The James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan - Twist Twist Twist Twist

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

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Thank you for listening to this episode of the James Donald Forbes McCann catamaran plan. If you'd like to listen to bonus episodes, go sign up to the Patreon. That's patreon.clom. Clom? Ah, we f***ed that. Anyway, you'll look, you'll find a way. Catamaran home! Hey, this is James Donald Forbes McCann on the James Donald Forbes McCann catamaran plan podcast. I'm speaking quietly because it's very late at night and the fam is asleep and I've come back from tour. I We have it was a long tour and you'd think after a long tour. I would just be able to come home and Finally get a good night's rest, but no I can't stop thinking about the twist

I just want to talk about the twist I'll mention other stuff to do with the podcast How's the hunt for a boat going? How's Wimble Dog going over on the patreon? It's Wimbledon this week. Are we having a special tie-in for Wimble Dog? How about the shows Jimmy any new shows coming up? Yeah, listen. All right, we're gonna get to that but first the twist Just it occurred to me that I don't know for something that I't know if it's something that I believe or if it's something that I think would be funny for a character to talk about in a book or a play or a film or a poem, but sort of the twist is like a, I don't want to say the high point of human civilization, but I thought someone could say that Come on a baby. Let's do the twist biggest song of the 1960s the twist

They'd have taken over by blinding lights But the weekend but let's not pretend that blinding lights by the weekend has the same level of cultural prominence as the twist the twist Here's I mean, I don't where to start to the way the twist. The twist. Where to start? I sort of want to live in a society where people think the twist is slightly too sexy. People are still allowed to do the twist, but people look on. The parents and they look at the teenagers doing it and go,

I don't like this animalistic twist dancing this erotic shaking of the twist because you know that it's still cheeky the twist. Cheeky is an Australian and English term I think the Irish probably say cheeky as well I realized the Americans are so cheeky. You know sort of playfully insubordinate. I mean you listen to the music today and it's all I'm gonna put my big penis inside of you and it's gonna hurt and I'm gonna kill somebody but the twist anyway I was reading about the twist and Specifically the twist dance craze, and then I'm trying to find it again now, but there's like a series of songs About the twist like it was you didn't just have

you know At some point you know we do it's the It's the Cupid shuffle, and you got the song about the Cupid shuffle and then everybody moves on You know the crank that the soldier boy soldier boy gets to have that one You know people don't come out with it's a soldier boy Christmas soldier boy around the clock Let's soldier boy again, but they did with the twist and I'm just songs I want to read you some of that there is people who just have song after song about the twist. I need the list I need the list I need the list I need the list there were so many of

them peppermint twist sure yeah here we go list of twist songs so it starts out in 59 with the twist So it's the original release It's a B-side by Hank Ballard and then by 1960 it goes to number one, but they're in the you know in the 60s We have sorry it's not in 16 1662 We have kissin and twisting teen twist twist in the night away twist in USA dear lady twist Florida twist let's twist again It's maybe it's one of my favorite ones is let's twist again mama don't want no twisting

Oliver twist slash celebrity twist Pavement twist of course Covered by sweet 1974 Rockahoola baby brackets twist special the Spanish twist twist all night Baby brackets twist special the Spanish twist twist all night Umagawa twist Eximus twist tequila twist twist and shout of course the Beatles do a version of that But then the twist really gets going in 1962

That as best as I can tell is the biggest year for the twist. The Alvin Twist, the Arkansas Twist, the Basie Twist, Big Bo's Twist, Bristol Twist and Annie. Do you know how to twist? Everybody's twisting. Double twist. Dry Bones Twist? Hey, let's twist. Jungle Twist? La Lesson de Twist. The French had one. Let me do my twist. Mama don't allow no twistin' here. Which sounds frankly pretty similar to mama don't want no twistin'. It's just a more verbose version. Oh and then of course there was a mama don't allow no twistin'. Distinct from mama don't allow no twist in here presumably there's two mamas and one of the mama is slightly more geographically permissive you can twist but you better do it over there mr. twister mule skinner twist

percolator brackets twist the Popeye twist raunchy twist set one of my favorites Santas doing the horizontal twist okay Martin how could you say brackets twist the Popeye twist raunchy twist set one of my favorites Santa's doing the horizontal twist okay Martin how could you say such a thing sister twister slow twisting King Curtis came out with soul twist these have all been 62 Transylvania twist twist in those twist twist fever Twist Her by Bill Black's combo. Twist, Twist, Signora. So that was a play on Shake Signora. But instead she's Twistin'. one that I like. Twistin' Postman, which was a compound sequel, referencing not only the twist, but also Please Mr. Postman.

