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Hi, Malcy!
Again I thank you for a detail and clarity of explanations.However
[quote=”Malcy” post=3682]when lady feminists decided to pinch men’s bottoms rather than the opposite way round….[/quote]
What do you want to tell about that they do? I’d read a lyrics of «Polka» and not understood it too.
I assume that you use some euphemisms. If you tell things by their proper names, I will better understand a sense.
Did they tear off a trews (trousers or kilt?) from someone?
Did they pinch the priest and tear off a cassock from him?+++
[quote=”Malcy” post=3682]’little’ can also be a romantic term of endearment, as in saying ‘I love you, my little one’ to your wife, even if she is as grown up as you are.[/quote]
OK, I can’t argue against such witty argument. Now I believe the foal was «little».
+++
«Between her breasts a hedgerow nosegay»So «hedgerow» = a row of bushes and small trees along the edge of a field or road
Did the Gipsy got flowers from a hedgerow literal?++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lah-Di-Dah:
I’d read the Jake’s French variant. Its sense generally coincides to English except minor details.
However there is one maxim about which we already spoke.English :
«I won’t run amuck
When the females chuck
Confetti in my ears.»French (I approximately transferred it to a case if you don’t know this language) :
Alors je ne lâcherai pas de gros mots [Then I won’t tell abusive words]
Lorsque tous les vieux chameaux [When all old cattles]
Me donnent leurs tuyaux au creux de l’oreille [Loudly whisper secrets into my ears]So you see that the sense of “chuck Confetti in my ears” can be not literal, probably.
Now continuation of my boring questions, please:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jumble Sale:«I’d sown my oats,» — Did the farmer has finished his work in a field ?
«I’d flung my fling.» — Did the farmer has seeded all oats into a earth?
Or it is the idioms?«The vicar asked me in.»
Did the priest was an administrator of Jumble Sale?«The plaster pussy cats» — cat picture-stickers?
«I saw a girl, a wild eyed butterfly
Junoesque but shy
And just the thing for my
For my mantelpiece at home.»«a butterfly» — about a girl ?
«the thing» — about a girl or a butterfly?«Chick of the bric-a-brac
Pick of the vicar’s knick-knacks»So «bric-a-brac, knick-knacks» is collection stuff.
Why «vicar’s» ?
«Chick, pick» — about what it?«One bob per objet d’art
Gratis and carte blanche my heart.»«Bob» = dollar
«objet d’art» — about what it?
«Gratis» — оne bob?«my chips were down and numbered»
Did Jake spent all money for knick-knacks of the girl?++++++++++++++++++++++
The Brigadier:«a cricket pitch» — player of cricket?
«the bearded wonders» — hippies, archeologists?
«By whose almighty Finger and thumb?» — OK?
«Who bends the ear?» — Who speaks much?++++++++++++++++++++++++
Country Boy:« a girl on the game» — putain?
«the small-Time thieves» — friends ? (“friends are thieves of time”)
«Sharing the place by their side» — sitting down nearby side by side?+++++++++++++++++
The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington:Is it Brid is Bridlington (city) and not a surname of a husband?
«Stomping upon the copper top»
Did she was knocking a rhythm with a foot on a copper surface of a counter?«She thundered off to cause a stir»
Did she went off on a noisy motorbike?
«a stir» — scandals, revival in Scarborough?++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have recorded “Leopold Alcox” as far as my abilities it allowed. In the second (and 4, 6) verse I replaced one chord and a few melody with this chord. Also I changed a few order of lines.
http://www.chitalnya.ru/work/1196199/
Your criticism will be useful to me.I wish good mood to you and a good sound to your guitar.
Dmitry
Hi, Dmitry. Again, you’re very welcome, and I’m glad to help.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Malcy wrote:
when lady feminists decided to pinch men’s bottoms rather than the opposite way round….Ladies’ Basic Freedoms Polka is full of English euphemisms, so we may have to go through them all. Maybe a bit more background on this type of song would be helpful too.
The type of song Jake’s writing is intended to be played on a current affairs – recent news and politics – TV show, as a humorous musical part of the show to add light relief. Several events will have happened in the week before the show is broadcast, and Jake and the show’s producers will maybe discuss which one would be a good topic for a funny song : Jake then has to write the song, cramming in as much fun and artistry as he can, before the show is broadcast.
I’m not familiar with the bottom-pinching event itself – it will have been a small news item some time in the late 60s / early 70s : but I’m sure it’s happened and if you looked through news archives it would be there somewhere. In the period Jake was writing, it would be common sexism for a certain type of person to manhandle women that they thought themselves attracted to : a squeeze here, a pinched bottom there, inappropriate words used, etc. It sounds like a group of feminists of the time thought that enough was enough, that the issue needed highlighting by turning the tables – women pinching men’s bottoms – to show how shocking and offensive it would be if the gender roles were reversed.
There may not have specifically been as many attacks in the incident as Jake puts in the song : given the three or four days he has to write the song before it’s broadcast, he’s squeezing in as many clever rhymes and artistic methods in as he can to show his skill – and get paid – and he picks as many male jobs as he can – priests, legal profession etc – to get as many varied idioms in as he can, as if the Ladies’ revengeful bottom-pinching was a widespread phenomenon in society.
Here we go :
Fundamental liberties
Liberty is Freedom, the kind the suffragettes wanted for Victorian ladies – the freedom to exist in society with the same rights, opportunities and respects as men. One Fundamental right is the right to have one’s personal space respected – so, the right to not have your bottom pinched would be a fundamental right and one of the freedoms expected.
However, Jake uses both words with another meaning each :
Liberties, especially in the plural, can be used in the phrase Taking Liberties – the word Taking is at the beginning of the sentence. When you take liberties with something, you go a little bit too far, and briefly cross lines of respect, morality or legality – such as talking with a woman, deciding that you ‘fancy’ her and pinch her bottom.
And… ‘Fundament’ is another English euphemism for someone’s bottom. The English language has many euphemisms for anything to do with sex – the organs, the act itself, the general areas of the body where arousal occurs – because we have been a repressed country when discussing sexual and toilet matters for all of our recent history. You only have to look at the attitudes that are still held towards breast-feeding in public, which have been in the news this week in the UK. Breast-feeding your baby is one of the most natural things in the world, constantly preferred by medical advice as the best nutrition for a baby, and many national chain stores officially allow breast-feeding in their shops. However, there are still many people who don’t think it is ‘decent’ – or do think it is offensive or disgusting – to breast-feed your baby in public. There have been lots of recent examples of shop employees who think like this, and despite the policy of their employers, they have asked breast-feeding women to leave, to cover themselves up, etc. There was one such event in a restaurant in London this week – just the kind of topical event that Jake might have been writing a song about right now for next weekend’s show, I think.their marksmanship, their lobster grip
The Ladies’ aim at a victim’s bottom is accurate, and they can pinch with the strength of lobster claws.incontinent kangaroos
I don’t think this is specifically relevant – kangaroos are fast animals and maybe incontinence makes them run faster, but the phrase is probably used just for its rhyme with ‘views’ and ‘trews’, and for its oddness.their hungry nails
will sink into your bulging trews
The fingernails of the Ladies are hungry for pinching opportunities. Trews is a northern expression for trousers – maybe they are bulging because of the size of the contents…They’ve been where no women have been before,
Up Lord Mayors’ petticoats, barristers’ drawers.
They’re known to have poked up a horseguard’s cloak
And many a butcher’s pinafore.
Jake uses a variety of male professions, each with a different type of uniform or costume.Your chef isn’t safe when they break loose…
… lo and behold your cook is goosed.
Jake writes about a chef to allow him to change the phrase ‘your goose is cooked’ to ‘your cook is goosed’. ‘Your goose is cooked’ is a phrase meaning that something is finally completed, and possibly not to your satisfaction : it comes from cooking, where the cooking of a large bird like a goose is time-consuming and may still not be perfect when it’s done. Jake uses the phrase in a verse about a chef, but cleverly swaps the words to say ‘your cook is goosed’ – goosed is an English euphemism specifically for pinching a lady’s bottom, as if a goose had pecked her. I think it says something about historical English male attitudes to bottom-pinching that there is an idiom like this, which almost playfully accepts the action of pinching a bottom, as if it’s natural, earthy and acceptable.he stuck to his principles
and turned the other cheek.
Vicars are examples of another (still) male-dominated profession, but also one whose traditional costume is like a women’s dress, so Jake is making his point and also drawing some parallels here. A vicar should ‘turn the other cheek’ when facing injury or abuse – I think Christ says in the ‘eye for an eye’ section of His Bible teaching that if someone hits you on your right cheek you should turn your head and allow it on the other side too, to show you are prepared to withstand suffering for your beliefs. Cheek, of course, can also mean buttock, which is the area being aimed at by the pinching Ladies.++++++++++++++++++++++++
«Between her breasts a hedgerow nosegay»
So «hedgerow» = a row of bushes and small trees along the edge of a field or road
Did the Gipsy got flowers from a hedgerow literal?I think so. A gypsy would turn up at your doorstep selling lucky heather, as if it was a specially prepared good luck charm : but the likelihood is that it was only gathered 5 minutes before from a hedgerow with the sole purpose of conning you out of some money.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lah-Di-Dah:English :
« When the females chuck Confetti in my ears.»
French :
« Lorsque tous les vieux chameaux [When all old cattles]
Me donnent leurs tuyaux au creux de l’oreille [Loudly whisper secrets into my ears] »– So you see that the sense of “chuck Confetti in my ears” can be not literal, probably.
I think Jake is writing the English version for an English audience, and the French version for a French audience, as a careful and considerate writer will. Jake has entirely replaced the one situation – old women whispering secrets in a bridegroom’s ear – with a more common English wedding experience – finding confetti stuck in inconvenient places. So the two phrases are not meant to be literal translations of each other – they are slightly different songs with the content written specifically for the audience it’s aimed at. After all, not every event or idiom is precisely translated between ‘Brother Gorilla’ and ‘Le Gorille’, not everything between ‘Over To Isabel’ and ‘Je Rejoindrai Ma Belle’, or between ‘Isabella’ and ‘Marinette’. Maybe the French don’t have confetti at weddings, so Jake replaces the entire image with a more common French one.
Again, I don’t think it’s important that there are differences across the translations, if you appreciate that the audiences Jake’s writing for are culturally different.+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jumble Sale:«I’d sown my oats,» — Did the farmer has finished his work in a field ?
«I’d flung my fling.» — Did the farmer has seeded all oats into a earth?
Or it is the idioms?Idioms. ‘Sown My Oats’ means that you have done as much as you can, as a farmer has when sowing is over, and now nature will take its course, it’s out of your hands now. There is another, more lusty meaning of ‘Sown My Oats’ – sowing your seed in a sexual way – but I don’t think this meaning fits Jake’s song here. It also doesn’t mean that Jake’s character is a farmer.
A ‘fling’ is an out-of-the-ordinary event – a party, celebration, etc – which occurs and then it’s back to normality. ‘Flung’ is another word for ‘thrown’, as in ‘throwing a party’, and Jake chooses ‘flung’ because it sounds like ‘fling’. Jake means here that the man in the Jumble Sale has had his fun in the past, but he’s now got nothing to do or to enjoy, : so much so that he’s prepared to go to a jumble sale for his entertainment. A jumble sale is a large sale, often as a fund-raiser for a society, church or club, where people donate good-quality, but unwanted, clothes, toys, ornaments, etc for free : and they are offered for sale to the customers of the jumble sale for small amounts of money which go to the funds of the society. The overtones are that the items are second hand, unwanted by their original owners, cheap, and used, so it’s a bit cut-price, old-fashioned, and faintly sordid and lower class.«The vicar asked me in.»
Did the priest was an administrator of Jumble Sale?Yes – this jumble sale is being organized to fund a church’s projects. The extra inference is that Jake was spotted looking round the door and the vicar has invited him inside : Jake would rather not go in, but he is too polite to turn the Vicar down, so he has been caught !
«The plaster pussy cats»
Plaster is a material for moulding or casting in, like clay – wet when it’s mixed, but it dries hard. You also use it to provide the inner surfaces of walls in houses.
«I saw a girl, a wild eyed butterfly
Junoesque but shy
And just the thing for my
For my mantelpiece at home.»
«a butterfly» — about a girl ?
