Tag: Barry Grossman

An Attractive Young Note In Janie’s Diary, But Not In Mine, 14 November 1999…Or Do We Mean 12 November 1999

In Janie’s diary for Sunday 14 November, but not mine, the following reminder – presumably based on me saying to Janie, “let’s not forget to listen to…”

The Attractive Young Rabbi. Barry Grossman. 11:30 Radio 4.

Word must have reached me through the NewsRevue community that Barry Grossman’s radio series, The Attractive Young Rabbi, was about to broadcast.

What do you mean, you missed it at the time and now can’t get hold of it?

What do you mean, you heard it at the time but can’t remember it?

It’s there to be heard on the Internet Archive if you now where to look. Click this link, for example, and you’ll find the first series.

Tracy-Anne Oberman was also a NewsRevue (or more specifically, SportsRevue) alum, so this series was definitely a tribute to our NewsRevue “Class of ’92”.

Class Of ’92 Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner, Café Rouge Holborn, 5 October 2017

There’s Barry in the Guinness World Record photo, with specs, holding the award.

I enjoyed listening to The Attractive Young Rabbi again. It is quintessentially BBC Radio Four comedy.

Postscript: Barry Grossman Writes…

Thanks Ian, except you and Janey [sic] must have missed it because it was actually on Friday, the 12th of November.

And there were no i-players, BBC Sounds or internet archives in those more innocent times. Perhaps you taped it on your reel-to-reel tape recorder the size of a house and listened to it on the Sunday.

I responded to Barry as follows:

Weird but clearly true that the broadcast was on the Friday not the Sunday, yet the note is unquestionably written in the Sunday section of Janie’s diary. 

My guess is that Janie wrote the note there because the Friday page was completely crammed with patient appointments.  The Saturday block is covered in notes about something completely different and unintelligible.  So the only space for an additional note on that page was the Sunday block. 

Quite right that there was no public domain technology to help us listen at an alternative time, but Janie did have a midi hi-fi thing in the maisonette that would enable you to record onto cassette from the radio.  I was out visiting clients that day, but she would have been able to press the record button on her midi gadget at the appointed hour.  My guess is that the note was a reminder to do that.

No gargantuan reel-to-reel tape recorder available at that time – that device lives in the flat and the flat was being refurbished that autumn.  Probably just as well – Janie was reluctant enough to press a “record” button on a bog-standard midi system.  My reel-to-reel would have seemed like something out of Mission Impossible to Janie…

… https://youtu.be/4y9NtHlJvbY …

…which would have made listening to the recording on the Saturday or Sunday…impossible.

Hazy Crazy Mangosuthu Buthelezi, NewsRevue Lyric, 20 June 1995

I’m not sure whether this was ever performed, but I am sure that I credited Barry Grossman for his part in it. In those days, we writers would meet most weeks and occasionally divvy up ideas.

Zulu leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, was on an independence drive that summer…or, as the South Africans call months like June…winter.

Barry came up with the idea of “Roll Out Those Hazy Crazy Mangosuthu Buthelezi Days…” but insisted that I use it, perhaps lacking confidence with lyric writing himself at that time or perhaps just busy that week, which was sometimes my reason for offering an idea to others.

That idea and my first pass at this was in the summer (or, as the South Africans like to call the month of August…winter) of 1993. The following, longer version was a remix.

I’m not sure if either version of the lyric was used. Still, I rather like the end result.

ROLL OUT THOSE HAZY CRAZY MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI BATTLES – SUMMER 1995 REMIX
(To the Tune of “Roll Out Those Hazy Crazy Lazy Days of Summer”)

CHORUS 1

Roll out those hazy crazy Buthelezi battles,
Those wars of Zulus, Incartha and fear;
Roll out that hazy crazy Buthelezi Natal,
Natal may be independent next year.

VERSE 1

He has a mad on against President Mandela,
Thinks that he’s sweller,
And more fit;
But when the votes were counted up by local tellers,
Not all Kwazulu wants to be led by that shit.

