folkie proverbs

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 06:45 PM

From another thread, a pub landlady speaking about a session:

""...I don't pay them, they just turn up and appear to be a little clique of their own really."

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 08:24 PM

Mcgrath,I somehow have the feeling that was the whole point of the discussion at Falmouth.And some of the booked artistes were part of the discussion.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Sep 02 - 08:34 PM

"Most folkies play by ear, but I'll use my fingers."

Not specifically folk, but good advice anyway: "Never squat with your spurs on."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: rich-joy
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 08:36 AM

"Well, it's a harmony somewhere in the world ..." (first heard : Frankie Armstrong voice workshops, c.1985)

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Les from Hull
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 09:21 AM

Last one with the tune is a wimp.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 12:54 PM

"Those who can't play sing; those who can't sing dance. Those who can't dance play."

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Wesley S
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 04:35 PM

Electic guitars don't play bad music - people play bad music.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 04:37 PM

Elecric guitars don't make bad music. But they make it louder.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 04:51 PM

I like the one that turned up in another thread, about ceilidh musicians.... Bloody musicians, can't dance with 'em, can't dance without 'em.

And the drummer's proverb....

A bird with a van is worth two in the back.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Hawker
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 06:01 PM

The one I heard was with reference to pipe playing:
7 years learning 7 years practising and 7 years playing...... and then you are a piper!
KB says the same about bodhran playing (& he is a veteran of at least 26 years)
If you can't play it well, play it LOUD!
Dylan? wasn't he in Magic roundabout?
Cheers, Lucy

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: HuwG
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 05:06 AM

"When it sounds awful, it's because everyone else is out of tune"

"Folk music has no Complaints Department"

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,Brian
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 05:31 AM

If you ask me to play the Wild Rover, the answer will be
No! Nay! Never!.........

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 07:03 AM

Andy Cohen after playing some flashy ragtime showpiece: All those notes are on your guitar, too. You just got to know where to find them.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,eoin
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 07:58 AM

wasn't it Donovan who had a notice stuck to his guitar saying...THIS MACHINE KILLS. I always wondered, was he going to kill by, playing it or hitting someone with it?

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: treewind
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 08:30 AM

The other one on requests:

We've had a request....
but we're going to go on playing anyway!

Anahata

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: gwonya
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 09:37 AM

music's the brandy of the damned.

...that one always gives me a warm feeling all over.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 09:46 AM

from 101 folkie insults: If music be the food of love, shut up.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 09:54 AM

Don't drink too much bear, or yoo might fall over.john

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 12:35 PM

Said about another musician - "He thinks Time is just a magazine!"

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Bentley
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 01:55 PM

If you don't know the words,take your shoe's off and hum!

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 02:09 PM

Well, I gust fot some stickers from a chum of mine who found Arrogant Bastard Ale at a beer fest... and the stickers read

"Fizzy yellow beer is for wussies"

Folkie or not, it's good words to live by!

;-)

Also there's a good quote about the music industry...

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." --Hunter S. Thompson

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Yorkshire Tony
Date: 18 Sep 02 - 08:40 PM

I've never tried drinking a bear John. What do they taste like? I would imagine it would be even chewier than Guiness.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 02:16 AM

Can I pedant here for a minute?

There don't actually appear to be many proverbs here... similies, quotes and adages yes, proverbs, very few.

Pedant over. Would a sulky pedant be pedulant???

Just to throw my pen'orth in... Les Barker (may his shadow never grow thinner) in concert in say, Towersey, will often say, 'Here's one that someone requested - in Sidmouth'.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: rich-joy
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 05:50 AM

slight thread creep LTS, whilst I reply to "GUEST, eoin" :
I seem to recall that the reason for Donovan's sign on his guitar of "This Machine Kills", came from Woody Guthrie (one of his heroes?) and was completed by the word "Hypocracy" (don't know if were there any others ...)

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,dAVETNOVA
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 06:10 AM

I thought it was This machine kills fascists.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,eoin
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 06:55 AM

It didn't kill Donovan, he's still doin' the rounds! I hear he is on tour once again. Fair play to him.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,Rob
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 07:26 AM

one good tune deserves another.

tune before you play.

