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10 Nov 08 - 07:38 AM (#2489694) Subject: Left wing political parodies From: Jim Carroll Back in the 60s in Manchester I had a left-wing friend who had a largish repertoire of political parodies mostly of the sectarian kind, parodying left wing groups; mainly the various Trotskyists (of which he was one). At the time I intended to write them down, but never got round to it. The most popular tune was 'The Man Who Broke the Bank At Monte Carlo. Remembered bits are. As her walks around the the Kremlin with an independent air You can here them all declare, "he's at least a commissar" and The Tibetans were theoretic and a very surly lot; We had to liberate them and so most of them were shot. And so without us giving a damn, we journeyed on into Assam and (from the time of the Stalinist engineers sabotage trials) In the factory there's machinery of the very latest brand, It's with this little hand I sprinkle in the sand and my favourite - to the tune of The Volga Boatmen When Serge and I were young We used to live in Omsk And there we spent our time Making great big beautiful bomsk-ski-ski Great big beautiful bomsk etc Would be interested to learn if anybody knows any of these and could fill in the gaps. Thanks in anticipation, Jim Carroll |
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10 Nov 08 - 08:36 AM (#2489735) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle Yes I vaguely remember Serge and I. The second verse simple went: We were sent to school In the town of Tomsk Where we continued To manufacture bombsk At this distance in time it gets a bit hazy after that, except that the last verse is after stalinization and it ends with them going back to their beautiful bomsk for their exiled leader Trotsk! I'll think hard and see if I can get back any more. The one I remember much better concerned Gerry Healy of the Socialist Labour League/Workers Revolutionary Party: To the tune of For All The Saints For all the Trots who now have been expelled Who gainst their leader furiously rebelled And to resign have all now been compelled By Gerry Healy, by Gerry Healy We now are few who once were lots and lots Such is the fate of little groups of Trots But never mind we'll beat up Roger Protz Says Gerry Healy, says Gerry Healy Though we're adept at putting in the boot Still Workers Press is losing tons of loot I think it's time we kidnapped comrade Foot Says Gerry Healy, says Gerry Healey The situation now is very glum The revolution it will never come Till we have stuck an icepick in the bum Of Gerry Healy, of Gerry Healy For the uninitiated Healy was notorious for expelling any dissidents in his party. A friend of mine who had been in the SLL swears he sent a letter to the party taking issue with Healy over some minor point about economics he had made in a speech and concluded 'I enclose an sae for notice of my expulsion. Roger Pritz and Paul Foot were well known members of International Socialism/Socialist Workers Party |
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10 Nov 08 - 10:45 AM (#2489836) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle Remembered a bit more: We were sent to jail In the town of Tomsk Where we learnt to Build much better bomsk We returned to Omsk When we were set free And used our beautiful bomsk To blast the bourgeoisie |
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10 Nov 08 - 10:54 AM (#2489849) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Folkiedave I can remember singing a version of "Red Fly the Banners Oh!" reminder of the words here which had "thirteen for the holes in Trotsky's head....." |
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10 Nov 08 - 11:06 AM (#2489865) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: dick greenhaus As I walks around the the Kremlin with an highly furtive air You can here them all declare, "he's at least a commissionaire" You can see them try, but they'll never guess You can see them sigh, but I won't confess I'm the man who blows up railroad trains for Trotsky. There's a nice collection of non-Stalinist left-wing songs called "My Darling Party Line", by Joe Glazer, on the Collector label. Available from CAMSCO, of course. Tracks - Song of the Old Bosheviks, The Cloakmaker's Union, Our Line's Been Changed Again, The Lady With the Popular Front, The Land of the Daily Worker, In Old Moscow, Unite for Unity, Bill Bailey, The Last International, The Ballad of Harry Pollitt, Little Joe the Rustler, Nikita's Lament, Something Has Gone Awry, The Lady from Siberia, Sovietology |
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11 Nov 08 - 03:44 AM (#2490512) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle And the last verse has now returned to me. Probably a couple still missing from the middle. But we have not forgotsk Our revolutionary pranks And we use our beautiful bombsk For our exiled leader Trotsk |