«the thing» — about a girl or a butterfly?You might say a girl is (like) a butterfly if she’s pretty, delicate, entrancing, maybe free – it’s imagery, a metaphor. ‘Just the thing’ means that you’ve found exactly what you’ve been looking for : ‘Oh look – the new Jedward CD. Just the thing I’m after for Dmitry’s birthday present’. ;o)
«Chick of the bric-a-brac
Pick of the vicar’s knick-knacks»
So «bric-a-brac, knick-knacks» is collection stuff.
Why «vicar’s» ?
«Chick, pick» — about what it?They’re the vicar’s knick-knacks because it’s his jumble sale, and for poetic reasons because of the similar-sounds of vic, nic and nack, and chick and pick too.
Chick is a baby chicken and will be a term of endearment for someone you love.
The ‘pick’ of something is the best one in a collection, the one you would pick first if everyone was allowed to pick from a large number (like the large number of objects in a jumble sale) and you got there first.«One bob per objet d’art
Gratis and carte blanche my heart.»
«Bob» = dollar
«objet d’art» — about what it?
«Gratis» — оne bob?‘Bob’ is English slang for an old English shilling – pre-decimal Imperial coinage again. It was a small amount of money and you might still say something cheap was ‘just a couple of bob’. Things called Objet D’Art are likely to be pretty and decorative, but not the valuable, expensive ‘Art’ the description implies : the fact that these items are described by the sellers with a chic, French phrase is a tongue-in-cheek way of saying ‘Come and buy these ‘artistic’ objects. We know they’re not valuable – and you know they’re not valuable, too – but they’re cheap and OK.’
‘Gratis’ is Latin for ‘free’ – so Jake’s heart is given away for nothing to the girl. ‘Carte Blanche’ is a similar phrase, maybe more to do with free or unrestricted permission, and both phrases are used in shopping transactions to show that an item – Jake’s love – is included in the transaction without charge or limits.«my chips were down and numbered»
Did Jake spent all money for knick-knacks of the girl?These are more like gambling chips in a casino, I think. Jake has bet his all, bet all of his love, on the gamble of meeting the girl, and hoping he wins the big prize – her heart. Jake is also being metaphorical, saying that the girl is (like) one of the items for sale in the jumble sale : jumble sales are often full of rubbish and damaged old stuff, but sometimes you find something expensive and rare there, so Jake is playing on that sense of wonder and unusualness you would feel if you found a Ming Vase in a jumble sale. Is it real ? Will I be rich if I buy it ? What if someone gets it first ?
++++++++++++++++++++++
The Brigadier:«a cricket pitch» — player of cricket?
A Cricket Pitch is the playing surface the game of Cricket is played on, like a Football Ground, a Swimming Pool or a Snooker Table.
«the bearded wonders» — hippies, archeologists?
Hippies, I think. Jake is writing about an era that Brigadiers were important in village life, and the only people with beards then would have been older men : the feeling is here that the village is being visited by young, bearded hippies, camping and indulging in ethnic art forms like pottery. Still – the village has got a Brigadier – they don’t care.
«By whose almighty Finger and thumb?» — OK?
You hold your finger and thumb around something small to measure it. In the same way, an important person, larger than you in authority, would ‘measure’ the worth, or truth, of you when judging your actions, and the Brigadier has this authority – he seems to be acting as the local magistrate too, passing judgment on village drunks and using his metaphorical ‘finger and thumb’ to measure your character or guilt. A ‘Flat-Foot’ is old English slang for a policeman.
«Who bends the ear?» — Who speaks much?
Yes. Someone who bends your ear is speaking at length on a subject. In this case, it’s the Brigadier, also a major figure in the local church, speaking sermons on Heaven (the new Jerusalem) : normally, only the clergy in a church would be allowed to read sermons, but the Brigadier is so important he is allowed to do so.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Country Boy:I assume that you understand that the ‘Country Boy’ Jake is writing about is Jesus Christ, and the whole song is a song describing Christ’s ministry. Jake had strong Christian beliefs and convictions and they show through in most of his songs : but Country Boy is almost definitely his most specifically Christian song.
« a girl on the game» — putain?
Yes, but not with the huge disdain and disgrace ‘putain’ carries. A ‘a girl on the game’ is a prostitute, which is an ancient ‘profession’, or, looking from a different way, one of the oldest ‘games’ played by mankind. It was widely believed that Mary Magdalene was a harlot before being led to better ways by Christ, although I understand Bible scholars no longer believe it. But in any case Christ is reported as mixing with, and attempting to redeem, all types of sinners in society.
«the small-Time thieves» — friends ? (“friends are thieves of time”)
Not quite – I think the break in the line has fooled you here.
«…there was a corner where the small-
Time thieves were hung up to die»Think more about
«…there was a corner where the small-time
thieves were hung up to die»A big-time thief would be a bank-robber or art thief, someone who steals big and important things and has the skills to do so. A small-time thief steals change, small items, food, and is easily caught. In Christ’s day, thieves would be captured and cruelly punished, sometimes killed.
«Sharing the place by their side» — sitting down nearby side by side?
Yes. Christ would sit in the places where the low life worked, lived or were being punished – a metaphor for sharing their experiences and trying to help them better themselves.
+++++++++++++++++
The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington:
«the widow of Brid» = the widow in (from) Bridlington?
Yes.«Stomping upon the copper top»
Did she was knocking a rhythm with a foot on a copper surface of a counter?Yes. The bar – the serving surface of the counter in a public house (drinking shop) would have had a metal surface to make it easier to clean and less easy to damage.
«She thundered off to cause a stir»
Did she went off on a noisy motorbike?Yes. But also, thundering with her noisy (in the sense of antisocial) behavior and refusal to conform.
«a stir» — scandals, revival in Scarborough?
Scandal, trouble. The word ‘stir’ comes from moving liquid around : as if society is a pot full of soup, and she is stirring the pot of society to change or improve its recipe, after adding the new ingredient of her non-conformist behavior. The stirring could be seen as stirring a stagnant pond, too, trying to bring life and activity into a society which is still, decaying and lifeless in its belief that widows can’t have a good time and enjoy themselves.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hope that all makes sense.
Cheers –
Malcolm
Thank, Malcolm!
I understood everything.
Only, I had to spend time to guess the sense of your gentlemen euphemism “bottom”. Oh, why you didn’t tell simply “ass”? Because in the dictionary sometimes to each English word there correspond some Russians (and vice versa, naturally) I at first was thinking «bottom-pinching» is something of “suffocation of the fundamental rights”.+++
Milord is a title used when a Lord is addressed by someone of lower class : Milord = My Lord. ‘Pass Milord the Rooster Juice’ is an instruction to a servant to ‘Pass the rooster juice to the aristocrat over there’.
Who instructs a servant to pass the drink to the aristocrat?
If it is told by the third-party person (not Lord or servant), why he speaks “Milord” but not “to your Lord”?
If it is told by the Lord, why he speaks “Milord” to the servant?I think it is a request of one aristocrat to another sitting near the drink at other table edge on their joint booze. That is literally «Milord, pass (give) me the Rooster Juice». Is it possible?
+++
«Barristers’ drawers» — is a clothes? What?+++
«The brigadier» — is an retired military-person reputable or a village official (elected by a people or appointed by a government)?+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I’m analyzing songs gradually from the list «Jake In A Box». It not quickly for me therefore I answer you not immediately, but in process of accumulation of enough questions.
Here they are, please, Malcolm :++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
«And the choice had got to be mine,
I’d beg the old lady’s permission
But go for grandma every time.
Brother Gorilla!»I don’t understand the third line. Is he’d beg at once the grandma’s permission to love her now and every day?
+++
Over to Isobel:«A pirate passing by
Will leave you high and dry by»«high and dry» — idiom?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
«Caroline is so romantic
And she likes to walk alone on lonely sands,
Just so long as the champagne cocktail
And the glossy gossip columns are on hand.»Caroline walking takes with itself the cocktail and the gossip columns?
«The moon shines out of Caroline’s,
Out of Caroline’s little turned-up nose.»Is Caroline thinking she is “the center of the Universe”?
++++
My Pipe, My Boots And My Lord:backside — the house owner’s ass or the garden-yard behind the house or both senses?
Jag – heel? Shoe firm?
Homberg — firm? What?
«narrow-eyed» –why?«landlord comes to call upon us»
Did the owner comes to inspects his property at (during) the presence of tenants?«prodding our garden gnome with his walking stick»
Did the owner thinks the gnome in his garden is nasty taste?+++
Nurse:
«Give us a kiss, just one little kiss» — It is a request from single person?+++
My Roly Poly Girl:«stap me vittles» — ?.. me snack
(stap = stopping + slapping + stabbing http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stap)
Idiom interjection?«Oh, the eyes I use to make…
oh, the lips I used to lick…»
What he made to (her?) eyes? Kiss?
By the way probably in the first line is a typographical error : «use» instead of correct «used»?«She upped and offed and left me and my stomach in the lurch.
upped = stood up ?
offed = gone off ?«getting more than his fair share
of her gooseberry surprise…» — idiom or simply berry?+++
Family Grave:«Whenever you go there’s always more arrive.»
Here:
«you» — the address to future dead person?
«go» — the sense «die»?«But a funeral’s free for all you can go in the same old clothes»
Here:
«you» — the address to guest, not to future dead person?
«go» (not complex verb «go in») = come (not the sense «go off» or «die»)?
«in the same old clothes» = without changing clothes?«And a family wedding more often than not’s an all ticket affair,»
So : not’s = not is
Is a entrance into a wedding with invitation cards only?«There are one or two “do”s turn out disappointingly in the extreme,»
“do”s = party is ?«Where the booze is rough and the grub is duff and no flowers at all,»
Has the duff prepared from “larvae” allegorically? Are larvae live in the duff?«Bt the grave, by the grave, by the family, family grave,»
Bt = by (preposition or verb)? Typographical error?«To go get their hands on the money, the food, or the widow’s backside.»
Backside – is the same word-play as in “My Pipe, My Boots And My Lord”?«We’ll have to be going» = All of us will die? going = dying?
+++++++++++++++++++++
Hope that all makes sense.
Did makes sense to me or to a «sky»? It does to me. To a «sky»… I hope.
I drink to your health!
Dmitry
Hi, Dmitry. Again we go on our adventure. :o)
+++
~I had to spend time to guess the sense of your gentlemen euphemism “bottom”. Oh, why you didn’t tell simply “ass”?Because I’m English, sir, and “ass” is the far more vulgar term for bottom used by our colonial friend, the American. Jake would never have said “ass” and neither do I : if you want someone who says “ass”, “sidewalk”, “drugstore” and “trunk’, then you need to ask someone else. 😉
+++
~Milord = My Lord.
~Who instructs a servant to pass the drink to the aristocrat?
~If it is told by the third-party person (not Lord or servant), why he speaks “Milord” but not “to your Lord”?If there is a Lord or other aristocrat in the room, then he is the Lord of every inferior person in the room and they will all refer to him as Milord. So it doesn’t matter who has noticed that the Lord’s glass is empty, that’s the way they would ask for the rooster juice to be passed. However : the precise details are not important. Remember, it’s not a real transcription of a real event – Jake has made the whole thing up, so the actual details of who is speaking aren’t too critical. :o) All that’s important is that there is a member of the aristocracy who needs his organic viagra, and there are people he is superior to who will serve it to him.
+++
~«Barristers’ drawers» — is a clothes? What?Yes. “Drawers” is an English slang word, originally for ladies’ underwear (as worn on the ‘bottom’) but which can be used for both ladies’ and men’s lower underwear.
+++
«The brigadier» — is an retired military-person reputable or a village official (elected by a people or appointed by a government)?He’s a military officer, or a retired military officer. The rest of the village treat him as if he were elected or appointed, purely because of the fact that he has reached an important rank in the army.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
~«And the choice had got to be mine,
~I’d beg the old lady’s permission
~But go for grandma every time.
~Brother Gorilla!»~I don’t understand the third line. Is he’d beg at once the grandma’s permission to love her now and every day?
The gorilla is a brute animal and will just choose the nearest person to assault in order to satisfy his lust. Jake is more civilized : if it were Jake who had to ravish someone, he says : not only will he always choose the female victim to assault, but he will also ask her permission first. “Go for” means choose, opt for, as in “I think Dmitry would go for that Jedward CD for his birthday present.”
