Song We On A Roll Now
posted by on September 28 at 15:33 PM
Now you’ve got me thinking, Trent.
About the time I first heard “Big Balls”—I’d put it around 1980—me and the neighborhood kids were also into a lesser known but just as classic novelty song.
The Jimmy Castor Bunch’s “Troglodyte” was a funksploitation track from 1972. The song—if you can even call it that; it’s more of a lowbrow gag set to music— followed the travails of a lonely caveman and his evolutionary quest to get laid. The object of his neanderthal desire: “Her name was Bertha. Bertha Butt! She was one of the Butt sisters!”
Castor’s raunchier-than-raunchy delivery is hilarious—and borderline racist self-parody, but that part never got to us kids. It was that one line: “Her name was Bertha. Bertha Butt!” Plus that super-dope, super-fly funk groove is HARD, even to a 6-year-old.
The Jimmy Castor Bunch have gone on to be sampled all up and down the hiphop family tree.
Next up: “Boogie in Your Butt” by Eddie Murphy.
This is perfect!! This is the answer!! This is where today has been heading!! I feel so much better.
“Troglodyte” both scared the hell out of me and cracked me up when I heard it on the radio as a y00f. It's definitely one of the pinnacles of novelty funk. They don't make 'em like that anymore...
Don't sleep on "Bertha Butt Boogie (Pts. 1 & 2)" either.
Your description is spot-on. I find "Troglodyte" hard to resist. And yeah, it's straight-up sexist, but the title makes that clear--enlightened cavemen, anyone?--and I love the way Castor delivers lines like, "He'd grab her by the hair. You can't do that today, fellas, cause it might come off!" It's like Redd Foxx on funk.
@4: I think the Jimmy Castor Bunch had tongues in cheek when writing those lyrics. I hope so, anyway.
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