Rogation Sunday by Half Man Half Biscuit (2022) discussed...
Thanks to John A, Adam R, Cygnus, Dr D, Matt L, Phil P, Darren S, and Rich P for their transcription contributions. This page originally published on 28 February 2022.
The ‘single’ from the album, although not the first song we heard. Expecting some discussion about capitalisation. And if it’s a real Ruth Gould…
28 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
I thought it was Bruce rather than Ruth, but happy to go with the consensus on this one.
@TFoK mentioned Beating the Bounds on the main album discussion thread, which is one of the traditional things done on Rogation Sunday (besides asking God if he’d mind being a good egg and giving us a decent harvest so we don’t all starve next winter). The way parish boundaries were traditionally recorded in pre-map times was by memorised itineraries called perambulations, being the route that the parishioners would walk round them. The form these took when they got into record shows that they often used notable trees, being landmarks that couldn’t be moved under the cover of a dark and foggy night, as boundary markers. The third line of the first verse echoes the form of these by linking back to the fixed point of the buckthorn tree.
28 February 2022
Paul f
Silver Cross perambulations?
28 February 2022
John Anderson
I thought it was Leif Gould like Leif Erickson but Ruth is much more likely. I’m sure it’s a made up person rather than a real one. There seem to be a litany of fictional characters on this album.
28 February 2022
woodnoggin
Sounds like a Rogation day appeal to ward off disease is needed to help the greater knapweed. The narrator’s relationship is probably outside the remit of such observances, but it could be worth a try.
28 February 2022
dr Desperate
I suggested Ruth Gould, and wondered if it might be the real Ruth Fabby (née Gould) MBE, Deputy Lieutenant for Merseyside and Lay Canon at Liverpool Cathedral. She lives in Cardiff, and is the Director of Disability Arts Cymru.
28 February 2022
EXXO
Wish I could remember where I saw someone post a “first go at the lyrics” of this last week, or what their version of the note was, but it was hilarious. Let’s just say that never mind checking botanical details, they didn’t even know there were any botanical details. “knock-kneed near the mud worms” sort of thing (but it probably wasn’t that).
28 February 2022
dr Desperate
Rogation Days (the three days before Ascension Thursday) originated in Vienne, France in 470, after a series of natural disasters had caused much suffering. Archbishop Mamertus proclaimed a fast and ordered that special prayers be said as the population processed around their fields, asking for God’s blessing on the sprouting crops. These were known as Rogation processions, from the Latin for “ask”, and the custom spread around Europe and to Britain. The Sunday before the Rogation Days came to be considered a part of Rogationtide (or “Rogantide”) and was known as Rogation Sunday. The Gospel appointed for that day was from John 16, where Jesus says to his disciples, “Ask, and ye shall receive”.
Pleasingly, the Rogation Days lay claim to a confection known as Rammalation Biscuits: no one seems to have any idea what these were, though the description most likely derives from “perambulation”.
28 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
There’s also the suggestion in the first verse with the leaving bit being a postscript that either the narrator or their departed other half cares more about plants than people.
I did do a quick online search to see if there was a notable Bruce Gould that might have a link to the song contents but nothing jumped out, so Dr. D’s suggestion does carry some tangental link at least.
28 February 2022
EXXO
Like All All Souls/All Hallows did with Beltane and Christmas with the Midwinter feast it was also a clear attempt to superimpose Xianity on pagan fertility rites that would have happened around that time for tens of thousands of years.
28 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
@Exxo – I suppose then in pagan times it would have been more banging the bounds than beating them as an exercise in promoting fertility…
28 February 2022
BATWALKER
This idea of “pagan survivals” has rather fallen out of favour among historians, though it remains in the popular imagination. Beating the Bounds long post-dates the conversion to Christianity. Ronald Hutton, in his book Stations of the Sun, dates the custom to the 13th or early 14th century. Other sources give an earlier date, though I tend to trust Hutton, who is a leading expert on English folk customs.
28 February 2022
MATT LEE
Exxo, that was probably mine.
