Existential Blues

[@ifor20got]

I played this for my wife this evening. She looked at me afterwards and said "Don't Ever Play That Song Again". As I read the comments she then said "There are Alot of people out there just as disturbing as You". I reminded her that ours was not a shotgum wedding.... Thank You WCCN 107.5 for airing Doctor Demento.....

[@andrewgilmore7669]

I first heard this on a Dr. Demento tape when I was 11 years old and it confused and scared me so much that I actually wrote a letter to Tom Stankus asking him what it was all about. He was kind enough to write me quite a lengthy letter in reply. I'm kicking myself for this, but I lost it somewhere, haven't seen it in years.

[@daveidmarx8296]

I used to hear this on Dr. Demento, which would air from 10-midnight, and this would usually come on towards the end near midnight at which point I'd be just about asleep (I used to sleep to the radio), so for the first dozen times I'd heard this song, I was usually in a half-dreamlike state, so it seemed like a surreal dream, especially during the "POPPIES! POPPIES! POPPIES!" part. It wasn't until later that I fully understood and appreciated the brilliance of this song. Long live T Bone! And Dr. Demento too!

[@INKYINKYBABY]

I had the same tape! Also featured the song 'fish heads' and 'poisoning the pigeons in the park '

[@BassByTheBay]

Can you summarize what he said?

[@andrewgilmore7669]

@@BassByTheBay Thanks for asking. I wish I could, but that was almost 25 years ago, so I really can’t remember.

[@BassByTheBay]

@@andrewgilmore7669 Ah, too bad. Would be fascinating to hear his explanation, especially written to a kid! 😊

[@flannelkid8416]

Oh the days of my misspent youth Listening to The Dr Demento show. I wouldn't change a thing if I could.

[@Scottydont66]

I remember listening to this as on Dr. Demento's show on Sunday nights on 94.7 Fm KMET as great memories!

[@brianchristen7735]

The Mighty Met

[@thexalon]

Wind up your radios!

[@DrDaveSalisburyPhDMBA]

I wired my alarm clock radio to the barbed wire fence behind my house, and I picked up Dr. Demento from Iceland. Never laughed so hard! Been hooked ever since!

[@mad196]

Little Bit of Heaven 94.7 KMET Tweedle Dee!

[@TheShrubbist]

Followed by Jim Ladd with Inner View

[@tigerbird7423]

Always one of my favorite songs. Takes me back to some very Demented days...

[@BoneCity]

But they cut out, "To Dream the Impossible Dream..."

[@michaelmcfarland1716]

@@BoneCity copyright thing. Stankus mentions it somewhere on another video of it.

[@matthewmarcinko9157]

If you were a longtime listener of Dr. Demento, like I was, you got familiar with this song pretty fast. "Existential Blues" was consistently on the "Funny Five" most requested songs list week in and week out.

[@PHAEDRIDER]

yep

[@mainantagonist]

And they eventually had to remove the Fiddler on the Roof excerpt, "To dreeamm the impossibULL dream..." The audio here is the edited version.

[@Voetistasneua]

Such a legendary song! Even C.1993 this played fairly often on the Dr. Demento Show! Thank you 107.7 KRXO Oklahoma City(at the time)!

[@eggolise]

First heard this on the Dr Demento show at age 13. I think the radio station was 94.7 KMET. The song has stuck with me all these years! Thanks so much for posting it!

[@rapid13]

Whoooya!

[@spokev]

I discovered the Dr. through a friend in middle school in 1972. I had multiple cassette tapes of the show.

[@handyhippie6548]

i been doing that field of poppies, poppies, poppies poppies. bit for over 30 years. nobody remembers where it is from.

[@Grimmtooth404]

I remember, effendi

[@soninChina]

handyhippie65 Saw Tom at a local bar in the 70’s. We partied hard with him.

[@billthomas2652]

I still reply to things: "How profound, wizard!"

[@annablyst6754]

I still answer 'Neon' when asked my sign.

[@inlinetwin7957]

Same!

[@haupper]

It's been 20 years since I heard it but I thought of it today for some reason. And every last second of it is burned into my brain. Thank you Dr. D.

