‘The Lone Ranger’: how the world’s longest word gave us an early synth-pop anthem
It’s a familiar story to the music makers of the world; you have spent days carefully crafting a track, yet it feels as though there is something missing. At this point, most sane musicians would look at the mixing or production to see if things could be shaken up a little bit. Perhaps they would even add an extra instrument into the mix. Jarvis Cocker, for instance, was not satisfied with ‘Common People’ until the addition of a barely audible acoustic guitar track. Most artists, upon realising their song was missing that special sauce, would look to the Guinness Book of Records for inspiration.
Then again, Quantum Jump were certainly not representative of most artists. First formed in the mid-1970s, the eclectic group conjured up a strange mix of funk, disco and jazz-rock fusion. Understandably, for a group with such disparate and specialised influences, Quantum Jump were never particularly successful, either in a commercial sense or critically. However, in 1976, as music fans were becoming entranced with the revolutionary sounds of punk rock, the band were on the cusp of a guaranteed hit single.
The track, titled ‘The Lone Ranger’, was a reimagining of the relationship between the iconic fictional characters, the Lone Ranger and Tonto. An unlikely theme for a hit single, granted, but the song also featured the futuristic sounds of synthesisers, predating the advent of synth-pop groups like The Human League or Depeche Mode, who would go on to dominate the pop charts during the early 1980s. ‘The Lone Ranger’ was unlike anything that had been released prior, and The Electric Record Company could sense a hit, but something was missing.
Reportedly, the label’s director, Jeremy Thomas, alerted the group to the idea that ‘The Lone Ranger’ could be a hit if they were able to conjure up a more interesting introduction. So, songwriting Robert Hine reached for a copy of the Guinness Book of Records, picking out the world’s longest word, and basing a new introduction around that word. At last, the song was complete, with the introductory word, “taumatawhakatangihangakuayuwotamateaturipukakupikimaungahoronukupokaiawhenuakatanatahumatakuatanganuakawamiki-tora”.
The word itself has very little to do with the theme of the song. It is taken from the Māori language of Aotearoa – more commonly known as New Zealand. The word is said to be the name of a mountain in New Zealand, far away from the homeland of the Lone Ranger or, indeed, Tonto. Nevertheless, Quantum Jump adapted the word so that the pronunciation would be more in keeping with the theme of American First Nations and indigenous figures like the fictional Tonto.
Including the world’s longest word in the song’s introduction seemed to work, as the song quickly received a lot of airplay on the radio. That was until the BBC cottoned on to the homosexual content of the lyrics, in which the Lone Ranger has a crush on his indigenous companion, and promptly banned the song. Nevertheless, when it was re-released three years later – presumably once people had calmed down about the potential homosexuality of fictional characters – ‘The Lone Ranger’ managed to reach number five in the UK singles charts.
Fittingly, when the track reached number five in the charts, it was Gary Numan’s Tubeway Army who were at number one with ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric’. Of course, Numan was among the first in British pop music to adopt electronic music and synthesisers, but it seems as though Quantum Jump had pipped him to the post by three years.
