Strawbs' Part of the Union

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 27 Feb 06 - 04:05 PM

Gan on Foxxy man!! The Whippet's Ganzey indeed - Aah've not hord that in a lang while!!

Last summer's Strawbs line-up had Daves Cousins & Lambert and (I think) Chas Cronk on Bass (But I'm probably wrang aboot that) - Aah knaa that Tony Hooper does occasionally step oot o' the shadows to play (No! not THE Shadows) and (o' course) Brian W

Aah remember seein' them in Plymouth (I think) and Dave C was deein' an impression of Little Jimmy Osmond - So Uncool!!!

Aah still think me favourite line-up was the 'Antiques & Curios" & 'Witchwood' versions although the early stuff wi' just Cousins, Hooper & Ron Chesterman (String Bass) was good an' aall.

And.... Aah still think Tony Hooper's one o' the best voices aroond

Anyway, Gerrontivit yebuggaz

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: belfast
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 11:33 AM

So it was written and sung ironically. Malcolm Douglas says so and he's usually right about this stuff. I'm still not sure how anyone just hearing the lyrics would have been "stupid", to quote someone else, not to recognise the irony.

To return to one of my original thoughts. It must be quite wonderful for the writer and performers to look at someone in a crappy job, working for a pittance, and afraid to complain for fear of the sack. They can boast, "I'm partly responsible for that. I did my miserable little bit to undermine the trade unions."

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 12:08 PM

It,s as you say belfast.I'm trying to think of other similar examples.
I always felt sympathetic to Billy Bragg's claim that Duran Duran were as Political as he was.
Still occasionally wonder if any first time voters who opted for the Tories in'83 thought doing so would help bring that sort of lifestyle within their grasp.
Also I have never been entirely unsympathetic to those who claim that "Live Aid" was a process by which wealthy people in Western industrial democracies persuaded poorer people in their own countries to give money to wealthy people in the developing world by persuading them that this would bring Justice to poorer peoples in that environment.
Any other examples?

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 02 Mar 06 - 01:00 PM

Billy Bragg? The Socialist Voice Of A Generation! Nee Sh*t!

One of Neil Pillock's lap-poodles! Like Pavlov's dogs - If ye mention Margaret Thatcher he still gets up and howls

So much foreez social conscience after aall that singin' aboot how hard it wez fo' the miners and what a canny blerk 'King' Arthur Scargill wez he's neatly tucked up in eez canny little mansion on the Dorset Coast - Hey but...... He's not lukkin fo' New England

Interestin' comment in a 'soialist' rag the day! TESSA stands fo' Tax Exempt Special Savings Account - Aah wunda what the Italian is fo' TESSA

Aah wunda what the French is fo' Deja Vu!

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: GUEST,Lanfranc the Cookieless
Date: 03 Mar 06 - 05:34 AM

Interesting!!

Geordie-Peorgie, I didn't believe that there could only be two surviving copies of "Strawberry Music Sampler No 1" in existence, so I did a little Internet research and found that this is what is claimed.

Well, make it three, because I have a copy in reasonable condition, and nobody's ever asked me about it !

Dave Cousins gave it to me in 1969 or thereabouts when I interviewed him in his home for Colchester Hospital Radio in advance of their regular (in those days) Easter Monday gig at Colchester Folk Club.

I got to know the Strawbs quite well at one time, and Rick Wakeman even offered to play at our wedding, only to let us down at the last minute because the Strawbs were doing a gig in Southampton on the same day as our wedding in Halifax.

Alan

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 07 Mar 06 - 12:52 PM

Whey Alan!! If ye've gorrit on vinyl it must be worth a forchoon - Aa've gorrit on reconstituted CD!

Dave Cousins said at the gig two years ago tharrif ennyboddy had a copy of 'From The Witchwood' on vinyl that they're worth aboot £30 on the market - He wez reet miffed coz he's not gorra copy - Can ye imagine that? Aah've still gorra boora hundred copies of my forst album under the bed (Ninety six actually after I gave aall me friends and family a copy from the first press of a hundred)

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 07 Mar 06 - 01:23 PM

I always understood that Dave Cousins didn't much care for "Part of the Union", or maybe just the way it hijacked the image of the Strawbs (it's probably their best known song) - maybe because he didn't write it. That version of the band split up not long after.

The Strawbs seem to be pretty active - there's currently a "Hero and Heroine" (mid-70s) lineup version of the electric band which finished a short tour March 5 and will be doing another in June, and some Acoustic Strawbs dates in April and May.

http://www.strawbsweb.co.uk/

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: GUEST,redmax
Date: 08 Mar 06 - 05:23 AM

Hearing about the unions embracing Part of the union reminded me about Reagan using Born in the USA for rallies. It seems people don't actually listen to the lyrics of the verses, so long as the chorus sounds suitably chest-thumping

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 08 Mar 06 - 05:45 AM

I'm surprised by this thread. I remember this grotty lttle song well. There was a lot of anti-union sentiment about at the time of its release, and having seen The Strawbs perform it several times on the telly, it looked very obviously anti -union.

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: GUEST,aj
Date: 08 Mar 06 - 07:05 AM

The Sandy Denny and The Strawbs Hallmark is worth finding for the first recording of "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" which I personally think is much better than the version she later put down with Fairport.

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Mar 06 - 07:21 AM

The words of Born in the USA are pretty unambiguous, and they against everything Reagan represented. Take a look at them here . Not a trace of irony to be interpreted or re-interpreted.

With the Strawbs song it's a bit different. Plenty of room for reading it either way, as a straight affirmation of union membership and industrial action, or as a heavy ironical attack on those things.

Have a look at the words here - on the "Activism and protest song lyrics page" of "the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty".   The intentions of a song writer or of particular performers do not pin down a song to whatever meaning they might have had in their heads. Songs can take on a life of their own.

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: melodeonboy
Date: 11 Mar 06 - 06:48 PM

I think flamenco ted's got it right: a grotty little song (from a grotty little band - my words!). No wonder punk shot it all out of the water!

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 13 Aug 06 - 08:48 AM

For anyone unfamiliar with the song, they can hear it Here and make up their own mind

Subject: RE: Strawbs' Part of the Union
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 17 - 10:36 PM

Having met Hudson and Ford I can assure you it was certainly NOYT pro union, Hudson was a fully paid up Tory and it was really a satire on the fact hat the british motor industry at the time by union organisers who didn't care whethe rthey caused as Hudson put it the rise of the factory's fall.