Great Expectations (2011) – My Friend the Chocolate Cake

Best not have Great Expectations
Keep your sights down low

My favourite band from Melbourne, Australia, My Friend the Chocolate Cake, is back again with a very upbeat, fun song that doesn’t take itself too seriously. This is the Cake’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm‘ in song. Great Expectations is filled with Australiana – names, images, and humour – that immediately takes me back to my home country. It’s another of the band’s songs about escapism, about mixing things up and just going for it. It sits in a similar vein to one of their most popular songs, I’ve Got a Plan. Life’s too short to get stuck in the same old rigmarole that modern living creates, and not make the most of every moment we’re given.

The band’s gypsy-like, buoyant style shows they practise what they preach. Anyone who has seen them perform would agree – they have an effervescent, freewheeling spirit that you don’t see much in music these days. They’ve always felt a little enigmatic to me, perhaps because they seem more like a travelling carnival that appears every now and then. Their shows have a baroque, festival-like atmosphere – at least as I remember them – with a flair for the flamboyant.

I also got a kick out of hearing the bright, bouncy sound of Great Expectations paired with its no-thrills, yet quirky (unofficial) video below. It looks like it was filmed at a travelling “Jesus bus” show, featuring a music group alongside gleeful, animated puppets – as a sideshow. Just like the Cake’s music, the video has that folky, wandering, itinerant feel. Then David Bridie comes in to close each chorus – and the song itself – with the line: “On with the show (on with the show).”

The song finishes with a curious little yarn – and if the captions are right, it goes like this:

´They’d run away from the circus,
They just never knew what to join,
And one day, single-minded like a good malt whiskey was three times as old,
He let her go – knowing that in the not too distant future, she’d return to it,
You know what? She never did.’

Great Expectations comes from their 2011 studio album Fiasco (image inset). The pop chamber group’s musical style could be seen as straddle the worlds of ambient and world music, with an emphasis on piano and violin-led acoustic music.  

[Verse 1]
As time passes us by
It swoops across the bay
We hope that we can be found on a little hideaway
And I’ll never ride ‘cross the great sandy desert
On a donkey, or a mule
And I’ll never bowl like Curtly Ambrose
But I’ll be a fool for you

[Bridge]
And if the rainbow’s end
Is not around the next two turns
We’re in a heap of trouble
So let’s get away from here

[Chorus]
Best not have Great Expectations
Keep your sights down low
You’d be best avoid disappointment
On with the show (On with the show)

[Verse 2]
Whistle, as loud as you can
All your favourite Looney Tunes
You should, feel sleepy
When you’re barkin’ at the moon

[Bridge]
And if the rainbow’s end
Is not around the next two turns
We’re in a heap of trouble
So let’s get away from here

[Chorus]
Best not have Great Expectations
Keep your sights down low
You’d be best avoid disappointment
On with the show (On with the show)

[Verse 3]
Hop on board the red cargo plane
Go far across the sea
And if you do you’ll end up happy as you will ever be
As happy as a Rock Mango Tree

[Verse 4]
How many times have I warned you?
I told you
Please don’t give me the top job
‘Cause I’m much more comfortable
Being the Pig Pen in the mud

[Bridge]
And if the rainbow’s end
Is not around the next two turns
We’re in a heap of trouble
So let’s get away from here

[Chorus]
Best not have Great Expectations
Keep your sights down low
You’d be best avoid disappointment
On with the show

Best not have Great Expectations
Keep your sights down low
You’d be best avoid disappointment
On with the show (On with the show)

References:
1. My Friend the Chocolate Cake – Wikipedia