“The greater nap-with near the mudworm by the buckthorn tree is dying” 😀
28 February 2022
transit full of keith
My pet theory here is that “Rogation Sunday’s here again” is a song set in the most severe bit of the first lockdown, in which we were allowed to take daily exercise up to a fixed distance away from home. Every day is like (Rogation) Sunday … walking the same beat around the parish bounds, noticing the same neighbours out and about, the same notices on the same trees. A spike in long-term relationships ending when people were cooped up together all day as well.
28 February 2022
EXXO
I didn’t say beating the bounds was a pagan survival. It’s pretty obvious that praying for good crops – the origin of Rogation Sunday, with beating the bounds just as one associated custom – has been in most religions since pre-history.
28 February 2022
EXXO
@Matt. Fair play to you for admitting it. Gave me a good chuckle and feel free to take the piss any time when I write my bollocks too.
28 February 2022
MATT LEE
I was also transcribing it over AirPods in a noisy pub, the moment I noticed it came out.
I’m sure my transcription for Awkward Sean is wrong, especially the names of the football players, if that’s what they are.
28 February 2022
John Anderson
@exxo @matt lee I had “the greater knapweed near the mugwort by the back farm tree is dying”. Botany isn’t a strong suit for me, as I often discover when doing the Times crossword.
You could say trees and flowers and birds have passed me by.
28 February 2022
Just anotHer lackey
The song title echoes the old standard “Happy Days Are Here Again” which according to everyone’s favourite free online encyclopaedia was associated with the repeal of prohibition in 1933. Could this be another veiled Covid reference with the emphasis being on the return to the pub after lockdown? A counterpoint to the Rogation Sunday practice of walking the boundaries which so many of us were left with while Lockdown Luke was doing his thing?
28 February 2022
HARRISON ADAMS
Another question: like, what’s the song even called? On the back of my CD — proudly purchased from Probe on Friday, ten minutes before the shop closed — it’s listed as simply ‘Rogation Sunday’ …
28 February 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Hmm, good point. I don’t have my CD to hand, but assume that observation is correct. On streaming services it’s “…here again!” – what do people think?
28 February 2022
matt lee
I think “here again!” is part of the title.
28 February 2022
GORDON BURNS
Interesting. The CD inlay says “02. ROGATION SUNDAY” My rip says “02 Rogation Sunday’s Here Again!”
28 February 2022
dr Desperate
I’d go with the title on the CD cover, ‘Rogation Sunday’. See also ‘Beneath This Broken Headstone (There Lies A Broken Heart)’.
28 February 2022
dr Desperate
Remembering, of course, The Beatles’ ‘Christmas Time Is Here Again!’, released as a fan club exclusive 7-inch in December 1967. It was remixed several times, eventually turning up on the ‘Free as a Bird’ CD single in 1995 as ‘Christmas Time (Is Here Again)’.
28 February 2022
Chris The Siteowner
I guess the CD cover should be the definitive statement, right? Even though it’s probably done months before the track listing is sent to streaming services, or the ‘official audio’ is posted to YouTube, etc., which in this case all have the longer title. Hmm…
28 February 2022
GORDON BURNS
I bet it’s simply “ROGATION” when we see it on a hand-written set list. 😁
28 February 2022
Amanda warhurst
Is Ruth Gould still looking for the ruddy dog?
1 March 2022
clown in a yaris
Yep! Agree with all of the above. Just want to add that this is a cracking tune which would make a spectacular gig opener. This is the first tune i heard from the new disc which got me excited about what was to come. I have not been disappointed. Roll on Nottingham!
1 March 2022
Pirx The Purist
Over on 45cat (http://www.45cat.com/) and 45worlds (http://www.45worlds.com/) – where I’m a moderator – our general rule is that titles are entered as they appear on the label (for vinyl, tapes and the like) or on the disc (for CDs) or on the insert(s) if the disc itself doesn’t show them. Unless to do so would be patently absurd, of course…
Funnily enough if you google “been out every evening” the first result is from the Bat Conservation Trust…
2 March 2022
dr Desperate
Excellent spot indeed, @Jason! Now I’m starting to worry she isn’t imaginary enough.
2 March 2022
ghost of kirkus
I was going to apologise for the pedantry about to come, before I remembered where I was. Thank goodness!
Sadly for biomedical accuracy, hypersensitivity pneumonitis isn’t a pneumonia, it’s an immune mediated inflammatory alveolitis to a (usually unknown) antigen. Although I’m sure NB could rise to the challenge of singing about an inflammatory alveolitis quite easily.
Different versions of HP are well described, including pigeon fancier’s lung which could ultimately lead to death in Trafalgar Square.
Happily when caught early HP responds to being on the ‘roids quite nicely; hopefully Ruth Gould will be surging out of convalescence very soon.
(The Ghost of Kirkus may have another, non-poltergeist day job).
4 March 2022
dr Desperate
OK, extrinsic allergic alveolitis then. It would be ironic if she’d got it from the dog’s dander, though the exposure time would presumably have been too short (unless it we’re talking dognapping). I always wanted to diagnose pituitary snuff-taker’s lung – probably never will now.
4 March 2022
GhOst of kirkus
Ditto Finnish Sauna Maker’s Lung… rare even in Finland these days. Ah well. Pituitary snuff thankfully long gone, good for people but undeniably a loss to curiosity.
4 March 2022
ALICE van der meer
With my taste for vintage machinery, I recall a magazine editorial where someone went to A&E having had his starting handle kick back at him and the consultant called everyone round to see his X-ray with the words “This is probably the only time in your career you will ever see a genuine Chauffeur’s Fracture!”
Thumb under the handle, everyone, never forget…
4 March 2022
Jeff dreadnought
Not lyrics-related, but has anyone else been listening to this one on repeat just for the bass riff at the beginning?
4 March 2022
Stringy bob
Garstang is bloody grim.
4 March 2022
Markw
Been listening for a couple of weeks and the first impression is that the production values are high. Not wishing to be a boring muso (which, by virtue of actually being on here proves that I’m not) but I am really impressed by the production and the arrangements of the songs. The great Rickenbacker bass and layered guitars still reflect the anti-muso attitude but the drums are really good and the whole band sound well-rehearsed (but not too much). As a musician, I’m aware that their competence is an integral component of their sound. This is evident on the majestic Oblong of Dreams. This song is, I think, the perfect HMHB song. By the way, I think it’s Hank (Williams). Roy (Acuff) and Bill (Monroe).
4 March 2022
EXXO
I sure do respect your fine taste there Mark but (to continue off-topic on yet another song we haven’t done yet)I can’t see him ‘being’ anyone there wasn’t a market for in his generation in Rhyl. He’d need to switch instruments for that Roy and that Bill. I’m going to be boring and suggest Roy Orbison and Bill Haley.
4 March 2022
Just another lackey
@Jeff D (41) – after RS was released I wore my ears out listening to it over and over again – that bass riff is incredible! What a way to announce the return of the Biscuits…
4 March 2022
Paul f
Given the Nashville reference, I’d assumed we were talking country singers. So I had Hank Williams (or possibly Snow) and Roy Rogers, but couldn’t think of a Bill that fits the same profile. Monroe is a good suggestion for the Bill, and Acuff is a good alternative to Rogers.
5 March 2022
EXXO
Obviously Hank Williams, who latterly became pop enough for a Nudie suit. But others you name are more grass-roots pioneers – not a Nudie suit in sight – and the pub-goers of Rhyl wouldn’t know them Roy Orbison was a pioneer of the Nashville sound, and was massive in Rhyl. ‘Bill’ is there for the rhyme, so we might stray as far from the genre as Bill Haley (who started out as a country singer), but if we want a Nudie suited star then Bill Anderson most likely. We’d then have three guitar-weilding frontmen rather than switching mid-set to fiddle, dobro or mandolin, requiring a different band set-up, a different sound entirely from the most obvious one – Hank Williams.
5 March 2022
EXXO
When I say ‘massive in Rhyl’ I obviously mainly mean the Merseyside upper working class, moved out, or in retirement, or on their hols (static, naturally), in the whole area.
5 March 2022
Just another lackey
Meanwhile, over on the Genius lyrics website / app they have the Ruth Gould lines as “Leif Gould, been out every evening, Leif Gould has got pneumonia”.
Despite there actually being at least one real Leif Gould out there in the real world (according to LinkedIn) I think Genius may need to find a new brand name. Should we tell them?
I always thought the record companies provided the lyrics, but I seriously doubt R M Qualtrough would do such a thing. Can’t be copying your site either as they have lyrics for MMM and Grafting Haddock (as well as RS and Sean but not the whole album). A mystery.
Not going to cheat, I’ll await the unveiling of MMM, Grafting Haddock and the rest of the album here…
5 March 2022
CHRISTIE MALRY
Genius is a bit like Wikipedia for song lyrics in that anyone can contribute to it, so the words up there will have been put there by someone listening to the album and typing out what they here.
5 March 2022
Ghost Of kirkus
Good grief. What kind of weirdo would do that?
5 March 2022
EXXO
You’ve got to love the 4th line of the Genius Lyrics version of ‘Grafting.’ Was that you again Matt, listening in a noisy pub?
6 March 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
Something to pick up on when CtSO opens up the discussion thread for Grafting Haddock, but I’m sure those first four lines are a literary parody and I’m racking my brain to think what the original was, something out of Shakespeare maybe?
6 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
It won’t be long, hold your thoughts everyone.
6 March 2022
EXXO
Hard to leave a question like that dangling, particularly as it’s a linguistic/literary one. But not as hard as it would have been if I had a full answer to offer, so I’ll try.
6 March 2022
Jeff DReadnought
@ Professor I’ll hold my thought but I think you’re on the right track with “something out of Shakespeare”
6 March 2022
BATWALKER
Looks like I owe @Exxo an apology, It seems Rogationtide actually *did* supercede a pagan Roman celebration called Robigalia in which a dog was sacrificed to the agricultural deity Robigus (connection to the dog in the song?) I’m just so used to seeing “Santa Claus was based on Odin/Eostre’s emblems were the hare and the egg” type stuff on my socials that my natural inclination is to automatically dismiss any talk of pagan survivals as nonsense. I probably should have at least taken a look at Wikipedia first!
9 March 2022
Half Matt, half Byrne
I’d heard it as Liv Gould, but regardless of the name, it’s such a brilliantly dark commentary on the sort of neighbourhood do-gooder that mean well, but go to such lengths as serious illness.
10 March 2022
Cody jarrett
Gotta love those Genius lyrics to “Grafting Haddock….”, where Cagney’s “Made it ma, top of the world” is bastardised to “Minute mark, top of the world!” Genius indeed.
This was written just because I like the title “Rogation Sunday” – nothing more. I had the title and wrote a whole song around it.
I think it’s usually lost cats with those posters people put up, more than lost dogs.
It took me a little while to come up with the name “Ruth Gould” – and it wasn’t the first name that came into my head. I think it came to me when I was on a run. A lot of people say you must just pick a name straight away but no, you’ve got to think about it.
And the line about her getting pneumonia because she’d been out every evening looking for the dog that had actually been found – that would happen. When I walked our dog, I knew a lady who would be upset about people who had lost their dog. She would have looked for any missing dog in any weather (she may not have developed pneumonia, particularly, but you know…)
I love the indignation in your voice on the line “The dog was found and it was fine/High time you took those posters down” and “Ruth Gould’s been out every evening/Ruth Gould has got pneumonia”.
I’m not particularly that arsed, but I know some people are – and I can understand that, because they should take those posters down when the dog has been found! But I’m not really bothered if they do or not – it’s not my dog, is it?
There are two reasons why it’s about a dog and not a cat – I’d already used cat on Bogus Official (from Achtung Bono) and because of the two “Os” next to each other sounding better – “Your dog got lost” rather than “Your cat got lost”.
Chris The Siteowner
The ‘single’ from the album, although not the first song we heard. Expecting some discussion about capitalisation. And if it’s a real Ruth Gould…
28 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
I thought it was Bruce rather than Ruth, but happy to go with the consensus on this one.