CHORUS 2

Roll out that hazy crazy Buthelezi bummer,
Winnie Mandela looks calm when compared;
That Buthelezi goes half crazy every summer,
Displays his weapon and can’t be impaired.

VERSE 2

He hates that ANC man Cyril Ramaphosa,
Say’s he’s a poser,
And a jerk;
And when he’s fighting in the townships like Tokoza,
He takes the F out of F.W. de Klerk.

CHORUS 3

Throw out that hazy crazy Buthelezi arsehole,
He’s making pacts with the Fascistic whites;
Just flush that shady Buthelezi down the plug hole,
And put an end to his quarrelsome fights;
Build understanding and more human rights.

Hear and see Nat King Cole sing Roll Out Those Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer:

Roll Out Those Hazy Crazy Mangosuthu Buthelezi Days Of Summer, NewsRevue Lyric, 9 August 1993

Mangosuthu Buthelezi in 1983 photo by Rob Bogaerts / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL

I wrote this up on the back of a 1995 electronic document…

Hazy Crazy Mangosuthu Buthelezi, NewsRevue Lyric, 20 June 1995

…but it turns out that my log records the original as 9 August 1993.

Everthing I said in that 1995 document still applies, except that the conversation that Barry Grossman and I had that summer (or as the South Africans might describe August; winter) was 1993, not 1995.

I still think that “Roll Out Those Hazy, Crazy, Mangosuthu Buthelezi Days Of Summer” is a great song title – thank you Barry Grossman.

Here’s the earliest version for which I can find an electronic file; 23 October 1993. I clearly extended the piece in 1995:

ROLL OUT THOSE HAZY CRAZY MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI BATTLES –  VERSION 2

 (To the Tune of “Roll Out Those Hazy Crazy Lazy Days of Summer”)

CHORUS 1

Roll out those hazy crazy Buthelezi battles,

Those wars of Zulus, Incartha and fear;

Roll out that hazy crazy Buthelezi Natal,

Natal may be independent next year.

VERSE 1

He hates that ANC man Cyril Ramaphosa,

Say’s he’s a poser,

And a jerk;

But when they’re fighting in the townships like Tokoza,

They take the F out of F.W. de Klerk.

CHORUS 2

Throw out that hazy crazy Buthelezi arsehole,

He’s made a pact with the Fascistic whites;

Just flush that shady Buthelezi down the plug hole,

And put an end to his quarrelsome fights;

Build understanding and more human rights.

Here’s Nat King Cole singing Hazy Crazy Lazy Days Of Summer with lyrics embedded:

Mauritius, Music During Our Visit July/August 1979

Music in Mauritius is currently described thus in Wikipedia.

While we were there, one might have been forgiven for thinking that sega was the only local style. Wikipedia specifically describes sega thus. Indeed, one might have been forgiven for thinking that Cousin Cousine by Joss Henri was more or less the only record in the charts.

Years later, I recall a very funny sketch by Barry Grossman at NewsRevue about the Tudor charts, the punchline of which was that Greensleeves was the number one for the 2,157th (or some such) week running. That sketch always reminded me of my trip to Mauritius and Cousin Cousine, which had been number one for as long as anyone could remember while when we arrived and was still number one when we left.

Of course, the whole idea of Cousin Cousine was very suitable for Anil, who was basically on a voyage around the island visiting a myriad of cousins (and cousines) he had not met before, so I’m sure that song must conjure up our trip in his mind as well as mine.

I have found this YouTube, which shows some good photos of people dancing the sega to the sound of Cousin Cousine, recorded pretty well.

I did buy three other records as well as Cousin Cousine, all of which can be heard on the soundtrack to the standard 8 movie from our trip to Mauritus, which I put up on YouTube.

Here is an instructional YouTube video on how to do the modern zumba version of the sega dance. Don’t try this on a full stomach.

While here is a UNESCO YouTube explaining the history, look and sound of it all in educational terms, complete with soporific schoolteacher voice to minimise the chance of you watching this video through to the end.

Suffice it to say, we had some fun listening to and dancing sega while we were in Mauritius in 1979.