[@escadrielle]

this was a standard played almost weekly on the dr. demento radio show, cool to hear it again

[@diagnosedgamer]

"I'll get you my pretty! And your little dog, Todo, too!" "I don't even HAVE a little dog Todo!" Cracks me up every time XD

[@soninChina]

Arryn Haynes omg. Too funny 😂

[@soninChina]

Any one here remember The Groggery In Oakville, CT?

[@nunyabusiness6400]

I still have a taped off Dr. Demento with the original line “I was on a questTo dream the impossible dream”

[@nym_9860]

Adding that ending was a marvelous touch. Thank You.

[@revryk]

I love this song..I grew up listening to Dr. Demento in the 80's( I am in my Thirties now), and have always felt that this song in particular had all the answers.Thanks for making this!

[@wendydavis622]

You just hear this song once and OMG u come back for more, cause it's so well done on so many levels! Disturbing can't let others know I enjoy this!

[@JazziopeiaGirl]

Brilliant video!!! Heard this song years ago on Dr. Demento. You've done it justice!!

[@DrDeepspace]

I've been careful to preserve and protect my digital copy of this song. It's a post-infringement version without the 'dream the impossible dream' refrains, but still great. I've only just thought to search it out online. Great to find so many other fans from back in the day! Stay demented!

[@dastardlygardengnome996]

I swear this song has been repeating in my head as I wade through my mundane existence as a college student.

[@BrandonOsborn404]

This was always my fav from Dr.D days - still meaningful and fun, years later ;) Rock on Tom! I lived not too far from him in CT, and had no idea until after I moved away.

[@christopherjholland]

Been over 30 years since I heard this classic. Watching wizard of Oz with poppies!!!

[@PeterAnger]

Makes total sense to me..... in an insane world

[@GwennPowers]

lmao

[@PeterAnger]

me too, gotta love it...

[@matthewschipper2023]

I absolutely love this song since i was a kid i remember having this song on dr dementoe cd

[@robgenautis1792]

This is AWESOME!!! thanks! My brother introduced me (figuratively) to Dr. D 40+ years ago. Sadly, he just passed, and I was looking up this song as a memory. Well done.

[@N70SAK]

"...to dream the imposssssible dreammm...." :P

[@GIDrummer80]

I remember hearing this on Dr. Demento! I was too young to appreciate or understand it though, and it lasted soooo loooong. The part of the song that I never forgot was "Poppies! Poppies! Poppies!". Excellent video! :)

[@pilgrimpictures]

Very witty editing. Cool beans, man! Thanks for doing that. But thank you even more for posting this song to hear again, for the first time in like 25 years! Would you believe I still sing this from beginning to end for people today, and still get like 75% from memory--!?!? LOL So stoked this is lost-and-found.

[@TheDing1701]

This has been in my head now and then since 1983. I'm glad it was not formulated within my brain. No one I know remembers it.

[@snowmankiller1233]

sang this at my talent show first place

[@robadams8057]

snowmankiller1233 impressive.

[@silviusoracle1414]

That’s so cool!

[@snowmankiller1233]

@@silviusoracle1414 not really I bombed it 😂

[@Azarakh_Zine]

Unbelievable how after all this time my brain regurgitates most of those macap lyrics off the top of me head at the drop of a needle on the record.

[@michaelabramovitz8548]

I’ve had thins song in my personal memory bank for 40 years, and I never realized it was Butte, Montana!

[@Gidget521]

This is EXCELLENT! Really well done.

[@kristophermason8604]

I first heard this song on Dr. Demento when i was 14 and i used to sing it to all my friends and they all looked at me like i was some kind of sub human missing a dna chain. Well, perhaps that's true 🤣🤣 I can't believe i waited 35 years to look this up on KZbin. Ahhh memories

[@mellow_melody]

Lmao, good job, I've loved this song since Dr. Dementos 20th Anniversary album and seeing the visuals you chose were pretty much spot on with what I thought too, I laughed, thanks! 😊

[@stillgamin71]

i remeber listening to DR DEMENTO back in the 5th grade (1980) and hearing this song for the first time. its still one of my favs. i was surised to find it on KZbin.............