@TFoK mentioned Beating the Bounds on the main album discussion thread, which is one of the traditional things done on Rogation Sunday (besides asking God if he’d mind being a good egg and giving us a decent harvest so we don’t all starve next winter). The way parish boundaries were traditionally recorded in pre-map times was by memorised itineraries called perambulations, being the route that the parishioners would walk round them. The form these took when they got into record shows that they often used notable trees, being landmarks that couldn’t be moved under the cover of a dark and foggy night, as boundary markers. The third line of the first verse echoes the form of these by linking back to the fixed point of the buckthorn tree.
28 February 2022
Paul f
Silver Cross perambulations?
28 February 2022
John Anderson
I thought it was Leif Gould like Leif Erickson but Ruth is much more likely. I’m sure it’s a made up person rather than a real one. There seem to be a litany of fictional characters on this album.
28 February 2022
woodnoggin
Sounds like a Rogation day appeal to ward off disease is needed to help the greater knapweed. The narrator’s relationship is probably outside the remit of such observances, but it could be worth a try.
28 February 2022
dr Desperate
I suggested Ruth Gould, and wondered if it might be the real Ruth Fabby (née Gould) MBE, Deputy Lieutenant for Merseyside and Lay Canon at Liverpool Cathedral. She lives in Cardiff, and is the Director of Disability Arts Cymru.
28 February 2022
EXXO
Wish I could remember where I saw someone post a “first go at the lyrics” of this last week, or what their version of the note was, but it was hilarious. Let’s just say that never mind checking botanical details, they didn’t even know there were any botanical details. “knock-kneed near the mud worms” sort of thing (but it probably wasn’t that).
28 February 2022
dr Desperate
Rogation Days (the three days before Ascension Thursday) originated in Vienne, France in 470, after a series of natural disasters had caused much suffering. Archbishop Mamertus proclaimed a fast and ordered that special prayers be said as the population processed around their fields, asking for God’s blessing on the sprouting crops. These were known as Rogation processions, from the Latin for “ask”, and the custom spread around Europe and to Britain.
The Sunday before the Rogation Days came to be considered a part of Rogationtide (or “Rogantide”) and was known as Rogation Sunday. The Gospel appointed for that day was from John 16, where Jesus says to his disciples, “Ask, and ye shall receive”.
Pleasingly, the Rogation Days lay claim to a confection known as Rammalation Biscuits: no one seems to have any idea what these were, though the description most likely derives from “perambulation”.
28 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
There’s also the suggestion in the first verse with the leaving bit being a postscript that either the narrator or their departed other half cares more about plants than people.
I did do a quick online search to see if there was a notable Bruce Gould that might have a link to the song contents but nothing jumped out, so Dr. D’s suggestion does carry some tangental link at least.
28 February 2022
EXXO
Like All All Souls/All Hallows did with Beltane and Christmas with the Midwinter feast it was also a clear attempt to superimpose Xianity on pagan fertility rites that would have happened around that time for tens of thousands of years.
28 February 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
@Exxo – I suppose then in pagan times it would have been more banging the bounds than beating them as an exercise in promoting fertility…
28 February 2022
BATWALKER
This idea of “pagan survivals” has rather fallen out of favour among historians, though it remains in the popular imagination. Beating the Bounds long post-dates the conversion to Christianity. Ronald Hutton, in his book Stations of the Sun, dates the custom to the 13th or early 14th century. Other sources give an earlier date, though I tend to trust Hutton, who is a leading expert on English folk customs.
28 February 2022
MATT LEE
Exxo, that was probably mine.
“The greater nap-with near the mudworm by the buckthorn tree is dying” 😀
28 February 2022
transit full of keith
My pet theory here is that “Rogation Sunday’s here again” is a song set in the most severe bit of the first lockdown, in which we were allowed to take daily exercise up to a fixed distance away from home. Every day is like (Rogation) Sunday … walking the same beat around the parish bounds, noticing the same neighbours out and about, the same notices on the same trees. A spike in long-term relationships ending when people were cooped up together all day as well.
