Seasonal Reprise: "JANUARY is for SCOTS", a tribute to Robert Burns

Robert Burns 

PARODY-LYRICS for an original song, with connections to Robert Burns

PARODY-SONG: "Dean Martin Sings Robbie Burns Day" 2024, a parody pastiche with lyrics by Giorgio Coniglio, substituted to "That's Amore", the Dean Martin 1953 classic.

THIS MEDLEY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, December, 2018, updated from earlier blogposts, and with improved verse-charts 


Explanatory Notes: Robert Burns, born 1759, became Scotland’s ‘national poet’, and a cultural icon at home and among Scottish diaspora around the world. In his short life - he died at age 37 -  he wrote hundreds of well-loved poems and songs; the most famous is Auld Lang Syne, traditionally sung on Hogmanay (New Year's Eve). Robbie Burns Day is celebrated on his birthday, January 25, often with a Burns Night supper. 

Burns' best-loved poems include "To a Mouse", "To a Louse", "Tam o' Shanter", "Parcel o' Rogues", and "Address to a Haggis".

WORDPLAY LINK: A somewhat different version on the Simon Lang story, with a more modern take, has been twisted into limerick verse, and can be seen HERE, on our sister-blog "Edifying Nonsense". 

AULD LANG’S SINE       

(to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne")

C-tuned ukulele specifics:
Bdim7 =  1212.  

ROBBIE BURNS DAY

(to the tune of "That's Amore")

C-tuned ukulele specifics:
Fm = 1013;  Bbm = 3111;  Bbm7 = 1111;  Bdim7 = 1212;  A7 = 0100  

ORIGINAL SONGS
(click on any slide to enlarge and arrive in thumbnail mode for singalongs on your computer or phone!)  

REPEAT VERSES 1 and 2

Anagram-Lyrics for the FOURTH of JULY, "YOU CLAIM IT'S YOUR LAND"

Disputatious anagrams

POST #182
PARODY LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie, originally written in 1940 as a protest song. Its bitter message expounded in the last few verses, reflecting the hardships of the Great Depression, have often been deleted, leaving it as a national song of praise (as in the Pete Seeger version). You can listen to the earlier version by Woody himself on Youtube here.
PARODY COMPOSED: Many of the anagrams used here were developed for a parody-lyrics blogpost related to the 2016 election, entitled "Election-Race Anagrams".
The current adaptation of the Guthrie song was created by Giorgio Coniglio, July 2018. 

SONGLINK: A Canadian version of "This Land Is Your Land" was popularized by the Canadian group The Travellers in 1956. A parody of that version was presented on this blogsite for Canada Day 2017. Check out "This Land Has Anagrams".  


WORDPLAY LINK: For more palindromes, anagrams, verse, and Scrambletown maps, see our wordplay blog, Edifying Nonsense here.

YOU CLAIM IT'S YOUR LAND

(to the tune of "This Land Is Your Land")


This land is my land, you claim it's your land,
Two different viewpoints - adore/abhor land,
A former wise land, now a polarized land,
Home of such animosity.

A SNIPER-CLUB o' anagrams -- stirred up REPUBLICANS,
From the West Coast's BLIP NURSE (CA)  to CLEAN PUBS (RI) Rhode Island,
From Nebraska's SCRUBPAIL (NE) to Southeast's PUNBAILER (SC),
Wordplay from sea to shining sea.

Some folks wear Scramble-hats -- MAD SECTOR of DEMOCRATS,
From Montana's SEACORD (MT) back to COASTER (MD) Maryland,
From Dakota's CATMORE (SD) to Carolina's MEAT ROD (SC),
Wordplay on land and sea-to-sea.

I took Rex walking, with my aim CURB SPANIEL,
And avoided stepping on any BARN SPICULE.
I'm no longer paying that PANIC'S RUBLE.
Anagrams define the GOP.

As Rex was walking (he's a sad RED MASCOT),
He took the trail of that pail of CREAM DOTS,
At the border, sleeping, kids not on MADRE COTS,
Angry words hide a travesty.