[@greenbloodedpostman4338]

We used this as a psy ops weapon over seas

[@donaldandrade]

What is that 9 or 10 note riff at 2:44? I've heard it in countless cartoons and scary movies. It must have a name or be from some longer music piece.

[@jesterevilyn]

He was till the copyright fairies appeared and threatened to sprinkle him with "magical lawsuit dust"...

[@Regusername]

"Sinking in the Quagmire" haha, I love your illustration.

[@stebaer]

I met Tom T-Bone Stankus at The Framingham State Cookout on 9/1/1986 where he sang this very song and changed maybe a few words to it like calling Dwight Hall by name and calling it the big green glow in the dark house up on the hill upon which it was on a hill but is really a red brick building.I emailed him 19 years later and he said that our meeting is all a blur.

[@BrianHalePhoto]

2:44 - 2:47 what is this music from? I picture an old timey villain with a mustache, black top hat and black cape being introduced to a scene. I can hear another bar or two in my head but that's it, I can't place it.

[@BrianHalePhoto]

I was certainly picturing the countless times it's been used in cartoons. After a couple of hours of sleuthing I found it's "The Villains Theme" from 1914

[@TheUncleSpider]

Very nice job to a great song. Thank you!

[@markh.6687]

Been a few decades since I've heard this. Always love the line "All right, tighten your shorts and sing like The Duke."

[@felixtrismegistus7489]

The fish is in the percolator

[@RexMundiarcadia]

these days this song calms me down and seems more rational than reality

[@ericschmitz5119]

Oh man, I love the LARD ad at the end of the song!

[@TheGruffchickJournal]

I dimly remember the guy with the arms and "fishy" but couldn't place it in my brain. What was it originally from?

[@BassByTheBay]

@@TheGruffchickJournal Monty Python's Meaning of Life.

[@TheGruffchickJournal]

@@BassByTheBay Thank you!

[@robertthomas5736]

Existential Blues,By Tom T-Bone Stankus,on The Doctor Demento Radio Show

[@JohnWasinger]

5:13 I'd rather have this bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!

[@DrDeepspace]

How Profound!

[@cathy1103]

Love this!!! You should get some kind of award for this!!! thank you for sharing!!

[@jessecornett2597]

This is truly the best award I could get... My big shiny trophy has your comment on top of it;) Thanks for listening and hey while you are at it, subscribe to me and you get access to several haunting stories I narrate for Chilling Tales for Dark Nights here on KZbin! Thanks again for commenting and watching!

[@Drakoneiros]

POPPIES POPPIES POPPIES...

[@ZoophPA]

"Existentialism: because you're dead a hell of a lot longer than you're alive." ~ KWSM

[@Dragracer612]

Outstanding...thanks for posting this....haven't heard it for many moons. What a step in time. Long live Dr. Demento.

[@mellow_melody]

LOVE IT! I too first heard this song on a Dr Demento album years ago, the images you found are so much like what went through my head while listening, you did a really great job, thank you!! :)

[@jay-day]

Just remember... It's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you 😆😂🤣

[@Grimmtooth404]

It's a shame that this doesn't include the parts that were excised by the Andy Williams estate (and how weird is that, I must ask). Let me be blunt: "To dream ... the impossible dream ..."

[@Orlor]

I still have a recording with those lyrics somewhere.

[@warrenash5370]

Just for you@ kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGfGeIenaNOCrQ

[@Mognet_t]

@@warrenash5370 It's been taken down. :(

[@tangogrrl]

How weird! I wondered where those lyrics went. Especially when it came from Man of La Mancha, a Broadway musical

[@tangogrrl]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXqXiWx9nbN7qJo

[@jackofallfades2656]

Pretty good Arlo impression.

[@kellycardenas8549]

So awesome. My dad gave me this tape.

[@kornbelt]

wonderful song, haven't heard it in years - the video is great - thanks!

[@emilyt2112]

NICE! Love this Song and you matched up the video perfectly!

