Tim Noah
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- For the writer for Slate, see Timothy Noah.
Tim Noah is an Emmy Award-winning children's entertainer who lives in Seattle, Washington. He is well known in the Seattle area for catering to children while also appealing to adults.
Noah performs at regional concerts as well as teaching children with music and dance. As of 2007, Noah owns and runs the "Thumbnail Theater" in Snohomish, Washington, which Noah's website states offers "children and adults a creative outlet to experience various levels of musical theater with their peers through acting, singing and dancing." He has performed at the Puyallup Fair and for while put on a Christmas performance every other year in Marysville.
Noah at one time belonged to the group Tickle Tune Typhoon, and wrote the lyrics for some of their songs, including their theme. He later left the group to become a solo artist.
In 1985, he released a movie entitled "In Search of the Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo," which was released throughout the US. The soundtrack to the video was a previous album by the same name. Noah starred in a 1990 independent film entitled, "Daredreamer." During the mid to late nineties, Noah was the host of the children's television program "How 'Bout That." He has produced several albums, one of which is a Christmas album of five original holiday songs, including "Wackbangklinkn'klang Town".
While most of his songs are geared toward a younger audience, the Daredreamer CD shows more Rock & Roll influence, as do certain songs on Supertunes ("I Was Raised on Rock and Roll": "Bo Diddley, Fats Domino...Jerry Lee on a Piano, Chuck Berry singing 'Go, Johnny, Go'" - the music will appeal to kids but the references will go over their heads).
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[edit] History
[edit] Bullying
Tim Noah suffered from bullying as a child, in part because he was short. Three songs touch on this theme: "Big Booger" (Daredreamer), "Big Trouble" (Supertunes), and "Mud" (Kaddywhompas).
- "Big Booger" depicts only the cry for authority to pay attention and help ("Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, can't you see that Big Booger's pickin' on me?") and the child's inability to cope ("I wanted to run, but I didn't know where")
- "Big Trouble" depicts a non-violent yet unrealistic resolution ("I kept on dancin' till he ran out of gas") - compare "The Monster Song" by Tickle Tune Typhoon
- "Mud" (a cowboy interpretation) depicts an out-of-town hero ("The Dude") rescuing the town, again without violence (he ties the outlaws up and puts them on a train out of town).
Furthermore, the visual interpretation of "Big Booger" (in the WWWWWWW movie) is a pair of feet, the legs sticking up out of camera - a bully so big that no child could be expected to cope. Tim (playing the role of a child), though scared, shows his fists to the bully ("Hey, kid, you better leave me alone!") but when he turns to walk away, the giant feet kick him, and he cries out, "Ow! I wanna go home!"
The emphasis on the victim's basic helplessness is strong. Parents and teachers don't listen; the child retreats to fantasies of heroic outside help or amazing skills that have little to do with the task at hand yet somehow work. (While a smaller child could conceivably tire a larger child out by staying out of reach, the language of the song describes the "dancing" in terms of dance style and music style.)
"Betty Rose" (Kaddywhompas) deals not with bullying but with social ostracism and rejection:
Betty Rose With her tangled hair And her raggedy clothes The first to be teased And the last to be chose Nobody knows Betty Rose
No Nobody knows Where does she go? Nobody seems to care But I I watch her go by Clumsy and shy Nobody is aware Of Betty Rose
This, too, does not stress any action, but rather observation of the girl, presumably by a boy in her class. She is an outcast for being poor ("raggedy clothes") and clumsy; one could imagine that the boy eventually reaches out to her, but the song makes no claims either way.
Perhaps Noah's point in highlighting the helpless child is to ask those who are in a position to do something (parents, teachers, classmates) to stop accepting that "nothing can be done," and step in to put an end to child bullying and ostracism. Certainly schools have used such programs as student mediators to successfully reduce the prevalence of the problem.[1] [2]
[edit] Musical Inspiration
Both in person and in a song ("I Was Raised on Rock and Roll"), Noah attributes his early musical interest to such rock-and-roll artists as Elvis and Fats Domino.
