Lyr Req: The Compleat Works (from Martin Carthy?)

Subject: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 06:28 AM

Anybody have that song that Martin Carthy, amongst others, sings that lists loads of Shakespeare's plays?

L in C#

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 06:36 AM

Sounds like Adam McNaughtan's Our Hamlet. Lyrics should be up there somewhere but I'm in a bit of a rush now. Sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 06:45 AM

Thanks:

http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/o/oorhamle.html

is their another which mentions loads of plays?

L in C#

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 06:45 AM

sorry

Subject: Lyr Add: KING LEAR (Con O Drisceoil)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 11:50 AM

Probably not this, but well worth a look anyway
Jim Carroll

King Lear
Con 'Fada' ODrisceol

You scholars of English, one question I'll ask;
To answer you won't find a difficult task;
Of Shakespeare's great heroes, which one would you pick
To award him first prize for being totally thick?
Othello you know was a gullible dupe,
And Hamlet's delaying landed him in the soup;
But the stupidest asshole in all of Shakespeare
Is that old king of England, the man they call Lear.

Three daughters he had in the course of his life,
Although we're not told what befell his poor wife;
I'll bet she ran off to avoid going insane
After years of enduring that pompous ould pain.
At the Donkey and Crown where he drank every night,
The locals all knew poor old Lear wasn't bright;
When they said "Your Royal Highness we love and revere",
The old fool lapped it up and bought everyone beer.

At the age of four score, and in fear of expiring,
King Lear told his girls he intended retiring;
Of loss of his faculties sadly he moaned,
As if he could forfeit what he never owned.
He told them his kingdom he planned to partition
Provided his daughters fulfilled one condition;
"I won't hand you over this rich legacy,
Till you tell me how much you admire me", says he.

Now the two eldest daughters, called Goneril and Regan,
Knew well what he wanted, so promptly they began
To swear how they always did love and respect him,
They thought the sun rose every day from his rectum.
Says Cordelia, the youngest, being honest and true,
"Can't you see, Dad, they're taking the piss out of you?"
King Lear lost the head and began to scream at her,
But still she refused her old father to flatter.

In a rage the bould Lear says "I swear on my honour I'll
Split my estate between Regan and Gonerile;
Nothing for Delia, no land nor finance,
She can pack her belongings and shag off to France".
If that's not bad enough, that pathetic old jerk
Left himself without house, without income or perk;
The two vixens took all, and their Dad, the old dunce,
Was to lodge in their houses in alternate months.

These daughters quite clearly were nasty old shrews,
But in fairness King Lear gave them every excuse;
His boiled eggs were too hard and his gravy too thin,
Or he got too much tonic and not enough gin.
So they both found their dad an unbearable bore;
Ere the first month was finished they showed him the door;
In those far-off days there was no county home,
So old Lear like a tramp 'round the country did roam.

Up to this he was lacking in guile and in craft,
But now the old geezer went totally daft;
He ran through the fields and he crawled through the bogs,
He was screaming and howling and barking at dogs.
But in spite of his faults and ridiculous foibles
He still had a band of devoted disciples;
Young Edgar was there, and the loyal Duke of Kent,
And a man called the Fool, quite a sensible gent!

One other wayfarer I'll add to this roster;
'Twas Edgar's blind father, the old Duke of Gloucester;
He disowned his son who he thought was untrue,
In fact Lear and himself were of equal I.Q.
Then they heard the news, as they wandered all over,
Cordelia arrived off the ferry in Dover;
Being now queen of France, she assembled an army
Avenging her da, when she heard he was barmy.

So thousands of men in the battle were slaughtered
And victory went to the two vicious daughters;
But they never got to be powerful and rich,
Overcome as they were by a lecherous itch.
For Edgar's half-brother they both wished to own;
The same man for the power of his pelvis was known;
So one of them poisoned the other one's lager,
Then did for herself with a seven-inch dagger.

Since tragedies must have their audience crying,
There followed a terrible outbreak of dying;
Edgar stabbed his half-brother, that devious crook,
And the shock killed his daddy, that's Gloucester's old Duke.
Cordelia was hanged by a treacherous jailer,
Lear died when it struck him that he was a failure;
If he only had snuffed it a few years before,
He'd have saved everybody this suffering and gore.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 11:51 AM

Sorry, should be Drisceoil
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 12:33 PM

Thanks Jim that's most useful - you not near Chorlton on Saturday 13 August by any chance?

L in C#

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 01:46 AM

Jazz singer Cleo Lane sang a list of titles

found it - "Compleat Works" on Shakespeare & All that jazz
Cleo singing "Complete Works"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 01:48 AM

oops, hit submit too fast

I have a tape of this album that I haven't played for years/decades & it was great to hear it again

sandra

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 02:22 AM

"not near Chorlton on Saturday...."
I wish, Les.... wonder if my old flat in Kepple Road is still there (I assume you are in C-Cum-Hardy and not On-Medlock or any other outlandish backwater!)
I heard that Con 'Fada' and Adam McNaughtan met last year and there was talk of bringing them together for a few performances here in Ireland - nothing came of it unfortunately.
There's a small book of Con's songs entitled 'The Spoons Murder - and other mysteries', accompanied by a CD; well worth looking out for - it includes his magnificent 'Ben Hur'.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 03:01 AM

Kepple Road is in excellent condition - all a bit one-way and I think the Bee Gees have bought the house they used to live in - maybe their will be a blue plaque for them and one for you as well Jim!

L in CcumH#

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 19 Jul 11 - 04:36 AM

"and one for you as well Jim!"
I took over Mike Yates' flat when he left (no. 49) - two maybe??
Jim Carroll

Subject: Lyr Add: THE COMPLEAT WORKS (Johnny Dankworth)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 11:38 AM

According to Allmusic.com, this song is on Cleo Laine & Johnny Dankworth's album "Collection" (1998). This is my transcription from the recording at YouTube:


THE COMPLEAT WORKS
Johnny Dankworth
As sung by Cleo Laine

Henry the Fourth, Part One. Cymbeline.
Henry the Fourth, Part Two. As You Like It.
Measure for Measure. The Winter's Tale.
Troilus and Cressida. A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The Merchant of Venice. Richard the Second.
The Taming of the Shrew.
Then there's Romeo and Julietta.
Thirty more to do.

Henry the Sixth, Part One. Pericles.
Henry the Sixth, Part Two. Coriolanus.
Henry the Eighth. Comedy of Errors.
Timon of Athens. Julius Caesar. King Lear.
The Tempest. Twelfth Night. King John and Othello.
'Bout Nothing Much Ado.
Then there's Antony and Cleopatra,
Cleo to you.

Henry the Sixth, Part Three and Macbeth.
Henry the Fifth. Merry Wives of Windsor.
Richard the Third. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Titus Andronicus. The Rape of Lucrece.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. The Sonnets.
Venus [and] Adonis. A Lover's Complaint.
The Passionate Pilgrim. The Phoenix [and] the Turtle.
All of 'em in except two that ain't:
All's Well That Ends Well.
Love's Labours Lost.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song listing most of Shakespeare's plays
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 12:25 PM

Amazing, thanks Jim

L in C#