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:: The Monster's Three Wishes ::

:: The Magic Cookie ::

:: Cookie Disco ::

:: Google Bugle ::

:: I'm Going To Get My Hair Cut ::


Frank Oznowicz invented Death Metal. Accept it. OK, that's perhaps grossly oversimplifying it, but any growling Black Metal singer worth his weight in tortured, immolated carcasses probably at some point imitated the voice of Cookie Monster, or Yoda. If they never imitated them, those two characters, voiced by Oz, surely gave them a good idea where to start.

This album is better than most Death Metal. In fact, by my standards, this album is better than most albums. I had no idea that there was a Best Of Cookie Monster. When Phil told me he found it, I was jealous. When Phil mentioned he hadn't decided whether to keep it or graciously bequeath it to me, I was extra nice to him for a few days. In the end, he gave it to me for my birthday. Phil is great. The only weak cut on here is The Last Cookie Roundup, where it sounds like Cookie just mailed it in. Probably recorded that year he was hung up on killer Peruvian gingerbread.

This music is happy music. I don't have too many lucid memories of Sesame Street as a child, though I certainly watched my share of it, and I don't recall being a huge Cookie Monster fan as a kid. But I do very distinctly remember one afternoon in high school with my best friend Chuck. (Don't worry, even though that same sentence has been used many a time to start a letter to Penthouse Forum, this recounting is safe for kids.) We were at boarding school, so the only TV's were found in "common rooms," all of which were in the dorms save for the Johnson Common Room, which was underneath the gynasium and had a then-impressive big screen projection TV. Anyway, Chuck and I were passing through there, either to hit the vending machines or play some free games of Flying Shark, which could be had if you kicked the coin slot door the right way. Somebody had Sesame Street on the big screen, and there was Cookie Monster, monstrously crooning "If Moon Was Cookie" with his nubby blue elbows rested on a wall as he gazed at the moon. We stopped in our tracks to watch it. It was one of those weird bonding moments, where this show for little kids had us both enthralled. It's seriously one of my fondest memories from high school. And I played sports and had sex in high school. When I first got Napster, back in the golden age of "OH MY GOD I CAN GET ANY SONG...FOR FREE!," one of the first things I tracked down was that song. It still brings a smile to my face when I hear it.




So what I've done here is posted the tracks that appear to be unavailable, or at least not readily available. You can find "If Moon Was Cookie" and "C Is For Cookie" on CD, and they are totally worth having in your collection. Me hope you enjoy these songs. ARM ARM ARM ARM ARM ARM ARM ARM.

Tony

This entry was posted on Friday, January 20, 2006 at 6:15 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.