Saturday, September 7, 2013

Not in Nottingham

Perhaps it says something about me that one my favorite songs from any Disney movie is the rather downbeat, almost depressing, Not in Nottingham from Robin Hood. When I was growing up we watched Robin Hood a lot. It was one of my favorite movies and Robin Hood, that fox, was one of my first crushes. And Roger Miller's sad, hauntingly beautiful version of Not in Nottingham was the one song I would sing from the movie. 


There are certain songs that just hit you the right way and stick with you through life. Almost thirty years after hearing that song for the first time, I'm still looking for a copy I can call my own. Disney has only once, to my knowledge, released the song in a physical form. It was part of the record soundtrack. Sadly, that record is one of the few that I can't find in my parent's house. We have the cover, but not the record. It's not on iTunes or Spotify or Pandora or LastFM. I'm not surprised that Disney would prefer to focus on the more upbeat songs from its movies but there is just something wonderful about that song. 

I'm clearly not the only one who loves the song. When I go looking for it, I find all sorts of covers of the song. Los Lobos did a version. Benjamin Baker did a version. I just found a version by Mumford and Sons. If you google Not in Nottingham, you'll find hundreds of covers with a couple versions of the original mixed in. But nothing that I can put on my iPod to hum along to later. So I'll keep looking. And hopefully find that old record. I'll wear out the needle listening to that song but it will be worth it. "Every town, has its ups and downs..." 

For those of you who've never seen Robin Hood or heard the song, check out the original here. And the Mumford and Sons version isn't too bad. 

5 comments:

Keith said...

The thing I find fascinating about Robin Hood is how much of it is directly cribbed from The Jungle Book. Have you seen the animated gifs comparing the animation? They actually copied chunks over.

Keith said...

I hope it's about a Koala that savages a spammer.

Cat B said...

And that is why I adore you Keith! Thanks for policing my site even when I'm not around. Silly spammers.

I had not noticed that about the similarities between Robin Hood and the Jungle Book other than the use of Phil Harris as a giant bear in both. Wow, I know that Disney used shortcuts in animation, but I'll be curious to see how obvious they really are. I know that they were both done at the same time.

Keith said...

Take a look at this. http://youtu.be/ihS970ymuC0

Cat B said...

Thanks Keith! Those are very clearly the same moves. I'm not terribly surprised but I didn't realize how similar they really were. Either the Disney animators only know a few dance moves or they weren't feeling very inspired. :-)