God Gave Us Life is the song which I always think disproves any “curse of HMHB” theory, because most of the extensive roll-call of wonderful people are alive and well nearly 25 years later. Even the, er, more senior ones lived on into the next century. Anyway, some nice distortion. Thanks to EskimoEric, gNick, Nigel, Tony, Martin and Sarah
See lyrics to God Gave Us Life
Rob
I’m not sure John The Baptist is still alive.
20 December 2009
Mr Larrington
Nor yet Pontius Pilate, Gordon Jackson, Thora Hird and Eartha Kitt.
21 December 2009
Daryl
The fact that this is so badly recorded only adds to its charm.
24 December 2009
Sam
It should be “But he also gave us Una Stubbs”, not “And”.
7 March 2010
Raffo
that depends – and the una in summer holiday – but the una in give us a rest
23 March 2010
TWO FAT FEET
Has anyone ever been able to decipher the distorted backing vocals on the “also gave us” roll-call? It appears to be all the same names but in a different order, but I could never make it out clearly enough to be sure.
6 April 2010
Daryl
Two Fat Feet:
I always here ‘Molly Sugden’ and ‘Isla St Clair’ as two of the names
6 April 2010
John Burscough
Anybody seen this comic song-singing supergroup (Zappa reference in their name, I fancy)? The line-up currently touring is Phill Jupitus, Rowland Rivron, Ade Edmondson and Neil Innes, so when I see them at Leeds City Varieties on 18th November I’ll probably be asking “What did God give us, Neil?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH6qilo1aUc
23 August 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
A Zappa reference surely, even though I think they’ve got the words in their name the wrong way round and left off an ‘s’.
But that’s all water under the carpet. I want to propose a new concept: the UBR. It’s for when you come up with what looks like a perfectly good EBR/PBR, and someone points out what you’ve overlooked. The ‘U’ stands for undeniable, unendurable. unending … you get the picture.
24 August 2012
Static, naturally
I definitely hear “he also gave us Little and Large” in the backing vocals. Also, Molly Sugden, Isla St Clair and Matthew Kelly. So some different ones and some the same before joining back up with “And he also gave us Lionel Blair”.
29 August 2013
Chris The Siteowner
Static, I think you’re right, that’s a new one on me. And of course, two of those last three would be folks not mentioned elsewhere in the songbook. Mollie Sugden would have to be a “curse” addition too, if correct. I won’t add these until someone else has confirmed they agree.
30 August 2013
Vendor Of Quack Nostrums
Not sure that they were there on my cassette tape recording of a recording in the 80s but they are definitely there on my mp3 rip from the CD. Each line appears to be double tracked, sometimes with the same person, sometimes with a different person. Wierd.
30 August 2013
bOGUS OFFICIAL
There’s people who can’t spell ‘weird’ right………
31 August 2013
Vendor Of Quack Nostrums
@ Bogus Official: To quote Malcolm Muggeridge (not something I do on a regular basis), ‘Tread softly for you tread on my jokes.’
31 August 2013
graysky
God gave us life…….Keith Harris
7 September 2013
graysky
sorry…i never meant to press send on the above
7 September 2013
JUST MARK
That ‘Have a banana’ line ruins it every time.
18 May 2015
Schoon
Having driven past a sign for Chirk, and through Capel Cuirig (real places, who knew?!), with GGUL going over and over in my head today, I realised something rather unpleasant.
As a child I liked: Give Us a Clue, Eddie Large, Keith Harris and Orville, Butterflies and Eartha Kitt (although I think I confused her with Shirley Bassey).
Did anyone have worse taste, and have a fondness for Thora Hird too?
No traffic in CC by the way.
7 October 2017
Peter Mcornithologist
Can always update this gem. He also gave us Ant and Dec.He also gave us Alan Shearer .He also gave us Piers Morgan and he also gave us Tony Blairrrugh
29 October 2017
Moo369
I’m not saying previous Top Gear presenters should get off scot-free, but as a closet petrolhead, it gave me a great deal of pleasure to hear the names “Paddy McGuiness” and “Freddie Flintoff” added to the shitlist at the Devil’s Arse gig. Does anyone remember anyone else being mentioned there?
22 August 2019
Moo369
…or anywhere else, for that matter. I can’t say I recall it being played live that often recently…
22 August 2019
dr desperate
Roger G in his exemplary review enumerated the God-given motorways and celebrities mentioned at The Devil’s Arse: M56, M60, Len Goodman, Walter de la Mare and Lionel Blair. Surprisingly he failed to include Alan Sugar.
23 August 2019
GORDON BURNS
Mention of Alan Sugar caused a fair few titters to go around The Arse.
23 August 2019
Moo369
Cheers Dr, it all comes flooding back now.
I’d always thought Len Goodman acted like a spoilt child, then heard him on Desert Island Discs telling how as an 18 year old, he’d been bought a brand new Jaguar by his doting parents. He proceeded to write it off in an accident within a few days, whereupon they went out and bought him another one. Explains a lot.
23 August 2019
dr desperate
Nigel’s mention of Goodman made me more convinced than ever of the identity of the NOCAYCHSGYFHC crossword setter (see 14d., 13ac.).
23 August 2019
transit full of keith
Len Goodman, fair enough, but I’m baffled at Walter de la Mare being added to the list. A poet, who died in 1956, is not exactly in the Lionel Blair / Little & Large class of TV celebrity irritatants. I can only speculate that NB once had to recite ‘The Listeners’, with feeling, to a tittering school assembly, or something like that …
23 August 2019
dr desperate
Nigel’s raised eyebrow at his own mention of WdlM made me wonder if he was as baffled by it as you (and I) were, @Keith. Maybe rhyme won out over reason.
23 August 2019
Snaga
Was listening to random stuff today. Is, “One, two, three, four, John the Baptist knows the score”, from Soo Bawlz by Devo? Or did Devo and HMHB get it from an earlier source.
18 March 2020
IDIOT SAUL
Two, three, four, tell the people what she wore!
It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
18 March 2020
SNAGA
Thanks Idiot Saul. I feel so stupid now because Devo also recorded Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini. Christ, I’m the thickest person in my own company and that’s saying something.
23 March 2020
EXXO
Don’t feel stupid – there was perhaps no greater influence on the early sound of Attempted Moustache/very early HMHB than Devo, so your instincts were correct in another way. I’m told that Simon Blackwell and his mates might never have sounded like they did if they hadn’t been blown away by Devo at Knebworth, a band of a kind they probably never expected to like as much as they did, and who were kind of only on accidentally and got virtually bottled off by all the Genesis fans.
The female voice in the 1960 bikini song is mimicking a 1950’s cheerleader chant, “1-2-3-4 bla bla bla more/score,” a chant which of course was also famously used on demonstrations, especially anti-nuclear marches from the late 50’s onwards (1-2-3-4 we don’t want a nuclear war, 5-6-7-8 we don’t want to radiate”, then anti-vietnam marches in the 60’s, “we don’t want a fucking war” usually). See also Zappa’s female cheerleader-style chant in Joe’s Garage (1979). Ultimate origin, before it became a sports chant and a demo chant, was counting nursery rhymes and playground clapping/skipping songs.
24 March 2020
dr desperate
Not forgetting Country Joe & The Fish’s “1-2-3, what are we fighting for?”
I saw Devo supporting The Albertos at the (Greater) Free Trade Hall three months before that Knebworth 1978 appearance. The Berts’ meisterwerk ‘God Is Mad’ begins with the exchange “Are we not men?” “We are Bozos”, and they performed it that night wearing spudulike overalls and flowerpots on their heads.
24 March 2020
SNAGA
FFS. Country Joe & the Fish. I’ve got that too.
Ah well. At least I now know that I’m not the only one who likes to be a smart arse with music…..
……just have to get a little more smart and a little less arse.
28 March 2020
dr desperate
Come to think of it, I also saw Barry ‘The Fish’ Melton three times on his UK mini-tour last year. Bought him a pizza at the Manc gig (it being a Friday). He’s now a defence attorney and member of the State Bar of California. He started the “No rain!” chant at Woodstock, you know.
29 March 2020
SNaga
…..and Melton Mowbray Pork Pies do not, as far as we know, contain fish
29 March 2020
Lord leominster
Further to the discussion, above, between Two Fat Feet, Daryl, Static, Naturally and Vendor Of Quack Nostrums (April 2010 to August 2013) and in agreement with Chris The Siteowner (30 August 2013) I suggest the lyrics be amended to record the backing vocals. I don’t know if there is a convention for denoting backing vocals so I have used (brackets) thus:
But he also gave us Una Stubbs (Una Stubbs)
And he also gave us Little and Large (Matthew Kelly)
And he also gave us Keith Harris (Isla St Clair)
And he also gave us Wendy Craig (Little and Large)
And he also gave us Thora Hird ([indistinct])
And he also gave us Matthew Kelly ([indistinct])
And he also gave us Eartha Kitt (Mollie Sugden)
And he also gave us Lionel Blair (Lionel Blair)
7 June 2020
dr desperate
Could the Matthew Kelly (indistinct) be Hugh Scully?
8 June 2020
BOBBY SVARC
I thought it was Nigel Shaw
8 June 2020
Lord leominster
When I listened to this the other night I wondered if it was ‘Hughes’, as in Nerys, but I think the Doc may well be correct in saying Hugh Scully. In which case Hugh and Mollie (Sugden) would need to be added to both the lyrics and to the list of those no longer in need of season tickets. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away (KJV).
I still can’t make out the name that joins with Thora Hird. We might never know.
There’s also a stray word at the very end of the song but it’s not really a lyric. It sounds like ‘relationship’.
10 June 2020
mister tubbs
@Lord Leominster – I tried to work out the “stray word” at the end, but I couldn;t pick anything up on my cd version, but I have a vague recollection from when I had it on cassette, that there was a “Bless You” right at the death – but I could be remembering that all wrong, or it could’ve been a different song altogether
12 June 2020
Lord leominster
Bless YOU, Mister Tubbs. At 4:20 into a 4:20 song it’s a definite ‘Bless you’ on Spotify.
I propose that ‘Bless you’ be added to the lyrics as it’s not just some random chat accidentally captured on tape as I’d previously assumed.
12 June 2020
EXXO
That’s a pleasing rediscovery, ringing bells for me of a version from the early days that I too may still have on cassette or even vinyl somewhere.
13 June 2020
narkyyoungupstart
Long time scroller, first time poster. Do we know whose face it is on the cover of DHSS? If there’s a corner of the site for chatting about the album artwork, do point me there!
21 February 2021
dr Desperate
Hiya, @NYU, good first post.
In ‘Cover Versions’, the Liverpool University Press book about the art of ‘Steve ‘Jacuzzi’ Hardstaff (who designs all HMHB’s covers), the Aigburth DJ and ‘Sound of Music’ podcaster Bernie Connor claims that the picture on the cover of ‘Back In The D.H.S.S.’ was “a discarded and found photograph of what looks like a terrified young man tinted in gaudy pink”.
In an interview later in the book NB describes how impressed he was by “Mr Hardstaff’s seemingly effortless ability to make large a photograph we had for the front cover [we were still pointing at aeroplanes in 1985]”.
I don’t think there is a corner for chatting about album artwork, but if there were, I’d sit in it.
23 February 2021
EXXO
And in another interview (pretty sure it was the Andy Von Pip one) Nigel says that the photo was taken when the gentleman – who he says is a mutual acquaintance and, terrifyingly, is now a care assistant – awoke in Newquay.
23 February 2021
Cait
The lord give the & the lord taketh away…
A sad & hearty RIP to the lovely Una Stubbs.
12 August 2021
Cait
But he also gave us spellchecking – the bastard…
‘The lord giveth’ for crying out loud.
12 August 2021