This morning: I drag myself out of bed, get to the gym just after the 10 a.m. opening of the doors (essentially the crack of dawn here -- a good time to go to the gym as most of Madrid is still comatose at 10 a.m. on a Sunday). Not completely awake, so that the combination of the first three songs played on the in-house sound system seemed especially eccentric to my ears. They were:
Hey Jude -- The Beatles
Staying Alive -- The BeeGees (perhaps in homage to Maurice Gibbs)
The Ride of The Valkyries -- Wagner
I'm not sure I've recovered from that line-up.
(And all through the Valkyries' ride, I sang to myself,
"Kill da wabbit!
Kill da wabbit!!
Kill da wabbit!!!")
That pernicious little phrase has been ricocheting around my teeny brain ever since, to the point where I think it's time to exorcise the bugger. Which I'm going to do this very minute by posting the complete lyrics to:
"What's Opera, Doc?" Starring Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) and Elmer Fudd (Arthur Q Bryant)
Elmer: Be vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits.
(Spoken:) WABBIT TWACKS!! WABBIT HOLE!!
(Thrusting spear:) KILL THE WABBIT! KILL THE WABBIT! KILL THE WABBIT!
Bugs (spoken): Kill the wabbit?
Elmer: YO HO HO! YO HO HO! YO HO....
Bugs: Oh, mighty warrior of great fighting stock
Might I inquire to ask, eh... what's up, doc?
Elmer: I'm going to kill the wabbit!
Bugs: Oh, mighty warrior, 'twill be quite a task.
How will you do it, might I inquire to ask?
E: I will do it with my spear and magic hewmet.
B: Spear and magic hewmet?
E: Spear and magic hewmet.
B: Magic hewmet?
E: Magic hewmet!
B (spoken, dismissively): Magic hewmet.
E: Yes, magic hewmet, and I give you a sample!
(Bugs exits at near-light speed.)
E (spoken): That was da wabbit!
(There follows a chase, and then:)
E: Oh, Bwoonhilda, you're so wuvly.
B: Yes, I know it, I can't help it.
E: Oh, Bwoonhilda, be my wuv....
(They dance, then... )
E: Weturn, my wuv... a fire burning inside me....
B: Return, my love, I want you always bee-side me.
E: Wuv wike ours must be...
B: Made for you and for me....
E & B : Return, won't you return, my love... for my love is yours.
(While singing, they embrace. Bugs' helmet falls to the ground revealing... a pair of big honkin' rabbit ears!)
Elmer (spoken, outraged): I'll KILL the wabbit!!
(spoken): North winds bwow, south winds bwow.
Typhoons, Hurricanes... Earthquakes!! SMOG!!!!!!
Thunder, wightning, stwike the wabbit!!
(Lightning flashes, striking something distant. Moving closer, we see the limp, lifeless form of Bugs. A drop of water clings to a crushed flower)
E: What have I done? I've killed the wabbit! Poor wittle bunny.... (Sob!)
(Bugs is carried off in Elmer's arms.)
B (spoken): Well, what did you expect from an opera, a happy ending?