Gustafer Yellowgold is the creation of musician/artist Morgan Taylor, who for several years has been doing live shows featuring music and multi-media presentations about a little yellow fellow who used to live on the Sun, but came to Earth to chill out. A critic for The New York Times called it "a cross between 'Yellow Submarine' and Dr. Seuss," and there's really no better way to describe it--which is why "Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World" will appeal to pre-schoolers and anyone still trapped in the Sixties (or doing drugs).
This guy may be yellow, but he's no Big Bird, Barney, or Bear in the Big Blue House. Can any other pre-school icon claim to have opened for contemporary rock band Wilco, or rock-pop-psychedelic band The Polyphonic Spree, or mellow pop duo "The Autumn Defense? Hell-o, no.
This DVD/CD collection brings the popular show to a wider audience, and while that audience is mostly the pre-school crowd, if their Baby Boomer parents still have a hankerin' for hash brownies, this little magical maestro tour is sure to trigger a few flashbacks. It's certainly reminiscent of the animation in "Yellow Submarine," and Taylor's songs do resemble the mellow and confidently esoteric strains of Beatles' songs from the Sergeant Pepper and post-Pepper era. Even the production label, "Apple-Eye," seems a tip-of-the-hat to the Fab Four, whose Apple Records went on to produce such Gustafer-esque songs as "Here Comes the Sun" and (given Gustafer's eel companion) "Octopus's Garden." In fact, Taylor and his back-up musicians are so eerily reminiscent of The Beatles that they easily could have forged a career as a tribute band, had they chosen to limit themselves to cover songs.
Instead, of course, they've turned their talents to original music and the Wee World, and what a relief it provides from the steady diet of inane kiddie songs that parents these days have to endure. From the opening sequence that frames it for an adult mind and beginning song, which tells how Gustafer lived and worked on the sun (a paper route??), we're quickly given to understand that this is no typical children's fare.
Ten songs are included, which, if they were fiction instead, would comprise a short-story cycle. Collectively, they give an impression of Gustafer's world.
"A Cooler World" and "I'm From the Sun" are origin songs that give basic information about the little yellow guy-how he escaped through a sunspot and landed in a Minnesota lake, where he built a house nearby and lives with his friend, Slim (short for Slimothy) the Eel. There's also a dragon named Asparagus who lives in his fireplace, a bee that lives on his window sill, and a neighbor who happens to be a pterodactyl named Forrest Applecrumbie. Are those brownies kicking in yet?
The songs are illustrated as if they were pictures hanging on the wall of Gustafer's home, with a title plate that chances so we can see the lyrics. "Tiny Purple Moon" is a more reflective song that tells how Gustafer passes the time in observation and contemplation, but it's so catchy and well done that kids (and parents, too) will be enthralled.
"Your Eel" stretches a bit in the lyric department, but makes up for it with some very clever illustrations that serve a contrapuntal purpose. At the end, as Gustafer is singing about his eel and what the little guy means to him in tones so warm it could easily pass for a movie love montage song, we're treated to the surprising image of Gustafer wearing a Karate Kid-style headband and naked except for the eel he's wearing like a sumo wrestler's diaper. Weird? Yep. But not overly drawn. "Yellow Submarine" moved like a kaleidoscope with each frame cluttered with images. Here', there's just enough to suggest what it might be like to be inside Gustafer's little yellow mind and see the images floating by that drive his songs. Taylor's lyrics seem half-dictated by rhyme and half-driven by poetic leaps of the psychedelic sort.
My Dragon" begins,
My dragon lives in the fireplace.
My dragon has a trustworthy face.
Have you seen his eggs?
Someone stole an egg
From my dragon.
Kids hear how the dragon flies in the dining room, floats like a green balloon, and is missing an egg. No explanation beyond that. Just accept it, kids . . . and parents.
