With all the recent smurfs hub-bub, I was reminded of this gem of an album. Back in the 80s, I was pretty smurf obsessed. I had the figures, a smurf sleeping bag, and was a regular fan of the hanna-barbera cartoon series. At the time, like most Americans, I didn’t realize the smurfs were created back in the 1950’s as a Belgian comic by artist Peyo. When smurf fever was sweeping my childhood, lots of random European Smurf items unrelated to what I then considered “official” versions (aka the american cartoon characters and voices) appeared. The animated movie, “The Smurfs and the Magic Flute” is a good example of this (the black faced “jungle smurf” is a bad example of this).
One version that creeped me out as a child was this record I had gotten as a gift, “Father Abraham in Smurfland”. I had no idea who this amish looking man was, or why his giant head was floating over smurf village. None of the voices did I know, where was jokey smurf? Why is Papa Smurf not voiced by Scooby Doo voice actor Don Messik? The songs to me were weird, including “Smurfing Beer” which I think I have to re-listen to the original version. Since I’ve been to Belgian and love the original comics now, I might have a different appreciation for this childhood nightmare.
MJW
10:36 am on
March 29, 2011
I also own this. Father Abraham is now 75, looks exactly the same (albeit whiter-haired) and is still performing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vader_Abraham.jpg
P.S.
You’ve been to Belgian? Is that anywhere near Belgium?
Stermer
3:00 pm on
April 12, 2011
I apparently have been to Belgium, but have not been to the land of Spellcheck and I’ve had too many stop overs in the eastern european nation of “Typo”.
Oh, I didn’t know he was a legit recording artist. Thanks for the info. I’ll have to look up his hit single of “Zou het erg zijn, lieve opa”.