Me ears are alight
"But you must know the words, Mum!" says Emily, "You've heard it hundreds of times."
But I don't know the words, usually - I just don't hear the words of songs: not correctly, anyway. I'm one of those people who think that the Police were singing about Sue Lawley and that Desmond Dekker had somehow set fire to his ears.
But this morning I found that I did know the words to something. I was driving along in my cool, sleek Suzuki Wagon R and listening to Classic FM. Now, as you will know if you ever hear it, Classic FM has a repertoire of about eight pieces of music, but I don't care: they are Classical Music's Greatest Hits and I like them all, so I keep listening.
Oh yes, there's that duet from the Pearl Fishers again - - aaah - - and here's Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance - - dee dee diddle diddle diddle diddle dee dee diddle diddle diddle diddle DEE DEE diddle diddle diddle diddle diddle dee dee diddle diddle here it comes now - - LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY, MOTHER OF THE FREE - -
And there I was, driving through Chapeltown, singing along. Great tune, Mr Elgar - - and I know he didn't write the words, they are by Arthur Christopher Benson, a man whose name is revered and remembered not very much at all, which is still a hell of a lot more than it should be.
This is what I was singing.
Land of Hope and Glory bit of a dodgy start I feel, what's the glory bit about?
Mother of the Free this has my-country's-better-than-yours overtones and I don't like it
How shall we extol thee nobody has the foggiest clue what this means but it's a really crap rhyme with Glory
Who are born of thee? okay, extol means praise but it still doesn't make much sense
Wider still and wider I think we can tell which way this is going
Shall thy bounds be set told you so, it means let's walk right into anywhere we fancy
God, who made thee mighty they know they're on deeply suspect moral ground when they start dragging God into it
Make thee mightier yet aha! now we're at it. Down with Johnny Foreigner and Hoorah for British Imperialism!
The Communist has always referred to this piece as Land of Dope and Tory. I'm really rather shocked that it's still sung with such gusto at the Last Night of the Proms. What a pity that this fantastic, stirring tune has such outdated, unpleasant words, and that they're so embedded in the nation's consciousness that even I know them.
But I don't know the words, usually - I just don't hear the words of songs: not correctly, anyway. I'm one of those people who think that the Police were singing about Sue Lawley and that Desmond Dekker had somehow set fire to his ears.
But this morning I found that I did know the words to something. I was driving along in my cool, sleek Suzuki Wagon R and listening to Classic FM. Now, as you will know if you ever hear it, Classic FM has a repertoire of about eight pieces of music, but I don't care: they are Classical Music's Greatest Hits and I like them all, so I keep listening.
Oh yes, there's that duet from the Pearl Fishers again - - aaah - - and here's Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance - - dee dee diddle diddle diddle diddle dee dee diddle diddle diddle diddle DEE DEE diddle diddle diddle diddle diddle dee dee diddle diddle here it comes now - - LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY, MOTHER OF THE FREE - -
And there I was, driving through Chapeltown, singing along. Great tune, Mr Elgar - - and I know he didn't write the words, they are by Arthur Christopher Benson, a man whose name is revered and remembered not very much at all, which is still a hell of a lot more than it should be.
This is what I was singing.
Land of Hope and Glory bit of a dodgy start I feel, what's the glory bit about?
Mother of the Free this has my-country's-better-than-yours overtones and I don't like it
How shall we extol thee nobody has the foggiest clue what this means but it's a really crap rhyme with Glory
Who are born of thee? okay, extol means praise but it still doesn't make much sense
Wider still and wider I think we can tell which way this is going
Shall thy bounds be set told you so, it means let's walk right into anywhere we fancy
God, who made thee mighty they know they're on deeply suspect moral ground when they start dragging God into it
Make thee mightier yet aha! now we're at it. Down with Johnny Foreigner and Hoorah for British Imperialism!
The Communist has always referred to this piece as Land of Dope and Tory. I'm really rather shocked that it's still sung with such gusto at the Last Night of the Proms. What a pity that this fantastic, stirring tune has such outdated, unpleasant words, and that they're so embedded in the nation's consciousness that even I know them.
posted by Daphne at 7:15 pm
2 Comments:
It has always made me bloody nervous, I can tell you.
My idea of the lyrics of many songs over the years have caused me to wrongly assume that the writers had a drop more white stuff up their noses than they really had.
The Desmond Dekker one is a classic but for me, the one I had most problems with was Daydream Believer by The Monkees.
Mind you, we're talking serious white stuff now so it's not all my fault !!
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