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:

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

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:

Somalia Mini-Opera, NewsRevue Lyric (Almost Certainly Unused), 4 October 1993

Not only am I pretty sure this one wasn’t used, I’m not even sure it was ever submitted. It isn’t even recorded on my log – just the electronic file sitting in my 1993 creative folder. I’m guessing that I decided that the subject matter was simply too grim for comedy.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali was the Secretary General of the United Nations at the time. Aidid (Aideed) was a Somalian warlord.

_ THE SOMALIA MINI OPERA _

(A medley using a range of seemingly unconnected tunes)
 
BOUTROS BOUTROS
(To the Tune of “Stupid Cupid”)
 
Boutros Boutros you’re a real mean guy,{Boutros Boutros}
Your troops in Mogadishu wish you’d die;{Boutros Boutros}
You try to harmonise relations,{Boutros Boutros}
By sending in the troops of the United Nations;{Boutros Boutros}
To free Somalis,
Boutros Boutros, Boutros Ghali.
 
WARLORD
(To the Tune of “Milord”)
 
We’re getting peeved and bored,
With this Aideed warlord,
The blasted UN blow up everyone but him;
They think they’ll end the war,
If they just fight some more,
But this Somali gore gets deadlier and grim.
 
BOUTROS BOUTROS
(To the tune of “Daisy Daisy”)
 
Boutros Boutros,
Send us your UN troops;
Snipers shoot us,
Which gives us all the poops.
It won’t be a stylish slaughter,
But we still think you oughta,
Bomb infantry,
And Somalis,
In the blighted Mogadishu.
 
WARLORD
(To the Tune of “Milord”)
 
We are indeed more bored,
With this Aideed warlord,
The blasted UN blow up everyone but him;
They think they’ll end the war,
If they just fight some more,
But this Somali gore gets deadlier and grim.

Below is a video of Connie Francis singing Stupid Cupid with lyrics on the screen:

https://youtu.be/cMzt81cQbqI

Below is a video of Édith Piaf singing Milord with an English translation of the lyrics on the screen:

Below is a recording of the original Daisy Bell (Daisy Daisy) song with lyrics on the screen; the familiar chorus starts around 37 seconds in.

https://youtu.be/PqvuNb8DevE

All Things Wild And Shootable, NewsRevue Lyric, 30 September 1993

I think this short song was only briefly performed, although I’m sure it could have done well for a long time in the hands of any half-decent Prince Philip impersonator, of whom NewsRevue had many at that time.

All these years later, I still find the idea of Prince Philip being the patron of WWF bizarre. I mean the World Wide Fund for Nature, of course. Philip The Greek God as patron of the wrestling lot would make a bit more sense.

ALL THINGS WILD AND SHOOTABLE _

(A Quickie to the Tune of “All Things Bright and Beautiful”)

CHORUS 1

All things bright and beautiful,

Love the World Wildlife Fund;

Their patron’s not cute at all,

Prince Philip has beasts gunned.

VERSE 1 – PRINCE PHILIP

I shoot the grouse on Moorlands,

But won’t hunt baby fawns;

I’d sooner stuff their mummies,

And mount their daddies’ horns.

CHORUS 2

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures tasty hot;

All things wild and shootable,

Prince Philip kills the lot.

(PRINCE PHILIP:Hear, hear.)

(c) Ian Harris 1993

In Autumn 1994 I replaced the “Hear hear” line with

(PRINCE PHILIP: I think I’ll start with that stupid wimp of a son, Charles)

…it looks as though I had another go at resubmitting it in autumn 1995 as well.

I was reminded of this song when I found my October 1993 submissions letter to John Random, which I Ogblogged here. 

Click here or below for a link to a cute kiddy YouTube recording of this hymn, with the lyrics on the screen.

Norman the Chancellor, N M Rothchild Version, Topical Lyric, 20 September 1993

I’ve said most of the things I want to say about this story and song in the posting for the original, May 1993 version of this song, so you can follow this link if you wish.

In May, I had a hunch that Norman Lamont would make a subsequent pile in the City and by September it had been announced that he was joining the Board of N M Rothchild.

The line about Lamont buying stuff in Threshers was based on a big news story a few months before alleging that Lamont bought cheap champagne and cigarettes in The Praed Street branch of Threshers on an over the limit credit card; a story that it seems was partially fabricated – click link for The Independent factual account.