The three best songs are those that have catchy melodies, clever lyrics, a playfulness that speaks to both parents and children, and strong images to pull it all together. In "Pterodactyl Tuxedo," a song that uses negation for its structure, we hear a list of things that Pterodactyl never does. Kid won't think anything of it, but adults will see a party thread running through here, and lines that sound dinosaurish are really kind of fun for adults: "Pterodactyl never puts away the thesaurus/ always has a good synonym or two." The other exceptional song is "I Jump on Cake," which details Gustafer's primary vice: he likes to destroy bakery goods, so beware:
I jump on cake from high above,
I step on pie, so warm and lovely.
It's mine to punt, vanilla bundt.
All freshly baked. I'm on your cake."
The third memorable song is "Rocket Shoes," which will have parents thinking a bit of Elton John's "Rocket Man." After a slow start, the song gets rolling both visually and musically, the comic thruster an irreverent but fun criticism of the blues. Rounding out the tunes are "Mint Green Bee" and "New Blue Star," which, thematically, will probably speak to the little ones the most, perhaps sparking their own imaginations to see things in their world with the same wide, wild perspective.
Taylor is backed up by Robert Di Pietro on percussion, Robby Jost on French horns, and Fil Krohnengold on accordian, with Jeff Seasholtz narrating and Sathya Vijaendran and Jason Connolly handling the animation.
This guy may be yellow, but he's no Big Bird, Barney, or Bear in the Big Blue House. Can any other pre-school icon claim to have opened for contemporary rock band Wilco, or rock-pop-psychedelic band The Polyphonic Spree, or mellow pop duo "The Autumn Defense? Hell-o, no.
This DVD/CD collection brings the popular show to a wider audience, and while that audience is mostly the pre-school crowd, if their Baby Boomer parents still have a hankerin' for hash brownies, this little magical maestro tour is sure to trigger a few flashbacks. It's certainly reminiscent of the animation in "Yellow Submarine," and Taylor's songs do resemble the mellow and confidently esoteric strains of Beatles' songs from the Sergeant Pepper and post-Pepper era. Even the production label, "Apple-Eye," seems a tip-of-the-hat to the Fab Four, whose Apple Records went on to produce such Gustafer-esque songs as "Here Comes the Sun" and (given Gustafer's eel companion) "Octopus's Garden." In fact, Taylor and his back-up musicians are so eerily reminiscent of The Beatles that they easily could have forged a career as a tribute band, had they chosen to limit themselves to cover songs.
Instead, of course, they've turned their talents to original music and the Wee World, and what a relief it provides from the steady diet of inane kiddie songs that parents these days have to endure. From the opening sequence that frames it for an adult mind and beginning song, which tells how Gustafer lived and worked on the sun (a paper route??), we're quickly given to understand that this is no typical children's fare.
Ten songs are included, which, if they were fiction instead, would comprise a short-story cycle. Collectively, they give an impression of Gustafer's world.
"A Cooler World" and "I'm From the Sun" are origin songs that give basic information about the little yellow guy-how he escaped through a sunspot and landed in a Minnesota lake, where he built a house nearby and lives with his friend, Slim (short for Slimothy) the Eel. There's also a dragon named Asparagus who lives in his fireplace, a bee that lives on his window sill, and a neighbor who happens to be a pterodactyl named Forrest Applecrumbie. Are those brownies kicking in yet?
The songs are illustrated as if they were pictures hanging on the wall of Gustafer's home, with a title plate that chances so we can see the lyrics. "Tiny Purple Moon" is a more reflective song that tells how Gustafer passes the time in observation and contemplation, but it's so catchy and well done that kids (and parents, too) will be enthralled.
"Your Eel" stretches a bit in the lyric department, but makes up for it with some very clever illustrations that serve a contrapuntal purpose. At the end, as Gustafer is singing about his eel and what the little guy means to him in tones so warm it could easily pass for a movie love montage song, we're treated to the surprising image of Gustafer wearing a Karate Kid-style headband and naked except for the eel he's wearing like a sumo wrestler's diaper. Weird? Yep. But not overly drawn. "Yellow Submarine" moved like a kaleidoscope with each frame cluttered with images. Here', there's just enough to suggest what it might be like to be inside Gustafer's little yellow mind and see the images floating by that drive his songs. Taylor's lyrics seem half-dictated by rhyme and half-driven by poetic leaps of the psychedelic sort.