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11 Nov 08 - 04:33 AM (#2490541) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jim Carroll Suffolk Miracle It's beginning to come back to me - thanks a million When Serge and I were young, We used to live in Omsk, And there we spent our time Making great big beautiful bombsk-ski-ski Making great big..... Then Serge and I grew up And went to live in Tomsk Where we did spend out time Building better beautiful bombsk etc. Then Serge and I were caught And exiled to Murmansk Where we did spend our time Making revolutionary plansk Now we will not forget Our revolutionary plot And we will not forget Our exiled comrade Trotskeeee Thanks for the "bourgeoisie" verse; don't think I ever heard it. Thanks also for the Gerry Healy song which I also never came across. Jim Carroll |
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11 Nov 08 - 05:19 AM (#2490569) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle Not quite the same thing, but a callow young fellermelad called Terry Eagleton who used to sing the Healy song also sang (and wrote) this. He is now I believe a professor of English. To the tune Land of Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance I Chaucer was a class traitor Shakespeare hated the mob Donne sold out a bit later Sidney was a snob Bunyan was a defeatist Keats was middle class Byron was an elitist But William Blake was a gas There's a sniff of reaction About Alexander Pope Johnson was a Tory And Walter Scott was a dope Dickens was a reformist Wordsworth he was too Coleridge's faults were enormous Tennyson was true blue William Yeats was a fascist So were Elliot and Pound Lawrence was a sexist Virginia Woolf was unsound There are only three names to Be plucked from this dismal set Milton Blake and Shelley Will smash the ruling class yet. |
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11 Nov 08 - 05:22 AM (#2490571) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle 'Land of Elgar' is of course a typo: but there again I quite like it! |
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11 Nov 08 - 01:10 PM (#2490887) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: dick greenhaus Who's the leader of the cult Of personality? M-A-O T-S-E- Dash T-U-N-G Mao Tse Tung! Mao Tse Tung! Dorever let us raise our banners high! (Red! Red! Red!) Now's the time to say goodbye To all the Bourgoisie M-A-O T-S-E- Dash T-U-N-G |
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11 Nov 08 - 02:55 PM (#2490999) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Mark Ross And after every time you sing,"MAO TSE TUNG", somebody would answer, "CHO EN LAI!" Mark Ross |
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11 Nov 08 - 08:47 PM (#2491306) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Joe_F A classic collection of such songs is The Bosses Song Book: Songs to Stifle the Flames of Discontent. I bought my copy in 1958, but I believe there was an earlier edition. |
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11 Nov 08 - 09:07 PM (#2491318) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jon Bartlett What Dick said, but the penultimate line is surely: Now it`s time to say goodbye to all the bourgeoisie: A Gerry Healy verse (Christ, this takes me back!) When all the Trots have from their labours rest, Hear the cry from Clapham loud above the rest, We are the biggest Trots, and the best, Says Gerry Healy, says Gerry Healy. Another Terry Eagleton special (to the tune of "Say Something Stupid"): The day I found Dick Hoggart was a popular reformist sentimentalist Nostalgic petty bourgeois social democrat subjectivist empiricist I saw the light of day, I turned to Ray, my structure of feeling it was born anew Until I found he as a sentimenatlist nostalgic petty bourgeois too. Well then I read some Lukacs that was fine, I towed the line about totality And since I was a prole, it stirred my soul to know my consciousness could set men free I was ignorant of Scott, but who was not? It didn't matter, Georgy was my man That dirty low-down formulistic Stalinist historicist Hegelian. Well, things were getting schlecht - I turned to Brecht and Piscator and Walter Benjamin Productive forces shock Verfremdung contradiction, baby, it was just my scene Though Benjamin was swell, well, what the hell, who could admire as his main theorist An adjacentist eclectic individualist technologistic humanist. More to come. Jon Bartlett |
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11 Nov 08 - 09:20 PM (#2491330) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jon Bartlett Probably also by Eagleton, and to the tune of "Shoals of Herring": It was on a fair and a pleasant day Down the High I heard a voice call, "Terry!" And I turned around, saw a small dark Warden Who said, "Let me full you full of sherry." Well, though I don't drink, yet I'm never rude, And I must have knocked back twenty glasses, When he coyly coughed and he shyly whispered, "Would you like to join the ruling classes?" "We can rig you out in a cap and gown, We can take those charming jeans and burn them, Give deportment lectures in donnish gestures And a set of Oxford vowels: just lean them. "Well, the work," he said, "It is pretty hard, Grouse and pheasant every night grow boring, We live dingy lives, glumly swapping wives, Trying to lecture through the sounds of snoring. "Now we've heard," he said, "That you're rather Red, But that's fine if you behave with prudence. You can smoke your pot, you can be a Trot But just don't incite those bloody students. "And when they ask you, as they tend to do, Why we pay our staff such lousy wages, Why we dine on crab while they at raw cabbage - Tell then they can all get stuffed – we're sages." Well, they rigged me out in a cap and gown, And since then I guess I've been quite prudent, But I must admit, hearing all their shit, That I'd rather be a bloody student. More to come. Jon Bartlett |