+++
~Over to Isobel:
~«A pirate passing by
~Will leave you high and dry by»~«high and dry» — idiom?
Possibly. The whole song is about Jake attempting to get to Isabel and being physically – or romantically or sexually – prevented each time.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
~«Caroline is so romantic
~And she likes to walk alone on lonely sands,
~Just so long as the champagne cocktail
~And the glossy gossip columns are on hand.»~Caroline walking takes with itself the cocktail and the gossip columns?
Not literally. A romantic person would go for long walks on the sands, taking in the solitude and dreaming of her love. Caroline would like to consider herself romantic, but is not able to fully commit to the loneliness – she simply can’t do without the posh drinks and magazines. So she believes herself to be romantic, but her main motivation is the upper-class niceties.
~«The moon shines out of Caroline’s,
~Out of Caroline’s little turned-up nose.»~Is Caroline thinking she is “the center of the Universe”?
Yes.
++++
~My Pipe, My Boots And My Lord:~backside — the house owner’s ass or the garden-yard behind the house or both senses?
“Backside” is another English slang word for bottom.
~Jag – heel? Shoe firm?
Jag is short for Jaguar – at the time of Jake writing the song, a prestigious English make of sports car.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_Cars~Homberg — firm? What?
It’s a type of hat. Looks like it’s not spelled correctly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homburg_%28hat%29~«narrow-eyed» –why?
The Landlord is a suspicious type, looking through half-closed eyes at Jake to see if he is misbehaving as a tenant.
~«landlord comes to call upon us»
~Did the owner comes to inspects his property at (during) the presence of tenants?A landlord needs to check that his property is being looked after, or he may be coming to collect his rent. I think he’s been coming around far too much for Jake’s liking, though. :o)
~«prodding our garden gnome with his walking stick»
~Did the owner thinks the gnome in his garden is nasty taste?He might think that Jake’s garden gnome is unsuitably cheap or common for the kind of ideal tenant he wants. He certainly doesn’t think Jake’s humble privet hedge is worth avoiding when he crushes it with his car.
+++
~Nurse:
~«Give us a kiss, just one little kiss» — It is a request from single person?Yes. The plural word “Us” can be used in the place of the singular word “me” in common slang, as in “Sell us a copy of that Jedward CD for my friend Dmitry’s birthday”.
+++
~My Roly Poly Girl:~«stap me vittles» — ?.. me snack
~(stap = stopping + slapping + stabbing http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stap)
~Idiom interjection?Yes. It’s not a very commonly used one, but I seem to remember it’s a corruption of the phrase ‘stop my vitals’, a plea to be made constipated, believe it or not, if something doesn’t happen. Your vitals are your bowels, your intestines. You might know of an English phrase – “Gor Blimey” ? It’s the same type of phrase, and that one is a corruption of “God, blind me”! Nowadays, you just use it as an interjection : “Gor Blimey! Two Jedward CDs for the price of one !” or “Stap me vittles – the new hairstyle Jedward are wearing is sensible, isn’t it ?”
~«Oh, the eyes I use to make…
~oh, the lips I used to lick…»
~What he made to (her?) eyes? Kiss?“Making eyes” at a girl means constantly looking at her, trying to make eye contact so you can try and spark a relationship.
~By the way probably in the first line is a typographical error : «use» instead of correct «used»?
Yes, I think so.
~«She upped and offed and left me and my stomach in the lurch.
~upped = stood up ?
~offed = gone off ?Yes, as if Up and Off were verbs, and Jake’s using the past tense.
~«getting more than his fair share
~of her gooseberry surprise…» — idiom or simply berry?Both. :o)
+++
~Family Grave:~«Whenever you go there’s always more arrive.»
~Here:
~«you» — the address to future dead person?The ‘you’ is a general ‘anyone’ to show it’s a common experience. Think ‘Whenever anyone goes to a funeral there are always more relatives attending.’
~«go» — the sense «die»?
No, just ‘attend’.
~«But a funeral’s free for all you can go in the same old clothes»
~Here:
~«you» — the address to guest, not to future dead person?
~«go» (not complex verb «go in») = come (not the sense «go off» or «die»)?
~«in the same old clothes» = without changing clothes?Again, ‘you’ means ‘anyone’ who is attending a funeral. ‘Go in the same old clothes’ means you don’t need to wear hired, expensive or smart clothes, as you would to honour or impress a bride or groom : at a funeral you (anyone) can wear anything they want, anything they already own. The subtext is : you don’t need to dress impressively for the host of the funeral… because they’re dead.
~«And a family wedding more often than not’s an all ticket affair,»
~So : not’s = not is
Yes.~Is a entrance into a wedding with invitation cards only?
Usually, yes. Anyone can attend the wedding service or ceremony itself, but the party afterwards – called the ‘reception’ – is usually for invited guests, to allow the organiser to arrange the correct number of meals, drinks etc for the guests.
~«There are one or two “do”s turn out disappointingly in the extreme,»
~”do”s = party is ?Not quite. A Do is a special occasion, and Do’s is the plural of Do : think ‘One or two *parties* turn out disappointingly’.
~«Where the booze is rough and the grub is duff and no flowers at all,»
~Has the duff prepared from “larvae” allegorically? Are larvae live in the duff?‘Grub’ is English slang for food. :o) Duff is slang for not very good, well below par. But not bad enough to have real grubs in. 🙂
~«Bt the grave, by the grave, by the family, family grave,»
~Bt = by (preposition or verb)? Typographical error?By – a typo again.
~«To go get their hands on the money, the food, or the widow’s backside.»
~Backside – is the same word-play as in “My Pipe, My Boots And My Lord”?Yes, but in the same sense of ‘widow’s bottom’.
~«We’ll have to be going» = All of us will die? going = dying?
Not in this case : it’s a polite way of saying goodbye – you would say “I’ll have to be going (somewhere else) now” to the host, as if you would like to stay longer, but you have other appointments..
+++++++++++
Over to you.
Cheers –
Malcy
Hi, Malcolm, I thank for the answer!
I assume that you not always understand my bad English questions as you don’t answer to me sometimes or you answer not that I’m wanting to ask. At the same time I understand your answers almost completely. I will try to formulate questions more correctly and shortly.
[quote=”Malcy” post=3692] ~«And the choice had got to be mine,
~I’d beg the old lady’s permission
~But go for grandma every time.
~Brother Gorilla!»~I don’t understand the third line. Is he’d beg at once the grandma’s permission to love her now and every day?
The gorilla is a brute animal and will just choose the nearest person to assault in order to satisfy his lust. Jake is more civilized : if it were Jake who had to ravish someone, he says : not only will he always choose the female victim to assault, but he will also ask her permission first. “Go for” means choose, opt for, as in “I think Dmitry would go for that Jedward CD for his birthday present.”[/quote]
Sorry, Malcy, it is sometimes difficult for me to understand very simple (from the point of view of the Englishman) English phrases because many words have some translation variants in the dictionary. For example “but” has 6-7 Russian variants for different contexts.
Besides it not a literal translation from Brassens’s song which I know well.
I understood that the gentleman Jake surely would ask permissions of the old lady to ravish her.
But I don’t understand in this song:
– Did Jake speaks the «grandma» about the old lady “of a gorilla” or about other grandmother(s)?
– Why «every time»?By the way, about what CD you speak. Where it is possible to hear your songs on the Internet?
+++
Family Grave:«Whenever you go there’s always more arrive.»
«arrive» — about guests on a funeral or dead persons in a grave?[quote=”Malcy” post=3692] ~«Bt the grave, by the grave, by the family, family grave,»
~Bt = by (preposition or verb)? Typographical error?
By – a typo again.[/quote]I didn’t understand.
If «a typo» is typographical mistake (so the dictionary tells), have you told the «by» is a mistake? Therefore “Bt” is correct? What is “Bt”? Is it related to «buy»?
I hear «by» on the audio recording.«Bt the grave, by the grave, by the family, family grave»
&
«At the grave, at the grave, at the family, family grave»Did the “by” means the same “at”?
+++
The Bull:
«These well-known men, so over-glorified –
There’s one of them here his name’s on the poster outside –
And he’s up here like this, and you are all down there.
Remember his cock and his bull and mutter: “Beware!”»Did Jake tell about: his name on the poster, himself on a scene, listeners in a hall, this his song?
+++
The Cactus:
«A rash compassion For her [?feelings got beyond her]»
Is it about what?+++
Dog:
«I’m just a dog and I dislike the cant.»
&
«I’m just a dog and I dislike the con.
Why is there so much cant in these canticles of human love?
I’m just a brute. I couldn’t care a hoot.»«cant, con» — vagina?
«hoot» — orgasm?«It’s a matter of a minute and then up tails all.»
«up tails» — to leave, go away?
+++
Famous People:
Tell it by other words, please : «Your paradise is where your paradise belongs.»+++
Freda:
«Some monster, Susie Wongster, has [?ponced] her.
[?I’m sunk, for some skunk’s done a bunk, done a bee-line] with my pretty feline…
A bleeder, some bleeder’s got Freda,
[and Freda the bleeder’s got someone new]. Is it you ?» — I don’t understand syntax here.+++
The Girl in the Window:«[?Striking] a pretty posture and likely as not
She’s hairless as a snooker ball and showing all she’s got!»If to dismantle (?strike) a dummy, is it possible to see her internal device?
«There’s a cheeky bloke that comes to dust you. I’ve seen his type before – a
Fingertip today and a handful tomorra!»Is it a fingertip and a handful are of bloke? What does it mean?
+++
Grandad:
«Your crystal domes will shake when he makes his [?break] (a hole in domes?)
Angels, saints and seraphim
He’ll give you the [?slip], so get a grip
On him.»
In the dictionary, there are 14 variants of translation «slip». Tell it by other word.«he gets the wind»
Idiom? What?+++
The Grave-digger
«I see many different fashions of mourning, [?both fancy] and plain.»
Is it two vertical geometrical projections?+++
The Remembrance:
«If the foreigner [?comes off best], he said,
You’ll be better off dead…»«You’ll be better off dead . . .» — does the King address to the enemy?
+++
«Uncle Arthur, clothes on the brain,
Snaggled up his pendant in his bicycle chain.»«clothes on the brain» – idiom? Clothes style? What?
«snaggled up» — ?
«pendant in his bicycle chain» — a medallion with bicycle chain on a neck?+++
It were my biggest questions now.
Let there will be more sun over your house and over Foggy Albion this winter!
Dmitry
Hi, Dmitry !
Don’t worry about the occasional misunderstandings, my friend. I am an Englishman who knows no Russian at all, and you are a Russian with a far better understanding of English. And in between us there is Jake Thackray, a poet with an immense command over the English language, who assumes that he and his listeners have a minimum set of things in common :
a cultural background of living in England 50 years ago
being familiar with common English slang
a reasonable standard of education which will allow a listener to understand some of the more interesting words he uses, or at least want to look them upI think, in this situation, that if you end up understanding what Jake has said, we have done very well between us. :o)
First – the Jedward thing. if you remember, Jedward are the twin pop star brothers with the very odd hair I posted a video clip of right back at the start. What I was trying to do was to show how a word is used, that you’re having difficulty with, by taking it out of Jake’s sentence and using it in a simpler sentence to show its meaning. So :
You didn’t understand “go for” in the sentence ~I’d beg the old lady’s permission, but go for grandma every time~
I took “go for” out of Jake’s sentence to get rid of any other distracting things – grandma, every time, permission etc, and put it in a simpler sentence :
“I think Dmitry would go for that Jedward CD for his birthday present.”I hoped it would make it easier to understand Jake’s use of “go for”. I could have said
“I think Dmitry would go for a BMW rather than a Trabant for his birthday present.” – to show that “go for” means “opt for”, “prefer”, “choose” or “select”. The BMW, Trabant and birthday present are just filler to illustrate how “go for” is used, and they are not important – as indeed, aren’t Jedward or their CDs… ;o)I can see Jedward might be confusing you, so I’ll stop using them as examples : I thought you might have noticed that they only appeared when I was giving examples of how a word is used. Sorry.
Right… let us continue !
++++++++++
This gorilla then. The “grandma” is the same old lady as the “little old lady all shrunken” in the previous verse, and the same old lady as the “granny”, earlier in the same sentence. In the same way, the “petty sessions judge” in the previous verse is the same “judge” in the sentence you’re having trouble with.