[@rickdj]

Such a great flashback to the days of listen todetailed Dr. Demento!!! Set to video no less! Thanks for the great trip plus excellent work on putting the video together! (poppies)!!!! Loved it!!!

[@JohnnyChicago]

BRING BACK DR. DEMENTO ON FREE RADIO!! PAY HIM, HE'S A NATIONAL TREASURE!! (caps intentional)

[@yashaouchan]

This brings back so many memories.

[@SlickVega]

High-Five to whomever put the video together for this'n :) I just came here for the song, and was delighted by the video too

[@TheEudaemonicPlague]

I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of this for around forty years. Must've misspelled his name, or something, because none of my searches in recent years pulled anything up at all. Fast forward to half an hour ago, found out that it's on Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes 3...but the version on there kind of sucks. This is the version I remember hearing on the radio so many years ago. Happily, another song I'd been wanting to find has also popped up here! Boot to the Head.

[@jesterevilyn]

A+ for effort, but it was "Thundersub" in America (thank you Sandy Frank) or "Blue Noah" in Japan.

[@send2meez]

this sounds really weird when you're laying in a field of poppies...poppies...poppies....

[@GuiFalked]

What a pleasant little surprise at the end too! :D

[@jesterevilyn]

Try looking for Dr. Dimento's 20th annivesrary. Hope that helps:)

[@Wakkagud]

Everytime I it gives me tears of joy

[@mushbeeguy5029]

Why isn't this song taught in school?

[@Graustarkian2]

+Mush Beeguy For the same reason they don't teach how dollars are created.

[@xaenon]

+Mush Beeguy References to drugs (the field of poppies, poppies, poppies...) and alcohol ('Toting a bottle of Yukon Jack).

[@wendydavis622]

Our parents would ban it. NO fun allowed! You hear this song just once, and, u can't just let it go! Anyone who has never gotten high just would not get this...

[@bajawitton]

*tears* Graham Chapman...didn't even expect the bit at the end. Love the song, but that tag just finished me off. Well done.

[@Orlor]

I have a recording of this with the line "To dream the impossible dream" not cut out of it. He used to perform once a month in a bar not too far from my house. He refused to play this song as he was getting tired of trying to explain it to the drunks.

[@johnadams6656]

The guy who wrote this hilarious bit of history must have been on one helluva cocaine trip while a re-run of "Wizard of Oz" was on a late-night TV channel. I used to listen to this during my college days late Sunday nights on KUPD-FM-98 out Tempe, Arizona. It still hasn't lost any of its bite or humor.

[@GrifPriest]

Does anyone know why the line "to dream the impossible dream" was removed?

[@xaenon]

+Grif Priest Not sure, exactly, but I suspect it was a copyright issue.

[@wendydavis622]

Pure insanity! I love it then wonder if we should be concerned about this individual? Genius! Thank Dr Demento for playing this. Disturbingly cool!

[@amyjoedwards6711]

Great F🤯CKING song also heard it on Dr Demento 🎶 along time ago 🤣😂

[@akrukowski1964]

Did ANYONE get the Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) refereance? BRILLIANT!!!!!

[@YuukiTakemoto1996]

I did.

[@redliggett]

Thank you Dr Demento, you have enriched my life.

[@robsavage9440]

Magic 92, from Rochester New York. Every Sunday night during the 80s

[@michaelfalatic7440]

"I said, "yes I'm tall."" Thanks for uploading this!

[@hazeleggers3517]

i love this song

[@bluciano67]

Sometimes We All Get 'Em... stretch out in a field of POPPIES!!!

[@carolfitzgerald2101]

Love the video created for this. It definitely helped me keep up haha.

[@Bogframe]

Wasn't he on a quest to dream the impossible dream?

[@uVueD2b]

This brings the gathering of the Demen-tos & Dement-ites together...

[@jesterevilyn]

@Orlor Ha... that is great, I would have loved to see him live. They just don't make em like that anymore... Thanx 4 watching

[@colettesintuatives9256]

Ah my cousin and I listened together for years. We even made some of our own recordings which she still has 🤣🤣

[@ewolfe357]

I haven't heard this song forever. Thank you!