This land is our land, you claim it's your land,
Two battling versions - adore/abhor land,
A former wise land, now a polarized land,
Let's heal the animosity.

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT (and guitar, too!)

(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page, including the original Guthrie version.)

WORDPLAY LINK: 

For wordplay (palindromes, anagrams, binomials, creative cartography, etc.) and silly poetry (polished limericks), see our sister blog "EDIFYING NONSENSE" here.

WORDPLAY LINK: 

For wordplay (palindromes, anagrams, eggcorns, creative cartography, etc.) and silly poetry (polished limericks), see our sister blog "EDIFYING NONSENSE" here. 

Original Song Lyrics

A Tribute to Parodist AL SILVER: "I GET A KICK OUT OF ME"

AL SILVER,
Also known to this blog as Al+Ag+
Photo kindly provided by Vernon Silver

POST #174

Tribute and Reminiscence: AL SILVER, parodist

ORIGINAL SONG: "I Get A Kick Out of You" 1934, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, performed by Ethel Merman in the Broadway musical "Anything Goes"and many others. 

PARODY-LYRICS COMPOSED: By guest artist Al Silver, January 2013, copied here, with permission granted posthumously by Al's family.
 Al has been a frequent contributor to the AmIRight song-parody website.

BACKGROUND:
It was with dismay that I learned that good friend Al  had passed away in November 2017 due to cancer.
 Al and I became good e-friends while we were both contributors to AmIRight, a website that provides a vehicle for satirists to post parody-lyrics online. Al was a maven of words, turn-of-phrase, irony and satire, as established right at the start with his ingenious submissions. With his extensive knowledge of Broadway show music, he was a master at taking familiar old tunes and imbuing them with a new, and sometimes biting twist. The targets of his attack were prototype villains including hypocrites, racists, science-deniers and duplicitous politicians. Although his pieces were sometimes spurred by dismaying news of our everyday life, they were flawless in their lexical execution and timeless in their relevance. On the site, his cunning skill in linking language to music, and his insights into the historical and current value of satire made his contributions iconic examples of parody, an art for which he displayed a deep devotion. As a part of this dedication, he spent a lot of time reading submissions by other contributors, and commenting assiduously on how the site could be improved through honoring the standards set by our predecessors. Al was, for example, a great admirer of Cole Porter, the Gershwins and Irving Berlin.   
    

  As a result of our email communications, Al had agreed to let me repost some of his parody lyrics songs on my blogsite. BTW, in our email communications, Al became known to me by the nickname Al+Ag+(miming th chemi8cal symbols for aluminum and silver), so I still think of him that way. 

You can view Al's delightful lyrics shared at posts on this blogsite at:

post #25 Feb 2014  "Somewhere Dwelt the Designer"

post #100 Oct 2015  "Let's Do IT"

post #102 Oct 2015, "Zombies"

post #110 Nov 2015, "Whole Foods"

You can find a list by dates of songs by Al+Ag+ contributed to AmIRight, and links to all his lyrics by clicking here:

Al Silver.

SOME FURTHER BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION.

(kindly provided by Al's son):

Al, a lifetime New Yorker, was born in Brooklyn and a graduate of Stuyvesant High School and City College. An electrical engineer by profession, he found his true calling as a mostly unpublished writer and humorist, first in children's stories (when raising two kids largely on his own), then cartoons (the crucifixion was a recurring theme) and then song parodies (built around 20th century standards). He died in November 2017 a month after learning he had cancer. His children and grandchildren marked his passing with a singing of his "I Get a Kick Out of Me." ( link to AmIRight version)  Al was 83.

"I GET A KICK OUT OF ME", Al Silver

(to the tune of Cole Porter's "I Get A Kick out of You" - original lyrics shown in italics)

My story is such a joy to describe,
For I’m not the kind to live with a boisterous tribe.
The greatest of pleasures I’m known to embrace
Comes when I’m gaily on my own,
Near the mirror behind my throne,
That’s reflecting to me alone
My fabulous face.

