The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #108674   Message #2264439
Posted By: KeithofChester
17-Feb-08 - 07:35 AM
Thread Name: E Carthy/S Lakeman on Englishness
Subject: RE: E Carthy/S Lakeman on Englishness
Maybe Oasis for the northwest?

When Steve Knightley asserted that Rule Britannia and Swing Low Sweet Chariot were the only songs the English know, various deluded dachshunds got all excited and said he was dead right. I made the point that I had just been with 60,000 people singing all the words to Live Forever and Don't Look Back In Anger and that there were plenty of other songs that the English public DO know. You just need to conduct the sample where the English actually gather and sing. That isn't necessarily just at Rugby Union matches (or folk clubs).

Noel Gallagher has written some great English songs, which given he is of Irish extraction is excellent. However, given that Seth Lakeman has claimed Richard Thompson for the English when he is half Scots and Eliza Carthy cites the songwriting of someone of Iranian extraction born in Zanzibar, I'm OK with that!