Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/24/th-bizarre-1976-cat-stevens-so.html
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Bad acid trip.
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Seems pretty straightforward.
There’s this fruit, the Banapple, which gives off a gas.
People start sniffing the gas, and making love, and what not, and pretty soon Banapple gas is mass-marketed the-who-sell-out-style and “all the world is breathing Banapple gas”.
Cat sings “yeah yeah yeah” a lot and dances back and forth merrily, as hippies and cops and Indian gurus collectively sniff Banapple gas and exhale great gusts of joyous blue smoke and dance back and forth merrily, etc. etc.
It’s like Erasehead.
For decades, all my friends insist that “Erasehead is incomprehensible” – and when I finally see it? It’s just an allegory, fer crissakes. You’d think people have never seen allegory before.
Well, my countrymen are American; maybe I expect too much.
Update: To be clear: Banapple Gas is an allegory for “Somebody with a movie camera and awesome dope let Cat have all the fun he wanted.”
Update 2: Erasehead is an allegory for … no, better not say: might be a spoiler.
But speaking of allegory, The Lobster is a must-see-once film. Once may be all you need; I know I came out of the theater feeling that way (and feel that way still, unremittingly). Damn, that is one unhappy, let’s-find-reasons-to-not-live film. But I’m very glad I saw it once, because when I finally cracked the code, the underlying message was punch-in-the-gut powerful … no, that’s true but not enough … it was the cracking of this complex and highly original, deeply-thought-out allegory all at once, the pieces coming together in a rush, late in the film (for me, anyway; your mileage may vary) which sparked my exhilaration.
Update 3: Removed link to The Lobster page at Wikipedia. Don’t read about The Lobster. Don’t talk about it. Just decide you’re going to see it, and then see it. The less you know in advance, the better.
Okay, you can watch the trailer. But no more after that.
Update 4: Self-reflection: The course of my psyche is laid bare in this post:
Banapple Gas => Eraserhead => The Lobster.
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Commentary on commercialism… or… prescient commentary on social media… addiction?
At any rate, +1 for making the trans woman feel uplifted?
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Play it back-to-back with George Harrison’s “Crackerbox Palace” and see why 1976 was such a fun year in surrealism.
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Just Listen To It!!!
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OMFG I HAVE LOVED THIS SONG FOR SO LONG
I didn’t even know there was a video!
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right? i have been a Cat Stevens fan almost my entire 52 years, and i had no idea there was a video for this song. i’m even on his email mailing list, for pete’s sake. HOLDING OUT ON ME, YUSUF.
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Me three! I consider this a Wonderful Thing!!
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It’s been a few minutes since watching that video and I’m still confused.
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It’s almost as if he doesn’t want people to focus on that part of his career
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You can’t just toss that out there regarding Eraserhead and then just leave it hanging out there! No bueno! Spill the beans! 
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Whereas the banana drug made me think of Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow”, but that’s from 1966.
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honestly, can you blame him? no wonder he got out of the business for awhile.
All I know is that my gas doesn’t smell like Banapple.
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reminds me of Donovan’s weird Barabajagal
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Now that is a Happy Mutant!
And ahead of his time. Five years before MTV.
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Which is actually about sex toys. Best not to ask what the line “I’m just mad about fourteen” means.
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Yeah, songs about smoking banana peels are pretty upfront about their subject matter.
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There’s always money in the Banapple Gas!
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