Those Were The Raves, NewsRevue Lyric, 9 January 1994

This is one of my personal favourites and it was used a reasonable amount in NewsRevue.

I originally put this lyric up dated 3 July 1994, but have now discovered from my log that it was originally written 9 January that year. So the twaddle I wrote about writing it while setting up Z/Yen and leaving Binders…

Written around the time that I was setting up Z/Yen – I think I had handed in my notice at Binders by then. That fact has no bearing on the song/lyric.

…is twaddle.

I recycled the rap break in my first performance piece for the Gresham Society soiree in 2011 – a version of Any Old Iron with rap break – to be Ogblogged in the fullness of time.

THOSE WERE THE RAVES

(To the Tune of “Those were The Days”)

VERSE 1

Once upon a time there was a hanger,

Where we used to hold a dance or two;

Remember how we drove in our old bangers,

Just think of all the speed we used to do.

CHORUS 1

Those were the raves my friend, we drove folk round the bend,

We’d sing and dance and hyper ventilate;

We were so full of beans, on our amphetamines,

But come the Monday we would vegetate.

RAP MIDDLE SECTION

Yo, pal, those were the days,

We t’ought d’ey’d always be the craze;

We’d spin and dance de whole night t’rough,

Cos I was poppin’ Es and you was sniffin’ glue;

And now you’ll hear the sad, sad song,

Of how we lived so fast and died so young;

But sugar, I don’t mean the thing’s I rap,

I should get outta the way, cos I’m talkin’ crap;

And I go on and on and on and on,

You know my jaw don’t stop until the break of dawn;

I’m just rabbitin’ on about a prior year,

Cos I suffer from verbal diarrhoea, yo.

VERSE 2

Soon a dizzy feeling in the cloakroom,

Jemmimah the pink rat flew through he door;

In the glass a hideous reflection,

I squeezed the zit, then passed out on the floor.

CHORUS 2

Those were the raves my friend, but they were bound to end,

We’d spin and dance all night in ecstasy;

House Acid and Hip-Hop, ’till we were fit to drop,

We’d crash and burn before we’re twenty three, (la la la la la la la la la la la la).

Here is Mary Hopkin singing Those Were The Days – if you click through you can read the lyrics too:

https://youtu.be/y3KEhWTnWvE