[edit] Trivia
Apparently one appeal of "The Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo" is supposed to be that kids can pronounce it and grownups can't: The kids then can giggle at the grownups trying to say it right.
[edit] Lyrics
The Daredreamer CD does not come with a lyrics sheet, and [3] Tim Noah's site does not provide access. Noah's enunciation at times obscures the words, leaving certain phrases up to best guesses a la [4]. Some potential differences in reading do not significantly affect the content, or might be reasoned out from grammar:
- "You'll be a normal functioning human being"
- "You'll be a normal-function inhuman being"
Other phrases may be expressions some people are not familiar with, or may be misheard.
[edit] Albums
[edit] Daredreamer
These songs are more strongly rock-and-roll than most of his other songs. "The Cure" seems to be a protest against imposed conformity. "Dare to Dream" speaks of the gulf between initial inability and eventual success, and encourages people to set and reach for high goals (compare "Keep On Keepin' On" (Kaddywhompas) below).
Track List:
- Prelude/Awesome
- The Rescue
- Merry-Go-Round
- The Cure
- Sunroom
- Disturbing the Peace
- I Wonder Why
- Cloud 9
- Dare to Dream
- Daredreamer
[edit] In Search of the Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo
This album is likely to appeal primarily to very young children (Zoom, If I Was, The Monkey Song, and WWWWWWW all being the type of songs that young kids would want to hear repeatedly and older kids would be begging to be turned off).
Track List:
- Zoom
- If I Only Knew
- If I Was
- The Monkey Song
- Big Booger
- Tears On My Toes
- Little Miracles
- Sunshiney Mornin'
- Musty Moldy Melvin
- Friends With A Song
- Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo
- I Can Do Anything
[edit] Kaddywompas
A cowboy/western collection. "Country Store" is a story that begins with the repetitive gathering of friends a la Drakestail, and kids should enjoy the repeated lines, as well as the ensuing speed changes as they go up and eventually down a hill.
"The Great Potato Uprising" is an environmental message with surreal action and a distinct lack of subtlety: "Don't put garbage in the water, in the air - there's a Great Big Hole in the ozone layer! There's no place left for a tater to hide; we're drownin' on acid rain and pesticide."
"Debalexy" tells of a girl who loves to dance. When she loses her grandpa, who usually played while she danced, she says she'll never dance again, but once spring comes around, her "feet knew what to do" and she remembers her grandfather fondly.
"Keep on Keepin' On", while promoting the myth that Columbus was trying to prove that the world was round, calls attention to the many ways in which supposed truths were shown to be false, and thus reinforces the idea that one should look beyond common assumptions to determine their truth or falseness for oneself, thus conceivably sparking an interest in Invention, Science, and Logic.
"Betty Rose" is a haunting melody about social ostracism, apparently because Betty Rose is both clumsy and poor; the narrator, a boy in her class, does notice her, and it may be hoped that he reaches out to her, but the song remains observation without action. On the other hand, a later song, "Because You're You" speaks just as gentle to one who might be in Betty Rose's position, reinforcing the child's self-esteem: "you don't have to be somebody else...you are one, one of a kind...there's no one quite like you, because you're wonderful, because you're you...you don't have to try to be a star, because to me, you already are."
Track List:
- Kaddywompas
- Lucky Day
- Aunt Vera and Uncle Don
- Debalexy
- Ol' Fiddles
- Country Store
- Mud
- Betty Rose
- The Great Potato Uprising
- Because You're You
- Keep On Keepin' On
- Giddy Up
[edit] Supertunes
This album alternates between energetic and peaceful, and clearly shows the rock-and-roll roots in multiple songs.
