Lyr Req: An Alsatian Once Again (Parody)

Subject: Lyr Req. An Alsation Once Again (Parody)
From:
Date: 19 Aug 97 - 12:26 PM

I'm making this a separate entry although it might belong in the parody thread.

Sometime in the last 5 years I saw a program (CBC or PBS from Spokane) about Irish folk music. One fellow had composed a parody about a faithful family dog which had died protecting the family home. My memory is hazy about most of the song. I can't remember if it was a family member requesting that the dog be re-incarnated or if the writer anthropomorphized the dog and it was the dog itself requesting to be "An Alsation once again." At least the refrain was done to the tune of "A nation once again".

Frank Phillips

Subject: RE: Lyr Req. An Alsation Once Again (Parody)
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 12:09 PM

I don't know if this request is still current, but a Google search shows the song on a tape called "Heritage" by a duo called Shamrocks in the Wind (formerly Murphy's Law): Click here for details.

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req. An Alsation Once Again (Parody)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 12:07 PM

According to this page, the person responsible for "Alsatian Once Again" is Dermot Morgan.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req. An Alsation Once Again (Parody)
From: Declan
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 12:29 PM

The first time I heard this song was some time back in the late 1970s when Dermot Morgan and others performed it on an RTE program called "The Live Mike" hosted by Mike Murphy, which was where Dermot Morgan got his first big Television break. The group performing it were obviously meant to be the Wolf Tones and the parody was hilarious.

RTE later got cold feet about putting Morgan on TV because some of his stuff was regarded as too close to the bone. He went on to co-write and present a satirical radio program called "Scrap Saturday", with Gerard Stembridge which was hugely popular at the time and was axed by RTE which is a state run broadcasting service. It was felt that his irreverant send ups of certain politicians were not appreciated. Morgan gave up on RTE at that stage and went to work for Channel 4. Probably just as well - I don't think RTE would have had the vision to produce a Fr. Ted (although they've shown and repeated it many times once it became popular).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req. An Alsation Once Again (Parody)
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 02:11 PM

Ah, the late great Dermo... RTÉ are incapable of handling comedy FULL STOP - except the unintentional kind. Obviously part of some policy to keep comic talent in Ireland off our screens - so that you can still find it in abundance down the pub..

I was at a session last week where an Alsatian was playing whistles (and doing a bloody good job, too). Don't worry - he may have been from Alsace but he was a biped... He reckoned we Irish spoke French with Alsatian accents....so woof! woof!
Come to think of it, there's probably a French song from the 1870 - 1914 period called 'Alsatian Once Again'...

Subject: Lyr Add: ALSATIAN ONCE AGAIN (Dermot Morgan)
From: fulurum
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 04:54 PM

SPOKEN: Many songs are sung and written about Emmett, Pearse and Tone,
But no one knows the son of Ireland who loved to chew a bone,
A patriot so fearless who fought doggedly for his nation,
Not a Catholic or a Protestant, but a bloody great Alsatian.

SUNG: Way back in 1921 when the troubles were really bad,
The black and tans were searching houses, driving people mad.
Irish men and women lent a hand to help the cause.
Here's the story of a hero who lent a pair of paws.

And this was Fido ate a hand grenade for me,
When the tans came round to search the house at tea,
I said, "Fido, take this. Eat."
He thought it was a tin of meat.
It was the hand grenade that Fido hid for me.

The black and tans they searched the house, but not a thing was found.
They checked for guns and bullets, but they never checked the hound.
They mocked and scorned and jeered us, but their laughter ended soon,
When Fido just exploded and went phlllllt around the room.

And it was Fido hid the hand grenade for me,
Just as the tans came to search the house at tea.
Well, the tan said, "Excuse me, mate.
Was it something your dog ate?"
It was the hand grenade that Fido hid for me.

The tans ran out in terror. Fido saved us one and all,
So we looked at him as he lay there on the ceiling, the floors and the walls,
Another martyr for old Ireland, by Britannia cruelly slain.
Some day up there I hope he'll be an Alsatian once again,
An Alsatian once again, an Alsatian once again.
I hope this old dog will be an Alsatian once again.

Written by Dermot Morgan.

HTML line breaks and punctuation added. --JoeClone, 22-Jul-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req. An Alsation Once Again (Parody)
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 12:40 PM

Well done, fulurum. I've emailed Frank to let him know his request's been answered (nearly 5 years later!). Here's hoping he's still using the same email address.

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req. An Alsation Once Again (Parody)
From: fulurum
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 03:13 PM

speed is of the most importance here at the mudcat.

Subject: Lyr Add: A CROATIAN ONCE AGAIN (Parody)
From: GUEST,Pat "the Verse" another Nation Once Again Pa
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 04:13 PM

A CROATIAN ONCE AGAIN

When I was but a callow youth,
I read of brave swordsmen and horsemen
Who stood on the Adriatic coast
For to save their ancient kingdom.
Oh, could such days return again?
Do I hope in vain?--
When instead of being a Yugoslav
I'd be a Croatian again.

A Croatian once again,
A Croatian once again,
Now instead of being a Yugoslav,
I'm a Croatian again.

Now as I grew from youth to man,
This Yugoslav world was shattered.
Once Marshal Tito upped and died,
His Federation was soon in tatters.
New nation states soon re-emerged
From Slovenia to Macedonia and then,
I awoke one morn to find myself
A Croatian once again.

A Croatian once again,
A Croatian once again,
I awoke one morn to find myself
A Croatian once again.

So, now I sit by the radio
Listening to the BBC World Service,
And in that Anglo-Saxon tongue,
I hear folk songs strange and various.
One Irish tune I oft times hear,
And it has a grand refrain:
'Tis the Wolfe Tones calling unto me:
A Croatian once again!

A Croatian once again,
A Croatian once again,
'Tis the Wolfe Tones calling unto me
A Croatian once again.

© Pat "the Verse" Burke 2002

A CROATIAN ONCE AGAIN

I received an e-mail from someone before last Christmas to ask me to vote for the Wolfe Tones singing "A Nation Once Again" in a BBC World Service Poll. They subsequently won and "A Nation Once Again" was voted the most popular song in the Queen's English! So, I couldn't resist putting fingers to keyboard!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: An Alsatian Once Again (Parody)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Aug 03 - 12:18 PM

Then I suppose there would be that saga of hospital life - "A patient once again" and the story of the adventures of a taxi-driver in Bradford, "An Asian once again", and the Lousiana stomper "A Cajun once again"...