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9 messages

LYR ADD: No-Go

17 Jan 98 - 02:43 AM (#19364)
Subject: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: Ezio

NO-GO

(Poem: Louis McNiece, Music: Trad. Arr. Seàn Tyrrell)

No go merry-go-round
No go the rickshaw
All we want is a limousine
And a ticket for the peep-show,
Their knickers are made of crepe-de-Chine
Their boots are made from python
Their halls are lined with tiger rugs
And their walls with heads of bison.

Johnny McDonald found a corpse
He put it under the sofa
He waited 'til it came to life
He hit it with a poker
Sold its eyes as souvenirs
Sold his blood for whiskey
Kept its bones to use for dumbells
When he was fifty.
And it's no go the yogi man
No go Blavatski
All we went is a black balance
And a bit of skirt and a taxi.

Annie McDonald she went to milk
She caught her foot in the heater
She awoke to hear a dance record
Playing old Vienna.
No go your maidenheads
No go your culture
All we want is a Dunlop tyre
And the devil mend the puncture.

The Laird of Phelps spent Hogmanay
Declaring he was sober
Count his feet to prove the fact
Found he has one foot over.
Mrs Charmichael she had her fifth
Viewed the job with repulsion
She said to the mid-wife take it away
I'm through with over-production.
And it's no go the gossip column
No go the ceilidh
All we want is a mother's help
And a sugar stick for the baby.
Willie Murray cut his thumb
And he couldn't count the damage
He took the hide of an Ayreshire cow
He made it into a bandage
His brother caught three hundred cran
When the seas were lavish
He threw the bleeders back in the sea
An' he went upon the parish.

And it's no go the herring board
It's no go the Bible
All we want is a package of fags
When our hands are idle.
It's no go the picture palace
No go the stadium
It's no go your country cottage
With your pot of pink geraniums.
No go the government grants
No go the elections
Sit on your arse for fifty years
And hang your hat on a pension.
And 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.

Sung by Seàn Tyrrell on "Cry of a dreamer" (1995)

Also see this message and this one for alternate lyrics.
-Joe Offer-

17 Jan 98 - 03:34 PM (#19386)
Subject: RE: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: Jerry Friedman

MacNiece's original title was "Bagpipe Music". I'm glad to see someone took the hint and made it a song.

17 Jan 98 - 06:55 PM (#19393)
Subject: RE: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: Barry

Sean has been doing a great job of setting works to music, "My Blackbird" & "Walker Of The Snow" are some masterpieces. Barry

29 Jul 01 - 07:54 PM (#517395)
Subject: RE: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: GUEST,Willis Taylor

sean:Is this public domain or did you have to get permission or pay the piper so to speak? Just a question I am not the spanish inquisition {I've just recorded my own take on it in a non-traditional rap style with a bagpipe refrain).

29 Jul 01 - 08:10 PM (#517400)
Subject: RE: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

Great! Am I right that these are mis-typings? 2nd verse, sold its (not his) blood for whiskey. Also, All we want is a bank (not black) balance. 3rd verse- his brother caught three hundred cran- what are cran?

29 Jul 01 - 08:18 PM (#517405)
Subject: RE: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

Oops! Sorry, his is correct, a (presumably) human corpse is not an its. Also, wasn't it Madame Blavitsky?, I vaguely recall, not Blavatsky.

29 Jul 01 - 09:32 PM (#517442)
Subject: RE: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: Malcolm Douglas

It was Blavatsky. Helena Petrovna Hahn (1831-91) acquired the name from a brief marriage in her teens to a Russian general. I still have a copy of her Practical Occultism kicking about somewhere. (Cran is a measure of herring (averaging 750).

29 Jul 01 - 10:59 PM (#517465)
Subject: RE: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

Thanks for Cran definition-I should have looked in the OED.

30 Jul 01 - 08:20 PM (#518021)
Subject: RE: LYR ADD: No-Go
From: Snuffy

Black balance makes sense - positive funds, a red balance means you're overdrawn