Discuss: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 Oct 04 - 06:34 PM

Check first!

I've just come across a turtle that definitely wasn't unbroken: On their 1987 album 'Barrett's Privateers' The Corries sing a song called 'The Tortoise' by Ed Pickford which might be used as a RSPCA recruiting song. But then I've long become accustomed to the Corries peculiar sense of humour, and just delete the worst excesses. I haven't got the lyrics down yet, but if anyone is dying to know them ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: Morticia
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 09:05 AM

is that the one that goes something like you are never alone with a tortoise for a friend? I wouldn't mind those lyrics sometime, Suzanne.....I like excesses :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: annamill
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 07:24 PM

McGrath of Harlow, I may be wrong as all sorts of vernacular differences can be found here in the USA, but, I think we use turtle to discribe a water-going creature as in "snapping turtle". A tortoise is a land creature. And generally large. As in "the tortoise and the hare".

My 2-cents.

Annamill

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: annamill
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 07:37 PM

When I lived in greenwich Village in the early '60's some of my friends called me "Rabbit".

...NO, it was because I bounced when I walked like I was hopping!

Just answering Naemanson's query about nicknames.

L, Annamill

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: GUEST,Bearheart
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 06:09 AM

So has Les Barker read Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods'? I thought of them both immediately when I came across this thread-- so had to check it out... Pratchett's the best!
Bekki

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: Snuffy
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 08:49 AM

Same this side of the pond Annamill. Tortoises are land based, while turtles (and terrapins) are more aquatic

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 03:55 PM

Morticia, I think you're thinking of the right song. Can you wait till the weekend?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: *Laura*
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 04:20 PM

Pratchett's good with that other guy who wrote 'Good Omens' with him - Neil Gaiman.
That's brilliant.

And the one with Death as Mr Door.

xLx

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From: Morticia
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 04:30 PM

it can, of course.Thanks Suzanne

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TORTOISE (Ed Pickford)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 22 Oct 04 - 03:34 PM

Here you are:

THE TORTOISE
(Ed Pickford)

CHORUS:
He's a faithful friend, the tortoise He'll love you till the end
And you won't need a person with a tortoise for a friend

1. He was just a lonely tortoise looking for a home.
His tiny feet were blistered with the miles he'd had to roam.
I found him in a pet shop. On his cheek there was a tear,
And painted on his little back was "Twenty pence, to clear."

2. I took him from the pet shop tied to a piece of string.
I'm sure that he was happy, for I thought I heard him sing.
I took him to my sports car. We'd many's the miles to go.
I tied him to the bumper. He was grateful for the tow.

3. In winter he would hibernate, yes, we'd both retire,
And when his tiny feet got cold, I'd place him on the fire.
In summer by the swimming-pool, I was so proud of him.
I'd throw him in and then he'd sink. I don't think he could swim.

4. Then came the day that's coming to all creatures great and small.
A drunken driver hit my friend. He smashed him against the wall.
When I arrived all I could find were little bits of shell.
I made them into plectrums. I know my plectrums well.

As sung by The Corries

My cat nearly had a fit when I played it again! Not that he is over-fond of tortoises...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken?
From:
Date: 22 Oct 04 - 07:15 PM

Couldn't access the link provided for the story, so had to look around. Found this:

Pet turtle survives high-rise fall
From correspondents in Hong Kong
15oct04
 
TURTLES are considered a symbol of good luck in Hong Kong, but try telling that to the taxi driver whose car was hit and damaged by a big one that plummeted from a high-rise building.
 
The pet turtle climbed through an apartment window yesterday and fell more than 10 stories on to the taxi's roof, which was scratched and dented, police spokesman Anson Lo told The Associated Press today.
 
Newspapers ran pictures of the turtle, splashed with blood and its shell broken, but Mr Lo told the AP it had somehow survived.
 
The driver, surnamed Tong, was quoted as telling the Apple Daily newspaper that yesterday had been a particularly unlucky day.
 
Mr Tong said his mobile phone was stolen by a passenger, and then his car was struck by the turtle, which newspapers described as being about 30cm in length.
 
Apple Daily quoted relatives of the turtle's owner as saying he would release it into the wild.
 
Hong Kong Chinese traditionally view turtles as a symbol of longevity.
 

