To : mudcat.org
From : leslieraphael@ymail.com
Fri 6 May 11
Some notes on your thread about Piping the Blues :
title song, verse 1, missing last line : Ah pipe the blues and I holler a word or two.
Verse 2, last line : So ah blaw the pipes and earn mysel a dime.
Gaston Pichegru (sp ?) : correct sp(elling), and a real name - Charles Pichegru was a general in French
Revolution times.
Wheezing Bag Blues, slight correction to words : a crack on the sconce (= head)
Verse after "Yeah !" : Ooo ah covered up the puncture wi an auld leather patch ; Ah done done done covered up that puncture mama wi an auld leather patch ; It's a nice wee bit o' leather, but the tartan disnae match.
"I heard a record on Radio One, Ireland, that featured a piper playing jazz" - probably the black piper Rufus Harley, whose album covers (or one of them) showed him in full Scottish regalia - kilt, etc. Proved you can play jazz on any instrument - he was a great player - and this is not a joke.
I thought the programme was genuine when I saw the Radio Times blurb, but listening to the actual broadcast soon changed my mind (you don't mention, incidentally, that the wonderful Bill Paterson played Jamie). I think Anglo meant it as a satire on the very earnest blues programmes on Radio 3 by Paul Oliver - a great presenter, and a blues authority - but he used to recite black blues lyrics in a prim, precise middle-class English accent, which could be unintentionally hilarious, reminding many (including me) - going back even further, to the 60s - of Dudley Moore and Peter Cook dissecting Mama's Got a Brand New Bag, by Bo Dudley. Even in those days, folk were taking the mick out of white English blues fans - and then there's the Bonzos' song Can Blue Men Sing the Whites ?
I sent a copy of my tape of the programme to my friend Steve Blamires, in case he'd missed a belter of a programme - but the next day it was a case of tapes crossing in the post and arriving the same day - he'd heard it, and done ME a copy. It's not something you want to play a million times, but it can still be painfully funny - occasionally.
Les Raphael