Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes

Subject: Lyr Add: NO GODS AND PRECIOUS FEW HEROES (McNeill)
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 04:31 PM

I have felt compelled to submit the lyrics of this powerful "song" (Brian McNeill himself styles it a "rant".) after seeing the first line misquoted one time too many on the Forum.

Sorry Clinton, nothing personal, I assure you, but enough is enough.

This song was not written as an atheistic battle cry, as would be the case had McNeill written "No God". Whatever his personal religious beliefs may be (and I neither know nor care) this song does not voice them. It is a purely political rant, and it does a gross disservice to Brian McNeill to misquote it so blatantly while grinding a religious axe.

That's my rant over, here is Brian McNeill's

NO GODS

I was listening to the news the other day
I heard a fat politician who had the nerve to say
He was proud to be Scottish, by the way
With the glories of our past to remember
"Here's tae us, wha's like us", listen to the cry
No surrender to the truth and here's the reason why
The power and the glory's just another bloody lie
They use to keep us all in line

For there's no gods and there's precious few heroes
But there's plenty on the dole in the land o the leal
And it's time now to sweep the future clear
Of the lies of a past that we know was never real

So farewell to the heather in the glen
They cleared us off once and they'd do it all again
For they still prefer sheep to thinking men
Ah, but men who think like sheep are even better
There's nothing much to choose between the old laird and the new
They still don't give a damn for the likes of me and you
Just mind you pay your rent to the factor when it's due
And mind your bloody manners when you pay!

And tell me will we never hear the end
Of puir bluidy Charlie at Culloden yet again?
Though he ran like a rabbit down the glen
Leavin better folk than him to be butchered
Or are you sittin in your Council house, dreamin o your clan?
Waiting for the Jacobites to come and free the land?
Try going down the broo with your claymore in your hand
And count all the Princes in the queue!

So don't talk to me of Scotland the Brave
For if we don't fight soon there'll be nothing left to save
Or would you rather stand and watch them dig your grave
While you wait for the Tartan Messiah?
He'll lead us to the Promised Land with laughter in his eye
We'll all live on the oil and the whisky by and by
Free heavy beer! Pie suppers in the sky! -
Will we never have the sense to learn?

That there's no gods and there's precious few heroes
But there's plenty on the dole in the land o the leal
And I'm damned sure that there's plenty live in fear
Of the day we stand together with our shoulders at the wheel

Aye there's no Gods

Murray

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 05:01 PM

Who said I was using it as an athiest battle cry... and if you believe that it's purely a political song, you go right ahead... No ones saying you can't...

But don't you try to tell me what the song means to ME!

"but enough is enough"

So don't read any post that has my name on it... No hair off my butt, no skin off my nose...

That there's no gods and there's precious few heroes
But there's plenty on the dole in the land o the leal
And I'm damned sure that there's plenty live in fear
Of the day we stand together with our shoulders at the wheel

Sorta sounds like a "do it yourself cause ain't no one gonna do it for ya, except the people you don't want doin' it" song... especially in terms of thinking....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 05:10 PM

Clinton, the "enough is enough" referred to the number of times you have misqoted this song, here and elswhere on the net. No need to get petulant about "not reading your posts". I always enjoy reading your posts.

But I will always set the record straight if I feel it needs setting straight.

Murray

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 05:28 PM

Dick Gaughan has put NO GODS on his website. His rendition is the best I've heard. No Gods

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 05:28 PM

Looks like its another Mudcat case for the karma cops.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 07:03 PM

The line in question was, in fact, borrowed from Hamish Henderson's 'Elegies for the Dead of Cyrenaika' (first elegy: 'End of a Campaign'), as Brian McNeill acknowledges in his songbook 'The Back o' the North Wind'. He also says (frequently!) that the song as a whole is a product of his desperation with the state of Scotland today (well, yesterday - before they had their own parliament, but I'm not entirely sure his opinion has changed a lot since!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 07:10 PM

This song has been done (to death) by every Scottish folksinger and his dog, and I would find it exceedingly difficult to nominate a "best" rendition.

Tich Frier's version is outstanding, however.

Murray

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 10 Oct 04 - 10:11 AM

Anyone have the score for this please?

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: No Gods and Precious Few Heroes
From: GUEST,Flatpackedbongoband
Date: 09 Dec 15 - 12:29 AM

Love the chords t this if ANYONE?! CAN tell me ..pleeeez?🙆😏