Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Today’s Zippy, supremely silly:

Not a burlesque, but a genuine novelty hit from the heyday of disco.

From the Wikipedia page:

“Disco Duck” is a satirical disco novelty song performed by Memphis disc jockey Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots.

(It was a hit in 1976.)

The central rhyme (focused on in the cartoon) is the flat-footed cluck – duck – luck.

The verses are 4 x 4s, four lines of tetrameter, basically dactylic — S W W — but with some shorter feet, and always with a monosyllabic fourth foot, in rhyming couplets. The main part of the text:

[DD – Donald Duck voice]
[BS – background singers]

Went to a party the other night
All the ladies were treating me right
Moving my feet to the disco beat
How in the world could I keep my seat

All of a sudden I began to change
I was on the dance floor acting strange
Flapping my arms I began to cluck
Look at me… I’m the disco duck

[DD:] Ah, get down, mama
I’ve got to have me a woman, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
[BS:] Disco, disco duck
[DD:] Got to have me a woman
[BS:] Disco, disco duck
[DD:] Oh, get down, mama
[BS:] Try your luck, don’t be a cluck, disco
[DD:] Disco
[BS:] Disco
[DD:] Disco
[BS:] Disco
[DD+BS] Disco
[BS:] Disco, disco duck
[DD:] All right
[BS:] Disco, disco duck
[DD:] Ah, get down mama,
Oh mama, shake your tail feather, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha

When the music stopped I returned to my seat
But there’s no stoppin’ a duck and his beat
So I got back up to try my luck
Why look

[DD:] Everybody’s doin’ the
[DD+BS] Disco, disco duck
[DD+BS] Disco, disco duck
[BS:] Try your luck
[DD:] Wave to me
[BS:] Don’t be a cluck
[DD:] Disco
[BS:] Disco
[DD:] Disco
[BS:] Disco

This entry was posted on January 16, 2012 at 8:55 am and is filed under Linguistics in the comics, Music, Poetic form, Pop culture, Rhyme. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.