing the Peach State.

““I recently met a charm­ing fam­ily at a Stuckey’s when I stopped to use the facil­i­ties and buy a pecan log on my drive back from Atlanta,” Sen­a­tor Scut­tle­butt said.  “They were the pic­ture of the Amer­i­can dream, and then the father asked me, ‘Where can you go to get a brew, ay?’  And I said, ‘Son, this here is a dry county.  If you were from around these parts, you’d know that.’  And he said, We’re Cana­di­ans, actu­ally.’  A shiver went down my spine, because Canada is in the For­bid­den Zone, above the Mason-Dixon Line.  I felt dizzy and reached out to steady myself and knocked one of those birds that dips its beak in a glass of water off a shelf.”

Sen­a­tor Scut­tle­butt believes that Cana­di­ans have infil­trated Geor­gia to turn it into a Canukian State.  “Next thing you know, you’re salut­ing a beaver and singing ‘God Save the Queen,” Sen­a­tor Scut­tle­butt said.  “And they don’t like guns, and you know there’s noth­ing more unAmer­i­can than that!”

Ms. Aggie Ver­non, owner of the Greasy Spork, reported that the Cana­dian fam­ily did come into her diner.  “They had the nerve to order poutine–in front of their chil­dren, even,” Ver­non said.  “I said, ‘I am sorry, mis­ter, but you’ve obvi­ously mis­taken my restau­rant for a Viet­namese brothel.’  He acted all apolo­getic and tried to get me to believe he wanted french fries with brown gravy–and get this–cheese curds!  Who­ever heard of some­thing so gross?  I sug­gested he order off the menu, specif­i­cally the friend green tomato smoothie.”

““I’ll tell you what scares me most about those Cana­di­ans,” Sen­a­tor Scut­tle­butt said.  “They look just like Amer­i­cans, but they’re not.  They can sneak up on you just like them gays–or pod peo­ple!  So if you don’t want you kids grow­ing up and call­ing the let­ter ‘Z’ zed, which is of the devil, then you need to vote for my ‘No Canuck Left Behind’ bill.  Even now, I feel the shadow of social­ized med­i­cine creep­ing up on me.”