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22 Jul 08 - 08:30 PM (#2395549) Subject: Lyr Add: BAGPIPE MUSIC (Louis MacNeice) From: oldhippie I found the following typed on an old sheet of paper. Anyone know who Louis MacNeice was, and why these nonsensical rhymes are titled "Bagpipe Music"? Bagpipe Music Louis MacNeice 1937 It's no go the merry-go-round, it's no go the rickshaw, All we want is a limousine and a ticket for the peepshow. Their knickers are made of crepe-de-chine, their shoes are made of python, Their halls are lined with tiger rugs and their walls with heads of bison. John MacDonald found a corpse, put it under the sofa, Waited till it came to life and hit it with a poker. Sold its eyes for souvenirs, sold its blood for whisky, Kept its bones for dumbbells to use when he was fifty. It's no go the Yogi-Man, it's no go Blavatsky, All we want is a bank balance and a bit of skirt in a taxi. Annie MacDougall went to milk, caught her foot in the heather, Woke to hear a dance record playing of Old Vienna. It's no go your maidenheads, it's no go your culture, All we want is a Dunlop tyre and the devil mend the puncture The Laird o' Phelps spent Hegmanay declaring he was sober, Counted his feet to prove the fact and found he had one foot over. Mrs Carmichael had her fifth, looked at the job with repulsion, Said to the midwife "Take it away; I'm through with overproduction." It's no go the gossip column, it's no go the ceilidh, All we want is a Mother's help and a sugar-stick for the baby. Willie Murray cut his thumb, couldn't count the damage, Took the hyde of an Ayrshire cow and used it for a bandage. His brother caught three hundred cran when the seas were lavish, Threw the bleeders back in the sea and went upon the parish. It's no go the Herring Board, it's no go the Bible, All we want is a packet of fags when our hands are idle. It's no go the picture palace, it's no go the stadium, It's no go the country cot with a pot of pink geraniums It's no go the Government grants, it's no go the elections Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension. It's no go my honey love, it's no go my poppet, Work your hands from day to day, the winds will blow the profit The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall forever But if you break the bloody glass you won't hold up the weather. |
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22 Jul 08 - 10:22 PM (#2395622) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music - Louis MacNeice From: Effsee You ever heard of Google? |
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23 Jul 08 - 11:04 AM (#2395984) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music - Louis MacNeice From: GUEST,Neil D Have YOU ever heard of civility. oldhippie, here is a wikipedia article on Louis MacNiece. |
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23 Jul 08 - 11:07 AM (#2395987) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music - Louis MacNeice From: irishenglish Louis MacNeice-one of my most favorite poets. He has a line from Meeting Point that just stuns me every time I read it- "God, or whatever means the good." |
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23 Jul 08 - 11:18 AM (#2395999) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music - Louis MacNeice From: MartinRyan More than a whiff of "Pop Goes the Weasel" in both the rhythm and the sentiment. Regards |
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23 Jul 08 - 05:07 PM (#2396263) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music - Louis MacNeice From: MartinRyan Sean Tyrell - that's who I've heard sing it! Been bugging me since I saw the words. Regards |
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23 Jul 08 - 09:03 PM (#2396439) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music - Louis MacNeice From: Effsee Guest NeilD,yes, but I have little truck with laziness. |
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23 Jul 08 - 09:09 PM (#2396445) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music - Louis MacNeice From: Rapparee Happens to be one of my favorites poems. |
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24 Jul 08 - 02:57 AM (#2396565) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music - Louis MacNeice From: Dave Hanson Leon Rosselson used this as a basis for his song ' Brass Band Music,' recorded by Martin Carthy, both are fine pieces of work. eric |
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23 Apr 09 - 05:18 AM (#2616827) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: GUEST,Ally & Jade Can anyone please explain to me what this poem even means and what it means? |
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23 Apr 09 - 05:29 AM (#2616832) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: MartinRyan Hi GUESTAllyandJade You'll find some clues HERE Regards |
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23 Apr 09 - 12:52 PM (#2617069) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: sharyn Louis MacNeice was a contemporary of W.H. Auden, a modern poet actively interested in the Spanish Civil War. "Bagpipe Music" is one of his most-anthologized poems. It is quite wonderful if you can find a recording of him reading it. Sharyn |
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23 Apr 09 - 01:14 PM (#2617085) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: Girl Friday His poems are rather strange, which is probably why I like him. I remember this poem from my youth Louis McNeice "Strweets Of Laredo" |
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23 Apr 09 - 02:45 PM (#2617153) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: Peter K (Fionn) I have some sympathy with Effsee. The first post here struck me as provocatively stupid. The poem is concerned with the threat to aboriginal cultures from empire - specifically the threat to Hebridean culture between the world wars, but MacNeice was intending the point to be applied more generally. Hence the title "Bagpipe music." Tom Stoppard used this poem in his play "Indian Ink" to illustrate the clash of cultures between the Brits and the subcontinent. There are references ("Blavatsky" etc) to a once-fashionable western preoccupation with guru cults, theosophy etc, and it's voice is that of a Kiplinesque Tommy. (The "glass" in the closing lines is a barometer. I'm not sure if the same term is used in US and Canada.) Many years ago Luke Kelly sometimes recited the first verse of another MacNeice poem, "Dublin" as a preamble to "Nelson's Farewell." Hopefully this one will not need explaining: Grey brick upon brick, Declamatory bronze On sombre pedestals, O'Connell, Grattan, Moore... And the brewery tugs and the swans On the balustraded stream And the bare bones of a fanlight Over a hungry door And the air, soft on the cheek And porter running from the taps With a head of yellow cream And Nelson on his pillar Watching his world collapse. |
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14 Sep 09 - 01:05 PM (#2723478) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: GUEST,Ken C Ahh how we all still miss Luke Kelly - and now Ronnie Drew too too. What a marvellous combination that McNiece extract and Nelson's Farewell is! |
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14 Sep 09 - 03:13 PM (#2723560) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: meself And how we all miss civility - or was there ever such a thing? |
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14 Sep 09 - 03:44 PM (#2723585) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: MGM·Lion MacNeice's long poetic record of part of his life as it passed, Autumn Journal, is very well worth reading. It contains the memorable summation of our view of the Classical world, infinitely quotable regarding other long-ago memories: "It was all so very, very different - And all so long ago". At my age [77] I often find myself quoting it of things I can well remember which just are not so any longer. |
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14 Sep 09 - 04:05 PM (#2723601) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: Rapparee This has, for years, been one of my favorite poems. I understood it when I first read it, more than a half-century ago now, in the 9th grade. I particularly like the last two lines. |
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10 Jan 11 - 01:00 PM (#3071440) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: GUEST,Kris Subject of the poem is ironical |
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26 Aug 20 - 03:01 AM (#4069667) Subject: RE: Origins: Bagpipe Music (Louis MacNeice) From: GUEST Who was John MacDonald? A piper? |