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11 Nov 08 - 09:31 PM (#2491336) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jon Bartlett Concluding lines for the "Say Something Stupid" parody: You may talk of Adorno but I don't know it's pretty tortuous and gloomy stuff And Jameson is fine but to imbibe it after wine just leaves you feeling rough Well I was in a spin, I couldn't win so I waxed slightly semiological Till digging out deep structures was denounced by Macheray as metaphysical Though Althusser is smart his views on art and ideology don't ring quite true So hello Helen Gardner Donald Davie Denis Donoghue,I love you. I've had this for years in a Finnish samizdat, anbd I've just discovered my missing last verse in the Eagleton Reader. Good on yer, Terry! Jon Bartlett |
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11 Nov 08 - 09:35 PM (#2491340) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jon Bartlett God bless search engines! Two further songs, titled "The Ballad of James Joyce" and "The Ballad of W.B. Yeats" are also Eagleton-penned, but they are literary rather than political. Jon Bartlett |
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12 Nov 08 - 08:50 AM (#2491640) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Jim P There's a song from the 70's supposedly about a real car that the songwriter saw on the streets of Berkeley (CA, where UC Berkeley is, in case that isn't apparent), TTTO 'Plastic Jesus': I don't need no Red Book now, Long as I got my Chairman Mao Sittin' on the dashboard of my '68 Chevelle It goes on, but I don't remember much more. I think I have a copy somewhere, if anyone really wants the rest I'll dig it up. |
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12 Nov 08 - 06:16 PM (#2492224) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: mark gregory Australian bush songs got parodied too in this case Widgeeoweera Joe The Back-Blocks Academic (Bob Brissenden) I'm a back blocks academic, which may give rise to mirth But selection committees know me well from Bribane through to Pert I've often been short listed for may a famous chair But somehow or other I don't know why I've never quite got there Chorus Hurrah, my applications in I've got three referees The field is strictly limited There's no one from overseas I'm wearing my suit to seminars I've burnt my party card And if I'm overlooked again Then times is bloody hard I don't write letters to the press but articles instead I've tried out every possible lurk for a man to get ahead The songs I sing at parties are less bawdy than before I've even drunk the VCs scotch - a man cannot do more |
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12 Nov 08 - 08:15 PM (#2492323) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jon Bartlett This is great, Mark! Is there more? There oughta be! Jon Bartlett |
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12 Nov 08 - 08:35 PM (#2492339) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: mark gregory DT also has this old one from England (1950s ?) RED FLY THE BANNERS, O I'll sing you one, O Red fly the banners, O What is your one, O One is workers' unity and evermore shall be so. Twelve for the hours of the Moscow clock... Eleven for the works of Lenin... Ten for the days that shook the world... Nine for the nine republics... Eight for the Eighth Route Army... Seven for the Seventh World Congress.. Six for the Tolpuddle martyrs... Five for the years of the Five Year Plan... Four for the four great teachers... Three, three the Comintern... Two, two the opposites, interpenetrating, O One is workers' unity and ever more shall be so. alternatives: Seven for the hours of the working day, Four for the International, Three, three the Rights of Man, Two, two the worker's hands, working for their living, O One for the thought of Mao Tse Tung, which etc. |
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13 Nov 08 - 04:38 AM (#2492538) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jon Bartlett This was my input. I learned it at a Young Socialist weekend school on the Common Market, c. 1961/2. A Weekend school typically (at least, in our part of the country, the southeast) was located at a country house, with accommodation for c. 30 people. There'd be lectures and workshops and discussions, et6c., all meals, and of course the Saturday night concert or unorganized spontaneous sing. I found the Young Socialists (the youth branch of the Labour Party) through the Aldermaston Marches (anti-bomb marches over the Easter weekend from Aldermaston Weapons Research Base to Trafalgar Square). The first song I ever sang alone in public was learned at this school: "Solidarity Forever". Reflecting on this: where do people learn their politics today? Jon Bartlett |
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16 Nov 08 - 07:17 PM (#2495470) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Gulliver RED FLY THE BANNERS, O In Dublin it was sung with following differences: Twelve for the hours on the Kremlin clock Eleven for Moscow Dynamo Nine for ... (not the nine republics) Seven for the stars in Connolly's flag Four for the four years taken Three, three, the rights of man Two, two the workers' hands Gulliver |
