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Leo's Parade Diaries:
Session With the Drumming Mascots
Leo the Tiger speaking; you also know me as the Marching Wonder. In the United Kingdom, there is a very famous commercial for Cadbury chocolates, in which a gorilla is drumming along to the song "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. Here in the United States, though, I think the most famous commercial involving drums would have to be the Energizer bunny, although the Duracell bunny also plays drums. (Rather bizarrely, both are pink rabbits). And even Tony the Tiger plays the drums in a commercial. Drums are powerful, and it is no surprise that these ads went on to achieve superstar status in the respective countries.
Why mention this? Well, the musical payroll authorities decided that our latest assignments with the percussionists involved should have something to do with some of these. Also, the Drumbums recruited a ton of gorilla percussionists who wanted to combine marching percussion (as well as timpani) with jungle drums. It was bound to be a drumming festival.
The assignment wasn't specific about how to approach it, though; it just wanted to see tons of gorillas beating on their drums. Though still performing barefoot as we animals tend to do, the gorillas all opted to wear business suits and ties, and to ensure they didn't get overheated, they performed in the large throne room of King Ross II, whom you know as Regal Rat. (The king also supervised the assignment.) The exception was one gorilla that followed King Lionel XVIII's lead, performing naked.
The scene opened with the naked gorilla drumming to the same song (representing us parodying the gorilla in the Cadbury ad), but as the song faded out, the drummer began a transition into a different percussion show, where he was surrounded by other gorillas in a drum circle. Because the gorillas were wearing suits and ties, they put their drums on stands instead of marching with them, but they were playing football drums. The ones playing tenor drums were closest to the drummer at the drum set, while the snare drums were next to them, and the bass drums stood in a line off to the side, with the cymbal gorillas on the other side.
The cameras then cut to five other gorillas drumming on timpani, with intentions of making it sound as chaotic as possible; the naked gorilla then launched into a jazzy solo with skills rivaling that of the Monarch Major (King Lionel) and the Snare Soldier, and the timpani gorillas then responded with cadences that didn't sound chaotic. (Note that gold CNG had affected their musical abilties tenfold, and so just like Timpani Tiger and the Kettledrum Cats, their timpani could magically change pitch.)
Then came the jungle sounding drums. Bongo drums, conga drums, djembe drums, you name it; the gorillas were playing it. The football drummers did some call-and-responses with these drummers, and the cymbals did not play. This went on for about 10 minutes.
Then, to add to the comedy, the whole session was interrupted by the arrival of the Energizer bunny, beating on his bass drum, to show he was "still going." Tony the Tiger followed, playing a special rope-tensioned snare drum with the Kellogg's "K" on it (this was done to represent the commercial from the 1960s that showed him drumming). He also had a set of football drums with the Kellogg's "K" on them, but he was playing the soldier's drum (meaning the rope-tensioned snare drum) here.
All the drummers came back in, but were now playing at a strict march tempo. They continued on for about another 10 minutes (it was almost a 48-minute session, anyways), and the drummers gave a cue for the big finale by slowing the tempo down gradually until one other gorilla finally banged a large gong to end the session.
This marked the first time the musical payroll ever incorporated a rock song into the mix. The gorilla had proven himself, though, to handle multiple genres, since he had gone from rock to jazz. Because of this, he and Tony had a drum battle afterwards, jazz vs. jazz, but as always seemed to be the case, it ended in a tie. Both then improvised a drum solo based on the famous solo used in the song "Wipe Out," prompting the other drummers to join in. The authorities encourage improvisation like that, and so they added bonus money to the paychecks for this assignment.
The Snare Soldier later officially inducted these gorillas into the Drumbums, and the apes later took a tour of Regal Rat's elaborate palace, all the while still playing their drums.
THE END
-----------------------------------------
Leo's Parade Diaries:
Session With the Drumming Mascots
Leo the Tiger speaking; you also know me as the Marching Wonder. In the United Kingdom, there is a very famous commercial for Cadbury chocolates, in which a gorilla is drumming along to the song "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. Here in the United States, though, I think the most famous commercial involving drums would have to be the Energizer bunny, although the Duracell bunny also plays drums. (Rather bizarrely, both are pink rabbits). And even Tony the Tiger plays the drums in a commercial. Drums are powerful, and it is no surprise that these ads went on to achieve superstar status in the respective countries.
Why mention this? Well, the musical payroll authorities decided that our latest assignments with the percussionists involved should have something to do with some of these. Also, the Drumbums recruited a ton of gorilla percussionists who wanted to combine marching percussion (as well as timpani) with jungle drums. It was bound to be a drumming festival.