If music be the food of love play on.Give me excess of it.

many strings make harp work.

To many bodrans spoils the session.

One singer does not make a session.

bodrans rush in where guitarist fear to play.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: aussiebloke
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 08:50 AM

A list, from which we can depart...

A good gig to have behind you...

We got away with that...

cheers

aussiebloke, with a tip 'o my hat to Tony.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,Brian
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 09:06 AM

Never throw a line to a droning man.

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: HuwG
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 09:16 AM

"Tune in haste, discord at leisure"

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Bert
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 02:21 PM

If you can't reach that high note, shout!

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 02:55 PM

"Never throw a line to a droning man."

I'm putting that one on a t-shirt!

It describes perfectly, my feeble attempts at singing harmony!

LOL!!

thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: Don Firth
Date: 19 Sep 02 - 07:27 PM

Woody Guthrie's guitar. "This machine kills fascists."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,Clansfolk
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 04:46 PM

first rule of tuning - "It's always the first string that you altered that was in tune"

Banjo players don't worry - they just fret a lot!

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,old bones
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 07:38 PM

there are no wrong notes - only harmonies

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 07:56 PM

I know the heading says "proverbs" - but what the fella who started it seems to be after is cases where expressions arising from folk music (and sessions and so forth) are used or usable in the context of life in general.

For example "I can't seem to get in tune today."

(I liked the ambiguity in "This machine kills fascists" - it can mean it helps in the fight against fascists in the world, and also that it helps in the fight against fascism in the soul of the listener." Donovan's guitar just had "this machine kills." I rather suspect it started out as "kills fascists" but someone in the music industry thought that it might be too controversial, and censored it into total meaninglessness. I don't think Woody Guthrie would have put up with that. In fact I don't think Bob Dylan would either.)

Subject: RE: BS: folkie proverbs
From: momnopp
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 11:20 PM

I'm fond of mixing my metaphors, thank you very much. So in my circle of friends, we can be heard to say,

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him dance."

Peace,

JudyO

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 08:43 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Effsee
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 09:55 PM

When the soles and heels are oot o' oor shoes, we'll be back on oor feet again!
A wonderful Caithness proverb.

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 06:02 AM

I like the Ninth Beatitude :

Blessed are they who expect nowt, for they will never be disappointed.

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 02:19 PM

Jerry garcia once said with regard to PA systems - either you eat the room, or the room eats you

John Williams said of guitar playing, electric guitar playing is about the way the note sustains - acoustic playing is about how the note dies......

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: CapriUni
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 04:10 PM

Here are some traditional Irish proverbs:

There are two sides to every story, and twelve versions of every song
(and twenty-two exceptions to every rule of grammar!)

An end will come to the world, but love and music will last forever.

And, not strictly about music, but touching on the "folk process":

Drink comes before the story.

Travelers have tales to tell.

Fame is more enduring than life

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Aeola
Date: 24 Sep 08 - 04:51 PM

I like the story about the guy who is asked at the folk club if he is going to perform and he asks if anyone has a guitar!

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 02:37 AM

Hava nagila, have two.

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 03:15 AM

'the guest has donated a rare unsigned copy of his album for the raffle......'

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 03:19 AM

Apposite to the title only:
"There's nowt so queer as folk!"
Yorkshire proverb. It doesn't mean what you may think it means.

"Shall we join hands and contact the living?" To a quiet audience.

"Did you all come in the same taxi?"   To a small audience.

"We might be pissed, be we are going to listen, aren't we, children!"
Dave4Guild, towards the end of the evening.

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Oldguit
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 03:55 AM

I don't know much about them, they started playing, so I started charging.

Oldguit Arr.

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Oldguit
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 04:46 AM

Your pay's in the mild barrel.

If you can bring enough in, I'll waive the room rent.

Oldguit Arr

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Oldguit
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 06:02 AM

I can't believe how these are all coming back to me.

Why don't you use one of them little triangle fingies. (plectrum)

Three musicians and a drummer. (so unfair)

Why do you play for next to nothing. (percs said I)

OldGuit Arr

Subject: RE: folkie proverbs
From: Gene Burton
Date: 25 Sep 08 - 06:43 AM

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