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16 Nov 08 - 11:02 PM (#2495570) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: dick greenhaus THE HARTLEY BILL (or the Bosses Solidarity song) They have taken untold millions since the Wagner Act was passed But without our liquid assets, they all would have starved so fast; We are out to show them that they blew Taps on our graves too fast Now the Hartley Bill's gone through. cho: All they'll get to eat is baked beans (3x) Now the Hartley Bill's gone through. We will whip out an injunction any time they go on strike We will can their organizers any bloody time we like, And the ghost of Bill McKinley will go whooping down the pike Now the Hartley Bill's gone through. note: back in the 40's, the Taft Hartley Bill, severely cutting back on many of the legal benefits unions had enjoyed since the mid-30s, was passed. It was unpopular in the union movement. from the Person's Songbook, U. of Chi. 1948. also seeÿSOLIDART TUNE FILE: JOHNBRWN CLICK TO PLAY @union @political @parody filename[ HARTLY RG |
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22 Dec 10 - 05:27 PM (#3059590) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: toadfrog Does anyone know the song, from Ballads for Sectarians, about small and doctrinaire parties, that begins: "Bill Bailey belonged to every radical party......." The chorus begins: "Oh you may be a friend of Max Schachtman ...." And after going through a litany of Trotskyist and other radical leaders, it ends: "O you may belong to every radical party from the Hudson to the Rhine! Oh, you may be a comrade of all of those folks, But you ain't no comrade of mine!" |
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22 Dec 10 - 06:21 PM (#3059631) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Fred Field Lenin, Stalin Mao Left poor Adolf in the dust They killed so many many more And the armchair left Never seemed to be fussed So raise the standard high The good old flag so red A suitably violent colour To mourn the millions dead (Old anarchist song...) |
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29 Mar 11 - 08:59 PM (#3124476) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Uke Jim, Here is a longer text of 'Serge and I', as printed in the NZ left-wing song book "Kiwi Youth Sing" (1951). A note states that is is "Probably Australian in origin". My father recalls singing it at that time. Have you ever tried singing it as a kind of round? Sounds great (the second singer starts on the "and"): When Serge and I were young We used to live in Omsk, Where we spent our tme Learning to make bombsk. When Serge and I grew up, We went away to Tomsk, Where we spent our time Manufacturing bombsk. Da, da, da, da, da. Manufacturing bombsk. When Serge and I were caught They took us to Murmansk, Where we spent our time Fabricating plansk. When Serge and I escaped We hitch-hiked back to Omsk, And blew up all the bourgeoisie With our beautiful bombsk. [Da, da, da... etc.] Now Serge is Commissar Of the Soviet of Omsk, And I am Commissar Of the Soviet of Tomsk. But we would not give up Our conspiratorial plotsk, So we became the agents of The exiled Comrade Trotsk! [Da, da, da... etc.] |
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29 Mar 11 - 10:43 PM (#3124521) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Bert Raise the class more slickly get the job done quickly hang the rich from lampposts high but don't hang me. Stick to Marks my hearty Damn the Labour Party and keep the hell fires burning bright for the bourgeoisie |
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30 Mar 11 - 12:28 AM (#3124541) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Mark Ross "The working class can kiss my ass, I've got the foreman's job at last." To the tune of The Red Flag Learned at the 1973 IWW Convention. Mark Ross |
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30 Mar 11 - 04:57 AM (#3124628) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Musket In the musical "Paint Your Wagon" Lee Marvin sang a tribute to Lenin; "I was born Under a squandering Czar." I'll get me coat. |
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05 Mar 12 - 11:04 AM (#3317670) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST and we blew up the bourgeois there with a ruddy great beatiful bomsk |
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05 Mar 12 - 05:08 PM (#3317866) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Joe_F As Soon As This Pub Closes |
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05 Mar 12 - 06:03 PM (#3317894) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: dick greenhaus The Pink Flag The Bourgeois flag is tinged with pink We washed it in the kitchen sink. And ere the water had grown cold The dye had fled its every fold So let the pallid banner fly! 'Neath ADA we'll live and die THo Commies flinch and travelers sneer We'll keep the pink flag flying here. |
