Fun_People Archive
25 Sep
Barry White's Banjo Bus

Date: Mon, 25 Sep 95 00:06:16 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Barry White's Banjo Bus

[On one hand, Barry White makes records that sound just like obscene phone  
calls.  On the other hand, AOL is helping the Feds track down pedophiles while  
Prodigy ads are offering to provide "whatever you're into..."  Take these two  
"facts," add a banjo (or 2, or 3, ... or 30), stir, and you get the media  
event described below...  -psl]

Forwarded-by: Ninafel@aol.com

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From:    John Lupton - SAS Networking <jlupton@SAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: Weird commercial...with banjo

So I'm sitting at home last night with the TV on, sort of half-paying
attention to the comedy channel (Comedy Central, or whatever they're calling
it these days) when this commercial comes on. I didn't catch the first
couple of seconds of it, but when I did look, there's this good looking
blonde dressed to the nines standing by the side of the road holding a
broken banjo neck, said banjo evidently having been broken by the same
boyfriend who just drove off and left her there. Along comes this bus that
pulls up to her and stops. The door opens, and who should be driving but
Barry White...yes, *that* Barry White, all 300 pounds of Mr. Love Unlimited
Orchestra hisownself, and looks at her soulfully and says something like,
"What's the matter...banjo buster got ya down, Babe??". She climbs aboard to
find the whole bus full of banjo players just a-pickin' away (and Little Roy
Lewis is nowhere to be seen!!). As with a lot of commercials that catch my
attention, I can't recall exactly what it was promoting...just the notion of
Barry White chauffeuring around a busload of banjo players was enough to
leave me gaping in slack-jawed amazement.

Anyone else see this?? If your cable system gets Comedy Central, keep an eye
out for it...I only saw it the one time last night, but they tend to give
pretty heavy rotation to all their ads.

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 From:    Miki Thompson <MTHOMPSON@SFASU.EDU>
 Subject: Re: Weird commercial...with banjo

Yes, officer, I saw the whole thing.

It actually started with atractive (if you like that sort of thing) blond
standing in the road smashing the banjo and screaming "I can't play this
stupid thing!"  When she gets on the bus, she is then surrounded by people
qualified to assist her, that is, many other banjer pickers.  The bus then
takes the passengers through many other musical styles and interest areas.

The commercial was for prodigy and was trying to convey that its services
could link you to whatever interests you with a slogan that went something
like,"Music: one of the many things Prodigy can link you to"  or
something...

Anyway, I saw this thing at 11:30 at night on one of the cable news
networks.  Woke me up, I can tell you that!


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 From:    Fred Sokolow <SokolowMus@AOL.COM>
 Subject: Re: Weird commercial...with banjo

So they're finally playing that Prodigy commercial...I was hoping they would,
me and another banjo player are in it, everyone else was pretending to play
(they rented 30 banjos for it)...at one point they had us doing a Barry White
disco song with banjos, bongos, etc...a very bizarre experience...Fred S.

© 1995 Peter Langston