Ode To Joyce is rather sweet, unless there are some dark undertones which have gone over my head. And hey, why not “Joyce” indeed? What happened to them all? Thanks to Ian
See lyrics to Ode To Joyce
Ode To Joyce is rather sweet, unless there are some dark undertones which have gone over my head. And hey, why not “Joyce” indeed? What happened to them all? Thanks to Ian
See lyrics to Ode To Joyce
Martin
Not T-Bay, but ‘Tebay’
It’s an M6 service station in Cumbria, so ties up quite nicely with Ambleside too
27 April 2008
chris the site owner
Aha, but T-Bay is “Ireland’s Surf and Wildlife Centre”, so it could equally well be that. But the Ambleside bit is a clincher, so we’ll go with the more prosaic option. Thanks!
27 April 2008
Stuart
Just a tiddler but on the 9th line it should read ‘girl called Joyce’…
30 May 2008
chris p
surely it’s “when the BAD gets worse”, not BACK. (brilliant site by the way, superb work)
1 June 2008
Neil
Perhaps the title is alluding to Beethovens 9th Symphony aka “Ode to Joy”
19 June 2008
Neil B
“I was busy with trellising the yard”
surely “I was busy with trellis IN the yard” ?
2 August 2008
ian
I always thought it was “when the band gets worse”, but it does sound like “bad” listening back. I like mine better. I wrote the rest too.
15 August 2008
Neil G
I have to go along with Neil B with regard to ‘busy with trellis in the yard’. I have never heard ‘trellis’ used as a verb, but I’m pretty sure you would only be able to ‘trellis’ a plant, i.e. provide a plant with trellis. I don’t think you could ‘trellis’ a yard. Yards tend not to climb.
16 August 2008
Max Williams
i’d also vote for “trellis in the yard” and “when the back gets worse” – no question imo.
27 August 2008
Dave F.
I hear “when the bad gets worse”
I also hear “Gonna lose myself in a thrall of a girl called Joyce”
But I see no reason why it shouldn’t be the.
Just after, NB57 shouts three words from the back of the room… Can’t quite work out what though…
Love, love, love. maybe?
I’m going with trellising as a verb.
There are many times nouns become verbs, for instance once the trellis is erected you have to creosote it!
And nowadays doesn’t everyone Google.
I assume the last line is a reference to the Hendrix song The Wind Cries Mary
30 December 2008
Neil G
I have to disagree with Dave F. regarding ‘trellising’. I accept that trellis can be used as a verb but its meaning, according to http://www.yourdictionary.com/trellis is
1. to furnish with or train on a trellis
2. to cross or interweave like a trellis.
Since you cannot train a yard or interweave a yard, I’m sticking with ‘trellis in the yard’.
31 December 2008
Tom
If it was ‘trellising’ there wouldn’t be a ‘with’, surely?
“I was busy trellising the yard” would be ok, but “busy WITH trellising the yard” seems a bit awkward grammatically. Another vote for “trellis IN the yard” from me.
11 April 2009
Chris The Siteowner
Listened to it again, and “with” still sounds right to me – and “busy with” + verb is pretty standard, at least where I come from (which is much nearer Chatteris than NB57’s house, it’s true).
11 April 2009
John Anderson
I’m sure it’s “busy with trellis in the yard” Not sure why there’s no a or the. I would also go with “bad gets worse” rather than “back gets worse.”
Maybe Nigel wouldn’t have written the song if he’d checked out “After Bathing At Baxter’s” by Jefferson Airplane, which includes a splendid track called Rejoyce,
12 April 2009
Swanaldo
I prefer the “When the back gets worse” argument, conjuring up a matronly physiotherapist by the name of Joyce.
30 August 2009
chesneywold
isnt it ‘their’ glade. It belongs to the fauns like. Man what a beautiful song it is. As dense and fecund as i imagine the glade to be. i hate the arctic monkeys, make me sick.
3 September 2009
Swanaldo
Their glade.
Trellis in.
Undecided on the ‘bad gets worse’/’back gets worse’ argument now. (Yes, I’m backing down)
Great song though, and makes it onto a lot of my ‘in the car’ CDs, along with ‘Restless Legs’
3 September 2009
simon smith
Just a doff of the cap to NB’s google-proof genius for the Ronnie Boyce line. My wife asked if Ronnie, being a 60-s/early 70-s footballer, was in the thrall of hallucinogenics. I informed her it was a cute reference to Boyce retorting to a lacklustre (if still forty yard long) goalkick from the hands of Man City’s ogre/lummox Joe Corrigan with an insouciant volley straight back into the middle of the goal that Joltin’ Joe was still five yards to the right from. It may even be on YouTube.
It is. It’s here at 0:36-0:43. Quite far out.
6 February 2010
Neil G
My goodness. I’d forgotten that they used to play football in mud baths. All that’s missing there is a dog on the pitch.
6 February 2010
simon smith
Trouble is….
There was one,but it`s been Photoshopped out any case they lose sponsorship.