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06 Dec 12 - 06:19 AM (#3447941) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Roger W The pink/blue flag from the late 60s - similar theme The party's flag turned palest pink When Gaitskill dropped it in the sink When Harold* came with all his crew (Harold Wilson) It turned the lightest shade of blue Don't let the scarlet banners float We need the middle classes vote Though cowards flee and traitors sneer We'll sing the "Red Flag" once a year. (last line refers to the closing of Labour Party conferences at that time where everyone sang the "Red Flag"). |
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06 Dec 12 - 06:27 AM (#3447946) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Fred McCormick Here's one which the Liverpool Socialist Singers do. In fact we'll be doing it in about 1/2 hour's time, courtesy of a demo this afternoon against NHS cuts. Lansley - Tory Boys' picnic (tune: Teddy Bears' picnic, words: Liverpool Socialist Singers) If you go out for a walk today You'd better not catch a cold You'll end up going to hospital And finding that it's been sold Cos Lansley's cut the National Health And sold it off to private wealth Today's the day we're gathering for a fightback. Boom time now for companies The private sector spivs are having a lovely time today Public sector wages freeze And lots of jobs for them to take away We won't let our service die You told a lie, that's why We're making a lot of noise Your time is up, Grim Reaper is coming To take you all away Because you're sick little Tory boys All health workers who have been good Are in for a big surprise When every part of the NHS Will vanish before their eyes. They'll have to watch their patients die While PFI is pie in the sky Today's the day we're gathering for a fightback Boom time now for companies The private sector spivs are having a lovely time today Public sector wages freeze And lots of jobs for them to take away We won't let our service die You told a lie, that's why We're making a lot of noise Your time is up, Grim Reaper is coming To take you all away Because you're sick little Tory Sad little Tory Cruel little Tory Boys |
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07 Dec 12 - 05:53 AM (#3448475) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Musket Notwithstanding that the last Labour government brought in The Health Act 1999 which paved the way for more private provision for NHS patients. Or indeed that most of the NHS care, 70% of all appointments to see a healthcare professional, has been, since 1948, using NHS funds to see a private contractor who runs a business with profit. ie. Your GP. There is a lot wrong with The NHS, but a lot right and in some ways getting better, in some ways getting sadly worse. I just wish that people would stop making vulnerable people feel even more vulnerable and scared by getting a giggle out of performing scare stories that both miss the point, glaze over facts and feed uncertainty. This government has got a lot wrong with their reforms of The NHS, but the cuts, (£20B) and PFI were a legacy from being enacted by good old socialist Broon. I was proud to lead an NHS trust as Chairman under the years of investment under the last government. but saddened when the same government squandered many of the gains with arbitrary redesign and self defeating targets. I may not always agree with where the investment is coming from and I may fear for the financial future of government liabilities, but the NHS services have had more investment and overhaul over the last two governments than ever, and despite the failures such as Mid Staffs and others, I would rather be a patient now than the last time the government of the day sang The Red Flag at conferences... Funny how people ask us not to believe what we read in The Sun but at the same time treat misrepresentation of facts in the name of entertainment as OK. Sorry, I forgot. It is socialist so doesn't have to follow the same rules as they blame Tories for not following... being neither, I can at least dismiss both sides as pedlars of withering drivel. |
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07 Dec 12 - 06:22 AM (#3448483) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Fred McCormick Musket. The song was not written to get a giggle as you put it. As a member of the Liverpool Socialist Singers I can tell you we have sung that song on demos all over the north west; and not for a laugh, but to raise the morale of those people who are bearing the brunt of the fight against cuts and austerity measures. We sang it yesterday at a demo outside the Royal Liverpool Hospital in the freezing cold and rain, and we may well sing it tomorrow outside Starbucks, again in the freezing cold and rain. Despite what you say, it is not a piece withering drivel. It is a very well crafted song as are most of the songs we perform. And no, I didn't write it. Curious how precariously you manage to sit on the fence. |
