Here's another list of things I learnt this year

[venta]

Well, there were further thoughts from a small folk festival, only I haven't had time to write them down. First I was busy thinking them, then driving down, then at work, then broadmeadow and I went to a peculiarly imaginative quiz last night, run by a friend of his.

They may get written up at some point. Or maybe not. However, to be going on with:

Things I learnt from listening to folk songs[*] this weekend:

• Any broken-down race horse running at fantastically long odds will come in first.


• Women can't be trusted.


• Men can't be trusted either.


• Things used to be better.


• Things will be better tomorrow.


• Seven (long) years is enough to render the love of your life unrecognisable.


• Gentlemen: if you meet a woman who is crying on account of her love being lost at sea/killed in battle/otherwise missing, the correct course of action is immediately to propose marriage. This may result in felicitous domestic bliss, or the lady spontaneously committing suicide.


• Cocaine's for horses but it ain't for men.


• Black socks never get dirty.


• It's difficult to catch an excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.


• A shark in the garden pond will cure your wife of reading Dennis Wheatley novels.


• Seemingly blameless activities like hunting for black hares, catching birds, or sitting side by side in assorted forms of agricultural transport can result in pregnancy.


• Bosses are bastards.


• You can't break the faith of a Tolpuddle man.

[*] Where a "folk song" is defined as something I heard someone sing in a place notionally called a folk club.

In other news, thanks to my lovely parents and the lovely DaveT (who renovated it for me), I'm now the proud owner of an English concertina. Yay :)

Now all I have to do is learn to play it, of course.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yup, well spotted, it's Alexander Beetle.

I think seriously claiming it as a folk song is pushing it, but someone has set it to music. And someone did sing it on Sunday night.

If you do RealAudio, there's a clip or a recording of it here (http://www.timmyabell.com/music/lyrics/ol/abeetle.htm).

Real Audio

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Apparently not on this computer (I'm still in Hong Kong, and it belongs to the Polytechnic University here, so I'd better not meddle with it!). But thanks for trying, and the link to the lyrics alone was very nostalgic for me.

Penny

[broadmeadow.livejournal.com]

Oo, oo! An excuse to post Milne quotes! Here's my favourite hum; enjoy!

I had a penny,
A bright new penny,
I took my penny
To the market square.
I wanted a rabbit,
A little brown rabbit,
And I looked for a rabbit
'Most everywhere.

For I went to the stall where they sold sweet lavender
("Only a penny for a bunch of lavender!").
"Have you got a rabbit, 'cos I don't want lavender?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

I had a penny,
And I had another penny,
I took my pennies
To the market square.
I did want a rabbit,
A little baby rabbit,
And I looked for rabbits
'Most everywhere.

And I went to the stall where they sold fresh mackerel
("Now then! Tuppence for a fresh-caught mackerel!").
"Have you got a rabbit, 'cos I don't like mackerel?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

I found a sixpence,
A little white sixpence.
I took it in my hand
To the market square.
I was buying my rabbit
I do like rabbits),
And I looked for my rabbit
'Most everywhere.

So I went to the stall where they sold fine saucepans
("Walk up, walk up, sixpence for a saucepan!").
"Could I have a rabbit, 'cos we've got two saucepans?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

I had nuffin',
No, I hadn't got nuffin',
So I didn't go down
To the market square;
But I walked on the common,
The old-gold common...
And I saw little rabbits
'Most everywhere!

So I'm sorry for the people who sell fine saucepans,
I'm sorry for the people who sell fresh mackerel,
I'm sorry for the people who sell sweet lavender,
'Cos they haven't got a rabbit, not anywhere there!