I'm from Korea, and this song is still perfectly relatable as a narrative of what the class troublemakers will get up to on a school trip. Just switch out the colloquialisms, names and brands to the local equivalents and it absolutely fits. Funny how the human experience is pretty much the same regardless of where you live.
"Dawson hides his intent in plain sight, threading his lyrics with plenty of clues. The assailant outside the chip shop (Thadeus); the lad who cracks his head open (Peter); the pupil who “fills a Reebok Pump with the pulp from his belly” (Simon) and the object of his affections (Bartholomew); the lad who gobs at the narrator (Matthew); his neighbour who “lost two fingers to a Staffie-cross” (Andrew) who works at a no win no fee solicitors (James and James) and even the brand of screwdriver he injures himself with (Philip) are all the names of Christ’s apostles. (He hides his intent elsewhere as well. The two instrumental tracks on the album are called ‘Doubting Thomas’ and ‘Judas Iscariot’.) "
Not to nay say, but while it's definitely interesting, I think this kind of stuff is unimportant. Like, the characters could have been named after the 1966 England line up, or the 1997 Labour front bench. It just seems to be a way of choosing names. Do you think there's anything more to it?
I was just listening to beggar at work - I had snot and tears. Not a good office image, but then if your listening to Richard Dawson, you don't want to be wasting your life in an office anyway.
Sheer genius.......the Toon looking like a Brown Ale version of Apocalypse Now...Noo.......original, unnerving, hypnotic and not for the faint hearted.......I love it!!!
I rarely come across something which affects me like this song. I too hail from the north east of England and this lyric eerily describes many a school trip and many a teenage piss up. Which I don't know about anyone else was usually dicky dark stuff. This musician is amazing and I adore his music.
Richard Dawson is a true artist among pretenders. His voice soars above the rest. I have been listening to his records AT LEAST once a week since January. Discovery of the year by far.
Swinford Mctaggart Garvey why, out of curiousity? What makes you think artists are afraid to make this kind of music? Just wondering, not being argumentative or anything!
The rest of folk culture has an inherent darkness to it, it seems a shame that folk music doesn't often achieve this same quality. In this instance this song is in stark contrast to that. MORE PLEASE!
I remember when I jumped into my bed, smoked out and drunk as hell, my landing was off, my jaw caught the metal end of my bed frame, I bit a hole through my lower lip, got blood everywhere in a matter of seconds. kept on defiling myself the rest of the night as soon as I had stopped the bleeding.
Has anybody figured out his guitar tuning? he's stated in interviews that he's "unsure" and might be playing DADGAD, but that he occasionally tunes to C or C#. Thoughts?
Pretty sure he plays this in open D dropped down a whole step - not sure what you'd call it... low open C? C G C E G C The main riff is based around 1st, 3rd and 5th frets on the 34 strings, with that low C on the 6ths for the bass drone The main riffs aren't too difficult to work out, but will be hard to play if you aren't used to this style of thumb/finger stuff.
You're right, you do need to drop the D string 1 tone :). However to play the main riffs with the open 3rd string like he does, you need to drop the 3rd string (G) down 1 semi-tone as well. D A D Gb A D To play along with the track you need to take the tuning above and drop it down a tone C G C E G C.
I absolutely love this. Watched it on repeat eight times consecutively..... walked around for the next three days with it auto-playing in my head. So good. Sleaford Mods also pointing me his way. If you like this, you'll love them.
This is like Palace Brothers relocated to the North East, caged and fed a diet of Fred Frith and steroids until fat, sweaty and beady eyed its unleashed to reek havoc on fleeing hipsters!
This right here, this is art, this should be celebrated and consumed by the masses and not that disposable pop crap. Not enough of this kind of thing anymore.