The assignment wasn't specific about how to approach it, though; it just wanted to see tons of gorillas beating on their drums. Though still performing barefoot as we animals tend to do, the gorillas all opted to wear business suits and ties, and to ensure they didn't get overheated, they performed in the large throne room of King Ross II, whom you know as Regal Rat. (The king also supervised the assignment.) The exception was one gorilla that followed King Lionel XVIII's lead, performing naked.
The scene opened with the naked gorilla drumming to the same song (representing us parodying the gorilla in the Cadbury ad), but as the song faded out, the drummer began a transition into a different percussion show, where he was surrounded by other gorillas in a drum circle. Because the gorillas were wearing suits and ties, they put their drums on stands instead of marching with them, but they were playing football drums. The ones playing tenor drums were closest to the drummer at the drum set, while the snare drums were next to them, and the bass drums stood in a line off to the side, with the cymbal gorillas on the other side.
The cameras then cut to five other gorillas drumming on timpani, with intentions of making it sound as chaotic as possible; the naked gorilla then launched into a jazzy solo with skills rivaling that of the Monarch Major (King Lionel) and the Snare Soldier, and the timpani gorillas then responded with cadences that didn't sound chaotic. (Note that gold CNG had affected their musical abilties tenfold, and so just like Timpani Tiger and the Kettledrum Cats, their timpani could magically change pitch.)
Then came the jungle sounding drums. Bongo drums, conga drums, djembe drums, you name it; the gorillas were playing it. The football drummers did some call-and-responses with these drummers, and the cymbals did not play. This went on for about 10 minutes.
Then, to add to the comedy, the whole session was interrupted by the arrival of the Energizer bunny, beating on his bass drum, to show he was "still going." Tony the Tiger followed, playing a special rope-tensioned snare drum with the Kellogg's "K" on it (this was done to represent the commercial from the 1960s that showed him drumming). He also had a set of football drums with the Kellogg's "K" on them, but he was playing the soldier's drum (meaning the rope-tensioned snare drum) here.
All the drummers came back in, but were now playing at a strict march tempo. They continued on for about another 10 minutes (it was almost a 48-minute session, anyways), and the drummers gave a cue for the big finale by slowing the tempo down gradually until one other gorilla finally banged a large gong to end the session.
This marked the first time the musical payroll ever incorporated a rock song into the mix. The gorilla had proven himself, though, to handle multiple genres, since he had gone from rock to jazz. Because of this, he and Tony had a drum battle afterwards, jazz vs. jazz, but as always seemed to be the case, it ended in a tie. Both then improvised a drum solo based on the famous solo used in the song "Wipe Out," prompting the other drummers to join in. The authorities encourage improvisation like that, and so they added bonus money to the paychecks for this assignment.
The Snare Soldier later officially inducted these gorillas into the Drumbums, and the apes later took a tour of Regal Rat's elaborate palace, all the while still playing their drums.
THE END
Leo's Parade Diaries: Session With the Drumming Mascots
The Drumbums incorporate a ton of gorillas, one of which pretends to be the famous drumming gorilla from the British television commercial for Cadbury chocolates.
Drumbums, G-52s, etc. © me and me alone
Tony the Tiger © Kellogg's
Energizer Bunny © Energizer
Duracell Bunny © Duracell
In the Air Tonight (song) © Phil Collins, Virgin, Atlantic, and everyone else who owns the rights
Cadbury ad featuring drumming gorilla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo
Tony the Tiger playing drums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sATF7KQ9jLI
Debut of the Energizer Bunny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJTAbYGrYDc
Duracell Bunny drumming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gDCAEyLABo
In the Air Tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1_OfmrPAfo (regular version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI27zzV-t1Q (Postmodern Jukebox version)
Drumbums, G-52s, etc. © me and me alone
Tony the Tiger © Kellogg's
Energizer Bunny © Energizer
Duracell Bunny © Duracell
In the Air Tonight (song) © Phil Collins, Virgin, Atlantic, and everyone else who owns the rights
Cadbury ad featuring drumming gorilla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo
Tony the Tiger playing drums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sATF7KQ9jLI
Debut of the Energizer Bunny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJTAbYGrYDc
Duracell Bunny drumming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gDCAEyLABo
In the Air Tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1_OfmrPAfo (regular version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI27zzV-t1Q (Postmodern Jukebox version)
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 120px
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