28 February 2022
EXXO
I didn’t say beating the bounds was a pagan survival. It’s pretty obvious that praying for good crops – the origin of Rogation Sunday, with beating the bounds just as one associated custom – has been in most religions since pre-history.
28 February 2022
EXXO
@Matt. Fair play to you for admitting it. Gave me a good chuckle and feel free to take the piss any time when I write my bollocks too.
28 February 2022
MATT LEE
I was also transcribing it over AirPods in a noisy pub, the moment I noticed it came out.
I’m sure my transcription for Awkward Sean is wrong, especially the names of the football players, if that’s what they are.
28 February 2022
John Anderson
@exxo @matt lee I had “the greater knapweed near the mugwort by the back farm tree is dying”. Botany isn’t a strong suit for me, as I often discover when doing the Times crossword.
You could say trees and flowers and birds have passed me by.
28 February 2022
Just anotHer lackey
The song title echoes the old standard “Happy Days Are Here Again” which according to everyone’s favourite free online encyclopaedia was associated with the repeal of prohibition in 1933. Could this be another veiled Covid reference with the emphasis being on the return to the pub after lockdown? A counterpoint to the Rogation Sunday practice of walking the boundaries which so many of us were left with while Lockdown Luke was doing his thing?
28 February 2022
HARRISON ADAMS
Another question: like, what’s the song even called? On the back of my CD — proudly purchased from Probe on Friday, ten minutes before the shop closed — it’s listed as simply ‘Rogation Sunday’ …
28 February 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Hmm, good point. I don’t have my CD to hand, but assume that observation is correct. On streaming services it’s “…here again!” – what do people think?
28 February 2022
matt lee
I think “here again!” is part of the title.
28 February 2022
GORDON BURNS
Interesting.
The CD inlay says “02. ROGATION SUNDAY”
My rip says “02 Rogation Sunday’s Here Again!”
28 February 2022
dr Desperate
I’d go with the title on the CD cover, ‘Rogation Sunday’. See also ‘Beneath This Broken Headstone (There Lies A Broken Heart)’.
28 February 2022
dr Desperate
Remembering, of course, The Beatles’ ‘Christmas Time Is Here Again!’, released as a fan club exclusive 7-inch in December 1967. It was remixed several times, eventually turning up on the ‘Free as a Bird’ CD single in 1995 as ‘Christmas Time (Is Here Again)’.
28 February 2022
Chris The Siteowner
I guess the CD cover should be the definitive statement, right? Even though it’s probably done months before the track listing is sent to streaming services, or the ‘official audio’ is posted to YouTube, etc., which in this case all have the longer title. Hmm…
28 February 2022
GORDON BURNS
I bet it’s simply “ROGATION” when we see it on a hand-written set list. 😁
28 February 2022
Amanda warhurst
Is Ruth Gould still looking for the ruddy dog?
1 March 2022
clown in a yaris
Yep! Agree with all of the above. Just want to add that this is a cracking tune which would make a spectacular gig opener. This is the first tune i heard from the new disc which got me excited about what was to come. I have not been disappointed. Roll on Nottingham!
1 March 2022
Pirx The Purist
Over on 45cat (http://www.45cat.com/) and 45worlds (http://www.45worlds.com/) – where I’m a moderator – our general rule is that titles are entered as they appear on the label (for vinyl, tapes and the like) or on the disc (for CDs) or on the insert(s) if the disc itself doesn’t show them.
Unless to do so would be patently absurd, of course…
1 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
I think that may clinch it then.
1 March 2022
JEROME OF PRAGUE
Transit Full of Keith, I like your pet theory
2 March 2022
Jason THE
Ruth Gould got hypersensitive pneumonitis.
2 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Quality spot!
2 March 2022
Jason THE
Funnily enough if you google “been out every evening” the first result is from the Bat Conservation Trust…
2 March 2022
dr Desperate
Excellent spot indeed, @Jason! Now I’m starting to worry she isn’t imaginary enough.
2 March 2022
ghost of kirkus
I was going to apologise for the pedantry about to come, before I remembered where I was. Thank goodness!
