Novelty is not a lost genre. Some will find themselves working through it and striking gold. Occasionally we hear a blip of interest. The Wiggles covering Tame Impala. Devo covering The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction. Ultimately, the genre of novelty showcases that infiltrate mid-to-late-40s birthday parties shines a light on the darker side of pop. The Village People had their biggest hit, YMCA, moulded away from fascinating hit to pop culture joke. Their dip into novelty was inevitable because the public perceived it as such, and have since applied colloquial flickers which mean function rooms up and down the UK must play it, Bohemian Rhapsody and something from the Phil Collins compilation, …Hits. But there is fun to be had with covers and Johnny Cash, Ringo Starr and Bob Dylan know it – to name but a few.
Novelty is not just a song for the sake of capturing a trend. Often it can be a chance to free yourself from the watchful eye of a record label knowingly shorting your stock. Other times it can be a light way of understanding and revealing your addictions. A safe space for artists to create, and often it can be some of their best work. In the case of Ringo Starr with his No No Song from Goodnight Vienna, the chance of tackling harsher interpretations of drink and drugs would never settle well with the image of a light-hearted, fun-loving former member of The Beatles. Starr held firm in his route through stardom as the liberated, light musician who was never trying too hard. He has no All Things Must Pass or Band on the Run, but the closest he got was the exceptional, novelty-sounding No No Song.
It may have all the trumpets and swing of a Mr. Blobby feature, but it is the lyrical intertextuality which makes this such a fine Starr song. A tongue-in-cheek tune with a harsher reality underneath it. Novelty is not just for the lull of a birthday party but a way of sneaking in tougher material in a career not quite fond of it. Starr has the benefit of being the light and liberated freewheeling member, his solo efforts are more an excuse to partner up with his favourites and friends than anything pushing the fold. Good pop fun was on his mind and nothing else. Yet Goodnight Vienna for all its space-age shlock and silver appeal has real heart, particularly No No Song. The late Hoyt Axton had written a song which considered a darker period for Starr which would occur a decade later.
A spell at a detox clinic with Barbara Bach in 1988 can be recontextualised by the straight and narrow song. Starr and his modern social media presence have been a wonderful new sight, one filled with equal parts joy and confusion as he peddles peace and love. Reflect on why his presence on Instagram is so warm, it is the joys of a man with a life to live. No No Song may predate the public admittance of alcoholism Starr gave to his listeners in the early 1990s and reflective interviews since then, but it now serves as a heartwarming mantra for life – and we could do better ourselves to learn from it.
We can learn too from the late Johnny Cash and the way he manoeuvred out of a record label with a riotous studio effort, Chicken in Black. A mockery of his character in response to feeling the studio were sneering at him already. Tank what little profit you make the label and see yourself out. It did not quite happen that way. For starters, Chicken in Black as a novelty song, as a Cash piece, is genuinely quite fun. A nice and light piece from Cash exposes a lighter side to the Man in Black which was always underlining his best efforts of the time. From it comes a chance to poke fun at a career defined by the early days. This is pre-Rick Rubin, after all. What comes from it is the chance to break free from an expectation. Cash was at a point of no return and Chicken in Black feels like the first step towards revitalisation and regrowing his self-respect. He may have renounced the song but there is no escaping its impact.
The “intentionally atrocious” song has humour and novelty at its heart despite B-Side Battle of Nashville being a straight-shooting slice of Cash quality. There are extra layers to Cash on his Chicken in Black piece, what with the self-referential moments and the implication that he is no better or famous than a chicken with his songs. Where Starr tackled a mighty personal distinction and Cash put the first foot forward in reanimating his career, not all the greats can mark a solid novelty track. Ultimately, they can be causes of great quality, a sincerity leaves hard-to-crack artists unmasked. Unless that artist is Bob Dylan.
In which case it is impossible to know what much of Wiggle Wiggle is about, and to an extent the album it released on, Under the Red Sky. Impenetrably strange and even if you can see through the cracks it is not all too interesting. Perhaps one of the worst songs Dylan put out and it is because he does not grasp the indeterminable style of the novelty pop song. It is not to wiggle away the day in a two-minute shot of your opening album. Yet novelty is taken at face value by the man who has managed to tuck subtle references to his life in the most abstract of his works. A poor showing, then, but a great example of how not to do a novelty track. Under the Red Sky is filled with questionable decisions but comes at a period, like Cash and Starr, of artistic floundering. We turn to odd hobbies when we are at a loss for what to do. Whether that is penning songs which will be forgotten and revived decades later by internet-savvy searches or getting really into watching coffee bean reviews in the dead of night.
We all have our vices and it seems the route of novelty work for many is a way to exorcise trouble. Whether it is Starr with his alcoholism or Cash with his recording perils. Dylan too is no stranger to using lighter works as a way of reviving some goodwill in a derailed career. Under the Red Sky comes at a time when his stock as a musician could not be lower – despite raking in audiences on the live circuit. Sometimes the use of a novelty song is catharsis. Whatever the wildcard reason for pulling out a song like Wiggle Wiggle or Chicken in Black, there is still an artistic earnestness at its core. A chance to redeem oneself in the face of spiralling contemporary interest. It is the inevitable Catch-22. Be remembered for some breezy work while your discography suffers or push on with merit in your heart and an empty wallet. Novelty songs can sometimes be a route out of those feelings of despondency. Long may they continue.
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