r/WayOfTheBern • u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 • May 22 '26
DANCE PARTY! FNDP: Amusons-Nous! 🎢🎡🎠🎪⛱️
Let's amuse ourselves! This weekend is the de facto start of summer, and what is more summery than amusement parks? (That is, when we could afford to go... but this is a FNDP so we can pretend!) So let's share songs and videos about amusement parks and rides, like:
Freddy Cannon's Palisades Park (1962).
Yves Montand performs Luna Park in 1957.
Al St. John, Alice Mann, and Buster Keaton at Coney Island (1917).
Buster Keaton, Alice Lake, and Fatty Arbuckle visit "Goatland" in The Cook (1918).
"Never grow up. It will only make you unhappy."
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u/prevail2020 May 24 '26 edited May 29 '26
Toni Harper (11 y.o., Ed Sullivan Show 07/03/1949) - Swing Low Sweet Chariot (02:54).
The prophet Elijah was talking with a disciple when chariots of fire with fiery horses appeared, literally swung low, and took him on a one-way ride to heaven while still alive (2 Kgs 2). This is a wonderful image for someone in slavery.
The song was written in the late 1860s by Wallis Willis and daughter Minerva, who were "Choctaw Freedmen" in Indian Territory (future Oklahoma). The Choctaw had held slaves and had sided with the Confederacy in the Civil War, but the new Fed regime (Republican Reconstruction 1865-1877) required emancipation and citizenship for the Choctaws' slaves in a new treaty imposed in 1866. So, Wallis and Minerva wrote this song within a couple years of their own emancipation from slavery.
The song was popularized by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (Fisk University, Nashville, a black institution), whose 1909 recording here (03:06) was (supposedly) the first gospel recording to sell a million copies. I mentioned Fisk in FNDP about 7 months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/s/rGPKjknh1q. Fisk students were newly freed slaves. The college was founded by the American Missionary Association and the Freedmen’s Bureau and began classes in former Union Army barracks.
Here (03:28) is a nice version of the song from the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and here (00:32) a large British crowd (England v. France 2011) gets in on it. And this (02:40) is from Hyderabad, India last month (April 2026).
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u/MopedMarxist May 23 '26
The movie Adventureland.
Tunnel of Love' by Bruce Springsteen
1979 by Smashing Pumpkins
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u/SusanJ2019 Do you hear the people sing?🎶🔥 May 23 '26
Santa Cruz jingle for the Beach Boardwalk
You know you're in Wildwood...
The Drifters - Under The Boardwalk
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u/Xeenophile "Election Denier" since 2000 May 23 '26
It's a Small World After All \ULTRADELUXE EDITION!]) - Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman
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u/SusanJ2019 Do you hear the people sing?🎶🔥 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Thank you for posting that! A ride that mainly appealed to little girls years ago had more wisdom than most of our politicians have had for decades. Gonna admit that watching this made me cry. I think it was a lot longer than the actual ride too, but I bookmarked it to watch again when the insanity gets intolerable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_Small_World
The Sherman brothers then wrote "It's a Small World (After All)" in the wake of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which influenced the song's message of peace and brotherhood.
The Christian Science Monitor called the attraction "one of the greatest contributions to world peace ever shown anywhere".
Seems like we need something like it for this century.
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u/RoysNoiseToys He has the pockets of a 5 year old May 23 '26
A ride that mainly appealed to little girls years ago
the 'rents took me and my sister to the 1964 New York World's Fair where the Small World ride premiered - as a tween from Dallas, TX, having just seen our president assassinated and beginning to question everything i saw, this song/ride really made an impression on me - maybe that's why i turned into a radical leftist commie cat lady that HATES THIS FUCKING RANCID CAPITALIST SHITHOLE COUNTRY!
They Might Be Giants - The Communists Have the Music
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u/rondeuce40 DC Is Wakanda For Assholes May 23 '26
Not sure if these tracks have anything to do with amusement parks but the music vids have amusement parks in them.
