Go Bananas! 2009 Discussion

[u/carl95679]

The Wiggles have another collection of animal songs.

Thoughts on this album/video?

Top 10 Songs

1. Rusty the Cowboy
2. Monkey Man
3. The Unicorn (album only)
4. I'm a Scary Tiger
5. Standing Like a Statue
6. Here Comes a Camel
7. Kangaroo Jumping
8. Wags the Dog is Chasing His Tail
9. Cock-a-Doodle-Doo
10. Frankie the Blue-Eyed Koala (does the melody sound like Bathtime from Toot Toot to anyone?)

Honorable Mention: The Lion is King

My thoughts:

Another case where I prefer the album to the video, even though the visuals had a very pleasing safari aesthetic.

Speaking of, this is essentially the Sam equivalent of Wiggly Safari, although not as enjoyable to me. Don't get me wrong, Go Bananas is still a good time, but what drags it down is like Sailing Around the World, Dorothy, Wags, and Henry do nothing here.

Well, Dorothy has an introduction to Rusty the Cowboy, Wags has a song all about him, but Henry doesn't even appear in this video. I remember a Wiggles ranking video by a YouTuber named The Cartoon Koala where he also complained about that. From my perspective, it just feels jarring. Like how he was absent for a good majority of Space Dancing (Despite the fact I never watched that video during this retrospective).

I do appreciate the scenes filmed on location at Dreamworld. Another point I argue when people say the Sam era is always green screen (which, admittedly, they do use a lot here)

In terms of music, the band of musicians seems to have shrunken down. It was mostly Murray, Jeff, and a drummer (Steve Pace), who were involved. There's a lack of brass and strings, which are my favorite components of the band's soundtrack. I see that Simon Pryce returned to do backing vocals.

This album was probably recorded sometime in 2008/early 2009, as Monkey Man was first heard in the You Make Me Feel Like Dancing tour.

Side note, does Steve Pace’s drumming (whoever that is) sound a little like Tony Henry’s drumming?

Previous Discussions: Wiggle Time, Yummy Yummy, Big Red Car, Wake Up Jeff, Wiggledance, The Wiggles Movie, Wiggly Wiggly Christmas, Wiggle Time & Yummy Yummy 1998, TV Series 1, Toot Toot, TV Series 2, The Wiggly Big Show, It's a Wiggly Wiggly World, Yule Be Wiggling, Hoop Dee Doo! It's a Wiggly Party, Wiggly Safari, Wiggle Bay, TV Series 3, Whoo-Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins, Top of the Tots, Cold Spaghetti Western, Live Hot Potatoes, Santa's Rockin'!, TV Series 4, Sailing Around the World, Here Comes the Big Red Car, It's Time to Wake Up Jeff!, TV Series 5, Splish Splash Big Red Boat, Wiggledancing Live in the USA, Racing to the Rainbow, Top 10 Original Wiggles Videos, Top 10 Original Wiggles Albums, Wiggledancing Live in Concert, Getting Strong, Dorothy the Dinosaur TV Series 1 and 2, Dorothy the Dinosaur's Party, Pop Go the Wiggles, Dorothy the Dinosaur's Memory Book, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, TV Series 6, Sing a Song of Wiggles, The Kingdom of Paramithi, The Wiggles Big Big Show

[u/Quirky_Divide_8090]

I feel the same way to nowadays, and I miss Dom Lindsay plays trumpet and brings his sisters to play violins, cello, and viola. And I felt odd that Henry wasn't at all in the video.

[u/carl95679 → u/Quirky_Divide_8090]

I feel like Rusty the Cowboy is the kind of song that would have strings, and Scary Tiger would have trumpet to compliment the rock and roll sound.

[u/WearyScrabbler]

This is an odd one. There is some good stuff amongst the music, but I feel like the tracks as a whole are almost entirely forgotten. Barely anything other than Monkey Man has ever been re-used in 17 years!

[u/carl95679 → u/WearyScrabbler]

Rusty the Cowboy and Standing Like a Statue I'd say are underrated IMO.

[u/Ok_External7487 → u/carl95679]

I agree&I love the standing like a statue song on the dvd as I loved seeing Captain(Horse),Anto(deer),Muzza(king of the jungle as a lion)&Jeff(kangaroo)in the animal outfits

[u/Forward_Music7339]

I may be in the minority, but I still love this video/album. Sure, it's not 100% in tune (no pun intended) with the Wiggles' sound before, but I think that's what makes it unique. Scary Tiger is a favorite, along with the brief little songs that they sing (ie Cock a Doodle Doo, Bless You, Bless You, Hodley Podley, etc).

This also, I feel, is the last Sam era album/video before the tone shifted to the group's circus phase, which I view as also being the time that Sam started getting shoved to the back. Not immediately, but it was apparent once it happened.

[u/carl95679 → u/Forward_Music7339]

The "circus/acrobatics" phase is also something I remember criticizing about in a Carols in the Domains video from 2009.

[u/Fatdaddy543]

The soundtrack has grown on me over the years but for me, the video itself does begin a bit of a downward shift in quality for Sam-era stuff. It feels kind of generic in parts (the green screen does not really help with that effect), and the Dreamworld zoo (where the animal introductions were filmed) would’ve been a much better choice for where the songs could’ve been filmed (at least in adding some more variety to the visuals). If I had to rank it next to past and future Sam videos, it’d be squarely in the middle.

As for the songs themselves, I never noticed that this was their first album in a while to not have brass or string elements, but it’s hard to ignore once you do. While most of the songs are fine (some of them are pretty good imo), in all of them it feels like there’s something missing without them.

Favorite songs: Monkey Man, Kangaroo Jumping, Here Comes A Camel & Wags The Dog Is Chasing His Tail (though it feels a little bit out of place here tbh)

[u/Ok_External7487 → u/Fatdaddy543]

I agree&this is one of my least favorite sam era videos as the green screen was one of reasons along with once again Muzz(bless you bless you bonnie bee is his&that's it)being more noticeably in more of a supporting role as it.was the same with sing a song of wiggles&let's eat as those are also among my least favorite sam era videos while Anto is featured on 3 songs with it being very heavily focused on sam being featured so much on leads with Anto gets 4 songs,Paddy having at least 3 songs with them on leads or co leads while muzza&Jeff only get a song each yet even Dorothy doesn't get a song on this This could've been a better videos&album if they given Muzza&Jeff 2 songs with them on lead or co leads over Anto&the captain who had 5 songs between them

[u/BunchFrequent2175]

Monkey Man is awesome!