Soon after, Lamont must have moved even closer to my W2 residence, as I went through a phase of seeing him on the main strip of Notting Hill Gate, shuffling along in his inimitable manner. We even had a branch of Threshers along there at the time, which added to my fun at the sightings. But I never saw him go in to Threshers.  On that N M Rothchild stipend, I suspect that Norman was buying more expensive booze than the Threshers kind and that his credit limit was, by then, more manageable/much bigger.

In truth I prefer the simplicity of the May 1993 original version, but I do recall the cast making hay with the “children and teacher” setting of this N M Rothchild version of the song:

♬ NORMAN THE CHANCELLOR – N M ROTHCHILD VERSION ♬

(To the Tune of “Nellie The Elephant”)

TEACHER:Gather round children.  I’m going to tell you a story about a nasty grey man who made your mummies and daddies all very poor.  And who made himself very very rich.

 

VERSE

One grey day,

A cabinet shuffle came;

The people said they were badly lead,

And Norman got the blame.

Some may say,

Lamont is a merchant banker; (children giggle, TEACHER:  settle down children)

So Norman smiled, joined N M Rothchild,

And called Major to say…… “thank ya”.  (perhaps children mouth “wanker”)

 

CHORUS

Oh, Norman the Chancellor left the bunch,

And said goodbye to John’s circus;

Since the pound had gone bumpety bump, bump, bump, bump.

Norman the Chancellor did some lunch,

And said hello to the city;

He’ll get rich in the slumpety slump, slump, slump, slump.

 

MIDDLE BIT

Directorships were calling far far away,

He stopped and bought,

His cigars and port,

In a Threshers on the way.

 

OUTRO

So, Norman it’s evident had a hunch,

To make himself pots of money,

When he screwed up the country’s account,

Count, cunt, cunt.

(TEACHER:children, really!)

BLACKOUT

Johnny Maggie, NewsRevue Lyric, 19 September 1993

Some good lines in this one but I have a feeling it wasn’t used. I had plenty in the show at that time and perhaps this wasn’t my strongest political lyric when taken as a whole.

JOHNNY MAGGIE _

(To the Tune of “Johnny Reggae”)
 
INTRO
 
CHORUS:What’s he like Margaret?
MAGGIE:He’s a real dreary geezer.
 
VERSE 1 – MAGGIE THATCHER
 
He’s going bald a bit and he’s been in power much too long;
And he wears a nylon tie with the label “C&A” on;
He always makes a cock up when decisions cross his path,
He’s stupid over cricket,
And he couldn’t run a bath.
 
CHORUS 1 – CHORUS
 
Maggie, Maggie, Maggie,
Slag off Johnny Maggie,
Johnny Major Maggie,
Lay it on him;
Maggie, Maggie, Maggie,
In your memoirs Maggie,
Slag off Johnny Maggie,
Blame it on him.
 
VERSE 2 – JOHNNY MAJOR
 
While still in power she promised she would go on and on;
And most of Maggie’s memoirs are like a dose of Mogadon;
Her publishers were anxious cos they want a best seller;
They told her “spice it up a bit,
Slag off that Major fellah.”
 
CHORUS 2 – CHORUS
 
Maggie is a menace,
She slurs more than Dennis,
Her book shook John then it’s
Hit the stalls;
Johnny tried to cage her,
But he can’t upstage her,
Maggie’s got John Major by the balls!!!

Below is a video of The Piglets singing Johnny Reggae:

Here is a link to the lyrics of Johnny Reggae.

Thank Devon For Liberals, NewsRevue Lyric, 19 September 1993

Paddy Ashdown was the leader of the Liberal Democrats at that time. The party wasn’t doing very well. Plus ca change (he writes in 2019)…

THANK DEVON FOR LIBERALS

(To the Tune of “Thank Heaven For Little Girls”)
 
INTRO
 
When Paddy Ashdown took the lead,
In 1987;
He saw the Parliamentary map,
And smiled and said,
 
CHORUS – PADDY ASHDOWN
 
Thank Devon for Liberals,
For Devon has the seats we tend to get;
Thank Devon for Liberals,
Tho’ my own Yeovil seat’s in Somerset.
 
Those by-election gains elsewhere that so astonish,
When it’s a general,
They stall,
And quickly vanish.
 
Thank Devon for Liberals,
Be thankful for Torquay,
Where we can hold our photo jogs,
Forget about the Fascist
Isle of Dogs.

Here is Maurice Chevalier singing Thank Heaven For Little Girls:

Here is a link to the lyrics of thank Heaven For Little Girls.