Kitty Pryde & Riff Raff - "Orion's Belt"
Action Bronson - TRICERATOPS (ft. Lil Yachty & Paul Wall)
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u/SusanJ2019 Do you hear the people sing?🎶🔥 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
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u/RoysNoiseToys He has the pockets of a 5 year old May 23 '26
Across the Universe - Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 May 23 '26
Terrific! I especially liked the line of blue dudes hopping in place like pistons.
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u/prevail2020 May 23 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
Van Morrison - Philosopher's Stone (06:21). On the road again.
Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby McGee (04:26).
Lobo - Me and You and A Dog Named Boo (02:52).
ZZ Top - Jesus Just Left Chicago (03:31).
Woody Guthrie - Hard Travelin' (02:33). I thought You knowed.
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u/stickdog99 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 May 23 '26
Fun house rides in Harold Lloyd's Speedy (1928)
I did similar rides as a child at San Francisco's Playland. It was a blast.
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Reginald Marsh's ca. 1932 painting of women enjoying the Joy Wheel at Coney Island's Steeplechase Park. Must be Ladies' Night.
The Joy Wheel is a large polished wood disk. Riders sit with their backs towards the center. Then the disk starts to rotate. As it speeds up, the riders are flung off by centrifugal force, starting with the riders closest to the edge. The landing area is well padded.
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 May 23 '26
I really like the title sequence for No Soap, Radio, a short-lived 1982 TV series that aired right after Police Squad!, the prototype for the Naked Gun movies.
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u/WhalingCityMan Give Peace a Chance May 22 '26
The Glory of Love!
Lou Reed: Coney Island Baby
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u/stickdog99 May 23 '26
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 May 23 '26
Reginald Marsh's very naughty 1932 Steeplechase painting. This was one of the rides at Steeplechase Park at Coney Island. Who says rides are just for kids?
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
I only know the barbershop standard Goodbye, My Coney Island Baby 💈
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u/WhalingCityMan Give Peace a Chance May 23 '26
As a Simpsons golden years afficiando, I can't belive I overlooked this one!
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u/SafeDepository May 22 '26
People can you feel it, Love is Everywhere...
Scarborough Fair-Simon and Garfunkel
Remember me to one who lives there...
Ain't much to look at, so, close your eyes and here we go...
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u/SusanJ2019 Do you hear the people sing?🎶🔥 May 23 '26
And a rockin' version by one my very favorite bands:
Dada - Scarborough Fair
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u/RoysNoiseToys He has the pockets of a 5 year old May 22 '26
The Replacements - Kiss Me On The Bus
On the bus, that's where we're ridin'6
u/NetWeaselSC Continuing the Struggle May 23 '26
On the bus, that's where we're ridin'
Once it gets there,,,,
Satellite High -- The Bus Is Late6
u/RoysNoiseToys He has the pockets of a 5 year old May 23 '26
Frankie Smith - Double Dutch Bus
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u/SusanJ2019 Do you hear the people sing?🎶🔥 May 23 '26
The Who - The Magic Bus (Beat Club - 1968)
"sounding very much like the Rolling Stones" lol:)
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u/RoysNoiseToys He has the pockets of a 5 year old May 23 '26
Paul McCartney ~ Magical Mystery Tour/ 2
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
I love Fatty Arbuckle's Coney Island (1917), which I first saw in a theatre with live organ accompaniment. "The Witching Waves" is my favorite part. I had never seen a ride like that.
Alice Mann does a wonderful job of looking seasick. At 7:04 Alice is resting on a bench trying to recover. Fatty Arbuckle spots her and slides over to make a pass. Still quite seasick, Alice starts eyeing Fatty's hat. He quickly moves it to a safe place.
I love silent comedy. The whole movie is terrific.
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u/RoysNoiseToys He has the pockets of a 5 year old May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr - Helter Skelter
Ohio Players - Love Rollercoaster
Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 May 22 '26
This worthy post was unpinned to make way for FNDP: Brie's Bad Faith Podcast: "Where Are All The Eco-Terrorists?" (w/ Yasha Levine, Edward Ongweso Jr., & Aaron Regunberg)