Have you seen or heard the Wild Bunnies of Kitsilano?

Have you seen the bunnies? Better yet, have you heard the song?

Here’s a bit of the lyrics to give you an idea about this crazy song:

The wild bunnies of Kitsilano
and the duckies and the dogs
and the children are in the palm fronds
and the sea and the sand and the logs

The wild bunnies of Kitsilano
dance on park benches late at night
and you can join them if you want
but you have to bunny hop just right

It’s not very often that a song about Kitsilano comes along. And we may never need another one. Can we adopt this as the Kitsilano official song?

I heard this one evening last summer. My friend, Joan Thornley, pointed out the bunnies when we were walking, after we enjoyed a burger on the patio at The Galley at Jericho Sailing Centre and going to the Jericho Arts Centre to watch a play by Ensemble Theatre. The bunnies were out in force. Joan tried to sing the song to me. But I stopped her singing and wanted to hear the real version.

In 1994, Rick Scott and Valley Hennell, were living in Kits and wrote this raucous piece of silliness that makes people laugh. They composed it after Rick saw this weird sight of piles of vegetables near the beach. Followed by bunnies coming out of the bushes to eat the vegetables.

He wanted this song to be a tribute to his hero, Spike Jones, so the musicians included a trunk full of sound effects. They recorded the song in 1995 amidst chaos, merriment, hysteria, starting pistols and whoopee cushions. The song is on the CD Philharmonic Fool – songs for kids of all ages, which was nominated for a Juno award as the Best Children’s Recording, available online at www.rickscott.ca/music or at CD Baby.

The Vancouver legend goes that while driving home from CBC Radio, Jurgen Goethe (host of Disc Drive 1985-2008) heard Vicki Gabereau (radio host 1985-1997) playing this song on her show. Jurgen did a U-Turn and went back to the station and demanded she give him the CD. He played it over and over until people begged him to stop. Then he asked for money to stop playing it and kept playing it.

So he made the song famous. Jurgen: “Rick’s music speaks to kids and their parents and to me … It’s delightful, educational, accessible and innovative. It’s not only important to Canadian music – it’s essential.” Valley says “I think it may be the only time our music got played regularly on a classical music show.”

No one knows for sure how long the bunnies have been in the area. It may be decades. It started, and may still continue, to be a place for humans to drop off unwanted pets. Unfortunately for the cute bunnies, there are many predators in the area. So a happy song but — many a sad ending.

Please enjoy the song and DON’T DROP OFF ANY MORE RABBITS.

 

Last modified: November 15, 2018