Way Out Wednesday: “Clyde & Phyllis, A Musical Fantasy About the World’s First Guitar Playing Elephant”

This is without a doubt one of the strangest children’s albums I’ve ever run across. It tells the musical story of Clyde, an elephant who makes a living playing the guitar (excuse me, ”gee-tar”) with his trunk. He makes quite a good living at it too, since he has his own club, ”Clyde’s Den.” Here, I’ll let him sing about it to you.

Hello My Name Is Clyde

Clyde falls in love with a girl named Phyllis, who he meets at the club. Phyllis loves him as well, but alas, their love is not to be because of their size difference. You see, Phyllis is an ant! (See, I told you it was strange!)

The Sad Love Affair of Clyde and Phyllis

Phyllis spurns Clyde’s advances, so he volunteers to be shot into space after hearing that the space program was looking for volunteers, ”height and weight don’t matter.” (Apparently the qualifications have changed since the time of Space Pilot Jones!)

I’m Off to Cape Kennedy

When Clyde’s rocket lands on the Moon, he hears a strange voice. It’s the Man in the Moon, and he wants to eat Clyde(!) After he tells the Man in the Moon of his plight, he takes pity on the poor pachyderm and promises to think of a way that Clyde and Phyllis can get back together. The next morning, the Man in the Moon wakes up Clyde and tells him his idea: the two lovebirds can live in space. That way they would both be weightless and there wouldn’t be any danger of Clyde crushing tiny Phyllis!

Wake Up Clyde! I’ve Got Good News for You

Clyde rushes back to Earth to tell Phyllis the news, she loves the idea, and the two go off to live among the stars. (I would have put a Spoiler Alert here, but they give away the ending on the album cover!)

We’ll Float in Space Together

This really is a neat bubblegum-tinged album. In fact, the guy playing Clyde sounds very familiar to me. Can anybody here place him? As always, if you want the entire album, you can find it here!