What’s happening is :
The randy gorilla escapes from his cage and is going to ravish someone, and because he’s a gorilla, anything will do – in the story, he has a choice between a granny and a judge, and because of his poor eyesight and poor intelligence, he ends up ravishing the judge. Remember, Jake’s translating a George Brassens song which contains the same situation and the same two victims – the judge and the granny.
Jake says :
«It would be curious and uncanny if the choice were up to you
to ravish a judge or a granny, and you didn’t know which to do »– What would you do, if you were the randy gorilla and you had the same two people to choose from ?
«If I were in such a position, and the choice had got to be mine»
– If it was Jake’s choice (if he had to be the gorilla, and had the same two people as victims)…
«I’d beg the old lady’s permission, but go for grandma every time»
– …Jake would always choose (“go for”) the granny : but, being polite and English, he would ask her permission before raping her. “Every time” means “for sure”, “definitely” : as if the situation was going to happen every day, and each time the choice was needed to be made, Jake would still choose the granny rather than the judge.
++++++++++
Family Grave:
~«Whenever you go there’s always more arrive.»
~«arrive» — about guests on a funeral or dead persons in a grave?I think this means the family members who always turn up at a family funeral. It doesn’t matter how many family members have died, there always seem to be more new family members to come to their funerals. As in : «for every dead one, there are dozens of us alive».
As you get older, you go to more and more family funerals, as your older relatives gradually reach the ends of their lives. But you never get to the point where you are the only one left and everyone else has died : in the meantime, new marriages and babies in the family have come about, and there are more younger guests to add to the mourners.~«Bt the grave, by the grave, by the family, family grave,»
~~Bt = by (preposition or verb)? Typographical error?
~By – a typo again.“Typo” does mean “Typographical error”. It’s easier to type “typo”. :o)
In the phrase «Bt the grave, by the grave, by the family, family grave», the first “Bt” is the typo : it should be “By” to match the other two “by”s.
The man who did the transcribing of the lyrics on the site obviously typed a “t” instead of a “y” on that word when he did it.I have asked for the typos to be corrected on the lyrics pages, and Gordon, the webmaster, will get them done when he has the time.
Do you remember me telling you about English copyright law, and how a copyright owner will sometimes allow you to quote the text of a song and sometimes take you to court instead ? There seems to be no consistent rule about it. The official words of a song are the copyright owner’s property and are protected in law, so you are technically not allowed to publish their words by having them appear in a document or web page without their permission. However, some copyright owners will let you quote a few of the lyrics of a song, some will let you quote all of them, some will let you quote the lyrics to multiple songs : but some will only let you quote a certain amount of a song and then warn you if the section quoted is too big.
Some copyright owners may be more forgiving with an obscure artist, or an older one that they are no longer making much money from, but might be stricter with newer or more successful artists : so, you might get away with quoting Jake Thackray or Half Man Half Biscuit, but be instantly sued for quoting Michael Jackson or 1 Direction. Some, however, won’t let you quote much of any artist’s lyics.
It depends on the copyright owner and how generous they are feeling, rather than a mathematical word count which is the limit you can quote before the law is always applied.
However : in the US, their copyright law allows for people to quote “by ear” lyrics or tunes, if the purpose is for study or practise – “by ear” means the lyrics or chords have been worked out by listening to the recordings, rather than copying directly from the official sheet music or lyrics. So a fellow called Keith Donovan (hiya, KeithD !) transcribed all of Jake’s lyrics from the original recordings – and given the huge amount of words he had to work through, getting only the occasional “t” mistyped for a “y” is a fantastic achievement.~«Bt the grave, by the grave, by the family, family grave»
~&
~«At the grave, at the grave, at the family, family grave»
~Did the “by” means the same “at”?Yes – the meaning is essentially the same. There are two versions of the song : Family Grave, sung from the perspective of the family funeral guest, and The Grave-Digger, sung from the perspective of the sexton digging the grave. Almost all of the choruses in both the songs say
«At the grave, at the grave, at the family, family grave»
but for one line only in Family Grave, Jake writes
«By the grave, by the grave, by the family, family grave»
Jake is always doing this in his songs : apparently identical choruses, but with many tiny differences in them, just to keep you on your toes when you’re learning them and performing them.++++++++++
The Bull:
~«These well-known men, so over-glorified –
~There’s one of them here his name’s on the poster outside –
~And he’s up here like this, and you are all down there.
~Remember his cock and his bull and mutter: “Beware!”»
~Did Jake tell about: his name on the poster, himself on a scene, listeners in a hall, this his song?Yes. Jake has spent the whole song warning about listening to the words of the powerful people in society, because of the habit they have of dropping trouble onto you, the same way that the bull drops his dung in the farmyard. In the last verse, Jake reminds us that songwriting and performing is also a position of power, so everything he has said in the song should also be treated with suspicion and taken care over.
++++++++++
The Cactus:
~«A rash compassion For her [?feelings got beyond her]»
~Is it about what?The “compassion” is the affection that Jake’s wife has started to show for a cactus, which is “rash” to him because it distracts her affections away from him as her husband.
Her “feelings got beyond her” means her feelings for the cactus got out of control and turned to infatuation, causing her to neglect the rest of her life. Think of a footballer running with a ball, but failing to control it properly, so he has kicked it too hard and it has got “beyond” his reach.++++++++++
Dog:
~«I’m just a dog and I dislike the cant.»
~&
~«I’m just a dog and I dislike the con.
~Why is there so much cant in these canticles of human love?
~I’m just a brute. I couldn’t care a hoot.»
~«cant, con» — vagina?
~«hoot» — orgasm?It’s possible that there is a faint echo of this – Jake was aware of the French word “con” and, after all, the song is about dogs and how much easier they find it to have sex, compared to human courtship. However, if a dog is happy and eager to have sex with another dog straight after meeting them, why would he «dislike the “con”» ?
So I don’t think so, I think instead he’s using cant, con and canticle with the correct English meanings. The song is about the extra complications, restrictions, social customs, rituals, artificial barriers and secret, traditional phrases used by humans when attempting to have sex with another human, as compared to the simplicity of the same act between dogs.“Cant” – this can mean the slang or secret language used in a separate society, or just hypocritical speaking with no real meaning or substance. Both meanings are correct for the dog, who uses no secret phrases to have his sex and always acts on his instincts without hypocrisy.
“Con” – this is short for “confidence trick”, a person persuading someone else to part with something valuable for nothing. A dog does not need persuasion and no deceit is involved.
“Canticle” – a religious song, as if the rituals humans perform in order to have sex with each other are religious – and many of them (engagement, marriage etc) are.
~«It’s a matter of a minute and then up tails all.»
~«up tails» — to leave, go away?If you’ve ever seen dogs smelling each others’ bottoms in a park, you will have seen their tails go up, to allow the smelling to be done easier. Also, if you’ve seen dogs having sex, the female dog’s tail goes up and out of the way, for a similar reason. :o)
~«hoot» — orgasm?
I don’t think so – it’s not a common phrase in English. The common meaning of “I couldn’t give a hoot” in English is a mild form of “I couldn’t give a damn”, as in “I don’t care”, “I don’t give a moment’s thought over”, “I couldn’t care less”. Not sure where the “hoot” bit comes from unless it’s the hooting of a horn, or an owl ? Sometimes it’s “I couldn’t give two hoots” for things you especially couldn’t care less about.
++++++++++
Famous People:
~Tell it by other words, please : «Your paradise is where your paradise belongs.»
This is a more philosophical and political song, so there’s a lot going on. The Famous People are famous politicians, statesmen, models, gurus, nowadays you would certainly add “celebrities”. People who think they are immensely important and that everyone is intensely interested in what they are doing and saying : Jake is saying that in a short space of time, their names and actions will be forgotten and this shows that their importance was either short-lived, or even very little at all. Jake suggests that if they are trying to bring about Paradise – improve the world with whatever they are saying/singing/selling/wearing – then it’s pointless, because mostly the world is already pretty good without them. He says that really the Paradise a Famous Person believes in is the fame, the recognition, the glory, and that kind of Paradise will end up where it belongs – in obscurity. This song is more and more appropriate to today’s interchangeable politicians and vacuous celebrities as time goes on, I feel : you only have to look at a picture of a celebrity singer in X Factor from a couple of years ago to realize that you were cheering for them and voting for them only recently, but now you can’t remember what they sang or what their names are. This is the real measure of how important their contribution to mankind’s paradise was.
++++++++++
Freda:
~«Some monster, Susie Wongster, has [?ponced] her.
Susie Wong
We had a discussion about this a while back, and I do the song myself, so I might be able to give you a definitive answer here. Susie Wong might well be Suzie Wong, who was a prostitute in Hong Kong in a book called The World Of Suzie Wong, but some of the forum people who had been merchant sailors thought that Susie Wong’s was a common name for brothels in the far east. In any case : *** smut alert – highlight between the asterisks if not offended *** if Susie Wong had sex for a living, she would have been a “good f**k”, and so thus a “Susie Wongster” would be a ” f**ker”. *** smut alert over ***
Ponce
This was slang for a homosexual man in the fifties, but was originally slang for a pimp, someone who earned money from a prostitute’s activities. Since Susie Wong was almost certainly a prostitute, this meaning of a pimp is probably the one used here.
Between Susie Wong and the reference to pimps, Jake is not mixing his words about how he feels about the person who stole his cat.
~ [?I’m sunk, for some skunk’s done a bunk, done a bee-line] with my pretty feline…
“Sunk” – as in sinking of a ship, or sinking in morale
“skunk” – a smelly animal, and thus a slang term of distain and criticism
“done a bunk” – run off with something
“a bee-line” – it was believed that bees always returned to their hive in a straight line, the most direct route. So Jake’s cat-stealer has run off in the most direct escape route.~A bleeder, some bleeder’s got Freda,
~ [and Freda the bleeder’s got someone new]. Is it you ?» — I don’t understand syntax here.A “bleeder” is a mild English slang word for a despicable person – don’t know where it originates from. This “bleeder” has stolen Freda, but in the last line I’ve always believed that Jake is also calling Freda herself a bit of a “bleeder” too, for going with the cat-thief. If you’ve ever owned cats, you will know that they sort of consent to live with you, provided you pet them, feed them and keep them nice and warm – they have no sort of sense of strong loyalty that a dog does. A cat will happily wander off to another house for food, or even to go and live there and desert you, if the conditions are right, so I think Jake is finally suggesting that some of the blame for Freda’s disappearance may lie with the cat herself.
++++++++++
The Girl in the Window:
~«[?Striking] a pretty posture and likely as not
~She’s hairless as a snooker ball and showing all she’s got!»
~If to dismantle (?strike) a dummy, is it possible to see her internal device?The Girl In The Window is a tailor’s dummy in a shop window – a plastic model of a person with poseable arms and legs to dress in fashionable clothes as an advert for the clothes inside the shop. They are usually bald – so that a variety of wigs can be used on the dummy – and flesh-coloured, with vague human contours. I’m sure you’ve seen them in clothes shop windows.
To “strike a pose” or a “strike a posture”, means to position yourself – arms, legs, head, posture – in an artistic way : The Girl is positioned in an artistic pose to show the clothes she’s been dressed in.
When not dressed yet, the Girl is bald, thus “hairless as a snooker ball”.
“Showing all she’s got” – this is a slang for someone naked or partially naked, showing areas of the body normally hidden. When not dressed yet, the Girl looks as if she is nude.~«There’s a cheeky bloke that comes to dust you. I’ve seen his type before – a
~Fingertip today and a handful tomorra!»
~Is it a fingertip and a handful are of bloke? What does it mean?The bloke – a man – who dusts the shop dummies, appears to be the type who likes to fondle the undressed dummies while moving them about, either as a joke, or maybe sexually as a fetish. “A fingertip today and a handful tomorrow” is a phrase meaning an illicit activity that gets more and more stronger, intimate or detailed : so maybe it started with him dusting the Girl’s chest area with a feather duster, then brushing the dust off lightly with his hands, and finally by giving them a good old fondle to really make sure they were clean… That would certainly be a “cheeky” thing to do…
++++++++++
Grandad:
~«Your crystal domes will shake when he makes his [?break] (a hole in domes?)
