Post yer Cleopatras! (Oh... and Happy Birthday Howard Carter!)

[Ian Townsend]

138 today! I wrote this on the Spoke site (http://www.spokerecords.co.uk/sources_spk1101.html)a year ago

Also present on one Binky zip was Bent Forcep - I Know What Happened To Baby Jane, a Cleopatra name-checking novelty earworm of a song and one of a long line of Popcorn songs with Cleopatra in the title. Elizabeth Taylor's 1963 epic film may have nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox but it definitely inspired a generation of Popcorn, Mod and Reggae songwriters. If this song is some kind of response to the 1962 psychological thriller ''Whatever Happened To Baby Jane' then it's a very obtuse one.

Post your favourite Egyptian / Cleopatra namecheckers!

Bent Forcep (of course)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uzmyX7PIgc


Some increasingly pricey Popcorn from Jack la Forge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIehKTa8_6Y&feature=related


And a thinly disguised 'Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho' Ska with added - Cleo. (Not great on their history the Ska types).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po_bbGLw-a4

[Ian Townsend]

Didn't know this!
Veeeeeeery nice.
Search is set.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ofRU0jCfM

[Gingham Kitchen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4SylgJBKDE

Bonkers.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43HtL9C0DQE

Memorably daft girl grouper, occasionally achieving poignancy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTwnmoeEbAU

I LOVE this LP from start to finish.

[Carlos]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fsfpAtrJhIc/TuVcrDl8P1I/AAAAAAAADLo/opHvtLvOVNg/s1600/and-now-for-something-completely-different-113418-494-700.jpg


http://youtu.be/I_eSMMEaYLY

[Carlos]

The only mention of Cleopatra is on the label, but it's a great mover :)


http://youtu.be/MGsOOPbtlDc

[eruditio]

Also present on one Binky zip was Bent Forcep - I Know What Happened To Baby Jane, a Cleopatra name-checking novelty earworm of a song and one of a long line of Popcorn songs with Cleopatra in the title. Elizabeth Taylor's 1963 epic film may have nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox but it definitely inspired a generation of Popcorn, Mod and Reggae songwriters. If this song is some kind of response to the 1962 psychological thriller ''Whatever Happened To Baby Jane' then it's a very obtuse one.

Someone on the Womens History Forum wrote a piece about 'Cleopatra Fascination' but unfortunately it's all structured around questions.


Why the fascination? Is it because her exercise of power was unusual, because she was a woman? Is it because she is seen as a freak, an exception, a contrast to the "natural" state of women? Is it just the fascination that a "mere woman" was a key player at a crucial and fascinating time in Roman history?

Is it because her life highlights the different status of women in Egypt, compared to Rome and later western culture? Is it because Cleopatra's education and intelligence stand out, fostering admiration or fear?

Is it because her story is about love and sex? Is it because the dysfunctional family relationships (to use current jargon) are fascinating, no matter when and where they happen? Is it just the two-millennium-long version of obsession with celebrity gossip? (Plutarch's account, with its anecdotes of sensational incidents, reminds me very much of a People Magazine story.)

Is it because Cleopatra represents the struggle of a small nation to stand up to the larger forces of history, as Egypt fought, through its last Pharaoh, to both keep peace with Roman power and stay as independent as possible?

In emphasizing the exceptional case of the Greek-Macedonian ruler of an Egyptian kingdom, over the lives of ordinary women, do we misrepresent what women's lives were really like in ancient and classical times?

The image of Cleopatra, ruling through a combination of her calculated liaisons with Roman rulers and her own heritage, has been largely shaped by men writing and painting for male audiences. What does the fascination with Cleopatra tell us about how men have thought about women through these two thousand years?

I have no easy answers -- I don't think there are any easy answers. I do think that what an age thinks about Cleopatra has a lot to say about what that age thinks about women in power.

[Ian Townsend]

OMG. How could I forget? This is also a staple in my play out box. :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WYZCDvq5OA