h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Recumbentman, I'll gladly eat my words, hat or anything else you choose to mention. Irish has never been one of my expert subjects and I am willing to be corrected on it at any time. Come to think of it, I'm willing to be corrected on any subject at any time providing the corrector knows what they're talking about.

Now there speaks a gentleman and a scholar. A pleasure to bandy words with you.

You know...I'd never realised that about 'the low road'. It makes perfect sense. He'll be in Scotland, but still won't meet his true love.

>> ..pleasure to bandy words with..<<

Bandy?

(Oh I do love it when the subject flows like a good game of dominoes.)

Yes, bandy, wassat mean Mr Lying Down?
You used it, now explain it.
Something to do with chickens or gamecocks I'll wager.
Or dueling banjoes maybe?


~jwf~

"O, I'll take the high road and you take the low road and I'll be in Scotland afore ye..'>>

My old Scots-descended Mum always said it was to do with one of the roads (I don't remember which) being a reference to the fact that one of the parties was about to pop his/her clogs, making the road metaphorical, and was not therefore a reference to the Highlands vs the lowlands at all...

OED says

"Bandy (verb): To throw or strike (a ball) to and fro, as in the games of tennis and bandy. (Mostly with figurative reference.)
1577 HOLINSHED Chron. III. 1077/2 Kingdoms..be no balles for me to bandie.
1592 NASHE P. Penilesse 15b, They may make Ruffians hall of Hell: and there bandy balles of Brimstone at one anothers head.
1678 CUDWORTH Intell. Syst. 845 Had we no Mastery at all over our Thoughts, but they were all like Tennis Balls, Bandied, and Struck upon us, as it were by Rackets from without.
1842 W. GROVE Corr. Phys. Forces 20 A ball of caoutchouc, bandied about.
1860 TENNYSON Vision of Sin iv, xi, To be the ball of Time, Bandied by the hands of fools."

and further on, "to bandy words = to argue pertinaciously, wrangle."

No no no! "You take the high road and I'll take the low road"

I'll be dead...but my heart will still be somewhere between Rowardennan and Inversnaid.

Westering home and a song in the air....

Oh Danny boy...


(Did you hear about the Scottish boomerang? It doesn't come back. It just sings songs about the old country.)

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My father used to say about the Scots that they'd do anything for their country except live there... (My Scouse father and my Scottish mother used to fight the battle of Culloden every Saturday night.)

Nice to see Edward taking responsibility (on behalf of the Scots) for Danny Boy . . . no such luck. http://www.theoriginofdannyboy.com/

Grand tune, shame about the words, added in 1913 by Frederick E Weatherly.

The story of Petrie getting the tune (now called The Londonderry Air) from Miss Ross in the mid 19th century rings a bell with me. Mrs Ross couldn't name the tune, but said "it was very old".

I once did transcriptions of fiddle tunes for a book "The Northern Fiddler" and on the tape the late John Doherty said at one point "now this is a really old tune" and proceeded to improvise . . . at least that's what it sounded like to me.

Think about it. It's getting late, the is flowing, you've played all the tunes you can recall but your fingers are full of promising patterns and you want to be helpful to your friendly host with the tape recorder . . . what would you say?

I wasn't maning to imply ownership. I was simply off on a good old-fashioned pub singalong

The golden rule with Danny Boy is 'Start low!' If you don't, you'll experience extreme discomfort when it comes to the 'money note' of 'and I'll be therrrrre...

A bit like Flower of Scotland then. I've often noticed at rugby games the song takes off with half the stadium singing, wittled down to 15 men and a howling dog who can reach the high notes before the song's out.

Same rule applies to 'You'll never walk alone'

>> ..one of the parties was about to pop his/her clogs, making the road metaphorical...<<

Oh... THAT 'low' road.

And there does seems to be some concensus from others, so I guess you all must know what you're talking about. A closer look at the entire lryic in that context and it does seem that the singer is facing imminent death in much the same way as old black joe sang 'swing down sweet chariot'.

Well, I must say I'd never thought of it that way before. Just never thought of the Scottish as blues singers.

Thanks,

~jwf~

>>Just never thought of the Scottish as blues singers.

It should't come as any surprise. The lament is a traditional highland musical/poetic form. It is one of the judging elements in piping contests.

Plus - although The Blues is a definitely a traditional African form - you only have to hear Ali Farka Touré to recognise the straight line from Mali to the Mississippi delta I know how to spell Mississippi - I just don't know when to stop - there was also a degree of cross-fertilisation with the traditional music of the Scots-Irish who supplied the bulk of the landless white immigration to the American deep south. This finds its obvious expression in Country music - which can reasonably be thought of as 'Scots-Irish blues'. The vogue in contemporary 'Scottish Traditional Music' is to incorporate American elements, and many Scots musicians play alongside those from the Bluegrass and Country traditions. Check out Shetland fiddler Aly McBain's Transatlantic Sessions. Emmylou Harris did some gorgeous duets with Dick Gaughan.

Incidentally - I've long had a theory (utterly unsupported) that the term 'blues' originates from the Yoruba religion. As a youth I used to visit Liverpool museum. It's fine collection of African artefacts (including some stunning metalwork from Benin) was accompanied by some explanatory texts. It struck me that the god Shango (!), the custodian of the mojo (life-force) was associated with coolness and the colour blue.

Can a blue boy play the whites?

Or all they all just hypocrites?

Well the word jazz is very clearly Gaelic. It means "nice", or more precisely "niiiiize".

Spelt "Deas" its normal or correct pronunciation is "Jass", but if you draw it out . . .

>> Can a blue boy play the whites? <<

Never one to ignore a direct question no matter how rhetoric it may at first appear, I am happy to report that here in multicultural Canada, equidistant from the Mississippi Delta and the Lowlands of Scotland the intercultural mix takes on even deeper implications:

>> The evening's surprise smash at the showcases was the Pappy Johns Band. This award-winning First Peoples blues act delivered awesome soul and R&B. Their original tunes spoke of the red man singing the black man's blues living in a white man's world. <<

*
the quote is from: http://www.mnblues.com/review/2003/maplebluesawards-jan03-th.html
*


~jwf~

Doesn't the Irish word for a 'black' man translate literally as a 'blue man'?

I'm not a Gaelgeoir I'm afraid, just heard that from someone.

You are quite right, King Bomba; the Irish for "black man" is "fear gorm" which means literally "blue man".

Edward's quote was from a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band, who are on the Front Page today.

Ah! I was sure the quote was originally from Adrian Henri. Some 'intertextualisation' maybe? (Posh word for plagiarism). Must check my 3 Liverpool Poets book.

We're straying away from Lang and Ling...but what the heck. 'World Music' is one of my topics. There's also a Native American genre called 'Chicken Scratch' which borrows a lot from raw blues, zydeco and various Spanish-American forms. It's rough and ready stuff, often played on improvised instruments.

And I recall John Peel saying 'That was a piece of Speed Metal played by a band from northern Canada. I rather like the idea of a postman trudging across the frozen tundra to deliver a BBC royalty cheque to their igloo. I imagine they'll be rather surprised.'