Classical Gas

How the Song Classical Gas Keeps Coming Back To Me

I've got all kinds of music that when I hear it I either sing out loud with the radio as I’m driving down the road, or it brings a smile to my face because it reminds me of a moment in time. As matter fact, this is one of those songs that has many meanings to me because it keeps appearing in my life.

 

The first time I ever hear this song was on one of my favorite television variety shows “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”.  Warner Brothers first released “Classical Gas” in 1968 on the B-Side of  “Long Time Blues”.  The Smothers Brothers would have Mason Williams play this acoustic classical song. I really like the way it sounded, and I wasn't much for classical music because I was a hardcore rock and roller, and I wasn't classically trained in no way shape or form.  But in high school in 1972 this song would make a comeback into my life.

 

I was a junior at Middletown High School and our Junior Class play was “Thurber’s Carnival” by James Thurber.  This was a play that was a series of skits that had a “Saturday Night Live” feel to it.

Our directors incorporated music of the time and blended it all together to have a feel of a “Laugh In” and “SNL”.  Some of the skits titles were: “If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox”, “The Wolf at the Door”, “The Last Flower”, and “The Pet Department”.

 

I was in several of these skits. We also added several dance scenes that helped with big set changes. The cast would all dance around on stage, the music would stop, we would freeze, and then a cast member would step out and tell a joke, make a statement or do some quick dialogue. For example: A girl asked a boy: “Do you think I have a nice body”? The boy takes a moment looking her over and says, “Before I make a decision I will have to sleep on it”! When I think about that now I have to say WOW! And we got away with that?

 

We had great directors and a fun cast! Ms. Beanie Martin and Student Director Toria Tolley directed. The cast was myself, Dottie, Pam, Neil, Steve, Mark, Ken, Paula, Sue, Susan, Elizabeth, Michael, Damon, Bernie, Yvonne and Mary.

 

This play was our first play of 1972 and it was a lot of fun. At the end of the play we would do curtain calls and bows to Mason Williams “Classical Gas”. The cast comes running down the main aisle and jumps up on stage and dances to this song while doing our bows. 

 

We actually got the opportunity to go on the road with this show. We took it to Rogers High School in Newport.  Now that was an interesting show because our little postage stamp stage in our cafeteria with a bunch of stand up flats looked OK. But on the big giant stage at Rogers High School it looked very tiny. We still pulled it off and to be able to run down the aisles of this larger theatre to this song was a lot of fun.

 

So, every time I hear this song it always brings me back to the time of the carnival, and it's definitely a fond memory in my life, because my high school years were a fond time for me. So you would think that would be the end of this B-Side Story. But this song made yet another comeback into my life almost twenty years later.

 

As I said I was very fond of this song on “The Smother's Brother Comedy Hour”. Well, later in my life in 1991 I move to Florida and I got a job working as the Fitness Director at Palm Beach Polo and Country Club. 

 

This was a fun job because I was able to work with many big stars in teaching aerobics classes and working them out in the gym. I never really knew who was coming to the classes, or to the gym, so many times I was surprised.

 

One day Sylvester Stallone walked in the door with Dustin Hoffman and Freddie Couples and asked if I would work with them. The same was true with aerobics classes. I would arrive to class rushing to get it started and I would put the cassette in the player, the music would start and I would start warming them up, and this is where I would see who was in class.

 

It was not unusual for me to look in the wall size mirror to see in my class Calvin Klein and his wife, Zsa Zsa Gabor or Sly Stallone’s mother just to name a few. Then one day, to my surprise there he was Dick Smothers.  

 

He approached me after class and asked if I did private lessons, and asked if we could discuss this over lunch. This was not unusual because I was doing all kinds of private classes at the time. At lunch he asked if I would be interested in walking with him in the mornings. This was my first request for walking. But I agreed. So we met three days a week for the next several months at 6:30am for a one-hour walk through the golf courses of Palm Beach Polo and Country Club.

 

What was interesting he was dead set against running, but we had some great workouts walking. Which was fine with me because my first aerobics class was at 8:00am, so I was pretty warmed up when I got to it.

During one of my walks with Dick I told him about this story and how fond I was of the show and this song.  He told me that him and his brother Tommy were doing a show in Miami and Mason Williams was part of the show. He invited me to the show with backstage passes to meet Tommy and Mason. It was a great show, and cool to meet everyone.

 

I continued to walk with Dick until the season was over, and he moved back out west. I didn’t stay at the country club because I was hired to work the up coming season for the Palm Beach Opera.

 

Mason Williams “Classical Gas” still gives me goose bumps when it suddenly comes to me. I’ve heard it, on the radio, in the doctor’s office, on the elevator, in department stores and even at the dry cleaners, and I always remember running down the main aisle at Middletown High School to go up on stage and do curtain calls for “Thurber’s Carnival”.

 

I also remember doing aerobics and looking in the mirror and seeing Dick Smothers doing my abs workout to Mason Williams song. “Classical Gas”, which I added to the workouts tape after I met Dick.

 

This song has followed me throughout my life and I'm sure it's not done, and here I am bringing it back. And yes I am smiling.

Reviews

[Tony Jordan]

I've never known recurring gas to bring a smile to anyone but a baby ;D
This is quaint and sound like comfort food T.E.