Think more of a prison break, an escape. However, there is another recorded version where Jake sings
“Your crystal domes will crack when he makes it back”
so maybe Grandad’s escape does cause some damage…~Angels, saints and seraphim
~He’ll give you the [?slip], so get a grip
~On him.»
~In the dictionary, there are 14 variants of translation «slip». Tell it by other word.To “give someone the slip” means to escape from their clutches, to slide out from their hands as if slippery.
~«he gets the wind»
~Idiom? What?:o) You come from a country where borscht is eaten and have never experienced this ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatulence++++++++++
The Grave-digger
~«I see many different fashions of mourning, [?both fancy] and plain.»
~Is it two vertical geometrical projections?No – I think it is the style of mourning. Some relatives weeping and wailing loudly and ostentatiously, and some gently and soundlessly crying. In fact, Jake describes the two types in the rest of the verse.
++++++++++
The Remembrance:
~«If the foreigner [?comes off best], he said,
~You’ll be better off dead…»
~«You’ll be better off dead . . .» — does the King address to the enemy?The King addresses his army, and says that the soldiers in his army would be better off dead, than if the foreigner’s army won, and took over the country.
++++++++++
~«Uncle Arthur, clothes on the brain,
~Snaggled up his pendant in his bicycle chain.»~«clothes on the brain» – idiom? Clothes style? What?
To have “something on the brain” means to be obsessed by something. To have iPads on the brain, to have Burberry on the brain, to have Jedward on the brain etc… :o)
~«snaggled up» — ?
Entangled.
~«pendant in his bicycle chain» — a medallion with bicycle chain on a neck?
No – Arthur has such a low-dangling medallion that it caught in his bicycle chain while out cycling. At the time Jake was writing, male American rock stars and actors would have shirts unbuttoned to the waist, showing tanned, hairy chests with large medallions on gold chains. This contrasts with the more middle-class appearance of middle-aged Arthur, who clearly likes a bike rather than a Ferrari… :o)
++++++++++
There you go ! Almost Jedward-free too !
I hope the Siberian winter is kind to you too.
Hi, Malcolm!
Oll Korrect, thank you!I with interest read about copyright in Britain. I hope the owner of “Thackray” is the reasonable person.
Asking my question about CD, certainly I was understanding you is using Jedward as examples but I simply forgot it is somehow connected with these “Cipollinos” whose hair I well remember however. Besides it is similar to a name of single man because not JedwardS. Now for the sake of curiosity I have read Wiky a little and found out about this compound name. Continue your magnificent examples with this boys.
So I continue. Be patient, please.
+++
The Cactus:«my Auntie Ivy gave us both a little pot,
A plastic what-not,
Which contained a [spiky] cactus.»
&
«Every day she grew still fonder
Till this sickly, tickly, little [squirt] had got the household quashed»
Is «squirt» — http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/medical-bottle-mask-squirt-16127408.jpg ?
Is «spiky» a conic-top therefore?
&
«We placed them spiky cheek to spiky cheek upon our kitchen window sill and then withdrew»
Is «spiky» a covered with thorns?
May I translate “spiky” as “unshaven”?**
«We knew true love would run its course – and we perforce had something similar to do.»«to do similar» — is «to withdrew to let cactus’ love» or « to be engaged in own love too»?
+++
The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington:Is her «cycle shed» for the motorbike too?
**
«Swim in the sea when she felt hot,
Stay in bed when she did not.»when she did not = when she not swim or when she was lazy and idled?
**
«And though she did no harm the neighbours sniffed, as neighbours [do],»What the neighbours do : sniff or harm?
+++
Grandad:«Ladies’ Union» — virgin feminists?
**
«Your crystal domes will shake when he makes his break»
Is his break an escape from Paradise, not from his home?
**
«Your pearly gates he’ll climb when it’s opening time.»
Why he’ll clamber up open gates when it is possible to pass through (between) its?
**
«The doctor lifted up an eyelid and pronounced him gone. But
To judge from Grandad’s finger signals the doctor was wrong.»Did dead Grandad moved his finger? What signals?
**
«They dressed him in his Sunday night-shirt, they combed out his hair, but
They couldn’t get my Grandad’s boots off, he’d need them up there.»to get boots off = to take off boots?
Why they couldn’t get the boots off? Did they were not able, because grandad’s feets swelled for example, or not wanted because he would need boots in the sky?+++
The Grave-digger:<~«I see many different fashions of mourning, [?both fancy] and plain.» ~Is it two vertical geometrical projections? No - I think it is the style of mourning. Some relatives weeping and wailing loudly and ostentatiously, and some gently and soundlessly crying. In fact, Jake describes the two types in the rest of the verse.>
I understand it from you. (I was thinking a mourning is clothes style only as in this case : «If you come around to mourn for Grandad don’t dress up in black».) But I don’t understand why at the beginning is “much” and at the end is “both” about identical things. Whether it is possible to tell the first line so:
«I see many different fashions of mourning, however all of them are brought together to two types only: feigned (fancy) and sincere (plain)»?By the way probably there is a hint from “Plain and Fancy” of Joseph Stein. However, I don’t know about what this musical.
**
«I know in my water, I know in my blood, I know in my bones»Did he tells “my” because is seeing constantly these things at his work?
+++
I stayed off work today:
«He threw me down the boilerhouse.
There’s one [?born every minute], he says,
We keep ’em all in there.»What does it mean? born = baby or stupid or..?
+++
Mrs Murphy:
«he is such a classy mover»mover = f**er or car-driver?
+++
One of Them:
«And tell me if you’ve heard the one, The one about the nigger. You will die of laughing! It’s just a bit of fun and they don’t really mind. The cripple and the gyppo,»
nigger = gyppo /gipsy?+++
Romance:
«[?Couple o’ ]pints of beer»
How many? o’= 1 ?+++
Remember Bethlehem:
I think that at the ends of the choruses it is necessary to write «Remember, Bethlehem!» (in 3 chorus – Remembers) because it is appeal to the city.+++
The Brigadier:«They [?squat] in the cottages of our ancestors»
Is it to sit between own knees or to occupy a house against a will of it’s owner (how it is possible in England)?
**
«spitter and spat and spout»
I understand the general sense but not understand : are they nouns or verbs?+++
The Tortoise:
«And for Christ’s sake [tell the little crunchy tortoise] too»Did Jake wants, let Jesus will give advice to a fried turtle that a animal has to do??
+++
Freda:
«And then one day, she went away,
and I know neither [wither] nor why»wither = where or with+whom ?
+++
The Little Black Foal:
«Well, it’s all a load of stuff and nonsense»
«Well it’s all a load of balderdash»load is mother, brother?
+++
Joseph:
«what do you make of» = what do you think of ?+++
Dog:
«Dogs see much less in it, they get [?cracking] and begin it.»
separation of hips?+++
Personal Column:«rubber goods» — condoms?
**
«Dynamic methods Strengthen and Refine
The Power of your Mind» — consultations at the psychologist ?
**
«Seven days’ free trial for an anti-nuclear shelter. [?No obligations at all.]»
Did a person sell his shelter and doesn’t gives a guarantee for quality?
**
«Ten shillings reward: [?Box No. 33] has gone and lost her budgerigar».
Window? Where?+++
My Roly Poly Girl:
I want to specify: the gooseberry surprise hints at what idiom?+++
moorside — heather?
jiggery-poke – f**king?+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I already made the most part of the text-analysis of songs of the list on the site. In the future I will have already no so many questions.
By the way in Moscow where I live, winters not cold usually. In comparison with Siberia, not Yorkshire, certainly.
I drink for success of our common hobby!
Dmitry
Hi, Dmitry. Good to hear from you again. Let us begin !
+++++
The Cactus>«my Auntie Ivy gave us both a little pot,
>A plastic what-not,
>Which contained a [spiky] cactus.»
>&
>«Every day she grew still fonder
>Till this sickly, tickly, little [squirt] had got the household quashed»
>Is «squirt» — thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/medical-bottle-mask-squirt-16127408.jpg ?
>Is «spiky» a conic-top therefore?
>&
>«We placed them spiky cheek to spiky cheek upon our kitchen window sill and then withdrew»
>Is «spiky» a covered with thorns?
>May I translate “spiky” as “unshaven”?A “spike” is a thorn, and normally anything long, thin and sharp. Where Jake says “spiky cheek” he is referring to the new romance between the cactus and his new lady cactus : a pair of lovers could be described as being “cheek to cheek” when pressed together in an embrace, and if these cacti had cheeks, they would certainly be spiky ones. You could certainly use spiky or prickly if talking about someone unshaven, but I don’t think Jake is doing that here : remember, one of the cacti is a lady, and the faces of ladies in romantic songs are not normally unshaven. :o)
A “squirt” is English slang for an irritating child.
>«We knew true love would run its course – and we perforce had something similar to do.»
>«to do similar» — is «to withdrew to let cactus’ love» or « to be engaged in own love too»?Now the two cacti are falling in love, Jake and his lady have a similar task to perform – to rekindle their own love.
+++++
The Hair of the Widow of Bridlington:
>Is her «cycle shed» for the motorbike too?
Yes. A motorbike’s full title is a motor*cycle*.
>«Swim in the sea when she felt hot,
>Stay in bed when she did not.»
>when she did not = when she not swim or when she was lazy and idled?“when she did not” feel hot, in contrast to the phrase before.
>«And though she did no harm the neighbours sniffed, as neighbours [do],»
>What the neighbours do : sniff or harm?If you punctuate the sentence like this…
“though she did no harm, the neighbours sniffed, as neighbours do”
…it’s easier to see that the neighbours are sniffing. A person actually sniffing for a smell would raise their noses in the air, and so “sniff” has also become English slang for raising your nose in the air in disapproval of someone’s appearance or behaviour. Most people have had the experience of neighbours who disaprove of your behaviour in some way or another.+++++
Grandad:
«Ladies’ Union» — virgin feminists?
More a society for ladies. Ladies’ Unions are often centered specifically around a central idea – crafts, artwork, music, etc, but are also seen in connection with sports which have more traditionally been associated with male members and participants : football, golf, etc., and these can be slightly more feminist and exclusive to female membership.
>«Your crystal domes will shake when he makes his break»
>Is his break an escape from Paradise, not from his home?
>&
>«Your pearly gates he’ll climb when it’s opening time.»
>Why he’ll clamber up open gates when it is possible to pass through (between) its?All of the examples in the song are of Grandad, after dead and going to Heaven, wanting to escape from Heaven and get back to the pub. He will cause damage, climb over gates, be disrespectful to the angels, whatever it takes to get to the beer that won’t be available in Paradise.
The Gates Of Heaven are probably usually for entry only : after all, why would you want to leave Paradise ? But Grandad has a reason… :o)>«The doctor lifted up an eyelid and pronounced him gone. But
>To judge from Grandad’s finger signals the doctor was wrong.»
>Did dead Grandad moved his finger? What signals?Grandad is probably making a rude, two-fingered v-sign gesture. Nowadays, Grandad would hear that the doctor considers him dead (and therefore his drinking days are over) and would “flip him the bird”, in the style of our American cousins.
>«They dressed him in his Sunday night-shirt, they combed out his hair, but
>They couldn’t get my Grandad’s boots off, he’d need them up there.»
>to get boots off = to take off boots?
>Why they couldn’t get the boots off? Did they were not able, because grandad’s feets swelled for example, or not wanted >because he would need boots in the sky?This is nothing specific, with no great important meaning, I think, other than that boots are often hard to remove. Grandad may be fond of his old boots, and intends to wear them when escaping and, after that, back in the pub.
+++
The Grave-Gigger:><~«I see many different fashions of mourning, [?both fancy] and plain.» >~Is it two vertical geometrical projections?
>No – I think it is the style of mourning. Some relatives weeping and wailing loudly and ostentatiously, and some gently and >soundlessly crying. In fact, Jake describes the two types in the rest of the verse.>
>I understand it from you. (I was thinking a mourning is clothes style only as in this case : «If you come around to mourn for >Grandad don’t dress up in black».) But I don’t understand why at the beginning is “much” and at the end is “both” about >identical things. Whether it is possible to tell the first line so:
>«I see many different fashions of mourning, however all of them are brought together to two types only: feigned (fancy) and sincere (plain)»?I think so – the examples of mourning style Jake gives are many, but seem to fall into two categories. The louder people may not be feigning their grief, but there may be an element of over-crying to boast to the other mourners that they were especially close to the deceased.
