Oktoberfest

Today is the first day of Oktoberfest and I'm listening to Oktoberfest albums on Spotify. It reminds me of my childhood going to the Oktoberfest area at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg; especially eating at Das Festhaus where I'd hear this music loudly blasted from the live musicians on the stage in the center of the giant hall.

Das Festhaus

It fills me with delightful nostalgia, as well as the urge to wave steins of beer back and forth and sing terribly before guzzling.

One song I just heard took me straight back to the line for "Der Wirbelwind," the swing ride. I can smell the ice cream cones from the shop nearby. I can feel the bright sun shining in my eyes. After this, we'll go to Alpengeist, I imagine, in this memory.

The song triggers these memories so vividly that it must have been the most frequently played song in that area of Busch Gardens in the years I was going there, if it isn't still today. I was jarred just now when singing started and I heard, "I don't want her you can have her she's too fat for me, she's too fat for me," etc. I found upon googling that the song is "Too Fat Polka," made famous by Americans Arthur Godfrey and Frankie Yankovic, respectively, but I'm not clear who wrote it. It's hard to believe that tune isn't originally from Germany or somewhere closer to there than the U.S., but I suppose American polka is really just from wherever it sounds like. Or, maybe the tune IS originally something else, some other traditional melody, and I just can't find it. The album I heard it on was Oktoberfest! by Little German Band, and their track pays homage to the Andrews Sisters' 1947 version with flipped pronouns.

I can't believe I never knew those were the lyrics.