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07 Dec 12 - 06:57 AM (#3448497) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Richard from Liverpool I liked the MC Nxtgen Andrew Lansley rap, which was a lot more scatching in some ways, not just because of its gratuitous use of the word "tosser", but largely because it spelled out some specifics about Lansley's relationship to certain interest groups and the perceived consequences of the bill. Quite an achievement, because a lot of political songs tend toward crowd-pleasing tribalism rather than necessarily elucidating an argument. As Fred says, theirs is a song specifically for those who are already convinced, to raise morale, and that has its function, although I think songs to persuade would need to be crafted in a different way. Personally, I'm a bit wary of the "them and us" rhetoric of some of these songs, partly because having seen the nature of politics in the US at close quarters I'm even more desperate to salvage consensus politics in the UK while there's still time. Reeks of fence sitting, I suppose, but then Gladstone was a Scouser too, and spent a lot of the 19th century trying to traverse different interest groups in the messy UK party system. His tradition is also one to be proud of. |
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07 Dec 12 - 09:51 AM (#3448583) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Guest From the '80s To the tune of Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag - If you think that Maggie Thatcher is an old shit-bag, then smile smile smile If the thing that she reminds you o' is Hitler in drag, smile boys that's the style, Her and a' her cabinet they should be biled in ile* So if you think that Maggie Thatcher is an old shit-bag then smile smile smile * boiled in oil biled in ile is Scots - Thatcher was particularly hated in Scotland |
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07 Dec 12 - 10:35 AM (#3448602) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Musket Fred, by asking how I sit on the fence, you manage to confirm my stance. I have no doubt of your sincerity and expression of your views. However, having a stance is not being at one end of an argument or another. it is not about being left or right, socialist or capitalist or indeed seeing The NHS as the service it is or the political model it is portrayed as. I do sit on the fence for a simple reason. I want a social model that cares for society but I accept that it also needs funding and the most efficient way of doing this is promoting a sound economy. The NHS requires at present £107Billion each and every year. That is real money and needs a real piggy bank. Enterprise and taxes from those enterprises is the only way if you exclude IMF bail outs and spending money we haven't got. if acknowledging the limitations of any political stance puts me on the fence, then I have two parallel sores running the length of my arse. You are right, the song is catchy, clever and warns of what could happen if anybody's political dogma goes to its logical conclusion. I doubt however that the staff or indeed the patients who were getting on with treatment and care behind you when you were outside The Royal would have been anything more than bemused by it. Mind you, my earlier post is not questioning your integrity, just concerned that your predictions engender fear in those who rely their NHS, which is potentially all of us. 1.4 million people work hard to ensure that care counts, so the withering drivel (yes) about don't catch a cold and have to go to hospital and watching patients die is at best irresponsible and at worst worthy of the Murdoch approach to truth, which judging by your location would be ironic. |
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07 Dec 12 - 01:02 PM (#3448727) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Fred McCormick The song is neither irresponsible nor is it in any way Murdochesque. It simply states our collective opinion as socialists. BTW., why do you people always assume that because we call ourselves socialists and criticise the Tories, we must be supporters of Labour. Labour wasn't in power when the Liverpool Socialist Singers got going, otherwise we'd have a repertoire of songs about what an awful shower they were. Personally, Labour lost any commitment I ever felt to that party when they elected Tony Blair as leader. |
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07 Dec 12 - 08:19 PM (#3449012) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST The peoples flag is brightest pink, it's not as red as the people think..... ...all I remember. |
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07 Dec 12 - 10:26 PM (#3449054) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,999 '"The Red Flag" was parodied by singer-songwriter Leon Rosselson as the "Battle Hymn of the New Socialist Party," also known as "The Red Flag Once a Year" or "The People's Flag Is Palest Pink."' from Wikipedia (Apologies if this has already been noted.) |
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08 Dec 12 - 02:54 AM (#3449088) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jim Carroll '"The Red Flag" was parodied..." BATTLE HYMN OF THE NEW LABOUR PARTY The people's flag, red white and blue, It flies for me, it flies for you. And though he tried to tear it down, It even flies for old George Brown (deputy Prime Minister in the 60s) So raise the umbrella high, The cloth cap and the old school tie, And just to show we're still sincere We'll sing the red flag once a year. Jim Carroll |
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08 Dec 12 - 08:54 AM (#3449183) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Musket sans cookie I didn't make any assumptions re Labour. I merely pointed out that the Tories are carrying out the plans Labour introduced. I made an assumption of course. I assumed you are a socialist. I didn't assume any link with Labour. Blair&co promoted enterprise to a degree. Socialism tends to be the art of having nothing and wishing to share it. |
