A little boy lost! Heroic police! A fruitcake competition! This child-safety record from New Zealand has it all. Music, jokes, and possibly the silliest “stranger danger” song ever performed.
One thing you won’t hear is a New Zealand accent. The record is undated, but it comes from a time when anyone seeking to make a living as an actor in the antipodes had to acquire a British accent. Thus it is that My Friend the Policeman sounds as if narrated by the Presbyterian Ladies’ College lacrosse coach. And the man who plays the honest bobby on duty at a country show – well, he must have taken elocution lessons.
Ah, but who cares. From the opening riddle, to the instruction to turn the record over, to the deeply entrenched gender-stereotypes, this bizarre record is a hoot.
- Title: My Friend The Policeman
- Author: Kay Mayo
- Performers: Kate Harcourt, with Peter Harcourt and Marjorie Orchiston
- Format: 7”, 45rpm, mono
- Label: Kiwi
- Catalogue: EA 168
- Manufactured in: New Zealand
- Year: Unknown
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2 replies on “A tall man in a blue uniform”
As it happens, my lacrosse coach at PLC was a bit of a bogan… 🙂
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I take it back, then. “lacrosse coach at MLC …”
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