Top Banana!

Mr. Barry 'Bananas' is a regular commenter here at Duff & Nonsense.  In all honesty, he does not always make himself welcome because some of his contributions to many of our conversations are the equivalent of a Kalahari bushman's grunts and clicks!  Even so, from time to time he has a rather catching turn of phrase, even if it is usually in the form of some ripe invective, so I put up with him.  However, today he has turned up trumps in the form of a song lyric by a group, hitherto totally unknown to me, called The Waterboys. I do not think this is a great lyric but it is a very good one and some of the images are very striking.  Barry was shrewd enough to send it in as a comment to my post below when, and I apologise for it, I allowed myself to indulge in a mixture of anger and angst.  Some of you may not bother to read the comment conversations that go on beneath the posts so I decided to highlight it up here.  Thanks, Barry.

The Waterboys: "Old England"

Man looks up on a yellow sky
And the rain turns to rust in his eye
Rumours of his health are lies
Old England is dying

His clothes are dirty shade of blue
And his ancient shoes worn through
He steals from me and he lies to you
Old England is dying

Still he sings an empire's song
And he keeps his navy strong
And he sticks his flag where it ill belongs
Old England is dying

You’re asking what makes me sigh now
What it is makes me shudder so
Well...
I just freeze in the wind
And I’m numb from the pummeling of the snow
That falls from high in yellow skies
Where the time stained flag of England flies
Where the homes are warm and the mothers sigh
Where comedians laugh and babies cry
Where criminals are televised! Politicians fraternize! Journalists are dignified and everyone is civilised!
And children stare with heroin eyes
Old England!

Evening has fallen
The swans are singing
The last of Sunday's bells is ringing
The wind in the trees is sighing
And Old England is dying

Comments

[barry bananas]

It's the performance that really sets fire to this one.

Oh, and stuff it up yer jacksie when yer done, aye? Ye auld rumpwrangler.

[N.I.B.]

Wow. I think you've finally seen the light, Duff!

[Rurrik]

I have gathered lots of pictures from various sources of the mass protests that have taken place in Moscow this past Saturday (and tomorrow in St.Petersburg). Please visit my site!

http://chicherin.blogspot.com/