[@hakashaqU812]

The Monty Python at the end is hilarious too...

[@Shutterbun4]

I remember in the original he used to say "I'm on a quest! -To dream the impossible dream..." Edited for copyright reasons I guess?

[@jesterevilyn]

... And it went where ever I did go...

[@hazeleggers3517]

but not the fish part

[@wintersnot]

*smiling, well that just proves, one can get anything at Alice's restaurant. good job.

[@Legolas2112]

I remember recording this from the DR D show (97FM Dallas) on a Radioshack cassette in 1979. The tape still lives! I have ALWAYS bloved this song!

[@duanemartin7742]

Good job lad!

[@47485ksc]

jesterevilyn Where's the "Dream the Impossible Dream" lyrics? I recall when this was the number one song on KMET (whoo-yaa!) with Doctor Demento. Ever heard of 8.50 AM KMDY Comedy Radio in Thousand Oaks in the 1980's? I'm from Thousand Oaks.

[@kathrynhaskell2880]

It actually is the same recording; I think the "To dream

[@kathrynhaskell2880]

Sorry! I believe they shaved off that repeated line to edit for time. I first heard this on KMET (Dr. Demento Show, of course) as this posting is, then a year or two later with "to dream the impossible dream" in there. That is the only difference I can hear between the two.

[@47485ksc]

Kathryn Haskell Oh, yeah? Where were you living? So. Cal? I was up just past the L.A./Ventura County line in Thousand Oaks. I accidently found KMDY at work by going around the AM dial and heard Cheech y Chong and thought, "What's this?" It was KMDY's first day of broadcasting. I never left. I used to drive my co-workers nuts by changing all the presets on the company vehicles to 8.50 AM, Comedy Radio. As fast as they would change them away, I'd change them back.

[@georgeandrews6454]

They were not worried about time on a song that ran over 7 minutes. I was also a faithful listener of Dr. Demento on 94.7 KMET Los Angeles, where he did 4 hours LIVE every Sunday evening, not the 1 hour pre - recorded syndicated show. As an in - studio guest, T-Bone said he had been served by the copyright lawyers for Sinatra's record label. Thus anyone with the original 45 RPM of this song has a RARE Record.

[@47485ksc]

WHOO-YA! "Paraquat" Kelley! Mary "The Burner" Turner! I had a cassette [that] I recorded a collage of KMET about 1982 when I lived at Hollywood By The Sea (Oxnard) It finally gave up the ghost about 15 years ago. Had a lot of good shit! Remember Jim Ladd and his late night tirades? One night, fueled by coke (he snorted on the air!) he went into a Reagan/Haig, Secretary of Defense (the one who had said: "We ought to NUKE the Ruskies to show them we mean business!) and during Ladd's tirade, he said, concerning the fact that Haig was an "elected official" and we need to get rid of him): "C'mon, people! Get off your fucking ASSES!" It wasn't too long after he'd said that that you could hear the studio door open. Ladd immediately quit his tirade and said, very calmly and quietly: "94.7 KMET" and went on to play a couple hours of music until his shift was over. For a long time after that, he was on his utmost best behavior. Apparently, the "Boss" woke up and tuned in to check on Jim just in time to hear that and took a quick spin over to the studio! You MUST go to Amazon and order: "RADIO WAVES: Life and Revolution on the FM Dial" (1991) by Jim Ladd. He does a lot of "splainin'" but unfortunately, changes all the names and calls KMET "KAOS". Still a good read, almost right up there with "I AM OZZY" by you know who. Both highly recommended reading!

[@Cleopatra7Philopator]

Oh Man, Don't bother me....Poppiespoppies......

[@deanchristensen1219]

I hadn't seen anything like that since my last joint. Now you know why I don't do it any more.

[@descripto2586]

No, now I don't understand why you choose not to!

[@tangogrrl]

It's a very cool video but it really does suffer from not having the lyrics from that very famous Broadway musical Man of la Mancha you know... the theme song Don Quixote sings

[@kellycardenas8549]

This was epic thanks