My Dragon" begins,
My dragon lives in the fireplace.
My dragon has a trustworthy face.
Have you seen his eggs?
Someone stole an egg
From my dragon.
Kids hear how the dragon flies in the dining room, floats like a green balloon, and is missing an egg. No explanation beyond that. Just accept it, kids . . . and parents.
The three best songs are those that have catchy melodies, clever lyrics, a playfulness that speaks to both parents and children, and strong images to pull it all together. In "Pterodactyl Tuxedo," a song that uses negation for its structure, we hear a list of things that Pterodactyl never does. Kid won't think anything of it, but adults will see a party thread running through here, and lines that sound dinosaurish are really kind of fun for adults: "Pterodactyl never puts away the thesaurus/ always has a good synonym or two." The other exceptional song is "I Jump on Cake," which details Gustafer's primary vice: he likes to destroy bakery goods, so beware:
I jump on cake from high above,
I step on pie, so warm and lovely.
It's mine to punt, vanilla bundt.
All freshly baked. I'm on your cake."
The third memorable song is "Rocket Shoes," which will have parents thinking a bit of Elton John's "Rocket Man." After a slow start, the song gets rolling both visually and musically, the comic thruster an irreverent but fun criticism of the blues. Rounding out the tunes are "Mint Green Bee" and "New Blue Star," which, thematically, will probably speak to the little ones the most, perhaps sparking their own imaginations to see things in their world with the same wide, wild perspective.
Taylor is backed up by Robert Di Pietro on percussion, Robby Jost on French horns, and Fil Krohnengold on accordian, with Jeff Seasholtz narrating and Sathya Vijaendran and Jason Connolly handling the animation.
Gustafer Yellowgold is the creation of musician/artist Morgan Taylor, who for several years has been doing live shows featuring music and multi-media presentations about a little yellow fellow who used to live on the Sun, but came to Earth to chill out. A critic for The New York Times called it "a cross between 'Yellow Submarine' and Dr. Seuss," and there's really no better way to describe it--which is why "Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World" will appeal to pre-schoolers and anyone still trapped in the Sixties (or doing drugs).
This guy may be yellow, but he's no Big Bird, Barney, or Bear in the Big Blue House. Can any other pre-school icon claim to have opened for contemporary rock band Wilco, or rock-pop-psychedelic band The Polyphonic Spree, or mellow pop duo "The Autumn Defense? Hell-o, no.
This DVD/CD collection brings the popular show to a wider audience, and while that audience is mostly the pre-school crowd, if their Baby Boomer parents still have a hankerin' for hash brownies, this little magical maestro tour is sure to trigger a few flashbacks. It's certainly reminiscent of the animation in "Yellow Submarine," and Taylor's songs do resemble the mellow and confidently esoteric strains of Beatles' songs from the Sergeant Pepper and post-Pepper era. Even the production label, "Apple-Eye," seems a tip-of-the-hat to the Fab Four, whose Apple Records went on to produce such Gustafer-esque songs as "Here Comes the Sun" and (given Gustafer's eel companion) "Octopus's Garden." In fact, Taylor and his back-up musicians are so eerily reminiscent of The Beatles that they easily could have forged a career as a tribute band, had they chosen to limit themselves to cover songs.
Instead, of course, they've turned their talents to original music and the Wee World, and what a relief it provides from the steady diet of inane kiddie songs that parents these days have to endure. From the opening sequence that frames it for an adult mind and beginning song, which tells how Gustafer lived and worked on the sun (a paper route??), we're quickly given to understand that this is no typical children's fare.
Ten songs are included, which, if they were fiction instead, would comprise a short-story cycle. Collectively, they give an impression of Gustafer's world.
"A Cooler World" and "I'm From the Sun" are origin songs that give basic information about the little yellow guy-how he escaped through a sunspot and landed in a Minnesota lake, where he built a house nearby and lives with his friend, Slim (short for Slimothy) the Eel. There's also a dragon named Asparagus who lives in his fireplace, a bee that lives on his window sill, and a neighbor who happens to be a pterodactyl named Forrest Applecrumbie. Are those brownies kicking in yet?
The songs are illustrated as if they were pictures hanging on the wall of Gustafer's home, with a title plate that chances so we can see the lyrics. "Tiny Purple Moon" is a more reflective song that tells how Gustafer passes the time in observation and contemplation, but it's so catchy and well done that kids (and parents, too) will be enthralled.
"Your Eel" stretches a bit in the lyric department, but makes up for it with some very clever illustrations that serve a contrapuntal purpose. At the end, as Gustafer is singing about his eel and what the little guy means to him in tones so warm it could easily pass for a movie love montage song, we're treated to the surprising image of Gustafer wearing a Karate Kid-style headband and naked except for the eel he's wearing like a sumo wrestler's diaper. Weird? Yep. But not overly drawn. "Yellow Submarine" moved like a kaleidoscope with each frame cluttered with images. Here', there's just enough to suggest what it might be like to be inside Gustafer's little yellow mind and see the images floating by that drive his songs. Taylor's lyrics seem half-dictated by rhyme and half-driven by poetic leaps of the psychedelic sort.
My Dragon" begins,
My dragon lives in the fireplace.
My dragon has a trustworthy face.
Have you seen his eggs?
Someone stole an egg
From my dragon.
Kids hear how the dragon flies in the dining room, floats like a green balloon, and is missing an egg. No explanation beyond that. Just accept it, kids . . . and parents.
The three best songs are those that have catchy melodies, clever lyrics, a playfulness that speaks to both parents and children, and strong images to pull it all together. In "Pterodactyl Tuxedo," a song that uses negation for its structure, we hear a list of things that Pterodactyl never does. Kid won't think anything of it, but adults will see a party thread running through here, and lines that sound dinosaurish are really kind of fun for adults: "Pterodactyl never puts away the thesaurus/ always has a good synonym or two." The other exceptional song is "I Jump on Cake," which details Gustafer's primary vice: he likes to destroy bakery goods, so beware:
I jump on cake from high above,
I step on pie, so warm and lovely.
It's mine to punt, vanilla bundt.
All freshly baked. I'm on your cake."
The third memorable song is "Rocket Shoes," which will have parents thinking a bit of Elton John's "Rocket Man." After a slow start, the song gets rolling both visually and musically, the comic thruster an irreverent but fun criticism of the blues. Rounding out the tunes are "Mint Green Bee" and "New Blue Star," which, thematically, will probably speak to the little ones the most, perhaps sparking their own imaginations to see things in their world with the same wide, wild perspective.
Taylor is backed up by Robert Di Pietro on percussion, Robby Jost on French horns, and Fil Krohnengold on accordian, with Jeff Seasholtz narrating and Sathya Vijaendran and Jason Connolly handling the animation.
This guy may be yellow, but he's no Big Bird, Barney, or Bear in the Big Blue House. Can any other pre-school icon claim to have opened for contemporary rock band Wilco, or rock-pop-psychedelic band The Polyphonic Spree, or mellow pop duo "The Autumn Defense? Hell-o, no.
This DVD/CD collection brings the popular show to a wider audience, and while that audience is mostly the pre-school crowd, if their Baby Boomer parents still have a hankerin' for hash brownies, this little magical maestro tour is sure to trigger a few flashbacks. It's certainly reminiscent of the animation in "Yellow Submarine," and Taylor's songs do resemble the mellow and confidently esoteric strains of Beatles' songs from the Sergeant Pepper and post-Pepper era. Even the production label, "Apple-Eye," seems a tip-of-the-hat to the Fab Four, whose Apple Records went on to produce such Gustafer-esque songs as "Here Comes the Sun" and (given Gustafer's eel companion) "Octopus's Garden." In fact, Taylor and his back-up musicians are so eerily reminiscent of The Beatles that they easily could have forged a career as a tribute band, had they chosen to limit themselves to cover songs.
Instead, of course, they've turned their talents to original music and the Wee World, and what a relief it provides from the steady diet of inane kiddie songs that parents these days have to endure. From the opening sequence that frames it for an adult mind and beginning song, which tells how Gustafer lived and worked on the sun (a paper route??), we're quickly given to understand that this is no typical children's fare.
Ten songs are included, which, if they were fiction instead, would comprise a short-story cycle. Collectively, they give an impression of Gustafer's world.
"A Cooler World" and "I'm From the Sun" are origin songs that give basic information about the little yellow guy-how he escaped through a sunspot and landed in a Minnesota lake, where he built a house nearby and lives with his friend, Slim (short for Slimothy) the Eel. There's also a dragon named Asparagus who lives in his fireplace, a bee that lives on his window sill, and a neighbor who happens to be a pterodactyl named Forrest Applecrumbie. Are those brownies kicking in yet?
The songs are illustrated as if they were pictures hanging on the wall of Gustafer's home, with a title plate that chances so we can see the lyrics. "Tiny Purple Moon" is a more reflective song that tells how Gustafer passes the time in observation and contemplation, but it's so catchy and well done that kids (and parents, too) will be enthralled.
"Your Eel" stretches a bit in the lyric department, but makes up for it with some very clever illustrations that serve a contrapuntal purpose. At the end, as Gustafer is singing about his eel and what the little guy means to him in tones so warm it could easily pass for a movie love montage song, we're treated to the surprising image of Gustafer wearing a Karate Kid-style headband and naked except for the eel he's wearing like a sumo wrestler's diaper. Weird? Yep. But not overly drawn. "Yellow Submarine" moved like a kaleidoscope with each frame cluttered with images. Here', there's just enough to suggest what it might be like to be inside Gustafer's little yellow mind and see the images floating by that drive his songs. Taylor's lyrics seem half-dictated by rhyme and half-driven by poetic leaps of the psychedelic sort.
My Dragon" begins,
My dragon lives in the fireplace.
My dragon has a trustworthy face.
Have you seen his eggs?
Someone stole an egg
From my dragon.
Kids hear how the dragon flies in the dining room, floats like a green balloon, and is missing an egg. No explanation beyond that. Just accept it, kids . . . and parents.
The three best songs are those that have catchy melodies, clever lyrics, a playfulness that speaks to both parents and children, and strong images to pull it all together. In "Pterodactyl Tuxedo," a song that uses negation for its structure, we hear a list of things that Pterodactyl never does. Kid won't think anything of it, but adults will see a party thread running through here, and lines that sound dinosaurish are really kind of fun for adults: "Pterodactyl never puts away the thesaurus/ always has a good synonym or two." The other exceptional song is "I Jump on Cake," which details Gustafer's primary vice: he likes to destroy bakery goods, so beware:
I jump on cake from high above,
I step on pie, so warm and lovely.
It's mine to punt, vanilla bundt.
All freshly baked. I'm on your cake."
The third memorable song is "Rocket Shoes," which will have parents thinking a bit of Elton John's "Rocket Man." After a slow start, the song gets rolling both visually and musically, the comic thruster an irreverent but fun criticism of the blues. Rounding out the tunes are "Mint Green Bee" and "New Blue Star," which, thematically, will probably speak to the little ones the most, perhaps sparking their own imaginations to see things in their world with the same wide, wild perspective.
Taylor is backed up by Robert Di Pietro on percussion, Robby Jost on French horns, and Fil Krohnengold on accordian, with Jeff Seasholtz narrating and Sathya Vijaendran and Jason Connolly handling the animation.
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