At least one of the dancers was a former Martha Graham diva - Oh my!
"The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" is a song composed by Charles R. Grean and performed by Leonard Nimoy in 1968, telling the story of Bilbo Baggins and his adventures in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit. A music video was produced featuring Nimoy and a group of color-coordinated photogenic teenagers, all wearing plastic Vulcan ears, singing and dancing on a beach. Since its rediscovery and propagation over the Internet, it has become a relatively well-known example of 1960s camp and is often cited as one of the worst songs of all time. For some reason, at around 2002 the song was distributed on P2P networks as being by Radiohead, causing confusion among Radiohead fans who had never heard of the original by Nimoy before.
Producer Ant sampled Leonard Nimoy singing the line "In the land of ice and snow", from "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" in the Atmosphere track "Always Coming Back Home to You/Say Sssh..." on the album "Seven's Travels". "Say Sssh..." is a tribute to Minnesota and the Midwest that comes after a lull following the conclusion of "Always Coming Back Home to You". It was the first song played by Minnesota Public Radio's contemporary music service "The Current" on KCMP 89.3 FM in the Twin Cities in 2005. It was also an audio clip played as part of a question on an episode of Jeopardy! aired January 5, 2006.
One dancer is Adele Yoshioka - of Laugh-in fame.
The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
Thursday, March 16, 2006
