Author Topic: Vance NOT the puppet...  (Read 3446 times)

Vance NOT the puppet

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Vance NOT the puppet...
« on: November 11, 2011, 11:32:13 AM »
Hello from North Carolina...

A friend mentioned to me recently that Tom has named his puppet "Vance" and I was quite pleased.

It was passed on to me from my grandfather and I thought I'd give some background and notable examples.

The name Vance belonged to a prominent western NC family before the Civil War and son Zebulon B. Vance became the state's much loved governor. Zeb Vance is said to have given a $5 gold coin to the parents of each child named after him. I don't know if this meant either or both names, ex. if Tom in 1867 would have had to name his puppet, if it were a real boy, Zebulon Vance Scharpling to get the five bucks. In those days before so much official birth documentation, I can imagine there was room for fraud in making claims, as $5 was a considerable sum back then, just like it was about 15 years ago.

Whatever, there were people who admired their politicians enough to name children after them, much like we can expect the male name "Cain" to come back in vogue now, especially among black Republican satanists, among whom it has been popular all along for its classic Bible-bad-guy chic.

So,  while my own grandpa was born too late to get the $5 gold coin, the name got in my family and was handed down to me. It's the name I go by even though my first name is Thomas. Being the baby in a large family, Thomas, Tom and Tommy are already being used.

Over the years I have seen contestants on Star Search and Price is Right, for example, with the name, and once I was old enough to understand, could generally assume that these folks had Carolina roots.

One false reading on this regional connection would be the male child of huge "I Love Lucy" fans... like the lady who was expecting a daughter and had decided to name her Ethel Vivian. The baby turned out to be twin sons, and she named them Vance and Mertz.

There is the song "Vance can't dance, but he'll steal your money." I don't know if they even spell it my way... seems like in the video there is a dancing pig and the titles read Vantz or something that makes it seem more inbred and illiterate. I heard this from kids in school, passing in the hall. Just good-natured joking around from friends, not the sort of name/song hazing some kids experienced... from me.

Perhaps the biggest insult was in like the 9th season or so of Dukes of Hazzard, after Bo and Luke left. I think Uncle Jesse was dead and the other original characters except for maybe Cooter, had moved on. I believe the spin-off based on deputy Enos had even failed by this time, so we're talking really tail-end of the series stuff... they brought in two new cousins who their mother had out of wedlock and hid in a cave all these years named Coy and Vance. I don't think they even showed these episodes in re-runs, but it's true. The whole shared name thing would make me one of only a handful of people with a reason to remember.

-end name discussion-

Myself, musically, I fell into the Pink Floyd trap as a teenager in the late '80s. It didn't take me long to realize that your average Floyd fans suck and they "have to be stoned to undertand the Wall," so I kept digging deeper. The early stuff clicked, loved the Barrett singles and Piper album... started reading about the people in their musical circles and ended up a fan of what some call straight up psychedelic rock, but I call pre-prog based on three bands and what they spawned:

The Move (which spawned ELO), The Nice (which spawned ELP) and, to lesser degree, Tomorrow (which spawned Steve Howe, well... not really spawned him as a person, but nurtured him musically until YES could happen).

Would be really great to hear more Move and Nice these days... the music is nice and, at times, moving.


You can't oo your own burn!

Christina

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Re: Vance NOT the puppet...
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2011, 02:35:48 PM »
Ha - when I saw an account with the name "Vance", vetted your IP addy and activated this earlier today, I was like "all right, what's this wise guy gonna perpetrate on the rest of us?"
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fonpr

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Re: Vance NOT the puppet...
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2011, 06:26:32 PM »

There is the song "Vance can't dance, but he'll steal your money."
I thought it was: "Zanz Kant Danz".
"Like it or not, Florida seems dedicated to a 'live fast, die' way of doing things."

Vance NOT the puppet

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Re: Vance NOT the puppet...
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2011, 02:34:58 AM »

There is the song "Vance can't dance, but he'll steal your money."
I thought it was: "Zanz Kant Danz".

I guess I remembered the post-lawsuit version... here's from Wicked Pete:

Two songs on the album, "Zanz Kant Danz" and "Mr. Greed", were believed to be attacks on Fogerty's former boss at Fantasy Records, Saul Zaentz. "Zanz Kant Danz" was about a pig who can't dance but would "steal your money". When Zaentz responded with a lawsuit, Fogerty issued a revised version of "Zanz Kant Danz" (changing the lead character's name to Vanz).
You can't oo your own burn!

Vance NOT the puppet

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Re: Vance NOT the puppet...
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2011, 02:44:06 AM »
Thought of one more obscure "Vance" entry into pop culture...

In one of those Monty Python live shows, Secret Policeman's Third Ball I believe, there is a sketch about "slapstick" in which Terry Gilliam is toting around a long board with one or more other fellows. The narrator shouts "Hey, Vance!" and Terry spins around smacking someone in the head with the board hoisted on his shoulder.

I wrote to a Monty Python fanclub some time after seeing this and the letter in reply carried in huge hand-written letters, "Hey, Vance!" and I was then amusedly schooled on the fact that Vance is Terry Gilliam's middle name... fwiw.
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masterofsparks

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Re: Vance NOT the puppet...
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2011, 01:36:46 PM »
Any relation to the host of the Shout Network program Citizen's Arrest?
I'll probably go into the wee hours.