Music and swearing (two separate subjects)

[ladyofastolat]

Last night, while I was driving home from dancing, a very exuberant large band was performing American folk classics. I turned the volume up. My toe started tapping. "It's like an American version of Bellowhead!" I thought in delight. I had enormous fun for the whole drive home, and as soon as I got in, I rushed to find out who was playing. I'd never expected it to be Bruce Springsteen. We Shall Overcome: the Seeger sessions has gone straight onto my Amazon wishlist. Even the videos on Youtube look like Bellowhead, complete with the packed stage of instrumentalists having fun, and the massed ranks of brass instruments.

re. Bellowhead: after much dithering, we've decided to go to their New Year event. We almost booked it in October, after they mentioned it at their Frome concert, but tickets were expensive, and hotels were even more so, so we decided not to. However, I realised that I was reluctant to make any other New Year plans because, deep down, I felt that Bellowhead was the only way to go. It's an evening in the South Bank Centre in London, with a ceilidh, shanties and several Bellowhead performances, and then a front row view of the New Year fireworks on Central London. I'm really looking forward to it. :-)

And where does swearing come in? Well, not at all, except that I was amused today to see in a book review that it had "mild strong language." Yes, I know what it meant, but I just like the idea of something being simultaneously mild and strong. I do like the way that people often use circumlocutions or euphemisms even just to talk about swearing. "Strong language": is that related to strong verbs? "This story contains some language," I've seen on many a fanfic introduction; presumably all the other fanfics were done in interpretative dance. "This contains offensive language", but offensive to whom? (Some people would be far more offended by a misplaced apostrophe than by a "bloody.") "Four letter words": so that's why my work internet filter once blocked a page because it contained the word "toad."* And then there's the word "swearing" itself...

* Entirely true. Apparently.

Comments

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

One of my colleagues used the expression 'run like the Dickens' yesterday, to the general bewilderment of the younger generation. "What does that mean?" they asked - this is the same younger generation that's never heard of Gilbert and Sullivan, mind you, so I don't expect much of them. I explained that it was an old euphemism for 'the devil' and, once I'd finished explaining 'euphemism' as well, they were none the wiser. Why would you need a euphemism for that?!

Reading, as I do, a great many detective stories of a certain age, it often amuses me that they use all sorts of language (and attitudes) that are most offensive nowadays but never swear beyond a mild 'damn!' - and, in even older books, even that's represented by 'D---!' - whereas now it's almost the direct opposite. Which makes buying books for my mother very difficult, I may add, but that's neither here nor there.

We caught Bruce and the Seeger Sessions Band at Wembley Arena during their UK tour. I have to admit that my main memory of the evening is that the security staff made us stay in our seats and wouldn't let us dance. Most provoking of them.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I'd never put the devil down as a fast sprinter, anyway. He was trudging last time I encountered him in print, when Pellinor read out a reference to a 16th or 17th century woman who met the devil when out walking. He asked her for 2/6, and "complained about the hardness of the times."

I always like wondering what common words everyone uses today without question will be considered offensive in the future.

[squonk79.livejournal.com]

presumably all the other fanfics were done in interpretative dance

Now that i'd love to see!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

It could be a fun twist on the fanfic remix challenge: challenge people to rewrite existing fanfics in the form of interpretative dance, and then post a video.

*laughs* I'm now imagining a ballet company dancing one of my fanfics: male dancer in tac vest and tights...; much angst with expansive hand gestures...; balletic heroic staggering... :-)

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

The Seeger Sessions are amazing, one of my favourite CDs of the decade. Which probably means I ought to put Bellowhead on my Christmas list. Recommendations on where to start?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

They've only done two full-length albums, and one half-sized one. Their first album, Burlesque, is definitely my favourite. I like a lot of their second one, Matachin, but the second half of it contains some long narrative songs that are neither very dancable to nor have choruses. (I like my Bellowhead fully interactive, which is why I always leave their concerts hoarse and barely able to walk.) I like their half-sized one, EPonymous, too.

Take a listen to some tracks, first, though - there are plenty of Youtube videos of them out there, of varying quality - to see if you like them. They're not to everyone's taste. I always feel a sense of responsibility when someone is considering buying something after I've raved about it, and tend to throw out all sorts of cautions. :-)