Folk you, you folking folk

I have recently been given a vinyl deck with a USB output on the proviso that I copy the vinyls of its previous owners onto CDs for them. Awesome I thought. Now they've said I can keep the vinyl too. I got really drunk and thought about how touching this was because vinyls are personal things and so emailed them telling them it was too much, i'd feel bad etc etc. They didn't care as they're moving onto a house boat in a few months and are ridding themselves of all but the most essential of their posessions and they know i love old music. So thanks Elizabeth and Pete! Good things happen when people hear you playing Fairport Convention in the Star.

Anyhow I've been copying their old vinyls, at the rate of a out 2 or 3 a week. It is actually quite a labour intensive process. You have to play each vinyl in real time. Then you have to normalise the volume level. Then you have to chop the continuous audio into seperate tracks - so you have to find the beginnings/ends of all the songs. Then you have to export the tracks as WAV files and name them. Then you can burn the CD if you don't have arguments with windows media player. I've gotten faster at doing it after a few albums.

So I've been listening to old folk records and reading a book a few afternoons a week. Big whoop. But it gets interesting.... I have discovered one LP in particular that I love. It is an album entitled "Morris On" and is a sort of folk rock super group; Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson (knew I'd like it when I saw that name), Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfeld (I'd never heard of him before). It features a song which has the privalage of being the only one ever to actually force me to laugh out loud on first and then repeated listens.

The song is "Cuckoo's Nest" and I shall try and find the lyrics and paste them into me blog. What is the folk song Cuckoo's Nest about? Huh? You want me to tell you. OK 'cos I hate that look on your face. Its about a vagina. The basic premiss of the song is boy meets girl, boys tells girl he wants to touch her up, girl says no, boys says don't be like that, girl relents, boy fingers girl, they like it, get married, have kids and boy can finger girl to his hearts content. Its got a haunting tune too.


CUCKOOS NEST

As I was a walking one morning in May
I met a pretty fair maid and unto her did say
I'll tell you me mind, it's for love I am inclined
An me inclination lies in your cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says she, I am innocent and young
And I scarcely can believe your false deluding tongue
Yet I see it in your eyes and it fills me with surprise
That your inclination lies in me cuckoo's nest

Some like a girl who is pretty in the face
and some like a girl who is slender in the waist
But give me a girl who will wriggle and will twist
At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says me, if you can see it in me eyes
Then think of it as fondness and do not be surprised
For I live you me dear and I'll marry you I swear
If you'll let me clap my hand on your cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says she, I can do no such thing
For me mother often told me it was committing sin
Me maidenhead to lose and me sex to be abused
So have no more to do with me cuckoo's nest

Some like a girl who is pretty in the face
and some like a girl who is slender in the waist
But give me a girl who will wriggle and will twist
At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says me, it's not committing sin
But common sense should tell you it is a pleasing thing
For you were brought into this world to increase and do your best
And to help a man to heaven in your cuckoo's nest

Me darling, says she, I cannot you deny
For you've surely won my heart by the rolling of your eye
Yet I see it in your eyes that your courage is surprised
So gently lift your hand into me cuckoo's nest

Some like a girl who is pretty in the face
and some like a girl who is slender in the waist
But give me a girl who will wriggle and will twist
At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo's nest

This couple they got married and soon they went to bed
And now this pretty fair maid has lost her maidenhead
In a small country cottage they increase and do their best
And he often claps his hand on her cuckoo's nest

Some like a girl who is pretty in the face
and some like a girl who is slender in the waist
But give me a girl who will wriggle and will twist
At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo's nest


Brilliant.