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Bar
From: semi-submersible
Date: 24 Jul 08 - 07:18 AM

Summertime again, when turtles in the northern hemisphere dig their nests...

(For an excuse to refresh an obscure thread, even the most paltry pretext can serve.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: Mysha
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 03:09 PM

Hi,

I just listened to this a few times. I hear it as:

* It's a long way >from< the ground (Doesn't give away the story just yet.)
* >When< some wild and wilful wind (It just happened so.)
* Lord help >< Myrtle as she hurtles (Balanced.)
* My >poor< Myrtle all around (She'd be lamented rather than a friend, at that point.)
* >that< old caretaker (It's not a contrast to the new one.)


And something else: It seems to me it would work better with one chorus less, so the good news is revealed only in the final sequence. Does it?

Oh caretaker, poor caretaker,
Why do you lie here stone cold dead?
Poor man went to meet his maker:
Something landed on his head.

Undertaker, undertaker,
Lay that poor man in his grave.
Good Lord took that old caretaker,
But my best friend she was saved!

Yes, the turtle was unbroken!
By and by, Lord, by and by.
For you guided my friend Myrtle
Through the sky, Lord, through the sky.


                                                                Mysha

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: GUEST,Seonaid
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 07:31 PM

Not a song, but a fine original turtle poem:

You have your enemies at rout,
Youself completely carapaced;
You'll life a hundred years, no doubt,
Because you know not valor's taste.

(Don't bug me about plastrons, now...)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: GUEST,Seonaid
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 07:32 PM

3rd line should have been "You'll live a hundred years, no doubt..."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: LadyJean
Date: 18 Feb 11 - 11:28 PM

It's the Iroquois who believe the world rests on the back of a giant turtle.

I forget which notable Ancient Greek died when a seagull dropped a turtle on his head, but one of them did.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: Haruo
Date: 19 Feb 11 - 01:45 PM

Yesterday I put the YouTube version (here) on my Facebook page and several new fans have emerged.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: Mysha
Date: 19 Feb 11 - 02:40 PM

You might want to remove the #at bit at the end, or you'll start 45 seconds into the song.

I didn't know YouTube let you do that. Things you find out when writing about turtles.

                                                                  Mysha

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: Haruo
Date: 19 Feb 11 - 09:54 PM

Unfortunately, removing the "#at" bit is the sort of thing the Mudcat won't let you do once you've posted. If Joe Offer or a clone wants to do viewers a favor and remove it, do so with my blessing by all means!

A corrected link would read like this, I guess.

Haruo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 20 Feb 11 - 06:35 AM

Nice one, I'm sure I won't be the only one rapidly learning that one ;)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Apr 20 - 10:56 AM

Reality follows the song (NY Times: 20200416):

Image
Turtle Time

Dear Diary:

I was at home one afternoon when a man rang the intercom and asked whether I could buzz him into the building. He said that his turtle had fallen out the window and into the alley between his building and mine, and that he wanted to get to the alley from my building’s basement.

I paused. No one could make this up, I decided.

“I love turtles,” I said, buzzing him in. “I hope he’s OK.”

About five minutes later, I looked out the window and saw a tall man come out my building’s front door. He was holding a good-size turtle that was moving its arms and legs.

It was OK, I guess, just shook up.

— Jody Friedman

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: Newport Boy
Date: 16 Apr 20 - 12:24 PM

In Italy, police fined a woman for breaking the lockdown. She claimed to be taking her tortoise for a walk!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 16 Apr 20 - 10:37 PM

'When we were little,' the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, 'we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle — we used to call him Tortoise — '

'Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked.

'We called him Tortoise because he taught us,' said the Mock Turtle angrily: 'really you are very dull!'

From Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Will The Turtle Be Unbroken? (Les Barker)
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 16 Apr 20 - 10:41 PM

Myrtle the Turtle, by Bernard Bolan.

First verse (of five-and-a-half):

I've got a little pet and his name is Frank
He's always very wet, 'cos I keep him in a tank
In my office, in a city bank,
A long-necked turtle is my little mate, Frank.
A long-necked turtle, his mother called him Myrtle,
'Til he started doing what a Myrtle doesn't do
But the bank's been booming since he came on deck
'Cos he isn't just a pretty face and one long neck.