>«I know in my water, I know in my blood, I know in my bones»
>Did he tells “my” because is seeing constantly these things at his work?Yes – the Gravedigger is emphasising his experience, to convince the listener that the things he has seen are accurate and true.
+++++
I stayed off work today>«He threw me down the boilerhouse.
>There’s one [?born every minute], he says,
>We keep ’em all in there.»
>What does it mean? born = baby or stupid or..?“There’s one born every minute” is an English phrase used to point out that someone has done something naive, stupid or inexperienced. A Baby is born every minute somewhere in the world, and babies are inexperienced and uneducated – the phrase “There’s one born every minute” is used when someone does something they should know better to not do.
+++
Mrs Murphy:>«he is such a classy mover»
>mover = f**er or car-driver?A classy mover would be someone moving with grace, or like a dancer – film dancers like Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly were seen as romantic, attractive men because of their graceful movements.
+++++
One of Them:«And tell me if you’ve heard the one, The one about the nigger. You will die of laughing! It’s just a bit of fun and they don’t really mind. The cripple and the gyppo,»
nigger = gyppo /gipsy?No – nigger is slang for negro : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger
The word would have originally been a simple description of a black-skinned person, but because most black people in US and UK society in the early part of the 1900s and earlier would have been servants, labourers or slaves, or more likely just poorer, the word soon grew to imply that the black person was inferior in status. In England, a black person would have been very rarely seen outside of a city – living in a large town in England, I was ten before I first met a non-white person, so that would have been 1970, although you saw all skin colours on the television. As the 70s progressed in England, and England became more multicultural, people would find extreme cultural differences difficult to understand or embrace, jokes would appear concerning black people {along with other racial or religious minorites), and defamatory slang words would catch on in the spoken English of less enlightened or accepting people.
Jake attempts, in this song, to satirise people telling racist, sexist or secular jokes, by imitating their tactless way of speaking, and contrasting the percieved differences in the jokes with the human similarities we all share. It’s not a song that has always been successful in getting its message across, and has often been taken at face value by critics unwilling to put the effort into appreciating the true point of the song and its sentiment. Some detractors of Jake’s often old-fashioned subject matter, have seen this song as evidence of casual racism, in the same way that some people can’t get past the apparant sexism in “On Again On Again”.+++++
Romance:>«[?Couple o’ ]pints of beer»
>How many? o’= 1 ?O’ is short for Of, and a “couple” is two (certainly never more than three) – a low number or amount.
+++
Remember Bethlehem:>I think that at the ends of the choruses it is necessary to write «Remember, Bethlehem!» (in 3 chorus – Remembers) >because it is appeal to the city.
It could be, though I don’t see why Bethlehem specifically needs to be reminded of Jesus’s birth there. I also think that if Jake meant “Remember, Bethlehem !” and intended us to put the comma in, he wouldn’t have occasionally have put “remembers” : “Remembers, Bethlehem !” makes no sense, and Jake isn’t that sloppy with his English. I think the first use of the phrase, in ther start of each chorus, as in “(even your stony old hills) remember Bethlehem” just finishes the sentence off, and is intended to mean that the natural world remembers the occasion of Christ’s birth. Maybe Jake’s point is that mankind seems to have forgotten Christ and his message – maybe the rest of the “Remember Bethlehem”s are an instruction to *us* to remember too.
+++
The Brigadier:>«They [?squat] in the cottages of our ancestors»
>Is it to sit between own knees or to occupy a house against a will of it’s owner (how it is possible in England)?I think this means actual squatting on the ground, communing with nature while making the pots, in a typical hippy fashion. I always get the impression that the cottages are ruined or derelict and the hippies are still doing their back-to-nature activities there, much to the amusement of the locals. I’ve got the impression that the more modern meaning of “squatting” – as you say, occupying a house agaist the will of its owner – would have been an activity which came along a bit later than the time Jake was writing the song, but you may be right. Nowadays, another source of annoyance for locals living in country villages is that rich city folk will buy up local houses and then leave them mostly empty, as weekend cottages, so maybe the hippies have done something similar : bought a village cottage as a commune, where their bearded activities are going on and really annoying the villagers.
All told, though, it’s not real again – Jake isn’t describing an actual event, and doesn’t have everything mapped out like a screenplay – he’s using generalisations and common experiences to give impressions, background colour to make the overall “painting” of the world of the Brigadier appear more real.>«spitter and spat and spout»
>I understand the general sense but not understand : are they nouns or verbs?I think it’s just onomatopoeia, words sounding like the things they describe. Although “spit” is a verb to do with ejecting moisture, I don’t think “spitter” is a verb in English : but Jake may be rhyming it with “spatter”, which is, and which is a perfectly good word used in describing rain. I have heard singers sing “spatter” rather than “spat” when performing this song.
+++++
The Tortoise:>«And for Christ’s sake [tell the little crunchy tortoise] too»
>Did Jake wants, let Jesus will give advice to a fried turtle that a animal has to do??The poor old tortoise may be still alive when the man mistakenly tries to eat one he has won (he may have eaten a few !) so Jake is asking Jesus to let the tortoise know what to do in that situation.
+++++
Freda:>«And then one day, she went away,
>and I know neither [wither] nor why»
>wither = where or with+whom ?“wither” is an old English word for “where”.
+++
The Little Black Foal:>«Well, it’s all a load of stuff and nonsense»
>«Well it’s all a load of balderdash»
>load is mother, brother?Load is “quite a lot”, an amount, as in a heavy load.
+++
Joseph:«what do you make of» = what do you think of ?
Yes. The slight difference is that you can *think* about the meaning of something you understand : but if you can’t understand it to begin with, you may have to *make* sense of it before thinking about its meaning. So Joseph may have to work at understanding the events that have happened.
+++++
Dog:>«Dogs see much less in it, they get [?cracking] and begin it.»
>separation of hips?No – “get cracking” means to “get on” with something, to start something without any further delay, or continue something without any further delay.
+++++
Personal Column:>«rubber goods» — condoms?
Rubber goods for sale in a personal column might have been rubber gloves oir wellington boots, but I’m sure Jake is cheeklily making us think of condoms too.
>«Dynamic methods Strengthen and Refine
>The Power of your Mind» — consultations at the psychologist ?More probably a self-help book for sale in the personal column, a motivational book to aid thinking and memory. Most likely not of much actual psychological value : but once they’ve got your money, that’s all that matters, eh ? :o)
>«Seven days’ free trial for an anti-nuclear shelter. [?No obligations at all.]»
>Did a person sell his shelter and doesn’t gives a guarantee for quality?“No obligation” would mean that you can try something out before buying it, and if you don’t like it, you can choose to not buy it, and the seller won’t object or insist if you don’t. It is an extra incentive for you to answer the advert because you know that you won’t have to buy it just because you’ve shown an interest.
The joke is, that fully testing an anti-nuclear shelter needs some very specific and rare test conditions… :o)>«Ten shillings reward: [?Box No. 33] has gone and lost her budgerigar».
>Window? Where?If you’ve taken out an advert in a personal column which needs a reply – something you’re selling or information you need – your advert would often be allocated a Box Number, which would be a small storage area at the newspaper publisher’s. Nowadays, most people have a mobile number or e-mail address, and you’d put that in an advert to allow the reader to contact you. In the 1960s mobile phones and e-mail hadn’t been invented, and only a very small percentage of people would be wealthy enough to have their own land-line phone : and you wouldn’t want to just put your address in the paper for everyone to see, especially if you were selling rubber goods or artistic photographs… so being allocated a Box Number gives more security and anonymity. So you are given a Box Number by the newspaper publisher : there would be enough Boxes for every advert that needed one, and they may be actual boxes, in-trays, spaces on a shelf, or pigeonholes, like you would have in a hotel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon-hole_messagebox). Any replies to the advert are sent to the newspaper, and you, the owner of the advert, would turn up at the office to see if anyone had replied to the advert by looking in your Box.
At the end of your advert’s run the Box Number is given to someone else.+++
My Roly Poly Girl:>I want to specify: the gooseberry surprise hints at what idiom?
As I think I said, I don’t think there is a specific idiom here. Gooseberry Surprise is a sweet dish that a cook might make, but Jake may just be going for a vaguely rude hint at the “goosing” we talked about earlier, the pinching of a lady’s bottom (and any nice “surprise” that might happen to a man after doing it). I can’t think of anything else other than this.
+++++
>moorside — heather?Yes – a moor is bleak, rocky, with naturally growing plants like heather.
>jiggery-poke – f**king?
Jiggery-Pokery is an English phrase for a trick, some cheap magic, something where there is some deception going on. However, given the fact that “jig-jig” and “poking” are also terms for sex, Jiggery-Pokery is also a term for sex and Jake will be aware of this when he uses it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>I drink for success of our common hobby!
На здоровье !
Malcy
Hi, Malcolm!
From day to day I am understanding your explanations easier. I am helped by your good language and a little my strengthened practice of English recently. Thanks for your last efforts spent for me!>Why they couldn’t get the boots off? Did they were not able, because grandad’s feets swelled for example, or not wanted because he would need boots in the sky? >
This is nothing specific, with no great important meaning, I think, other than that boots are often hard to remove. Grandad may be fond of his old boots, and intends to wear them when escaping and, after that, back in the pub.
I think, in the song there is a hint that the “spirit” of Grandad prevented to take off boots because ones will be necessary to him to escape (long way by feet) from Paradise. Such poet as Jake couldn’t write the whole line without a certain sense. Probably.
+++
Remember Bethlehem:>I think that at the ends of the choruses it is necessary to write «Remember, Bethlehem!» (in 3 chorus – Remembers) >because it is appeal to the city. >
It could be, though I don’t see why Bethlehem specifically needs to be reminded of Jesus’s birth there. I also think that if Jake meant “Remember, Bethlehem !” and intended us to put the comma in, he wouldn’t have occasionally have put “remembers” : “Remembers, Bethlehem !” makes no sense, and Jake isn’t that sloppy with his English.
I think the first use of the phrase, in ther start of each chorus, as in “(even your stony old hills) remember Bethlehem” just finishes the sentence off, and is intended to mean that the natural world remembers the occasion of Christ’s birth. Maybe Jake’s point is that mankind seems to have forgotten Christ and his message – maybe the rest of the “Remember Bethlehem”s are an instruction to *us* to remember too.I see you didn’t understand my question because I don’t know exact the meaning of «appeal». Probably «address» is more exact?
And by the way probably I don’t know rules of the use of a comma in English phrases.I wanted to tell that the phrase of first chorus:
«Your pussy-willow and your daffodil,
Even your stony old hills
Remember Bethlehem.»
means:
“Oh, Bethlehem, your pussy-willow and your daffodil,
Even your stony old hills remember (her)!”In other choruses the same literary reception is used with only that difference that in the third chorus there is «RememberS» and in the fourth there is “I” instead of things and animals.
Do you understand me now? It is possible? Whether the comma and «!» are necessary here?
+++
The Brigadier>«spitter and spat and spout»
I understand the general sense but not understand : are they nouns or verbs? >I think it’s just onomatopoeia,
OK, I understand.
«He [?waggles it] about.»
Did the rain-god shakes the earth by a thunder or waves rain streams as a pendulum?
What is [it]?+++
The Little Black Foal:>«Well, it’s all a load of stuff and nonsense»
«Well it’s all a load of balderdash»
load is mother, brother? >Load is “quite a lot”, an amount, as in a heavy load.
You didn’t understand my question. I wanted to ask: did Jake metaphorically says the silly-talk-mother is «a load of stuff and nonsense» and the silly-thought-brother is «a load of balderdash»? Is it possible?
+++
>«Dynamic methods Strengthen and Refine
The Power of your Mind» — consultations at the psychologist ? >More probably a self-help book for sale in the personal column, a motivational book to aid thinking and memory. Most likely not of much actual psychological value : but once they’ve got your money, that’s all that matters, eh ? :o)
If it is a book for not big price, what this phrase means:
«Take out a personal loan.»?Is a «loan» a book which needs to be returned or a money advance, for example, in bank to purchase the book?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Kiss:
«She was as seventeenish»
seventeenish = seventeen-year-old person, as I understand?
Why «as»? Is Jake not knowing how old is she precisely and speaks approximately “by eye”?+++
The [Kirkstall Road] Girl:
Is here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkstall ?
