Submission To Jonathan Linsley’s 1993 Christmas Run, 31 October 1993




LIST OF SONGS SUBMITTED AND TAPE TRACK LISTING

JONATHEN LINSLEY XMAS 1993 RUN
 
Dear Jonathen
 
I enclose your fun pack “best of 1993” lyrics and tape.  I have included the ones you requested plus a few others for you to consider.  They are all 1993 songs and most of them had successful runs during the year.  There are also one or two new ones that might interest you, including the “Oh what a year” opening number that I sent you a few weeks ago.
 
I am only around for another 10 days or so and then I am away for several weeks, so please let me know if there are any others that you want or any rewriting that you wish to discuss.  I should be at the writers meetings 4 Nov and 11 Nov before I go, or you may try to reach me by phone on the above number.
 
See you soon.

Hysteria by Terry Johnson, Royal Court Theatre, 29 October 1993

This was a very interesting play about a meeting between Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali. We both really enjoyed it.

Here is the Wikipedia entry for the play.

Here is the Theatricalia entry.

Super cast, with Henry Goodman as Freud, Tim Potter as Dali. Phyllida Lloyd directed this production, which was the premier.

The play has oft been revived since.

Here is Michael Billington’s review from the Guardian:

Billington on HysteriaBillington on Hysteria Mon, Sep 6, 1993 – 25 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Coveney’s review – not so keen:

Coveney on HysteriaCoveney on Hysteria Sun, Sep 12, 1993 – 49 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

We rounded off our evening with Chinese food from The Park Inn. Quite right too.

The diary suggests that we planned to have Marianne and Anil over for dinner the next evening, the Saturday, but Anil doesn’t get beyond a question mark and Janie is sure she has never met him, so my guess is that the whole idea fell though.

Penis In Blue Jeans, NewsRevue Lyric, 29 October 1993

I can only assume that this lyric was triggered by some silly news story about men being exploited by the fashion industry.

I don’t think it was used but it does have one or two good lines in it.

                                                   _ PENIS IN BLUE JEANS _

                                (To the Tune of “Venus in Blue Jeans”)
 
INTRO – MELVYN BRAGG
 
Good evening and welcome to the South Bank Show.  Politics and the performing arts.  Tonight we welcome Ivor Tripod.  Through his songs, Ivor argues that performers are exploited by powerful, faceless corporations.  His first song tonight is a scathing polemic about the exploitation of men by the denim trouser industry.
 
(Enter female chorus)La la, la la la, la la la la, la la;
(Enter well endowed male singer) La da, da de da, da de de da, dee dum;
 
VERSE 1
 
My penis in blue jeans,
Macho Levis with a pony tail;
See the action in your swimming pools,
Of my cue and snooker balls.
 
VERSE 2
 
My Penis in blue jeans,
Outlined in a range of underwear;
Denim Wranglers can’t prevent the pain,
When horse-dragged cross the plain.
 
MIDDLE BIT
 
There’s more than seven wonders in the world,
Because my friend is number eight;
To keep my golden wonder neatly curled,
I must not masturbate…
 
VERSE 3
 
…my Penis in blue jeans,
Is a massively uplifting sight;
My pitch increases more and more,
(strains for the last few notes) These jeans are much too tight.

Below is Mark Wynter singing Venus In Blue Jeans with the lyrics on the screen:

Raping Drunks Is Hard To Do, NewsRevue Lyric (Probably Unused), 26 October 1993

Tough topic to try to cover, this and I’m not too sure what point I was trying to make or what news story triggered it. Presumably some confusion at a major university somewhere over what to do about drunken students who didn’t know what they had done, with whom and/or how consensual whatever it was might have been.

Mercifully, I don’t think the lyric was used.

_ RAPING DRUNKS IS HARD TO DO _

(To the Tune of “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”)

INTRO/BACKING REFRAIN THROUGHOUT – COLLEGE DONS

Clear the college town too-tee-too town town,

Send the buggers down doo-dee-doo down down,

Wear a silly gown goo-gee-goo gown gown,

Raping drunks is hard to do.

VERSE 1 – THE BOY

They say our love was not p.c.,

When we were at University;

You’re a girl that I once knew,

For taking pot and sniffing glue.

VERSE 2 – THE GIRL

Remember when we got so tight,

I stayed with you all through the night;

Can’t recall what I went through,

But waking up was hard to do.

MIDDLE BIT – ALTERNATELY

BOY:You know that making love is hard to do,

GIRL:When you’re both as pissed as a newt;

BOY:(looks down) Don’t say that this is me end,

GIRL:Instead of making love I think we may be throwing up again.

VERSE 3 – THE BOY

I beg of U-niversity,

Please don’t add to my adversity,

College court’s a kangaroo,

Cos raping drunks is hard to prove.

OUTRO – COLLEGE DONS

Clear the college town too-tee-too town town,

Send the buggers down doo-dee-doo down down,

Wear a silly gown goo-gee-goo gown gown,

Raping drunks is hard to do.

Below is a video of Neil Sedaka singing Breaking Up Is Hard To Do with the lyrics on the screen:

Moonlight by Harold Pinter, Almeida Theatre, 23 October 1993

Yes, yes, yes! We thought this was a really, really good night at the theatre.

I’d long been a Pinter fan. Janie wasn’t really familiar with his work, but Janie made the running for this night at the Almeida, booking us the front row seats we craved for that place (still do) and jotting down all the details. 90 minutes without an interval. Seats A7 & A8.

This play/production was our first sighting of Pinter together.

I think we ran into Ivan Shakespeare again that night; volunteering for the Almeida selling programmes.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this play/production.

Here is the Wikipedia entry, which shows who did what etc. What a cast it was too. Claire Skinner, Ian Holm, Anna Massey, Michael Sheen, Douglas Hodge, Jill Johnson and Edward de Souza – directed by David Leveaux.

Below is Michael Coveney’s review:

Michael Coveney MoonlightMichael Coveney Moonlight Sun, Sep 12, 1993 – 49 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Michael Billington’s review was on the front page of the Guradian – how often does that happen? Along with a luvvie-fest piece (I’m glad we weren’t there that night and a continuation on Page 18.

Billington MoonlightBillington Moonlight Wed, Sep 8, 1993 – 1 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Billington continued on Page 18:

Billington Moonlight ContinuedBillington Moonlight Continued Wed, Sep 8, 1993 – 18 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Also in the Guardian, an Anna Massey interview about Moonlight. Anna Massey went on to become one of Janie’s regular clients, but Janie didn’t yet know her when we saw Moonlight.

Anna Massey MoonlightAnna Massey Moonlight Thu, Sep 9, 1993 – 35 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

We stayed at mine by the looks of it. I think I probably cooked, given the short play and my having been in the West End on the Friday.

Anyway, it was a fabulous, memorable night at the theatre.

Submission To John Random’s NewsRevue Run, 23 October 1993

To my regret and subsequently also to Random’s, this submission did not succeed in placing one of my favourite songs, She’s So Moral (about Mother Teresa) – click here for the song lyrics.

LIST OF SONGS SUBMITTED AND TAPE TRACK LISTING

JOHN RANDOM NOVEMBER 1993 RUN
 
Dear John
 
I enclose your starter pack of lyrics and tape for my offerings.  The pack includes some rewrites of older ones and some that have been cruelly overlooked before but still have life in them.  I haven’t included any chestnuts from earlier runs, but if you want one that you remember, just let me know.
 
Please do call me and let me know if you are short of any subjects or styles and I shall try to oblige.  Also, if any of these need a bit of rewrite then I shall be happy to change them on request.
 
I shall try to write some new ones for you over the next 10 days or so if the inspiration comes.
 
See you soon.

A Pre Run Offering To John Random, Covering Letter, 23 October 1993

A letter to John Random dated 23 October 1993, which, to my regret and subsequently also to Random’s, did not succeed in placing one of my favourite songs, She’s So Moral (about Mother Teresa) – click here for the song lyrics :

   LIST OF SONGS SUBMITTED AND TAPE TRACK LISTING

   JOHN RANDOM NOVEMBER 1993 RUN

Dear John

I enclose your starter pack of lyrics and tape for my offerings.  The pack includes some rewrites of older ones and some that have been cruelly overlooked before but still have life in them.  I haven’t included any chestnuts from earlier runs, but if you want one that you remember, just let me know.

Please do call me and let me know if you are short of any subjects or styles and I shall try to oblige.  Also, if any of these need a bit of rewrite then I shall be happy to change them on request.

I shall try to write some new ones for you over the next 10 days or so if the inspiration comes.

See you soon.

 

   Song Title Original Title/

Artist on Tape

Aprox. No. of Performances
   7+ 4-6  1-3 New
all things wild and shootable no recoring – sorry y
judges are senile putting on the style/lonnie donegan y
thai and yellow chicken tie a yellow ribbon/dawn y
she’s so moral she’s so modern/boomtown rats y
who do you talk to john where do you go to/peter sarstedt y
hazy crazy buthelesi hazy crazy lazy days of summer y
the labour chorus brahms symphony no 1 mov 4 y
grunge clobber wearer guantanamera/pete seger y
president al you can call me al/paul simon y

She’s So Moral, Unused Lyric For NewsRevue, 23 October 1993

John Random once said to me, many years ago and also many years after the (non) event, that he remembered this song fondly and regrets the fact that he didn’t use it.

It wasn’t very topical, although Mother Teresa was always in the news back then.

Still, when I found the covering letter for the pre November 1993 pack within which I first submitted the song – click here for that letter – I couldn’t resist upping the song to Ogblog.

Postscript: I have subsequently found the date 15 July 1993 on my log for this song, which might be an error or might show that I wrote it in July and then resubmitted (previously unused) it in October 1993. Cruelly overlooked, whenever it was.

Click here or below for a link to a YouTube of She’s So Modern by the Boomtown Rats.

Click here for a link to the original lyrics.

SHE’S SO MORAL

(To the Tune of “She’s So Modern”)

(Ideally this song is sung by the Devil with a chorus of demons – “The Doomtown Rats” perhaps)

CHORUS 1

(She’s so) totally heavenly,

(She’s well) over seventy;

(Kind dame) folk always praise her,

(Her name is) Mother Theresa.

She’s a moral nun oh yeh,

A saintly one so goody goody,

But she’s not much fun oh no.

MIDDLE BIT

She makes the priests hearts flutter, each time they hear her pray;

She’s a big hit in Calcutta,  she’s always giving stuff away.

But poor aren’t clothed by blessings, and the starving can’t eat hope;

Yet it’s uplifting for the squalid as,

She is pally with the Pope.

CHORUS 2

I gotta say it now;

(She’s so) damn altruistic,

(It makes) me want to be sick;

(She looks) like a buck rabbit,

(She has) just one nasty habit.

Which she always wears oh yeh,

But no one cares cos she’s monastic,

She don’t have affairs no way.

She’s so m-m-m-m magnanimous

CHORUS 3

 (She’s so) virgo intactica,

(Cos no) one has attracted her;

(She is) the model of virtue,

(She’s just) too fucking good to be true.

She’s so………..

m-m-m-m-MORAL!!!!!

(c) Ian Harris 1993

Dinner With Annie & Annalisa At Janie’s, 8 October, Then Kim & Micky Also At Janie’s, 16 October 1993

This date hovered around between the Friday 8th and Saturday 9th, eventually settling, it seems, on the Friday.

Janie finished work a bit early and did the honours for an 8.00 meal. It will have been a good one, but Annalisa’s vegetarianism (was Annie also veggie?) will have irritated Janie a bit.

My guess is that Janie will have done something along the lines of the food she tends to serve Kim. Perhaps ratatouille. Perhaps Lebanese style food.

It will have been good. (I know i have said that twice).

Janie and I went to the hygienist the next day. That incident will have been unconnected with the good meal incident.

I think I possibly flew out to Geneva on the Sunday. For sure I was there on the Monday and I think I stayed a couple of nights.

The following weekend, I played bridge at Tessa’s on the Friday then went on to Janie’s place.

On the Saturday Janie cooked for Kim & Micky. That too will have been a good one.

Oh What A Year, NewsRevue Lyric, 10 October 1993

I wrote this one for Jonathan Linsley’s Christmas run, possibly at his request. I disappeared to China for most of that run so I’m not 100% sure if it was used, but I think it was.

   _ 1993 OH WHAT A YEAR _

 (To the Tune of “December 63, Oh What A Night”)

VERSE 1

Oh what a year, let’s remember 1993;

Little green shoots of recovery,

What an outturn, what a year.

Oh what a year, ‘tho’ John Major didn’t get the sack;

Barmy bastards stabbed him in the back,

What a leader, what a year.

MIDDLE BIT 1

Lamont, caused a huge sensation when he taxed domestic fuel;

Got sacked, but the poor and feeble will still keep cool.

VERSE 2

Oh what a year, England lost at almost every sport;

Could Frank Bruno knock out Nigel Short?

What heroics, what a year.

OTHER TYPE OF MIDDLY TWIDDLY BIT

The Firm exposed Tom Cruise yet more than in Days of Thunder;

Ken Branagh’s Much Ado made everyone want to chunder.

VERSE 3

Oh what a year, Grease and Hair were the revival fads,

Must be due to those old Brylcream ads,

What a retro of a year.

Oh what a year, General Aideed was the yob at issue,

So Bill Clinton blew up Mogadishu,

What a fighter, what a year.

MIDDLE BIT 2

Bosnia, spent the whole year fighting ‘tho’ the Vance-Owen plan;

Was near, to solving this long pain deep in the Balkans. (Male singer holds balls)

VERSE 4

(Male singer falsetto) Oh what a year!

Let’s remember 1993,

We’ll review the year satirically,

“Best Of News Revue” is here!!

Below is Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons singing Oh What A Night with the lyrics on’t screen: