The QuackMoPhone Song
The Banana Splits
© 1974
This obscure little ditty was originally distributed on one of those "cardboard record
on the back of a box of cereal" dealies. Remember those? It remains to this day the only
known example of the QuackMoPhone in action, though it's not clear that they had any more luck with it than Mark
did.
See if you can pick out the distinctive 'quack' sound that gives the instrument its name. A single 'quack'
sound, followed shortly by a double 'quack' indicates the instrument has powered up and is ready to play.
Although this song demonstrates a laudable effort at controlling the quirky quackmophone, even the untrained
listener can easily tell that they're having difficulties keeping the instrument in tune over the course of such
a lengthy piece.
Now of course, through the miracle of modern electronics, it may be possible to replace the racks of tube
equipment used in the original QuackMoPhone with a single computer chip the size of your thumbnail. This
'Digital QuackMoPhone' would go a long way towards solving the stability issues inherent in the original
instrument, and could possibly be operated by as little as two musicians. Unfortunately, the development of such
an instrument has not proved to be necessary, or even desirable.
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