Sadly for biomedical accuracy, hypersensitivity pneumonitis isn’t a pneumonia, it’s an immune mediated inflammatory alveolitis to a (usually unknown) antigen. Although I’m sure NB could rise to the challenge of singing about an inflammatory alveolitis quite easily.
Different versions of HP are well described, including pigeon fancier’s lung which could ultimately lead to death in Trafalgar Square.
Happily when caught early HP responds to being on the ‘roids quite nicely; hopefully Ruth Gould will be surging out of convalescence very soon.
(The Ghost of Kirkus may have another, non-poltergeist day job).
4 March 2022
dr Desperate
OK, extrinsic allergic alveolitis then. It would be ironic if she’d got it from the dog’s dander, though the exposure time would presumably have been too short (unless it we’re talking dognapping).
I always wanted to diagnose pituitary snuff-taker’s lung – probably never will now.
4 March 2022
GhOst of kirkus
Ditto Finnish Sauna Maker’s Lung… rare even in Finland these days. Ah well.
Pituitary snuff thankfully long gone, good for people but undeniably a loss to curiosity.
4 March 2022
ALICE van der meer
With my taste for vintage machinery, I recall a magazine editorial where someone went to A&E having had his starting handle kick back at him and the consultant called everyone round to see his X-ray with the words “This is probably the only time in your career you will ever see a genuine Chauffeur’s Fracture!”
Thumb under the handle, everyone, never forget…
4 March 2022
Jeff dreadnought
Not lyrics-related, but has anyone else been listening to this one on repeat just for the bass riff at the beginning?
4 March 2022
Stringy bob
Garstang is bloody grim.
4 March 2022
Markw
Been listening for a couple of weeks and the first impression is that the production values are high. Not wishing to be a boring muso (which, by virtue of actually being on here proves that I’m not) but I am really impressed by the production and the arrangements of the songs.
The great Rickenbacker bass and layered guitars still reflect the anti-muso attitude but the drums are really good and the whole band sound well-rehearsed (but not too much).
As a musician, I’m aware that their competence is an integral component of their sound. This is evident on the majestic Oblong of Dreams. This song is, I think, the perfect HMHB song. By the way, I think it’s Hank (Williams). Roy (Acuff) and Bill (Monroe).
4 March 2022
EXXO
I sure do respect your fine taste there Mark but (to continue off-topic on yet another song we haven’t done yet)I can’t see him ‘being’ anyone there wasn’t a market for in his generation in Rhyl. He’d need to switch instruments for that Roy and that Bill. I’m going to be boring and suggest Roy Orbison and Bill Haley.
4 March 2022
Just another lackey
@Jeff D (41) – after RS was released I wore my ears out listening to it over and over again – that bass riff is incredible! What a way to announce the return of the Biscuits…
4 March 2022
Paul f
Given the Nashville reference, I’d assumed we were talking country singers. So I had Hank Williams (or possibly Snow) and Roy Rogers, but couldn’t think of a Bill that fits the same profile. Monroe is a good suggestion for the Bill, and Acuff is a good alternative to Rogers.
5 March 2022
EXXO
Obviously Hank Williams, who latterly became pop enough for a Nudie suit. But others you name are more grass-roots pioneers – not a Nudie suit in sight – and the pub-goers of Rhyl wouldn’t know them Roy Orbison was a pioneer of the Nashville sound, and was massive in Rhyl. ‘Bill’ is there for the rhyme, so we might stray as far from the genre as Bill Haley (who started out as a country singer), but if we want a Nudie suited star then Bill Anderson most likely. We’d then have three guitar-weilding frontmen rather than switching mid-set to fiddle, dobro or mandolin, requiring a different band set-up, a different sound entirely from the most obvious one – Hank Williams.
5 March 2022
EXXO
When I say ‘massive in Rhyl’ I obviously mainly mean the Merseyside upper working class, moved out, or in retirement, or on their hols (static, naturally), in the whole area.
5 March 2022
Just another lackey
Meanwhile, over on the Genius lyrics website / app they have the Ruth Gould lines as “Leif Gould, been out every evening,
Leif Gould has got pneumonia”.