My story is much too sad to be told
But practically everything leaves me totally cold
The only exception I know is the case
When I'm out on a quiet spree
Fighting vainly the old ennui
And I suddenly turn and see
Your fabulous face.

I get no kick from romance.
Yielding to love is one thing I’m above,
So tell me why shouldn’t it be
That I get a kick out of me?

I get no kick from champagne
Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all
So tell me why should it be true --
That I get a kick out of you.

Some folks give gambling a chance.
If I could grace ev’ry hand with an ace
I’d still keep my abrasive esprit;
‘Cause I get a kick out of me.


Some get a kick from cocaine
I'm sure that if I took even one sniff
That would bore me terrifically too,
Yet I get a kick out of you.

I get a kick when it’s clear that I
Am my devoted ally.
I get a kick when to me I sigh,
“I’m obviously such a good guy.”

I get a kick every time I see you standing there before me
I get a kick though its clear to me you obviously don't
Adore me.

I get no prick from Love’s lance.
Don’t miss the kisses
Of Mrs. Narcissus; if this is what bliss is, I flee.
Yes, I get a kick out of me.

I get no kick in a plane
Flying too high
With some guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do.
Yet I get a kick out of you.

Uke-Song (Gershwin folk-aria): ICELANDIC SUMMERTIME SAGA

POST #164:
Singable Limerick-Medley 

ORIGINAL SONG: The melody for the spiritual ballad "Summertime" from the George Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess".

LIMERICK VERSE:  Original verses composed by Giorgio Coniglio 2017, and compiled in January 2018. Several of the verses also appear, mildly modified, in the online limerick dictionary OEDILF.com. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Ukulele chord-charts were adapted from an excellent version at "Dr Uke".
SONGLINK: A calypso-style song about a visit to Iceland in June 2015 was composed for this website under the title "Nordic Journal: Island in the Sun".                                  

CONTENTS:
Underpinnings: "Summertime"
1. Iceland / Ísland: dry land
2. Geysir
3. Eyjafjallajökull (E15)
4. Second-Hand Geyser
5. Stopover in Reykjavik (not a limerick)

ICELANDIC SONG

Display of the lyrics has been condensed to 4 lines for each verse, with internal rhyming in line 3, rather than the more customary 5-line limerick format.) 

(to the tune of "Summertime") 

1. In the far North Atlantic there’s dry land:
Friendly Iceland – it’s my kind of island.
You’ll be welcomed in Ísland *; cool and damp but at-peace land; 
Summer-sun-all-day-but-you-won’t-fry land.

2. Tourists learn the Norse thermal god plays here;
The Icelandic locale known as ‘Geysir’.
From hot pools steam erupts - belching after he sups.
Then they head for the sign (that says),“Tour Bus Stays Here.”

3. E15, Iceland stratovolcano,
Spews out fog that can clog up your plane, Oh
If explain it I must - it’s just ashes and dust;  
Can’t they flush it away with some Drano?

4. A cheap gift: though Björn thought he’d surprise her,
Björg rejected his second-hand geyser,                                              
“What I’d prize is a freezer. Your poor wife, why displease her?
It just proves you’re a nasty old miser.”

5. If you’re planning an Iceland stopover:
Avoid months with an 'R', like October;  

Reykjavik? Here's my warning: bars stay open til morning.  

And the patrons aren't prone to stay sober.
(OR SEE THE SLIDE BELOW FOR AN ALTERNATIVE!)

* pronounced as EES-lahndt.

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT

(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

A7s = 0200;  A7 = 0100;  Dm7 = 2213;  Gm = 0231;  D7s = 2233;  Gm7 = 0211; 
Bb7 = 1211;  A7+5 = 0110;  Fdim7 = 1212

At this point you might wish to return to the post 'Singable Lyrics: Novel Melodies for Limericks' HERE. 

ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS