How Do You Do?

It was just about a year ago that I took pleasure in torturing you fine folks with videos of a couple of songs (Soul Coaxing, Softly Whispering I Love You) that had some strangely profound connection to my youth, and I never got around to following those up, as I had threatened. Well, why not? Little could be more a garish reminder of the early 1970s than this video of How Do You? by Mouth & MacNeal, which, in 1972, was a song that simultaneously repelled and attracted me—not unlike a gory car crash. I have vivid recollections of hearing it endlessly that summer, particularly on a family trip to Callaway Gardens, GA, a place I adored in my childhood (and would love to visit again if I didn't have to take out a second mortgage to stay there for a few days). I don't know for sure whether I saw this video on television back then, but I did see it somewhere, sometime, before coming across it again on YouTube several years ago.

Oh, my lord, this thing is a mess, a jaw-dropper, a train wreck, a horror show. Long before I saw the video, the song sent my thirteen-year-old self into weird fits of spasmodic bouncing, over which I had no control and that made me feel ashamed to be human. I wonder... will you experience this song and start bouncing? Oh, my goodness, wouldn't that be fun?

Just remember, someone may be watching you....