Transported from Bristol to Australia (and back)

Cootamundra Wattle (Photo: John Jennings)

Well, last week's Dragon Folk Club Session had a slightly more satisfactory turn-out than the previous one. Let's see if we can make a big effort to get a good crowd this Friday for the last in our series of 50th anniversary sessions. We will be two men down, so we really need to make an extra effort. If you can't make it this week then remember that you are welcome any Friday from 8:15pm at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol, BS16 9NG. Barring Christmas Day, very deep snow, tempest or a rare double-booking of the room, we will be there. Watch this blog or our Facebook page for such information.

Short but I hope sweet

Frontispiece depicting Juvenal and Persius,
from a volume translated
by John Dryden in 1711

It's a really short report of last week's session I'm afraid due to lack of time but first of all, please remember that this Friday's session will be our theme for St David's Day, so it's mainly Welsh but remember that he is also patron of poets and vegetarians, Pembrokshire and Naas in County Kildare, Ireland.

Colin started us off with The Bos'n The Gunner And Me (Francis Barron, Henry Trotere).

Simon spent the evening singing songs he had left over from Valentine's Day the week before, starting with No Sir No (Roud 146). Inspired by the line "If my hand should slip a little further" from the previous song, classicist Derek told the story of a young lady who had studied Juvenal's Satires  and had always wanted to know the meaning of an obscure Latin word used when one character's hand was slipped up the clothing of another character. She found the biggest and best Latin dictionary in the University library, and found that the word was translated... into its Greek equivalent. Now keen to get to the bottom of the mystery, she found the biggest and best Greek dictionary, where the Greek word was translated... back into the Latin! Derek sang Sullivan's John (Pecker Dunne).

The Songs People Sing

Appleby Horse Fair (Photo: Bryan Ledgard)

A brief traditional riddle for readers to solve: what did the following people do on the specified dates, which on 22nd June 2018 gave the Substitute Scribe 20 minutes respite from scribing, while the others argued about the answer?- Joe South (1968), Freddy Weller (of Paul Revere and the Raiders 1969), Dolly Parton (1969), Conway Twitty (1969), Don Gibson (1970), Sami Jo (1974), Dick Gaughan (1983), Tesla (1994), Inner Circle (1994) and Don Williams 1995.

The answer is that they all recorded The Games People Play (Joe South), which Colin sang in the course of the evening. As far as I am aware Colin has not recorded it, but 'Basement' tapes may begin to appear soon. And I need to point out that two other songs – but with the same title - were recorded by The Alan Parsons Project (1987) and The Spinners (1975). Sorry, not those Spinners, but an American R&B group [Ed: known in the UK as The Detroit Spinners to avoid just such confusion].