If you can just get other characters from songs to twist. Twistin' at the Hotel California, you've got Mr. Sandman Twist, so many. Pusha Man Twist, Twistin' Matilda, another one, Twistin' the Night Away, Rod Stewart did it, Twistin' with Linda, Twistin' Bells, Twistin' in the Jungle, Twistin' Time, Twistin' with the King. And then Jerry Lee Lewis with, by what at that point is no doubt very true, his social commentary, a whole lot of twistin' going on. It continues in 1963 and afterwards, but you know, Twist Train, Twisted Up, The Twister, the heart and soul of the twist movement has gone away by

63. And then there's a couple more from 64 to present by that point. Dental twist by the white stripes, erasure, then I go twisting. Bomb the twist by a Japanese band, which, band which are you know they're getting vengeance traveling Wilburys did a twist the Wilbury the Wilbury twist anyway what I'm saying is a sad one in 1980 by father Guido Sarducci I won't be twisting this Christmas ah that's interesting a chain-smoking priest with tinted glasses who works as a gossip columnist. Oh, it's a character. It's an Italian comedy character. No, it's on SNL. Well, I'll find out about that later. That's interesting. Anyway, my point is, I can't stop thinking about the twist.

I haven't heard very many of those twist songs, and I think maybe it would be funny to do an album of twist songs. Well bring back the twist! Let's twist again again like we did you know 50 years ago. I don't know if I'm talking about the twist, is this is as exciting to everybody else as it was to me. That's sort of what my good lord We've got about nine minutes on the twist there. Hey, welcome back to the James Donald Forsyth We can get him around plan. Sometimes I think what direction is this podcast going in? What will we be talking about? What's the point of it's the twist? I Just fall down onto those Wikipedia wormholes and I get lost Anyway, I'm back from the road. I Man, I'm gonna have so much less to say about the road than I did about the twist

Thank you for everyone for coming to the special recording in Philadelphia Then I went to Pittsburgh the next night. Thank you everybody came out for that Got to see some Stubanville people and that was a real, excuse me, I feel a burp coming on, it was a real joy. I'm trying not to get sick so I'm taking the fish oil tablets and now I, you know, I don't even know if that helps immunity, I got about eight different immuno things but I thought I must be pretty run down from being on the road And people are quite sick in this house that I've written this sweet house that I've returned to

or listen to the twist Twist twist twist twist the Chocolate twist white chocolate twist raspberry chocolate twist And I went then I went to a San Francisco and then I went to San Jose Shane Gillis in San Jose that was last night I Was in San Francisco for pride I got to see a pride march I

Didn't go for the prize just got to see that while I was there I didn't know that would be on at the same time and I got to see people I got to see a pastel guillotine Wonder what that was for Yes For a march about love there's a lot of hate and some hearts there. There's a lot of reactionary there's a lot of drag your religion down and I don't like you type Attitude a lot of furrowed brows

and I told you I'd have list to say but we're not to the twist I'm thrilled by the two and I'm back here I'll tell you my upcoming show I've got a bunch with that's the much does come back to San Jose on the 19th You know the 20th in Sacramento on the 22nd st. Louis on the 19th of September Omaha on the 20th of September Irvine, California October 1st and Baltimore October 10 I think there is a Dallas Fort Worth show getting thrown into the mix as well and more of these are on the weekends because we've, I mean that, so these are all sort of newer dates. And I did it, man. I did it. We did those midweek. You get, whatever it was this month, so many shows. I'm knackered.

And for those ones in July, I'm going to be driving off with the family to California and having a nice holiday. And then on those nights that I have those shows, just quietly going off and doing those shows. But happy to have a little break. Happy to have that special recorded, write some new material and relax a little bit. America, comedy, professional, is a point I'm trying to make but let's get back to the twist I took a little break there and I went to the toilet did you know that

well now you do all right so what takes over from the twist because we've got all these twisted songs in 1962 but then there are other dance crazes where there's the chicken walk in 61 there's the pony the loco motion martian hop this is still 62 is a big time for dance crazes mashed potato monson mash the swim swim doesn't get a time wikipedia page oh the watusi a solo dance that enjoyed brief popularity during the 1960s it was one of the most popular dance crazes of the 60s in the United States. It's a former name for the Tootsie people of Africa. Ah, it was racist and so we've forgotten. There was the Popeye dance.

