Multi-cultural Mix-up: Robbie Burns Day

POST #67
PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "That's Amore", Dean Martin, 1953.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January 2015.

KEYWORDS: goldenoldy, multicultural, tribute, seasonal


Explanatory Notes: Robert Burns, born 1759, became Scotland’s ‘national poet’, and a cultural icon at home and among Scottish diaspora around the world. In his short life - he died at age 37 -  he wrote hundreds of well-loved poems and songs; the most famous is Auld Lang Syne, traditionally sung on Hogmanay. Robbie Burns Day is celebrated on his birthday, January 25. 

Robert Burns 

Burns' famous poems include "To a Mouse", "To a Louse", "Tam o' Shanter", "Parcel o' Rogues", and "Address to a Haggis". 

ROBBIE BURNS DAY

(to the tune of "That's Amore")

INTRO (Tremolo)
In Aberdeen and overseas
Kilt-wearers freeze below the knees.....

When friends honor the haggis and flag of St Andrews - 

That's Burns Day.

First you’re piped to your place, they intone Selkirk’s Grace -

The Saltire, or St Andrews cross

Robbie Burns Day.

Cock-a-leekie soup, cook will boast, address-by-the-host,

Offer toasts to the haggis.

You think, “oops!” – dinner-wasn’t-cheap, eat tatties an neeps *,

Hope to sleep through the speeches.

Poems recite – Mouse-that-gets-a-fright, Louse-that’s-in-plain-sight,

Witches’ night – ‘Tam o’ Shanter’

Greed retold, Scotland’s future sold, England’s bribing-gold,

 ‘Parcel o’ Rogues’  - truth or slander?

With slurred speech you sound Scottish, sipped Scotch ‘til you’re sottish - 

That's Burns Day.

Yes, you’ve downed too much malt, might be mostly your fault -

You feel plough'd.

Finally guests’ vote of thanks, you chant, closing your ranks

Like Hogmanay.

Let the world praise today the auld Bard o’ Alloway -

Robbie Burns Day!

Scots Lexicon

Alloway = village near Glasgow, birthplace of Rob Burns 
cock-a-leekie = chicken and onion soup
haggis = a large sausage, usually made with oatmeal and minced sheep offal
Hogmanay = New Year's Eve
tatties an neeps  = mashed potatoes and turnips


PERFORMING NOTES

Bdim7 = 1212; Bbm = 3111

INTRO (Tremolo)

[Fm] In Aberdeen and over[Bbm]seas

Kilt-wearers [Fm] freeze below the [C7] knees.  [C7!]

[C7] When friends [F] honor the haggis and flag of St Andrews -

[Bdim] That's [C7] Burns Day.

First you’re piped to your place, they intone Selkirk’s Grace -

[Bdim7] Robbie [F] Burns Day.
..........

Finally [Gm7] guests’ vote of thanks, you chant, [Bbm] closing your ranks

Like Hog[F]manay.

[Bdim7] Let the [C7] world praise today the auld Bard o’ Alloway -

Robbie [F] Burns Day     [C7]     
Robbie [F] Burns Day     [C7]  
Robbie [F] Burns Day  [C7]![F]!  

ORIGINAL SONG 
(click on any slide to enlarge and arrive in thumbnail mode for singalongs on your computer or phone!)  

The Origins of Trigonometry: AULD LANG's SINE

PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Auld Lang Syne", by Robert Burns, 1788.

Robert Burns

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January, 2015.

AULD LANG’S SINE

(to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne")

A clever Scot, Auld Simon Lang

Rests in a box o’ pine;

His contributions near-forgot -

‘E invented Auld Lang’s Sine.

Dreamed up the trig’s big Sine, and its

Gude cos’n bright an’ fine;

[One minus (Lang’s-Sine)squared], my dear,

Its square-root – Auld Lang’s Cosine.

And though his mind did grow less clear,   

His concept’s been refined –

One o’er t’other – Tangent, dear

Derived frae Auld Lang’s Sine.

And at the end, his sight grown dim

Ideas still implant –

Turned on its head, Auld Lang’s Cosine,

We know as Auld Lang’s Secant.

His final word, “Cotangent”,

Then his soul was carried up;

So kindly pass the pi, my dear,

And to Lang we’ll drink a cup.


Related Palindromes

T. set stats test.

Crazy Z-arc.

I-pen is rotator: sine pi.


Performing Notes

A [C]clever [Am] Scot, Auld [Dm] Simon [G7] Lang

Rests [C] in a [C7] box o’ [F] pine;

His [C] contri[Am]butions [Dm] near-for[G#dim7]got -

‘E in[Am]vented [Dm] Auld [G7] Lang’s [C] Sine.

A National Hymn for Us Canadians: "FLIGHT OF THE LOONIE"

POST #65
PARODY-LYRICS

OIGINAL SONG: "O Canada", R.S. Weir 1908.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January, 2015.

KEYWORDS: Canadian, classicsong 

January 16, 2015. The Wall Street Journal reviewed recent market and financial news from Canada under the title, “The Maple Leaf Faces a Harsh Fall”. 





FLIGHT OF THE LOONIE


(to the tune of "O Canada")


O Canada! 
Thy loonie lately tanked,
Quarterly gains scaled downward for thy banks.
With growing doubt, we just point out
The world-wide glut of oil; 
Arctic tundra
And shale-sands now stand on thawed less-frozen soil.
Target aimed wide, Burger King’s keen;
God! you can keep your doughnuts and poutine.
God! you can keep your doughnuts and poutine.

