The band formed in 1990 when Jian Ghomeshi and Murray Foster, former classmates at the local Thornlea Secondary School, and participants in the school choir, joined with Mike Ford and David Matheson to busk in Toronto. They drew unusually large crowds, and, eventually, the attention of Toronto-based CBC Radio One, which commissioned songs about political and local issues for the radio show Later the Same Day. Some songs written for the show later appeared on their albums; these songs include "The Gulf War Song" and "My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors", which was written for a Toronto authors' festival.
They cut a six-song demo tape in 1992, and their first major-label album was released the next year. Its single, "King of Spain", was only the second Canadian independent #1 hit in that country's history. (Torontonians Barenaked Ladies were first by a few months, with 1991's "Be My Yoko Ono".) Shortly after, they embarked on a touring schedule that continued, practically without stopping except to record new material, until the end of 2000.
The band reminds some listeners of the Beatles (which Früvous happily acknowledges) or They Might Be Giants. They sometimes sang with little or no accompaniment in a style similar to contemporary a cappella, drawing comparisons to Da Vinci's Notebook. A number of their songs also express the band's progressive political leanings ("The Greatest Man in America", for instance, harps on Rush Limbaugh, and "Big Fish" lambasts former Premier of Ontario Mike Harris). Früvous was also known for their close relationship with their fans and their live shows, which were full of political commentary, humorous banter, and musical improvisation.
The band gave its last concert in 2000 (excepting performances at annual fan conventions in 2001 and 2002), and the last update to the band's website occurred in 2002. As of fall 2005, Jian Ghomeshi was hosting National Playlist on CBC Radio One, and Murray Foster was the bass player for Great Big Sea. On September 5, 2005, Ford, Foster and Ghomeshi performed on CIUT, the University of Toronto's campus radio station, as part of the morning program Toronto Unlocked (an ad hoc program produced and hosted by locked-out CBC Radio One staff).
laika
Moxy Früvous Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Eat up your greens and say your grace
While on TV they put a dog in space
And left her there... you shoulda seen her face
When I was 5, the dream was still alive
And Walter Cronkite said: "One day we'll earn our daily bread
Conducting things in outer space"
And walk by with my substitute
While I fasten the oxygen valve
On my space suit
When I was 8, we shared a cloakrack - it was great
And I pretended I had so much on my plate
I had a speech to write, about moonshot trajectory
And during phonics class, perfected my delivery
Now the band's playing "Hail to the Chief"
While my capsule's out floating by some
Tropical reef
all the experts can agree on
regarding your motives
in the cape canaveral crash...
is that they know nothing
it puzzles me so...
it puzzles me so...
it puzzles me so...
Now I'm full grown, and I've a spacecraft of my own
But there you sit, still upon your Earthly throne
Hey darling, throw this space-pup a bone
Don't touch that dial, don't hang up that phone
[The following section is repeated several times, ending the tune]
Band's playin' hail to the chief
It puzzles me so...
Don't hang up that phone
The song "Laika" by Moxy Fruvous tells the story of a child who grows up during the space race and is fascinated by the idea of humans exploring space. The lyrics, starting off when the singer is just three years old, reference the historic moment when the Soviet Union sent a dog named Laika into space in 1957. The song touches on the excitement and wonder of the time, with lines like "the dream was still alive" and references to astronauts being regarded as heroes. However, as the singer grows up, he feels disconnected from society and misunderstood, as people seem to ignore him and prioritize other things. The repeated refrain of "it puzzles me so" highlights this feeling of confusion and frustration.
The song takes its name from the dog Laika, who was perhaps the most famous animal to be involved in space exploration. Laika was a stray dog found on the streets of Moscow, trained and then launched into orbit in the spacecraft Sputnik 2. Although Laika was not expected to survive the mission, she quickly became a symbol of both scientific achievement and animal rights, as many people believed the mission was cruel and unnecessary. The song "Laika" captures the bittersweet feelings that this moment in history represents, noting the wonder of the achievement but also the sadness of the dog's fate.
Overall, the song "Laika" is a poignant reflection on the excitement of the space race and the human desire to explore the unknown, but also on the isolation that individuals can feel in the face of societal pressures.
Line by Line Meaning
When I was 3, my mother said to me
Eat up your greens and say your grace
While on TV they put a dog in space
And left her there... you shoulda seen her face
At the age of three, my mother advised me to eat my greens and thank the creator. On TV, scientists launched a dog into space and abandoned it there, which made its expression a painful thing to see
When I was 5, the dream was still alive
And Walter Cronkite said: "One day we'll earn our daily bread
Conducting things in outer space"
But still on earth I thrive... and you pretend I'm not alive
And walk by with my substitute
While I fasten the oxygen valve
On my spacesuit
By age five, it remained my dream for humans to one day make a living operating in outer space, as declared by Walter Cronkite on the news. I nevertheless continue to survive on Earth, where people disregard me and treat me as if I were invisible, leaving me to rely on the instruments of my spacesuit
When I was 8, we shared a cloakrack - it was great
And I pretended I had so much on my plate
I had a speech to write, about moonshot trajectory
And during phonics class, perfected my delivery
Now the band's playing "Hail to the Chief"
While my capsule's out floating by some
Tropical reef
At eight years old, I had a personal wardrobe that I enjoyed sharing. I pretended there was an abundance of jobs requiring my attention. I had a speech to compose about space shuttle travel, with a focus on the path of the moon. I perfected my performance during phonics class. Nowadays, the band is performing the presidential theme song, while my space module is positioned among a tropical coral reef
all the experts can agree on
regarding your motives
in the cape canaveral crash...
is that they know nothing
it puzzles me so...
it puzzles me so...
it puzzles me so...
All the professionals seem to agree about your potential ideas concerning the Cape Canaveral catastrophe, though the truth is they have no idea. It's perplexing, it's perplexing, it's perplexing
Now I'm full grown, and I've a spacecraft of my own
But there you sit, still upon your Earthly throne
Hey darling, throw this space-pup a bone
Don't touch that dial, don't hang up that phone
I am now an adult with a vessel of my own, yet you remain seated on your earthly seat. Hey there, beloved, please show some generosity to a dog of space. Do not change that channel, do not cut that call
[The following section is repeated several times, ending the tune]
Band's playin' hail to the chief
It puzzles me so...
Don't hang up that phone
The music ensemble is performing for the president. It's perplexing, it's perplexing, don't end the call
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