Background: Beeswing (Richard Thompson)

Subject: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 03:35 PM

Just a little clarification on a few things...

First Verse
I took a job in the (???) down on Cardurn (sp?) street

Third Verse
And I said that we might settle down
Get a few acres dug
Fry a (????) in the hearth
And babies on the rug

Fourth Verse
We were camping down the (???) one time

And the man she married? His name was Romantic Brown??

Thanks folks!

;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Noreen
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 03:46 PM

In the steamie ... I assume a laundry?

Sounds like Cawdron Street...

Fire burning in the hearth

Camping down the Gower one time (south Wales)

Romany Brown!!! with a gypsy caravan...!You're welcome!

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: mousethief
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 03:47 PM

I was thinking Cauldron Street, but maybe that's visions of Harry Potter swimming in my head.

Alex

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Noreen
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 03:53 PM

...but they might have been frying on the fire in the hearth... Sorry, Clinton, but it made me giggle!

The way he sings ..'and babies on the rug' makes me go all goosepimply...

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 03:55 PM

Wicked awsome cool!

Get Noreen a round on me eh bartender??

;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: The Shambles
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 04:09 PM

Beeswing

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Noreen
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 05:00 PM

Thanks, Shambles- I think there's been another thread too, in the time I've been here.

BTW I thought it was a rambling hitch- a sort of slip knot? Or have I made that up?

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 05:36 PM

O.k... so I know that White Horse is a reference to Heroin... what's the wolfhound???

As in "she's still running like one's at her heels"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: mousethief
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 05:49 PM

Really? I thought White Horse was a brand-name of some booze I've never seen. I think it's the "hip pocket" which reminds me of "hip pocket flask."

I was wondering about the wolfhound myself

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: mousethief
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 05:51 PM

A quick web search shows White Horse to be the brand name of a Scotch whiskey. I'm going to stick with my first hunch.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: lamarca
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 05:53 PM

White Horse is actually a brand of whiskey, I think, see here and Anne Briggs actually DOES keep wolfhounds (large, shaggy Irish dogs the size of small ponies...)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Noreen
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 05:56 PM

And I took it literally... the rope attached to the white horse was what would be in her pocket... running together on the beach...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Snuffy
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 06:55 PM

White Horse whisky used to advertise with the slogan "You can take a White Horse anywhere", but people used to keep scrawling "But it's still illegal in seven southern US states" over the billboards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 08:33 PM

Well.. I was hoping for something more metaphorical.. but I guess I'll grant the White Horse....

Too bad...

;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 09:01 PM

For those who may be interested, Topic has issued an excellent collection of selections from Anne Briggs' recordings from 1963 to 1971: Anne Briggs 'A Collection' Topic TSCD504. The booklet insert contains an extensive essay on Anne Briggs by Colin Harper. There are 22 tracks - 20 traditional and 2 written by Briggs.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 09:11 PM

White Horse was my favourite blended Scotch, since it had more Islay malt in it than other cheap blends.  Wolfhounds are excellent dogs; enormous but, as a rule, very even-tempered. One used to live next door to me, and would let my cat pinch his dog-food, probably because he found the whole thing too confusing to deal with.  He would also try to sit on my lap, which was a bit of a problem as he weighed more than I did.  There are, I think, no metaphors involved here.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: The Shambles
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 09:46 PM

A friend of our took a wolfhound with her when she came to visit. She left it outside and the next thing we saw, with horror as we looked through the window, was the sight of a full grown goat of ours, being thrown up in the air.

No harm done, Hamilton was only playing.

Anyone else suffered from "the rambling itch"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 30 Nov 00 - 10:06 PM

I have yet to ever encounter a good blended scotch...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Dec 00 - 12:31 PM

I knew a second-generation Trinidadian-Scots lady when I was an actor in Edinburgh. She was a pretty good blended scotch.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: GeorgeH
Date: 01 Dec 00 - 01:24 PM

As sung by Roy Bailey (who knew Anne pretty well at one time); he insists the song was only based on Anne, rather than being in any real sense biographical.

And also sung by Martin Simpson . .

G.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: SueH
Date: 02 Dec 00 - 03:43 AM

And sung by Tom McConville

SueH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 30 Aug 03 - 12:03 AM

helo, -thgis is one of my favouriute songs, i just plistened to it now, and i never get fed up off hearing it.john
ps, its definetlely one of the best songs ever written.john

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: InOBU
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 09:04 AM

AND! I hope folks so fall in love with the songs they run out and get the newly released Anne Briggs recordings... BRILLIANT. Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: GUEST,KB
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 10:03 AM

Roy Bailey, whenever I've heard him sing the song, says that the song reminds him of Anne Briggs - he doesn't say it is about her, nor does he say that Richard Thompson links Anne Briggs and the song.

Mind you - it irritates the tights off me that he makes such a big thing about it every time. I know its irrational, but I always feel its a real cheek to pass on such a strong personal association when that was not the intention of the songwriter. Grrr

The Wolfhound bit I assumed to be related to her being on the road with Romany Brown. Its the sort of dog you can imagine alongside of gypsies - and "lurcher" wouldn't trip off the tongue so easy....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: Leo Condie
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 11:23 AM

there are new anne briggs recordings?!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: BeesWing by Richard Thompson
From: InOBU
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 03:16 PM

No release of ones not released before, released last year about, I think, on Topic's lable. Cheers Larry