O Canada!
We’d best get with the times.

We still sing ‘thee’ in all our anthem’s rhymes. 
Some decades late, we’ll say 'Inuit'
Replacing 'Eskimo'. 
Automotive Sector
Now is found in northern Mexico.
Last century ‘belonged to us’ – don’t mock!
Bring back the Avro Arrow and the auk!
Bring back the Avro Arrow and the auk!


O Canada! 
We’ve problems with high-tech:
Dimmed hopes at RIM, and layoffs in Quebec.
If Bombardier can’t sell Learjets, how
Compete with Groupe Airbus?
Reports of sales of patents 
RIM’s investors dare not trust.
God, please ignore Journal’s prophecy - 
Bless the exchange rate for our currency,
Bless the exchange rate and the TSE*.

* TSE = Toronto Stock Exchange

HOTLINKS TO CANADIAN-THEMED SONG-POSTINGS

An Alien Heading South

Big Rob Rehab Clinic

Canadian Reunion

Canoeing Lesson

I've Got Anagrams, Eh?

Flight of the Loonie (see below)

FOP-Shop Wine

Mergerwocky

Off-Patent Drug #19

Prattle of New Orleans

Suburbs' Guy

The Maple Leaf Ad Infinitum 

This Land Has Anagrams 

TTC Voices

Vancouver's Isle

..AND A FEW LIMERICK-BASED SONGS

Shania Twain's "Verse": An anthem for limericists

Canada Day 2015 (singable limericks)

Limericks About Chemainus, B.C. 

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT
(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

Gdim7 = 0101

FURTHER SONGS ON THE SAME THEME

For other nostalgic takes on Canada's national hymns, you can view (and sing along with) ...

post #6 (December 2013) Canadian Reunion

post #22 (February 2014) The Maple Leaf Ad Infinitum  

post #181 (June 2018)  Something to Groan About

A Seasonal Treat: TURKEY LEFTOVERS

POST #64
This blogpost is dedicated to G.D., with best holiday wishes, December 2017.

PARODY-LYRICS subbed into 2 original songs, a pairody

ORIGINAL SONG#1: "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts...), written by Wells and Torme 1944, recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio 1946.
ORIGINAL SONG#2: "Good King Wenceslas", John Mason Neale 1853, but often now mistakenly referred to as 'traditional'. Neale's piece, (based on accounts of the Bohemian Wenceslas legend, and a 13th century 'spring- carol tune) was highly criticized in the 1920s as "ponderous moral doggerel"; see the interesting description in the Wiki essay.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January, 2015.

KEYWORDS: classicsong, traditional, seasonal, pa(i)rody

TURKEY LEFTOVERS

(to the tune of The Christmas Song - "Chestnuts Roasting")

Essay featured in Economist,
Turkeys' origins disclosed -
Centerpiece of each year's Yuletide feast,
Subspecies bred in Mexico.

Dolts like me believed that gobblers and that Mid-East land -
Names were mere coincidence.
Ottomans, trading ships, caravans -
I understand, it now makes sense.

Each year I prove I'm such a goof,
I try create too late a spiffy Christmas spoof,
But with a month's delay I'll get it right
Helped by this article about "Turkey's Flight".

And so I'm offering this paraphrase
Of what the author claimed was true,
French - d'inde, and the Turks call them 'hindi' - what jerks!
While in India, name in Hindi,
And in Portugal's 'peru'.

To the tune of "Good King Wenceslas")



Montezuma once bred fowl tastier than pheasant 
Shipped the Spanish queen a thou - funky kind of present.
Isabella loathed the birds, trimmings too displeased her;
No use for leftovers, she didn't have a free-eezer.

'Turkeys', Moors, then Jews were banned from the royal kitchens;
Legend says that's how began Spanish Inquisition - 
Cortes later sacked the lands of the Aztec ruler.
Phil or Izz-and-Ferdinand ? Can't say which was cru-ueller.

Avian émigrés toured through, crowns of Europe hosting,
Though few of their lackeys knew oven-time for roasting.
Hot or cold and steep or flat, exiled birds were living,
Prospered in those countries that didn't have Thanksgi-iving.

Thus this misnamed flock did cope through the 16th century,
'ventually hens copped some hope with the English gentry.
For some time they settled down,  breeding they found boring,
Westward they shipped out again, restlessly explo-oring.

Turkeys in America, native home  recovered,
Quirky and hysterical history discovered -
Essay we would clearly rank best of the Econ'mist,
Author we should dearly thank-(s)he remains anon-ymous.

For another parody on  "The Christmas Song"  see my earlier posting "The Cynic's Song" here.


PERFORMING NOTES

Bm7 = 2222;  C#m7 = 4444;  E7 = 1202;  Em7 = 1010;  C#7+5 =2112; F#m = 2120;  Dm6 = 2212;  D#m7 = 3324;  C#M7 = 1113;  CM7 = 0002;

A9= 0102;  DM7 = 2224;  D6 = 2222;  Dm7 = 2213;  CM7 = 0002;  C6 = 0000;  Fdim7 = 1212; G#7 = 1323;  Cdim7 = 2323;  AM7 = 1100;  F#7sus = 6677

ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS