Lyr Add: Hard Cheese of Old England (Les Barker)

Subject: Lyr Add: HARD CHEESE OF OLD ENGLAND (Les Barker)
From: PJ
Date: 08 Jun 07 - 06:58 PM

Here's a slightly different transcription of Barker's lyrics to "Hard Cheese of Old England," with some spelling and grammatical fixes:

Hard Cheese of Old England
(Les Barker)

There's Cheddar and Cheshire and Lancashire too,
Leicester's bright orange and Stilton is blue.
It waxes so lyrical, what can you do but sing,

Oh the hard cheese of old England,
In old Eng-a-land, very hard cheese.

Derby's got green bits because of the sage,
And when it gets older it's kept in a cage.
And what does it hum when it reaches this age but,

[Cho.]

They say double Gloucester is twicest as nice,
They say double Gloucester--there, I've said it twice.
It's nice in potatoes but nicest in mice; and sing:

Those Edam foreigners aren't worth a mention,
Old Gorgonzola's renowned for its stench, 'n'
His brother Emile wrote novels in French; and sing:

There's Swaledale and Wensleydale, Rutland to add,
Shropshire and Cornish you may not have had,
It's not bad on salads (this ballad's not sad); and sing:

My young love said to me my mother won't mind,
And my father once liked [won't slight?] you for your lack of rime, [rind ?]
One's no greater love for his food than mankind; and sing:

Oh the hard cheese of old England,
In old Eng-a-land, very hard cheese.

Alternate interpretations from below added in italics.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old England
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Jun 07 - 02:35 AM

It should be 'lack of rind' in the last verse.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old Engla
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 09 Jun 07 - 09:01 AM

Same line:
And my father won't slight you ... (would make more sense to me than 'once liked')

I still don't get the last line, though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old England
From: Leadfingers
Date: 09 Jun 07 - 09:54 AM

Susanne - You have obviously never put Les up for the night after a gig ! For a NOT very big bloke , he can certainly put his food away !!
Les DEFINATELY enjoys his food !

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old England
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Jun 07 - 04:09 AM

He used to do a lot of fell and cross country running, so he needed a lot of fuel to keep those skinny little legs going.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old Engla
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 10 Jun 07 - 06:32 PM

Leadfingers, I'm sorry to say I've never even heard Les Barker. And I don't doubt what you're saying. I'm puzzled: What's that got to do with price of eggs?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old England
From: Snuffy
Date: 10 Jun 07 - 07:04 PM

The last verse is:

My young love said to me my mother won't mind,
And my father won't slight you for your lack of rind
No cheese grater love for his food has mankind
Than Oh the hard cheese of old England,
In old Eng-er-land, very hard cheese

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old England
From: Declan
Date: 10 Jun 07 - 07:19 PM

I assume most people here will realise that the second line is based on a line from "She Moved Throuh the Fair" - "And my father won't slight you for your lack of Kind". The last line is a pun on Cheese Grater - and a line frim the bible - Greater Love had no man had for mankind etc."

Sometimes Les's puns are a bit contrived, but that's part of the joke a lot of the time. Over analysis of comedy sometimes kills the joke!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old England
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 04:12 AM

You can always spot the folkies and readers at a Barker concert - they're the ones rolling around in hysterics whilst everyone else is going 'what?'

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old Engla
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 07:38 PM

Thanks, Snuffy! One more textual problem solved ...:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old England
From: Declan
Date: 11 Jun 07 - 07:55 PM

Susanne,

If you've never seen Les Barker now is your chance. There are two clips of him on YouTube that I've just watched.

If you follow Lizzie's (I presume its ok to mention her name here!) link in the David Dellare/Mawkin thread they are in the related videos section.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Les Barker's Hard Cheese of Old England
From: Bizibod
Date: 12 Jun 07 - 06:19 PM

Still looking for lyrics of "Breaking Wind Suddenly"......
Tried his website,found the publication I was looking for,but the website falls down when you ask how to pay...