Question: At the beginning, Lyle refers to the song Camptown races as "The Camptown lady"? Is this simply cause he's stupid, or is there any other reason?
Charles Austin Miller
6th Jul 2014
Blazing Saddles (1974)
21st Jun 2020
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Question: Mel Brooks consciously and deliberately filled Blazing Saddles with anachronisms, this was part of the film's humour. But one thing has always niggled at my mind. Blazing Saddles is set in 1874. Quite early on in the film the whites ask Cleavon Little/Bart why African Americans are not singing work songs. The African Americans then begin acapella harmonised version of Cole Porters "I Get A Kick Out Of You" (written for the 1934 musical "Anything Goes"). But in October 1974, shortly after Blazing Saddles had its UK release, an otherwise unknown Australian singer called Gary Shearston had a top ten UK hit with a cover of "I Get A Kick Out Of You." Was there any connection? Did Blazing Saddles revive interest in the song?
Answer: Thank you for that. So there was no direct connection. Maybe the song was going around in "the collective consciousness" (whatever that might be) in late 1974. A small bit of extra trivia: Cleavon Little/Bart sings the line that mentions cocaine. When Cole Porter wrote "I get a kick out of you" for the 1934 stage musical "Anything Goes" he wrote the line "some get a kick from cocaine." When the musical was adapted for the 1936 movie the Production Code Administration objected to references to drug use in popular songs, so Cole Porter re-wrote the line as "some like the perfume in Spain." Cleavon Little/Bart has redressed the balance in "Blazing Saddles."
Answer: By the time "Blazing Saddles" used the song, Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You" had been covered literally dozens of times over the decades, so much so that it was a well-worn standard. In other words, it didn't really need reviving. There is no indication that Australian folk singer Gary Shearston was directly inspired by the song's use in "Blazing Saddles," or he probably would have admitted it for the sake of promotion. When asked about his eccentric cover of the Cole Porter song on the 1974 album "Dingo," Shearston simply replied that he "did it for fun," without elaborating. The acoustic guitar of Shearston's cover seemed more inspired by George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," and Shearston's vocals were described as "laid-back," while his stage performance of the song (which was a huge hit in the UK) was notable for Shearston's "deadpan" delivery. Shearston also either bungled or deliberately altered the lyrics in places, and he ended the song muttering about his girlfriend, by name. So, Shearston very much made the song his own, and the timing of his cover following on the heels of "Blazing Saddles" would seem to be pure coincidence.
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Chosen answer: The opening line of the song refers to the Camptown Ladies and the phrase "Camptown Races" never appears anywhere in the lyrics. If nobody told him otherwise, Lyle may simply have assumed that some variation on "Camptown Ladies" was the actual title.
Tailkinker ★
The actual title of the song was "Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races," written by American lyricist Stephen Foster and first published in 1850. Over many years on the minstrel show circuit, the title was shortened to "Camptown Races" and was sometimes erroneously called "Camptown Ladies." While the phrase "Camptown Races" doesn't appear in the lyrics, the phrase "Camptown Racetrack" does appear in the second line: "Camptown ladies sing dis song, doo-dah, doo-dah, Camptown Racetrack five miles long, oh-de-doo-dah-day." The song refers to Camptown, Pennsylvania, a real town with a popular horserace in the mid-1800s.
Charles Austin Miller