My Top 1000 Songs #708: Charlton Heston

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

This one's a definite anomaly on the list: a band I don't necessarily care for, a song/album I've never owned, here largely because of an awesome video. Which, speaking as part of the original MTV generation, I feel no shame in admitting.

Stump were an 80s Irish indie/experimental band who owed no small debt to Captain Beefheart; not exactly cut out for mass consumption. Yet "Charlton Heston," from their sole LP, 1988's A Fierce Pancake, managed to break into MTV's 120 Minutes--and rightly so. The song itself, an ode to the Ten Commandments film and the namesake actor, is actually fairly catchy--yes, the percussion consists largely of croaking frogs, but the twangy guitar is amazing--but it's that insanely creepy and wonderful video that elevates an otherwise kinda silly novelty song.

Beyond the video, the song earns its place here for not one but TWO catch-phrases that have been etched in my brain for 35 years. I will NEVER hear the name Charlton Heston without thinking "Charlton Heston put his vest on"... and not once in three and a half decades have I heard the phrase "lights camera action" without insisting on shouting out "Lights! Camel! Action!"

Plus, there just aren't a lot of songs I feel compelled to pull up on YouTube every year as we prepare to run through the Ten Plagues at our Passover seder.


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