Is that road for “easy” girls?Rolls-Royce [voice] — beep of the car?
Meanings of separate words are clear but not in a context:
– postures with an Irish wolfhound
– lamp-post deals
– grind by the old canal
– collections on her back
– they’re better off any way
????+++
Isobel:
« All other women I repel
Cause I can’t spell and I smell as well,»I can’t spell = I can’t bewitch all other women?
I smell = I have a fetid odor?+++
To Do With You:
«[?Better-slung] and better at buns than you.»«Better-spoken, [?shorter strokers] than you.»
Is it:Stroker – A girlfriend that will not allow you to f 👿 👿 k her and is only willing to give you hand jobs. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Stroker
+++
Famous People:«How could you fail to notice that your paradise is [here]?»
«here» — is it among simple people?«They will wag their joyous dicks over your marble monument.»
dick = penis?
What does this action mean?+++
Miss World:«Miss South Rhodesia is here,
You’ll see she’s a shade or two lighter.
She’s awful keen to keep her [party] clean
And UDI washes whiter.»party = person?
UDI- ?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++So, I have analysed almost all list’s songs in which I had serious misunderstandings.
The last song where I understand very little is The Policeman’s Jig. I understand that at a good few of lines there are pornographic hints and puns. Possibly I will need your whole lecture to understand everything. Sir, whether shocks you an explanation these things to me ?With gratitude your Russian friend Dmitry 🙂
PS: I want to manage to receive all your explanations before if your American cousins would begin war and internet communication would be inaccessible to me.
If I don’t answer you once, it will mean that I couldn’t do. 🙁Hi Dmitry.
Talking about your last comment first, I doubt that there will be any war that prevents us from chatting. I’m sure that if there was anyone interested in starting off any fighting they would have done it already : but I do suspect that there is no coincidence that other countries started to be cross with Mother Russia immediately after 26th Febuary 2014. I also think it could be easily fixed, too. This is a topic for another forum, though, I think.
So…
+++++
>Why they couldn’t get the boots off?
>I think, in the song there is a hint that the “spirit” of Grandad prevented to take off bootsI think you are right. As you say, Jake rarely puts something in his lyrics that doesn’t have some meaning, even if he’s just got to add a single word in just to make the line the correct length. Sometimes you haven’t spotted the meaning, sometimes you have, sometimes you suspect there’s something that you’re not sure of, but there are an awful lot of words in Jake’s collection of songs and very, very few haven’t been carefully considered and crafted.
+++++
Remember Bethlehem:>I see you didn’t understand my question
Possibly not. Maybe if I just reword the lines to show you what I think the meaning is ?
The point of the song is that Jake thinks that maybe mankind has forgotten the importance of the religious events which happened in Bethlehem, but the events are still remembered by the natural world. Where Jake says “Bethlehem”, it’s not just the place, it’s the significance, for Jake, of the events that happened there, the birth of Jesus Christ. So :
The nightingales, pussy-willow, daffodil, and stony old hills remember Bethlehem and what happened there.
The hedgehog, fish and shaggy old trees remember Bethlehem and what happened there.
The rain, wind, and sulky old sun remember Bethlehem and what happened there.
Jake remembers Bethlehem and what happened there.Jake’s wish, I think, is that the world will come to remember Bethlehem again, and what happened there.
All the rest of the slight differences are just correct English grammar : He says “remembers” rather than “remember”, for instance, because Trees is plural and Plural Things *remember*, but Sun is singular and a Single Thing *rememberS*.
+++++
The Brigadier>«He [?waggles it] about.»
>Did the rain-god shakes the earth by a thunder or waves rain streams as a pendulum?
>What is [it]?I don’t know the specific meaning of this – it is placed in the lyric and it jumps out at you and surprises you. I suppose the rain-god is impartial because his rain falls on the big and the small, the important and the lowly, the rich and the poor. Maybe the waggling is the way the rain-god distributes the rain, waving something left, right, backwards and forwards etc to spread the rain evenly about : so the “it” in “waggles it about” is the source of the water. Whether that’s a watering can, a hosepipe or a physical part of the rain-god’s body depends on your imagination.
+++++
The Little Black Foal:>«Well, it’s all a load of stuff and nonsense»
>«Well it’s all a load of balderdash»
>load is mother, brother? >
>You didn’t understand my question.Yes, I think I did. The phrases “stuff and nonsense” and “balderdash” are usually used to describe thoughts or actions rather than people, so it’s not the mother who is the “stuff and nonsense”, it’s the digging the dirt that she does with the local ladies (digging the dirt means gossiping to find out unpleasant details about people). In the same way, it’s not the brother who is “balderdash”, it’s his attitude about his sexual prowess with women, and his drinking.
+++++
>«Dynamic methods Strengthen and Refine
>The Power of your Mind» — consultations at the psychologist ? >
>More probably a self-help book for sale in the personal column, a motivational book to aid thinking and memory.>If it is a book for not big price, what this phrase means:
>«Take out a personal loan.»?
>Is a «loan» a book which needs to be returned or a money advance, for example, in bank to purchase the book?I think this section of the song is two separate adverts :
a) a self-help book to aid the powers of your mind.
b) a personal loan if you are not managing your finances.I don’t think they are related, so Jake’s not suggesting that you would need the loan to buy the book. :o)
+++++
The Kiss>«She was as seventeenish»
>seventeenish = seventeen-year-old person, as I understand?
>Why «as»? Is Jake not knowing how old is she precisely and speaks approximately “by eye”?Jake is implying that there is some quality of the month of May which is like being seventeen – “seventeenish” meens “like seventeen”, like being seventeen years old. It’s a very poetic phrase, and you have to work out the quality that Jake means yourself : and also Jake will be referring to May as we experience it in England, so it’s not May In Libya, or May In Antarctica. I’ve always thought that May is the end of the spring and the beginning of the summer, and maybe being seventeen is the end of a girl’s innocence, her childhood, and the start of maturity : so “as seventeenish as the month of May” means to me that she’s still got some child-like qualities which give her some innocence, but she is also mature and sexy and in touch with her own young adulthood. The things she does later in the song – jumping on the boy, discussing her body with frank and unexpected sexuality, and defying her father, seem to agree with this – she’s grown up and physically mature, but at the same time childish, headstrong and impulsive.
+++++
The [Kirkstall Road] Girl:>Is here : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkstall ?
>Is that road for “easy” girls?I don’t know if it’s like that now – there’s an international cricket ground there, so I’ve been there recently – but Jake is certainly suggesting that the Kirky Road at the time he wrote the song is a lower class area, maybe with little money, and a girl might have to be “easy” to get fun or money in a place where there is not so much of it about.
The rest of your questions fall into two parts – the girl’s previous life and her new glamorous one. So :
Her old life :
– lamp-post deals
Coming to a deal underneath a lamp post, so out in the open, not private, very unashamed and brazen.
– grind by the old canal
I presume grinding means sexual acts, the deal she has struck.Her new life :
– Rolls-Royce [voice] — beep of the car?
Her voice is now the kind of voice a girl would have if she owned a Rolls Royce – wealthy, posh, used to the finer things in life.
The next phrase – “E-Type smile” – is the same : an E-Type is a Jaguar sports car, so she has the kind of smile which a girl who owns that kind of car would have.
– postures with an Irish wolfhound
Back in the sixties, you would see press photos of glamorous actresses posing with things which emphasise their wealth and fame : big houses, expensive cars, artworks etc. An Irish wolfhound would be the type of dog they would pose with : they are physically big dogs, at the very least requiring a certain amount of wealth to even feed !
– collections on her back
These collections will be the new range of designer clothes she is wearing, that she can now afford. “The Spring collection from Versace” etc.– they’re better off any way ????
Jake suggests that even though the girl’s old life was dangerous, sinful and poverty-stricken, it is somehow better than the falser life of glamour and wealth that she’s living now. Maybe he prizes honesty, earthiness and being true to your roots more than shallow wealth and fame.+++++
Isobel:>« All other women I repel
>Cause I can’t spell and I smell as well,»
>I can’t spell = I can’t bewitch all other women?
>I smell = I have a fetid odor?Spell as in “spell words correctly” – the correct letters to make a correct word. Jake seems amazed to be somehow able to have Isobel be in love with him, even though he thinks of himself as being uneducated and smelly.
+++
To Do With You:«[?Better-slung] and better at buns than you.»
«Better-spoken, [?shorter strokers] than you.»“Better-slung and better at buns” is a different way of saying “better looking, better cooking” in the line before. All the verses do this in the first two lines and again towards the end :
Better looking = better slung = flawless skin
Better cooking = better at buns = bigger dinnersBetter read = eruditer (a made-up word meaning “more erudite”, in the same way that “faster” means “more fast”) = Kierkegaard and Kant (Soren Kierkegaard and Emmanuel Kant, philosophers)
Better bedtime women = wives at night = cant and cocoa.
Jake says Kant and cant at the same time, Kant to go with Kierkegaard and cant (small talk, possibly in bed before you cuddle up and go to sleep) with cocoa, a hot bedtime drink.Smoother moving = better spoken
Tongue and Grooving = shorter strokerThese last two pairs are not so much the same, as similar themes.
Smooth moving (like the classy mover in Mrs Murphy) implies grace and artistry, and so does “better spoken”.
Tongue-and-groove is a type of floorboard which fits together easily and is strong after : http://www.orlestoneoakflooring.co.uk/Solid_Oak_Flooring/character_grade_oak_flooring.html
I think Jake is saying his relationship with his wife is like that. Shorter strokes is more to do with doing a painting – you start off colouring in large background areas with a big brush, but when you get to the end of the painting you’re adding more fine detail with short strokes and a thin brush, so this sort of means artistry, attention to detail and completeness – maybe Jake sees these qualities in his wife too.
However, you are right – “shorter strokes” is also a phrase which has more than one sexual meaning, and so, I think, could be tongue-and-grooving… so Jake may also be saying while his wife is good looking, good cooking, faithful, compatible and intelligent enough for him, the sex is great too. :o)For many reasons, I think this song is Jake’s best. :o)
+++++
Famous People:«How could you fail to notice that your paradise is [here]?»
«here» — is it among simple people?Yes – the politicians want to make paradise arrive, to improve the world, but it is already here and their efforts won’t improve it very much.
>«They will wag their joyous dicks over your marble monument.»
>dick = penis?
>What does this action mean?Yes. I think this means urinating on them : treating the statues of the famous people as if they are nothing more than an outdoor urinal, treating them with contempt, and not as the objects of admiration and historical achievement they are meant to be.
+++++
Miss World:>«Miss South Rhodesia is here,
>You’ll see she’s a shade or two lighter.
>She’s awful keen to keep her [party] clean
>And UDI washes whiter.»>party = person?
>UDI- ?Remember, this was one of Jake’s “point songs”, written to highlight recent events in the news. Jake uses his song about the Miss World competition to also highlight other events going on in the world like the Vietnam War.
A history lesson, then…
UDI was the Unilateral Declaration of Independance announced by Rhodesia : Rhodesia was a part of, originally, the British Empire and, then, the British Commonwealth, and at the time (1967 ?) commonwealth countries were making steps to become independant. I seem to remember that there was a process the British government set up which would allow a country to leave the commonwealth if a majority vote asked for it (can’t remember what it was called).
However… Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was run by an all-white government lead by Ian Smith, which had very specific anti-black laws called Apartheit which significantly oppressed the black South African people : there were trade, sports and cultural embargos going on to try and force the Apartheit regime to change its ways, and prominent anti-Apartheit South Africans like Nelson Mandela were imprisoned. The British government wouldn’t allow Rhodesia to leave the commonwealth without having a majority vote in favour of it first… but black people in Rhodesia weren’t allowed to vote because of the restrictions in Apartheit, and black people were the large majority of the population.
So because Rhodesia couldn’t leave the commonwealth without giving its own black people the vote, Ian Smith announced UDI, their Unilateral Declaration of Independance, and broke from the commonwealth.This all figures in the verse.
>«Miss South Rhodesia is here,
>You’ll see she’s a shade or two lighter
– because Apartheit is still going on in Rhodesia, the entrant for Miss World will be a white girl – black people won’t be allowed to enter, and thus their contestant will be lots lighter in skin colour than their population percentages would imply.>She’s awful keen to keep her [party] clean
– her political party, kept “clean” (white rather than black) by the Apartheit regime>And UDI washes whiter.»
