The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #172523   Message #4176682
Posted By: cnd
12-Jul-23 - 10:57 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: Crazy? I Was Crazy Once (recitation)
Subject: Lyr Add: The Vikings (Stuart Slack)
Only tangentially related, so please forgive the thread creep, but this reminds me of a song guest Allan Williams shared with my a while back by The Isle of Mann Group, written by Stuart Slack and performed by Al Lawrence and Mike Williams. Recorded circa early/mid 1980s, possibly at the Ballacallin Hotel. You can hear a recording of it here, but my transcription is of a live recording Allan shared with me.

THE VIKINGS
(Stuart Slack, as performed by Al Lawrence and Mike Williams)

Peel is a little city on the west coast on the Isle of Mann that specializes in fishing... (long pause), deviations, [second man] (and drinking), and Vikings -- particularly Vikings. The Vikings have an amazing festival every year in which loads of the local fellows get all dressed up in old sheepskin robes and things and stick painted motorcycle helmets with sheep horns stuck on the top on top of their heads and they brandish wooden swords painted with silver paint, and they go 'round, they come on in with the tide in wooden boats, and they rape and pillage all the young maidens in Peel, one at a time, and they have a marvelous time. And I've often wanted to join, but I'm not big enough. .... [skipping unrelated joke]

This is what they call an audience participation song and your bit is, when we sing the chorus, there's a bit in it that goes "scooby-do, scooby-do, scooby-do." Now if you can all go -- with your hands, like that, "scooby-do, scooby-do, scooby-do." Now, you're not sitting opposite one another, so you can't get a lot of pleasure out of it, but, you can polish up somebody's head, ruffle their perm or something, ok? .... Pretend you're at the disco.

[note: unfortunately the hand motion was not captured]

CHORUS
Why not become a Viking, you will find it to your liking
To join you just grow whiskers on your chin -- scooby-do, scooby-do, scooby-do
We have lots of rape and pillage in every town and village
We kick off a hell of a din

And we hold our Viking festival on the fourth day of July
That's the day the Yanks call Independence Day
And the ale and wine flows free, but it doesn't bother me
I know the tourists' board are going to pay

CHORUS

And we get into our Viking boats and we hide behind the pier
Where we smoke and play pontoon until a signal we do hear
And then we roll like hell as we finish off the whiskey and the beer
And the people all yell out -- "Hey lads, here come the Vikings -- My God!"

CHORUS

One evening when the signal came we rowed behind the pier
And the skipper said, "now come on lads, don't talk"
But some mist blew in the bay and we headed the wrong way
And the next thing was we landed in New York -- dear me

CHORUS

Another time we'd reached the shore and I was first to leap
Well, the lads were pretty keen on rape -- they followed me like sheep
But the trouble was, the water was still seventeen feet deep!
And the people all yelled out -- "Hey lads, where's the Vikings gone? They were there a minute ago?"

CHORUS