songs about disabilities

Subject: RE: songs about disabilities
From: matt milton
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 05:53 AM

Weepy's Song by Utah Phillips

Subject: RE: songs about disabilities
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 06:48 AM

A recent news report:

31 Year Old Man Climbs Mt Kilimanjaro




The punch line is that he lost his legs when he was 5.

He was able to use a wheel chair for about a fifth of the way up, but the other 80% was all "by hand."

Disabled?.?.?.?.?.?

The article probably doesn't really tell enough about him to provide enough to write a song, and he might not really want one - but he's earned one if he wants one.

John

Subject: RE: songs about disabilities
From: pavane
Date: 23 Jun 12 - 06:01 AM

No one seems to have mentioned a traditional song

Five Cripples

"Five London men with various disabilities, so well fitted that it appears their limbs are perfect, stop at a rural inn. They run up a huge tab. They remove their prostheses, are taken to be devils and persuaded to leave without paying the tab."

Related song Three Cripples was recorded by Martin Carthy many years ago.

Subject: Lyr Add: WHAT DO YOU FIND TO DO ALL DAY WHEN ...
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Jun 12 - 08:11 AM

This a song written about the patronising nutters whom one seems to atrract when you're in a wheelchair.

WHAT DO YOU FIND TO DO ALL DAY WHEN YOU'RE SITTING IN THAT CHAIR?


What do you find to do all day when you're sitting in that chair?
I shouldn't mind it one small bit - all you do is just sit there...
Well you don't have to go work, that can't be too bad
No getting up early, like i do, I reckon I could settle for that!

What do you find to do all day when you're sitting in that chair?
I shouldn't mind it one small bit - all you do is just sit there...
Well I bet you do get a bit fed up, when you see folks running around
But you don't have to rush round shops
That'd blooming get you down!

Well it was only about a week ago
I saw a feller on TV
He was lifting up weights and playing basketball...
Its all in your mind a bit, if you ask me

Well I bet you're glad that I passed by
(I get on with with disabled folk)
I always say a word when I see a chair
I always have a laugh and a joke...!

Well there's no point in letting it get you down
I can see you're feeling glum!
But I can't sit round here all day
I can sit around, like some!

Y'see I'm the sort that likes moving around
I've got to have a walk about.
I can't sit round like you all dy
I can't just sit there doing nowt...

What do you find to do all day when you're sitting in that chair?
I shouldn't mind it one small bit - all you do is just sit there...
Well at least you're not starving out in Africa,
I mean, them chaps have got it real bad
At least you're warm, and you've got TV
You're not doing too bad, if you ask me!

What do you find to do all day when you're sitting in that chair?
I shouldn't mind it one small bit - all you do is just sit there...
and listen.....
I shouldn't mind it one small bit - all you do is just sit there...


(written by Alan Whittle and sung by Denise Whittle on the cassette album Frost at Midnight in the late 1980's - reviewed by Stirrings magazine and virtually no one else)

Ah well back to songs about Peg leg Charlie in the eighteenth century -my word! folksong is such a brave artform!)

Subject: RE: songs about disabilities
From: GUEST,Claire M
Date: 23 Jun 12 - 02:18 PM

Hiya,

That's what people ask me! & the "all you do is just sit there" is true too. Thanks!

As a disabled person, another thing I've never understood is when you go off a certain type of food, music, football team, anything – as you do throughout your life – if you're not disabled, it's fine, but if you are it's this big shock and something must be wrong with you. It's in your notes that you like ____, so you *must* like it/have it forever.

Subject: RE: songs about disabilities
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Jun 12 - 09:04 PM

Thankyou Claire, that was very heartening.

here is the original recording, which sounds a bit crappy = xcan't believe it was done in a proper studio! Anyway - now you know the tune!


http://soundcloud.com/denise_whittle/what-do-you-find-to-do-all-day