This is a parody of an English advert for washing powder (“Daz washes whiter”) but putting UDI in as the new miracle cleaning ingredient making Rhodesia so white and clean (at least where it matters – in political power…). Google says “AOS Concentrate” is a Russian washing powder so think “AOS washes whiter”, and then put “UDI” in instead for the full effect.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>The last song where I understand very little is The Policeman’s Jig. I understand that at a good few of lines there are pornographic hints and puns. Possibly I will need your whole lecture to understand everything.
I will put some thought into this and post a full report. The song was another “point song” where a Police Pornography Squad, responsible for detecting and confiscating porn material, destroying it and punishing the offenders, had been found to have kept it all instead and watched/read it. So the whole song is mostly Jake trying to squeeze as many obscure English slang words and phrases for male masturbation into the song without being noticed by the broadcasting censors. :o)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Cheers !
Malcy
Hi, Malcolm!
As usual all your explanations are clear to me, I thank!This is a topic for another forum, though, I think.
OK!
+++
Remember Bethlehem:I absolutely have understood your thought. This option of syntax is grammatical possible.
However you have no me convinced, sorry. I will explain why.The nightingales, pussy-willow, daffodil, and stony old hills remember Bethlehem and what happened there.
The hedgehog, fish and shaggy old trees remember Bethlehem and what happened there.
The rain, wind, and sulky old sun remember Bethlehem and what happened there.So, things and animals remember what happened there. OK! It is logical. I agree with it from the very beginning.
However
To whom does Jake tell “yours” ? I think, to Bethlehem. Have you other applicants? I don’t. Thus what for example that phrase means ? :
«Your pussy-willow and your daffodil, еven your stony old hills remember Bethlehem.»
It would have to mean:
“Your pussy-willow and your daffodil, еven your stony old hills remember you, Bethlehem.”
Present, someone will tell you: your hands and ears remember you. What sense in it? Whether your ears live separately from you at that time when you are still living, thank God.
Things and animals remember Bethlehem? Why? Bethlehem is live city now! I don’t understand : for example old hills on which Bethlehem actually is located, how they could forget it? You can tell Jake speaks about old Bethlehem. We will assume, however
1. Bethlehem is only a background of the main event, Christmas. It would be more logical if things and animals remember Christmas.
2. In this case there is no beautiful parallelism of artistic images at least in the first and fourth choruses. See:«I know:
your nightingales remember HER still.
Your pussy-willow and your daffodil, еven your stony old hills remember BETHLEHEM.»«I’ve got the flesh and the blood to remember THEM by: HIM in my mind, and HER in my eye;
Every reason why I remember BETHLEHEM.»Besides it isn’t clear in the fourth chorus why Jake says that he remembers Bethlehem. When he says he “remembers” them (Mary and baby) in his mind and eye, it not deception, it is a normal metaphor for a religious person. But if he says he remembers Bethlehem, real city, in which he didn’t live in zero year of our era , it isn’t absolutely poetic beautifully, as it seems to me.
Now let’s write it by another:
«I know :
your nightingales remember her still;
Your pussy-willow and your daffodil, еven your stony old hills remember (her, oh,) Bethlehem!»«I’ve got the flesh and the blood to remember them by:
Him in my mind, and her in my eye;
Every reason why I remember (them, oh,) Bethlehem!»(In the Russian poetry such art admission of words is called an ellipsis. Did the ellipsis happens in English poetry?)
Theoretically, in good lyrics the first verse has to define the rule of treatment of syntax in the subsequent verses.
In second verse a need to parallelism of images is not so obvious however is present too because «not forget» means almost «remember».
In the third chorus the parallelism is not obvious, because «know» and «remember», however I am assuming that there is the rule of treatment of syntax set by the first verse.Maybe, I am mistaken about Jake’s ideas. However answer, please:
Whether it is possible by rules of English grammar?
Whether the comma before “Bethlehem” is necessary in this case?+++
Personal Column:
«There’s no security, it’s understood.»
Is it Jake’s apart- comment to the previous announcement? Is «yes», why this phrase isn’t bracketed?+++
The Kirkstall Road Girl:– grind by the old canal
I presume grinding means sexual acts, the deal she has struck.Is it anal sex? Old canal is a anus maybe?
canal
noun; a low insult suggesting that one is lower than an asshole, hence up the alimentary canal.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=canal+++
Isobel
«All other women I repel» = «All other women repel/reject me»?
Is this inversion a dialect or standard?+++
I will put some thought into this and post a full report.
After your explanations, what the Police Squad was doing, I have understood almost all song. Don’t hurry to write big report. I will ask specific questions a bit later.
From cold Russia with warm greetings
Dmitry
Hi Dmitry !
+++
Remember Bethlehem:Yes, Ellipsis is used in English, but I really don’t think that Jake is using that here. I also think that if Jake wanted a comma in between “remember” and “Bethlehem” he would have put one in. With a comma there, “remember, Bethlehem” would either be
an instruction to the city of Bethlehem to remember the events there : so saying “Remember, Bethlehem” would be the same as saying “Be quiet, Jedward !”
or
telling the city of Bethlehem that the other things – hills, fish, sun etc – remember the events. This would be the full sentence : “Even the stony old hills remember, Bethlehem”, like saying “Even I have a hairstyle that is easier to wash, Jedward”.
But because there is no comma in the text, these two possible meanings are more unlikely. Even if the person transcribing the lyrics had missed the comma out, the title of the song is clearly printed in many official recordings, and so would also be “Remember, Bethlehem”… and it isn’t. And the way I have explained them makes perfect sense anyway. I think that the word “Bethlehem” is a metaphor, a collective word, for the people (Mary, Joseph, Christ) and events (the birth, the visits by shepherds and Three Wise Men) which occurred there according to the Bible. The creatures and natural objects – hills, fish, sun etc – remember the events and people of the Christmas story.
I think you’re right when you say
>To whom does Jake tell “yours” ? I think, to Bethlehem.But I think Jake is maybe marking a difference between the physical Bethlehem – creatures and natural objects – and the spiritual Bethlehem – the Christmas event. In the same way that many religions make a distinction between a person’s physical well-being and their spiritual one, I think Jake is also referring to Bethlehem as both a spiritual event and as a place.
I really don’t have any more insights on this, so someone else may have to post here to help you if you are still unsure as to the meaning.
+++
Personal Column:>«There’s no security, it’s understood.»
?Is it Jake’s apart- comment to the previous announcement?“no security” means that there is no need for the person taking out the loan to pledge something of value in its place in case repayments aren’t made. This is “understood” by the person taking out the loan because it will be mentioned in the advert : it will have said
“Are you finding it difficult to manage your bills ?
Take out a personal loan with us at an interest rate of only 1000% per annum.
Any amount from £50 to $50,000.
No security or collateral required.
Contact Box 28 for more details.”+++
The Kirkstall Road Girl:>- grind by the old canal
>I presume grinding means sexual acts, the deal she has struck.
>Is it anal sex? Old canal is a anus maybe?You’re right about the deal she has struck : but in this case the canal will be a real canal, a dark, unlit secluded area where the deal can be performed without them being discovered.
In the 60s in England, making specific references to sexual acts or the body parts involved would have been unthinkable if you wanted to have success as a family entertainer, and wanted your records played on the radio and television : you would have to get your lyrics past the publisher, and then the radio or TV producer, all of whom would be accountable to various public decency standards. Jake’s early stuff, like The Kirky Road Girl, would be his first appearances on record and on the telly, and Jake (like any performer) would not want to risk his new career by making a crude “old canal = anus” joke and risk being censored for the rest of his career. Later on, when established, Jake would make more poetic references to body parts and activities : but you only have to think of the criticism Jake received when daring to suggest that there might be women alive who talk a lot, in “On Again On Again” – accusations of anti-feminist leanings, etc – to see that 1960s/1970s England was a very prudish country. Jake had to hide all those self-abuse references in “Policeman’s Jig” very cleverly indeed, so that they wouldn’t be too obvious.
So as a rule, you should assume that Jake will very VERY rarely be noticeably filthy in his topics – he prefers to disguise anything rude with clever wordplay and let you work out the rude bits yourself. So in most cases, applying 2000’s internet definitions of sexual phrases to the writings of a poet who was in his 30s, 40 years ago, is going to be mostly wrong. :o)
+++
Isobel>«All other women I repel» = «All other women repel/reject me»?
>Is this inversion a dialect or standard?” All other women I repel” = ” I repel all other women”. He’s chopped the sentence in half and swapped the halves, purely to expose the word “repel” as a rhyming word for all the other rhymes for “Isobel” in the song – Asphodel/Demoiselle/Jezebel/Excel/Parallel/Decibel/Hell etc.
+++Merry Christmas !
Malcy
Thanks Malkolm! Happy Christmas to you and your family!
However in Russia Christmas is celebrated for 13 days later!your Russian friend
Hi all, hi Malcy!
I have sung according to my modest musical abilities three my last translations into Russian. I give links to my pages with the demo for those who would like to listen its.The Blacksmith and the ToffeeMaker http://www.chitalnya.ru/work/1283331/
The Ballad of Billy Kershaw http://www.chitalnya.ru/work/1273047/
I have changed chords and a little melody in the first line of the refrain:
Am F G C E7 > Am Dm6 Dm6 Dm/H E7
There is also some improvisation in the main verse.On Again! On Again! http://www.chitalnya.ru/work/1293673/
I have changed chords a little melody. (Jake, excuse me!)Jake’s :
|E7add9|E7add9|A|A
|E7add9|E7add9|A|A
|G7 |F#7|Bm|Bm
|E7 F#m7|Gm7 G#m7|A|AMy :
|D|A|D|A
|D|E7|A|D
|G|F#7|Bm|Bm
|Em E7add9|Em E7|A|AI will be glad if you tell, by-ear: what is good and what is bad in my execution.
[quote=”Malcy” post=3703]Even if the person transcribing the lyrics had missed the comma out, the title of the song is clearly printed in many official recordings, and so would also be “Remember, Bethlehem”… and it isn’t.[/quote]
I thought from your words. It is logical argument.
However I think, the publisher of song would think so: “I can’t write the title “Remember, Bethlehem” with a comma, like the end of all refrains, because really it will be the scrap of phrase without the beginning in which the sense is distorted. Therefore I will write without comma. Let in refrains there will be the generally sense and in the title there will be other additional sense which doesn’t contradict to generally sense. The additional sense can be Jake’s oath and addressing to listeners at the same time.»Bless you!
Dmitry !
Добро пожаловать !
A late “Happy New Year” to you. I hope that we can see your return to the site as a sign that things are becoming more comfortable in Mother Russia.
I will have a listen to your recordings as soon as I can. Don’t worry about making small changes to chords or words – in England this is called the “Folk Tradition” ; which means that when a singer hears a song, learns it, sings it to others and they do the same, over time the song changes slightly, gets added to or updated, but still remains the same song if its original contents and spirit are preserved. I have occasionally made small, unimportant updates and changes to Jake’s lyrics when I sing them, and it is always allowed to simplify chords to fit a singer’s ability (especially with Jake’s chords, as his work is often more complex than you think !). The important thing is : to sing them and perform them to others, so that they learn about Jake and enjoy his work. :o)
> I thought from your words. It is logical argument. However I think, the publisher of song would think so: “I can’t write the title “Remember, Bethlehem” with a comma, like the end of all refrains, because really it will be the scrap of phrase without the beginning in which the sense is distorted.
I don’t agree. The phrase “Remember, Bethlehem” is a complete, logical instruction, so it wouldn’t be misunderstood. I think that Jake would have insisted that the title would be punctuated correctly if he felt that it removed any ambiguity. Also, I don’t think that publishers are afraid of putting punctuation into song titles : examples are
“John, I’m Only Dancing” – David Bowie
“Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) ?” – The Buzzcocks
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” – Bob Dylan
“Reach Out, I’ll Be There”- The Four Tops
“Walk, Don’t Run” – The VenturesAll of these make less sense if the punctuation is missed out, and at least the last three of these are instructions, orders, as “Remember, Bethlehem” would be, if it were the actual title. So publishers *do* put punctuation into song titles, and I think Jake would have put punctuation in, too, if it was what he intended.
Nice to have you back, Dmitry.
Malcy
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