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08 Dec 12 - 04:39 PM (#3449445) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Stringsinger There's an old New York street rhyme I learned from Tom Paley. "When I grow to old to fight, I'll become a Trotskyite. When I grow to old to see, A "Forwards" reader I shall be. "Forwards" was the Yiddish newspaper in New York. Bob Gibson and I wrote, "Sing a song for People's Artists, balladeers unite Buy your latest People's Songbook, There's a hoot tonight". Then there's Tom Lehrers "Folk Song Army" which is funny. |
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16 Sep 19 - 02:45 AM (#4009027) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GUEST,Bradfordian For those who follow British politics From ROBIN WALLINGTON (on Facebook) To the tune of “A Modern Major General” EDIT: two more verses to bring it up to length EDIT #2: holy cow this has blown up - thanks for all the likes and shares everyone! EDIT #3: a few people have messaged to ask if they can use this in recitals, etc. The answer will always be YES. This is free to use, record and share ?? (just let me know and send pics/videos - it’s lovely to see people enjoying it!) ?????? I am the very model of a prejudiced Etonian My diction is impeccable, my politics draconian, I’m quite the polar opposite of what you’d call revisionist And though I went to public school, at least I’m not a Wykehamist I’m keeping the tradition of the gentry ent’ring politics How else are we to keep away the Corbynista Bolsheviks So through my vivid promises of dividends most decorous I’ve mobilised the Brexiteers to levels quite obstreperous I whip them up to frenzy in a manner so Pavlovian They do not seem to see that it’s increasingly dystopian So here I stand before you like a skeletal Napoleon I am the very model of a prejudiced Etonian. I’ve studied all the Classics from Herodotus to Sophocles How else am I to criticise my colleagues’ etymologies? Perhaps that’s why I vote against most freedoms and equalities These authors are about as old as most of my philosophies! I know of all the backwards Parliament’ry curiosities Like letting Commons’ priv’lege keep me safe to spout atrocities I know the terminologies, chronologies and glossaries And yet I still behave as if we never lost the colonies. I often drain the public funds to renovate my properties Although I have more money than some smaller world economies I never make apologies for lack of reciprocities Despite the fact that swathes of Britons lack basic commodities! My views on social issues haven’t changed much since the Tudor times I rage against the slightest change to long-outdated paradigms I lack the base ability to sympathise or empathise My Commons’ sprawl exemplifies the privilege I symbolise When criticised on Women’s Rights I hide behind Catholicism Bending it to justify my heart-of-stone Conservatism, Yet I sound the clarion of fear of fundamentalism Without seeming to acknowledge this inherent dualism, I try to paint a picture of a Brexit most utopian And when they all explain to me the likely pandemonium I patronise my critics with my methods Ciceronian I am the very model of a prejudiced Etonian. |
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18 Sep 19 - 07:32 PM (#4009512) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: GeoffLawes The Ballad of Harry Pollitt The Ballad of Harry Pollitt by The Limeliters on YouTube
Harry was a bolshie and one of Lenin's lads
He landed up in heaven trembling at the knees
'Who are you' said God, 'if you're humble and contrite
They dressed him in a nightie, put a harp into his hand
They put him in the choir, the hymns he did not like
One day as God was walking around the heavenly state
They put him up for trial before the Holy Ghost
The verdict it was guilty, said Harry 'That is swell'
A few more years have ended, now Harry's doing swell
Now the moral of this story is easy for to tell, |
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19 Sep 19 - 03:17 AM (#4009523) Subject: RE: Left wing political parodies From: Jim Carroll One that sprang back into my mind like a whippet after a ferret with the rise of 'New Labour The Worker's flag, red, white and Blue, it flies for me, it flies for you And though he tried to pull it down, it even flies for old George Brown, So raise the umbrella high, the bowler hat and old school tie. And just to prove we're still sincere we'll sing The Red Flag once a year a bit more The cloth cap and the Working Class are symbols now outdated For we are Labour's avant garde, but we've been educated William Brown is one of the most succinct works on on the theory of Surplus Capital I have ever encountered Marx should have concentrated on writing songs rather than those impenetrable bloody books I remember spending a study weekend in Hastings in the early sixties - some of us put on a mini-review based around the China-Soveiet conflict, which started with three of us dressed up as Mikado-ladies (complete with parasols), singing: "I'm Lenin, I'm Trotsky, I'm Mao" Wish I could remember the rest of it - a lost gem Jim Carroll |