Hey, that's probably why there was a Popeye twist. The chicken dance, the hitchhike, the monkey, the frog. I don't think I've ever heard of the Frug. And the Litka-jinka. Litka-jinka! It was a Finnish dance craze. Hmm. It's the bunny hop. No, it's just the bunny hop. It's got a different... It's... They just change it. The bunny hop you start on the right leg, the gajinka you start on the left leg. Well I gotta say, I was really looking forward to there being a new exciting kind of dance from the Finns, but it's just a Timo version of the bunny hop. Now this is the Frog, included vigorous dance to pop music. It evolved from the chicken. So the chicken features lateral body movements. Yeah, that's very interesting. Used primarily as a change of

pace step while doing the twist. Ah, the twist gets back, it all comes back to the twist. Arm movements. Ah, right, so you'd be out twisting, what they're saying here is that you'd be out twisting, you know saying here is that you'd be out twisting you know and the upper body would start to You'd have fatigue and you'd slow down And that's when you start doing the chicken dance crazy out of the twist the Freddy the mouse and at the limbo 1965 we've definitely re-appropriated that wow more man. They're so man man definitely re-appropriated that. Wow, more? Man, there's so many... Man! Man, the 70's dance crazes. The sprinkler is the 70's, the penguin, the hustle, the time warp, the bump, grinding. Oh, grinding becomes a, also known as juking or freak dancing. This is when you

rub your bum. This is when a lady's rubbing her her bum on a man I didn't know that we've had that since the mid 70s how quickly dawn goes down today and I had is or the Cotton Eye Joe the moonwalk Harlem Shake the agadu Superman the safety dance but 1988 there was a song called Duh Butt. The Urkel, the Akebreke, the Macaritna, Macarena is a great return to form. But then I feel like these are going to fall over at some point. The 2000s of course, we all remember the Cha Cha Slide, the Ketchup Song, I don't know the Algorithm March, it's a dance fad created in Japan based on the children's television series Pythagorea switch Got a new Japanese the stanky leg to the left to the left to the left

I think that's a different song. That's the cupid Shuggles. Excuse shuffles I don't know anything about the stanky leg now the 2010s. Wow. This is heartbreaking This is heartbreaking the 2010s had many dances. The Duggee, the Creep, the Wobble, Gangnam Style, the Smurf, the Twerkin. Twerkin, 2013, Twerkin. Seems late. Harlem Shake, the Nay Nay, Hit Them Folks, the Dab, Hit The Quan, Shoot The Floss, the Skibbity, Lottery Renegade dance. In the 2020s, of which we've had You know what five years now? the gritty

2021 and The hot to go Chapel run Well, that's absolutely devastated that even in the I mean we're in an era. I would think of inventive little dances with the tik-tok And tik-tok gave many dances to the late 2010s. But I can see there were two dances. Well, the gritty, why, that's a celebration more than it is a dance, I would think.

And Hot to Go, of course, we all like the Hot to Go. If it went for Chappell Road, there'd be not one true dance on there. Devastating. I think that's what America, see that's what America needs to pull it all back together again. That's what the world needs. Black, white, Asian, Mexican, what we all need to unite is a dance craze. I'm not, I'm only realizing this now, that we've lost, we've lost dancing.

We need a new dance sensation to bring everybody back together. Oh, I don't know what to how. It's not, surely we've never had so many people training and dance academies. I'm too old. I'm a 33 year old man Well how I was chubby checker when he popularized the twist There was in 50s dancers by the way Charleston or 26 look at that pre. Yes, so we've actually we've sort of returned to pre 50s levels. So in the 50s, it really blew up with the dancers. And then before the 50s, Grizzly Bear was in 1909. Big Gap, Charleston, 26.

Duck Walk, 30s. Couple in the 30s. Thunder Clap, the Kongo, the Hokey Pokey in the mid-1940s. And then a real explosion of dancers. And the dancers have come right back down We've lost dancing Dancing let's have a look here. Okay the twist 1962 but he records it in 60 chubby checker born in

41 obviously I mean he was 19. That's the right age for someone to come out with a new dance. Well, I mean, the music career is going, but people, thank you for listening to the James Donald Forbes, we can have music on the Spotify and similar. But, you know, if anybody wants to invent a new dance for any of those songs that people are enjoying, it could be anything. We need a new dance. I don't need to make this one. You know the selfish earlier James McCain? He would have said, let's make the dance about me somehow.