6 February 2010
Andrew
There’s actually a Lou Courtney funk soul track “Hey Joyce”, made famous as a break by the DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist ‘Brainfreeze’ compilation. So not only is at an ode but it has the affirmative refrain ‘Hey Joyce, you’re my choice’ as the chorus.
(it’s all over the net if you want to check it out)
2 February 2011
Gregg Z
Being American, thus culturally deficient, it took me until just a minute ago (thanks to a YouTube visit) to suss out the line “though you’re not as far out as Ronnie Boyce”.
Though I still know fuck-all about English football, this line is staggeringly funny.
8 July 2011
Chris Owens
Horribly late sticking in of my oar:
+1 “Tebay”
+1 “their glade”
+1 “busy with trellising the yard” i.e. (to use the dictionary definition provided) “furnish the yard with trellis”; also “with” as in “I was busy with looking after the kids”, “busy with the Sunday lunch”, etc.
Bad gets worse / back gets worse: can’t tell, but I like “bad gets worse” more.
… but why a springless cart? (Why springless? Why a cart? Huh?)
Top site, thank you, saved much head scratching (other than when my head itches, when I scratch it anyway).
20 April 2012
John Burscough
Not quite “sunless day”, but the 19th-century travel writer John MacGregor’s ‘Our Brothers and Cousins: A Summer Tour in Canada and the States’ has the line “But the brave little horses hurry along even a springless cart on a moonless night”.
It’s ‘their’.
7 May 2012
Lee’s Twenty First
Rock ‘n’ roll might not have given her a voice but funk has certainly given it a fair shot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87HUTQGEArM
20 May 2012
John Burscough
So has chimurenga.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB_9NO6h3Co&feature=related
20 May 2012
Lee’s Twenty First
Andrew: very red-faced as I’ve only now noticed your post. Apologies …
20 May 2012
John Burscough
Hang on a minute, what about ‘Billericay Dickie’?
“Well, you ask Joyce and Vicky…”
10 June 2012
MIKE IN COV
“Shop at eBay” ?
4 July 2012
Chigley Skin
As nice as the idea is of Nige cuddling up with Joyce while they place bids on an online auction site (perhaps shopping for memorabilia of Ronnie Boyce?), it clearly is “stop at Tebay”. There’s a definite “t” sound in the verb, plus you’d usually shop “on” eBay rather than “at” it.
4 July 2012
MIKE IN COV
@Chigley Skin. I’m taking these eardrops back to the chemist’s.
4 July 2012
Pogo
Tebay – 15 miles due east of Ambleside, 10 northeast of Kendal – where I saw HMHB decades ago at ‘The Brewery’.
12 April 2013
acidic regulator
The OED says that the hyphens in “springless and “sunless” aren’t needed.
29 October 2014
nathan richardson
Is it not Jay and Kay? Both old-fashioned names, like Joyce – the fact they’re also letters next to each other in the alphabet that come before M for Maria is simply the doubled-edged nature of NB’s incredible wit…
20 December 2014
dickhead in quicksand
I vote for the initials, ‘J’ and ‘K’. NB10 is complaining about a failure to work through the alphabet properly.
Exxo’s grammarian input is needed: “trellising” (American, no doubling of the final consonant or “trellissing” (my vote, compare e.g. “canvas” and “focus”)? FWIW and IMO, if the final ‘s’ isn’t pronounced, the doubling would be wrong: e.g. “precising”.
20 December 2014
EXXO
Grammarian, moi? Teehee, I’ll give it a go then.
Well for a start, Mike, it’s ‘to canvass’, so that one’s in with ‘caressing’, ‘dismissing’, etc.
Then there’s the likes of ‘to bus’ where clearly there’s no doubt that it’s wrong without doubling to ‘bussing’ and ‘bussed’, and we can perhaps see a reason behind the apparent rule of usage – ‘busing’ just looks a bit wrong, and might encourage someone somewhere to pronounce it wrong.
However, with ‘focus’, ‘trellis’, ‘portcullis’, etc. we seem to have a free choice, as with say ‘benefit’. My preference has always been for ‘benefiting’ and ‘benefited’ so they don’t look like some sort of relatives of ‘fitting’ and ‘fitted’, likewise for ‘focusing’ so it doesn’t look like ‘cussing’.
So at the end of the day, for me, the lad’s done well with his ‘trellising’.
21 December 2014
featureless tv producer steve
I was wondering if anyone had ever discussed who Sally, Carrie Anne, and Peggy Sue were. I know a Sally or two (Clapton’s “Lay Down, Sally” comes quickly to mind) and Peggy Sue is obvious, but I don’t know any songs about any Carrie Anne. Barbara Ann, sure; and Mary Anne and Roxanne and Suzanne, but not Carrie Anne.
Then of course I remembered that it’s the 21st century, where we no longer need to interact with our fellow human beings for information, and I googled it. It turns out the Hollies had a hit with a song by that name way back in 1967 (it also turns out that my knowledge of the Hollies is as limited as I suspected it was).
So, never mind. At least now when someone googles “HMHB lyrics Irish surfing” when planning a trip to Ireland’s southeast coast, it will hopefully lead them here, where they’ll find a helpful link.