Despite there actually being at least one real Leif Gould out there in the real world (according to LinkedIn) I think Genius may need to find a new brand name. Should we tell them?
5 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Fair play to them for having a go at a few songs. Normally these sites just lift them from this one. I don’t know how these general lyrics sites work – do they pay for contributions?
5 March 2022
Just another lackey
I always thought the record companies provided the lyrics, but I seriously doubt R M Qualtrough would do such a thing. Can’t be copying your site either as they have lyrics for MMM and Grafting Haddock (as well as RS and Sean but not the whole album). A mystery.
Not going to cheat, I’ll await the unveiling of MMM, Grafting Haddock and the rest of the album here…
5 March 2022
CHRISTIE MALRY
Genius is a bit like Wikipedia for song lyrics in that anyone can contribute to it, so the words up there will have been put there by someone listening to the album and typing out what they here.
5 March 2022
Ghost Of kirkus
Good grief. What kind of weirdo would do that?
5 March 2022
EXXO
You’ve got to love the 4th line of the Genius Lyrics version of ‘Grafting.’ Was that you again Matt, listening in a noisy pub?
6 March 2022
professor Abelazar woozle
Something to pick up on when CtSO opens up the discussion thread for Grafting Haddock, but I’m sure those first four lines are a literary parody and I’m racking my brain to think what the original was, something out of Shakespeare maybe?
6 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
It won’t be long, hold your thoughts everyone.
6 March 2022
EXXO
Hard to leave a question like that dangling, particularly as it’s a linguistic/literary one. But not as hard as it would have been if I had a full answer to offer, so I’ll try.
6 March 2022
Jeff DReadnought
@ Professor I’ll hold my thought but I think you’re on the right track with “something out of Shakespeare”
6 March 2022
BATWALKER
Looks like I owe @Exxo an apology, It seems Rogationtide actually *did* supercede a pagan Roman celebration called Robigalia in which a dog was sacrificed to the agricultural deity Robigus (connection to the dog in the song?) I’m just so used to seeing “Santa Claus was based on Odin/Eostre’s emblems were the hare and the egg” type stuff on my socials that my natural inclination is to automatically dismiss any talk of pagan survivals as nonsense. I probably should have at least taken a look at Wikipedia first!
9 March 2022
Half Matt, half Byrne
I’d heard it as Liv Gould, but regardless of the name, it’s such a brilliantly dark commentary on the sort of neighbourhood do-gooder that mean well, but go to such lengths as serious illness.
10 March 2022
Cody jarrett
Gotta love those Genius lyrics to “Grafting Haddock….”, where Cagney’s “Made it ma, top of the world” is bastardised to “Minute mark, top of the world!”
Genius indeed.
13 March 2022
Chris The Siteowner
Notes from Paddy Shennan’s interview with NB10:
This was written just because I like the title “Rogation Sunday” – nothing more. I had the title and wrote a whole song around it.
I think it’s usually lost cats with those posters people put up, more than lost dogs.
It took me a little while to come up with the name “Ruth Gould” – and it wasn’t the first name that came into my head. I think it came to me when I was on a run. A lot of people say you must just pick a name straight away but no, you’ve got to think about it.
And the line about her getting pneumonia because she’d been out every evening looking for the dog that had actually been found – that would happen. When I walked our dog, I knew a lady who would be upset about people who had lost their dog. She would have looked for any missing dog in any weather (she may not have developed pneumonia, particularly, but you know…)
I love the indignation in your voice on the line “The dog was found and it was fine/High time you took those posters down” and “Ruth Gould’s been out every evening/Ruth Gould has got pneumonia”.
I’m not particularly that arsed, but I know some people are – and I can understand that, because they should take those posters down when the dog has been found! But I’m not really bothered if they do or not – it’s not my dog, is it?
There are two reasons why it’s about a dog and not a cat – I’d already used cat on Bogus Official (from Achtung Bono) and because of the two “Os” next to each other sounding better – “Your dog got lost” rather than “Your cat got lost”.
4 May 2022
ROGER AS IS ROGER AS WAS
Rogation Sunday’s here again.
22 May 2022