"Cartoon" has the delightful line "The TV's got a quirk, it needs repair; it won't work, but I don't care", a sentiment the modern parent could only hope to hear from a child. Using this song as a teaching moment could spur kids to start making their own entertainment instead of passively absorbing input, and, in fact, most of the songs on this album encourage kids to get up and get moving: "Funny Bones" (a dance description), "Look Out World" (a wake-up song), "Rip-Roarin' and Rarin' to Go" and "Superkid" could certainly get your children up and moving.
"Little Voice Inside," "Portable Paradise," and "Anything Is Possible" are the opposite, just the thing for a few moments of peace. Unfortunately, they're all over the CD, meaning you can't let them play back-to-back - but this can be overcome by a good CD-RW drive.
"Special F/X" was featured on "How 'Bout That," Noah's television show. [verification needed] It speaks of the various effects that can be created on camera: "You can make me big, you can make me small; you can bounce me around like a ping-pong ball." Again, kids can be encouraged to act the song out.
Track List:
- Anything is Possible
- Big Trouble
- Special F/X
- Rip-Roarin' And Rarin' To Go
- Little Voice Inside
- Look Out World
- Raised on Rock n' Roll
- Cartoon
- Funny Bones
- Superkid
- Portable Paradise
[edit] Whiskers of Christmas
Although the selection is small, these are original holiday songs. Noah's Christmas performance uses these.
Track List:
- Just Because
- It's Snowing
- Wackbangklinkn'klang Town
- All I Want For Christmas (Peace on Earth)
- Faces of Christmas
[edit] Faces of Christmas
Audio CD - A brand new collection of original songs for the holidays.
Track List:
- Magic Sleigh
- Fa-la-la-la Holiday
- Just Because
- Christmas Don't Do Business With a Rat Like Me
- Hugs and Homemade Fun
- Faces of Christmas
- Holiday Hop
- Wackbangklinkn'klang Town
- Snow Snow Snow
- Shine
- Merry Merry Merry Christmas
- All I Want For Christmas is Peace on Earth
[edit] Movies
[edit] In Search of the Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo
This video version of the WWWWWWW album has Noah, dressed in adolescent-style clothing, stuck in his room (complete with oversized bed and dresser to give an illusion of childhood size) and imagining his way through a hunt for the WWWWWWW. He wonders "What is a Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo?" and proceeds to muse, "What do they look like? How do they smell? If I ever saw one, how could I tell?...Can you find one in a book, can you buy one at the store, somewhere out in space - or right outside your door?"
Various songs toy around with imagination ("Zoom," "If I Was," "Little Miracles"), while others speak of what Tim encounters at school ("Big Booger" speaks of the school bully) and his childhood reaction to rules (he wants to build a house in the trees, where animals will be his friends, he can "do just what I please" and e.g. never wash his face and "slurp my soup without a spoon").
Eventually, Tim concludes that he just can't find the WWWWWWW ("Tears on My Toes"); he is encouraged to continue and his spirits pick up ("Sunshiney Morning"), but then he encounters "Musty Moldy Melvin" and his counterpart Greasy Grimey Gertie, in a number reminiscent of Monster Mash.
The resolution uplifts the concept of friendship ("Friends with a Song") and ties the term "Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo" to either friendship or imagination (he's talking about friendship to the voice that is his imagination), and at last winds up in a tribute to every child's potential ("If I can do anything, you can too").
This movie is certainly low-budget; the major props are basically giant cardboard cutouts and much of the set isn't even colored (though that allows the lighting to take full effect and gives it a pleasingly abstract quality). As expressed in the "making-of" section of the DVD version of WWWWWWW, the flat, grey backgrounds were meant to emphasize the bold colours of Noah's costumes and the various sets he "imagines" as an escape from his dull, everyday life.
Songs:
- Zoom
- If I Only Knew
- If I Was
- The Monkey Song
- Big Booger
- Tears On My Toes
- Little Miracles
- Sunshiney Mornin'
- Musty Moldy Melvin
- Friends With A Song
- Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo
- I Can Do Anything