20 January 2016
swanaldo
I assumed everyone was familiar with The Hollies’ “Carrie-Anne”
Also keen to reopen the ‘back gets worse’ debate. Still conjures up visions of a Nurse Gladys Emmanuel type for me.
30 January 2016
warrant officer ralph bland
The listing of the girl’s names brings to mind Pere Ubu’s Non Alignment Pact:
“Peggy, Carrie Ann, and Betty Jean
Jill, Jan, Jenn, and Sue
Alice, Cindy, Barbara Ann, you know
It’s all because of you”
23 November 2016
Andy B
Long-time listener, first time caller. Just reading David Stubbs’ ‘Mars by 1980’ which mentions ‘Ommagio a Joyce”, a work by the Italian musique concrete pioneer Luciano Berio (me neither). The Joyce who is the subject of the homage is yer man James, but could this be the source of the title?
8 January 2020
TRANSIT FULL OF Keith
Intriguing and who knows for sure, but I’d go for the straight variation on ‘Ode To Joy’ as a bit more likely myself. I know nothing about “musique concrete” but I hope it involves concertos for cement mixers.
8 January 2020
TRANSIT FULL OF Keith
“It was the Easter of 1897. Owen Glynne Jones had elected to initiate my brother and myself into the charms of Welsh climbing, and we had spent a week of storm and sunshine on Cader Idris. Then by way of Bettws-y-Coed we came to Penygwryd, or P.Y.G. as the habitues are wont to call it, in a springless cart on a sunless day of swirling Snowdonia storm. Soaked and shaken, we were in the best state to appreciate the sight of the long-looked-for little mountain Inn, that Mecca of Welsh climbers, from Kingsley and Tyndall to Haskett-Smith, Jones, and Robinson. There it lay in a fold of the hills, not a house or hamlet at hand, stone-built in a world of stone, grey in a world of grey. On the right-hand loomed the Glyders, on the left the sombre slopes of Moel Siabod, whilst in front the giant slopes of Snowdon’s satellites gradually circled round to the snow-capped summit, gulfed in storm.”
Mountain Adventures At Home and Abroad, George Dixon Abraham, 1910
10 January 2020
dr desperate
Excellent spot there, @Keith!
10 January 2020
TRANSIT FULL OF Keith
The book contains tales of derring-do in the Alps as well, so I wouldn’t be surprised if an ice axe is pulled from a leg at some point, I’ll keep you posted…
10 January 2020
Alice van der meer
The Abraham brothers (well, the interesting two, not the bank manager or the acting Governor of Tanganyika) were pioneers of British mountain climbing and also of photography in the heroic era where you didn’t so much whop out your iphone as lug a mahogany box laden with glass plates up a crag. Also pioneer motorists, and associates of George Mallory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_and_Ashley_Abraham
Here’s an article with a rather lovely photo of them – they look like the sort of chaps in whose company it would be very, very hard to be bored.
http://araftofapples.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-abraham-brothers.html
I know, I should get out more.
10 January 2020
FEATURELESS TV PRODUCER STEVE
Great stuff, @Keith. Was anyone else hoping that at mention of the Glyders, the party were going to make camp and sleep between them?
10 January 2020
hendrix-tattoo
Did George only have three fingers on his right hand?….
11 January 2020
Alice van der meer
I’d never spotted that, but I see what you mean. I’ve had a look at a bigger version I have in a book, and I think you can just see the tip of a fifth digit behind the one visible behind the axe handle. It’s an odd way to hold something, I wonder if he had a bent finger – maybe broke it and it wasn’t re-set properly? – forcing him to hold the axe in a funny grip?
BTW, it was Sandy Irvine in the photo I was thinking of, not George Mallory, though I suspect if they knew one…
I have a maggot for the history of photography, so the Abraham brothers (along with the Keartons) are just the sort of people that interest me.
11 January 2020
TRANSIT FULL OF Keith
Does look an odd way to hold an ice axe, but I can’t find any reference to a lost finger online or (so far) in the book (which, @AvdM, has some lovely photos in it).
11 January 2020
Alice van der meer
Oh bugger, another book I feel the urge to get!
11 January 2020
EXXO
That’s a tremendous find, Keith. Bravo. There’s a lot of influence from Victorian poetry in that passage (in which I bet Abraham was influenced by Owen Gwynne Jones’ style). There’s at least two Tennyson influences I can see in there, and doubtless much, much more. So the phrase is highly likely to have been adapted by Abrahams from some Victorian literary influence or other, but your extract is beyond reasonable doubt where Mr. B will have encountered it, as climbing lit has provided various other borrowings for him.
So it’s nice to see the phrase kind of going back into a lyric which piss-takes Victorian poetry so deftly.
Incidentally the metaphor of a “springless cart” on a “bumpy road/frozen track/etc” is one that I have seen scathingly used by Victorian critics to diss bad poetical metre, and in turn the metaphor of a sprung cart as opposed to a springless cart is definitely at play in GM Hopkins’ definition of the ‘sprung rhythm’ of folk lyrics … a term which itself (incidentally again) could be applied to much of Mr. B’s work.
13 January 2020