Let's make a promotional dance. Not today. Today is a sad dance. Not today. Today is a sad day, because today is the day I've discovered that we've lost dancing. I mean, is it time to bring back? I mean, the problem is that people don't dance anymore. You go to the club, and they stand there, and they jump up and down, and they have the bottle service. I'm gonna put a zin in all that shit

taking old people in the club young people are indoors and their computers they're not coming up with new and also what what what what provocative what provocative way to dance could they have in, in San Francisco, public nudity, right, I saw a man's bum, his bum, his bare bum, his anus in the diner, he was wearing short, like assless shorts, and as he left the diner, I saw his whole bum, and we had been sharing a surface. I mean, obviously, he was in a different part of the diner, but I thought, I don't know whose bum's been on this, whose naked, dirty bum. I was told by a Californian friend that public nudity laws have gotten to the point where the only part of your body that you

are obligated to cover in public in California now is the urethra. I mean, come on. Gas costs six dollars a gallon on a good day, I think. I don't really know know I've never driven in California That's by reputation alone. They all complain And you're telling me that you can get your whole dick out Just have a little sticker My friend said maybe Maybe a googly eye over the urethra you get your whole dick out urethra Urethra notwithstanding. I don't know if I'm using notwithstanding correctly there.

And we can't invent a new dance? I think that might be connected. Oh, it's time to tighten up. Time to tighten up. Time to get a little more ashamed. The whole of society's going to become a little more ashamed. So we can have a dance again.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a dance? Wouldn't it be nice if the young people could move in such a way that we went frightful? I mean we had we had a dance that was it was just sexual intercourse and many Jamaicans got in trouble, but Having done that Why we goes what's the new what's the new fresh dance on the dance floor? Eight in the pink 15 in in the stink, 43 in the mouth, a man in each hand. I mean, whatever happened to just doing the twist? Excuse me, I didn't mean

for this to become quite so vulgar, I've been on the road for too long I managed to make it to mass this morning at the At a Cathedral in San Jose by the hotel. I was staying at beautiful Cathedral Happy sorry to pivot from one of the other happy um happy I Think it's a solemnitynity I think the feast might have been I but happy solemnity of uh feast day of sense Peter and Paul I am in an attempt to spiritually by the way thank you to everybody on the road who gave me the I also got a Southern novelists book so very much

looking forward to reading both of them someone gave me a triptych it's like an eternity ago someone gave me a triptych thank you for the triptych but I'm reading Dante's Inferno and it just goes on a bit. I read some of the introduction and they say, you know, in great ages of literature, people understand and respect the Inferno. I go, wow. I guess I'm an idiot. I guess by not liking it, I've exposed myself as an idiot I'm also open to you know, I'm reading it in sort of a shallow first pass and maybe there's an

unbelievable depth Where if you really read Virgil not only as Virgil but also as reason and Dante not only as himself, but also as man. I mean Brother whatever anyway, I'm I Look forward to being a sophisticated enough person to take all this back, but I'm About 150 pages in and it's just been he's in hell. I don't know if I've spoken about this on the podcast It's been going on for ages, but

Someone said it feels like I've been reading it for an eternity and I said maybe that's the point it's unbearable for a long time for an interminable period of time like hell you go yeah while an interesting point it's not what I'm looking for in my poetry right now. I have enjoyed sections of it. I will persevere. I'm gonna get, if I can at least get out of hell, then I can say I've read The Inferna,

and in years in the future I can just come back and go time for a little purgatory and then time for a little Paradiso, but I am struggling. I got to talk to a friend of mine who's very smart. He's a very well-read man. I said, I'm written Dante. I was almost ashamed to say, I don't like it. And he said, oh yeah, I don't like Dante. And I thought, that's nice.

It's nice when a smart guy gives you permission to not enjoy something that smart people seem to like. I'm open to it being great. I just kind of want to read it. I'm going to get through the Inferno and then I'll put a John Wyndham book about an alien and I'll put Chockey. It might have been called Chockey.

Hey! Oh, I'm sorry. John Wyndham book about an alien and a book. Choccy? Might have been called Choccy. Hey, oh I'm sorry this is very um... This is the sort of podcast that I would usually put out on the Patreon but I do need to have a podcast out as well and I haven't had time to edit the other one so this one's just got to come out but you know if you didn't enjoy this watch out because that's all the Patreon is. Me having a ramble about the twist. But also on the Patreon is a WimbleDog. And I want to thank everyone for reading WimbleDog and Peter Bedgood for doing such a good job and I've got to upload the next five pages of WimbleDog. Peter Bedgood being the illustrator of WimbleDog.

WimbleDog going really great. And uh... Ooh! Ooh! Wimbledog going really great and Oh, oh Very exciting things happening this week on Wimbledog. All right We shall end the podcast there. I love you. I miss you. I'm actually ready for sleep. I've talked I've talked myself into being previously I love you. I miss you. I want you to get a man hug bye