The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #10022 Message #66869
Posted By: Steve Parkes
30-Mar-99 - 10:17 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: my rhubarb refuses to rise
Subject: RE: lyrics request - my rhubarb refuses to rise
Are you collecting rugby songs? There used to be several books and one or two lp records (the Jock Strapp Ensemble, if memory serves) - if they're not still in print, there must be a lot going at second hand.
From our "Fancy that!" department: writer and researcher Dan Farson reckons that prime Jack the Ripper suspect James K Stephen was the Stephen in
Mary from the Mountain Glen Seducesd herself with a fountain pen. The pen it broke, the ink ran wild, And she gave birth to a blue-black child! They called the bastard Stephen [shout: Stephen!] [x3] 'Cause that was the name of the ink [shout: Not Quink!!]
Interestingly, this is one of the (relatively!) more poetic rather than merely obsecene examples. Some were obviously written by "genuine" poets - Dylan Thomas used to turn a good rude rhyme in the pub, for example. And "Eskimo Nell has been attributed to Robert Service. A verse like
Oh, have you seen the pistons On the mighty CPR, With the pounding force of a thousand horse? - Well, you know what pistons are!
is what George Orwell would have called "good bad poetry" (or maybe the other way about!). It's humorous and well put together; the whole piece could have been written very effectively using euphemism rather than obscenity; but maybe the mores of the times (1900-1920?) meant that anything that risqu‚ would have no circulation except in the circles where obscenity was commonplace.
We could go on for hours, couldn't we?! I'll let somenone else have the floor, though.
Steve (Queen Mary's Grammar School RFC (League, not Union!) 3rd 11, 1962-1965)