Blood on the Quad sounds like a class rant but it’s really not apparently. A great two-minute thrash which I’m sure would go down well at a Cambridge May Ball. Half Man Half Biscuit played one of them once, by the way. I haven’t seen that documented widely, but I do have a mate who claims to have been there.
See lyrics to Blood on the Quad
Bernard Matthews
‘Well it may be through goose rule; it may be through God’
Possibly?
See the highlighted portions here
14 April 2008
chris
That’s certainly what it sounds like, but even by Half Man Half Biscuit standards that’s an obscure reference! Let’s stick with it then.
14 April 2008
Sanchez
For years I thought he said ‘sounds like a Clash rant’.
9 May 2008
gary
I always thought it was gooch rule, as in graham gooch but i don’t know enough about cricket or quads to know if that makes any sense.
14 May 2008
Paul
I’m with Sanchez, I thought it was “Clash rant”.
4 July 2008
Charles Exford
‘Well it may be through goose rule; it may be through God’
These are certainly the words, and that’s an excellent bit of googling there Bernie, about the ‘Glancing Goose Rule’ in obscure US law, but I’m more inclined to think this is some sort of literary reference, with ‘goose rule’ most likely being a saying originating in the Game of Goose, one of the most popular board games of centuries gone by across all of Europe, and a game of total chance, in which for example, if your dice throw lands you on THE DEATH SQUARE you go back to the start. The rules were sometimes known as the ‘goose rules’. I have found literary references (e.g. a massively famous poem by Goldsmith in the 18th Century) which refers to these rules, but not yet anything about “By goose rule or by god”. I’ll keep looking.
29 January 2009
Jon Brassey
“Well it may be through goose rule”
I’m pretty sure it says something like ‘Well I may be too guttural’
It fits in with the above lines of the song asking him to speak. And, Scouse (although they are from the Wirral, they still have a Scouse accent – esp. in Birkenhead (I’m from down the road)) is guttural in nature e.g.
“…..though they are able to intimdate people through shouting at them with a guttural accent that….”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?page=4&term=scouser
2 June 2009
Chris The Siteowner
That could be a stroke of genius. OK, it would have to be pronounced “gootrall”, and it still sounds to me like “it may be”, not “I may be”, but it’s a distinct possibility. Let’s call up the regulars. What d’ya think guys?
2 June 2009
Charles Exford
OK I’ve had an open-minded listen and a think and a listen again, but
(i) Never ever heard it pronounced like that, on Wirral, Merseyside, or anywhere.
(ii) If it was ‘guttural’ then ‘or it may be by God’ would seem a non-sequitur.
(iii) apart from /k/ often pronounced like German ‘ch’, Scouse is not a particularly guttural accent; it is far more nasal. NB’s softer non-Scouse Merseyside accent does not usually contain that particularly guttural vowel, nor in his songs does he tend to adopt the persona of someone with that accent.
(iv) That link you posted above is pretty offensive, as the writer claims to be capable of doing “a decent unbiased job” and then has a nasty, stereotype-perpetuating swipe in every single paragraph. And he thinks the Scouse persecution complex is unjustified ?
2 June 2009
Jon Brassey
In response to Charles, I’m not claiming it was true – guttural, it was just a suggestion. Surely not wayward enough to incur such a bombastic response.
Non-sequitur, HMHB lyrics are full of them. Also, as for finding the link offensive – surely not. A HMHB with such a thin-skin….
19 June 2009
Charles Exford
Normally I tend to ignore the really far-off suggestions on here but Chris asked us what we thought of yours, on which you & he did actually seem rather keen (“pretty sure” and “a distinct possibility”). So I thought about it with an open mind and then I stated my views.
I then also stated my views on the undeniably offensive anti-Scouse bigotry in that link. I don’t think it’s an example a thin skin, as I am not Scouse, but it is I admit something I feel hugely strongly about.
20 June 2009
Jon
One follow-up to my initial response and something that aggrieved Charles was my link to some anti-Scouse sentiments. I was not linking to that article because I believed it (I don’t tend to take those sites particularly seriously) it simply supported my viewpoint that Scouse was/is guttural.
15 July 2009
Sera_6969
Always thought the fourth line “It may be through goose rule, it may be through God” referred to goose step and martial law. For example, it may be through political indoctrination, it may be through religious indoctrination…
Awesome site btw
16 July 2009
Adam Colenso
The Game of Goose is referred to in a footnote by the mad narrator/commentator Kinbote in Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabakov when it is compared with Starover Blue. Have a look here: http://nabokovs-butterfly.blogspot.com/2009/10/royal-game-of-goose.html
Jon, play nicely.
11 March 2010
Poolio
I don’t think that you can deny that it’s…
…now they’re going to drop their kecks…
I love finding one; that’s made this post-stag do Monday somewhat bearable – hurrah for me… can I get a seconder?
I too always thought “Clash rant”, but it’s definitely class…
4 October 2010
Charles Exford
Seconded. It’s definitely “they’re” (not “they’ve”) and either “going to” or “gone to”, the former seeming more likely.
I forgot to add back in the springtime that NB57 did confirm the “it may be through goose rule” line, but couldn’t recall what its origin or inspiration was.
5 October 2010
Neil G
Thirded. I hadn’t noticed that. Well spotted. Definitely ‘they’re going to …’
5 October 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Cheers all.
5 October 2010
Fredorrarci
I’ve always imagined the “goose rule” bit to be about some kind of future avian uprising owing to repeated foie gras-related abuse, meself.
3 November 2010
Chigley Skin
It doesn’t seem to have been mentioned on here previously, so I’m not sure if it’s considered common knowledge, but the melody for this one is filched (with considerable irony) from Woody Guthrie’s “Miss Pavlichenko”, a tribute to a prolific Soviet sniper of the Second World War. Which I’ve always considered a minor bit of genius on NB57′s part:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHKjOl9ocR0
26 July 2011
Charles Exford
Definite Golden Biscuit 2011 contender this brilliant info from CS.
Chapeau.
29 July 2011
Tonto’s Expanding Waist Band
Apparently, “Goose Rule” is a NASA stipulation that fighter pilots must have a second pilot on stand-by in the back seat when flying during goose migration season… seems that a lone T-38 pilot crashed and was killed when a goose smashed into his cockpit during flight… but yez knew that already, right?!!!
3 October 2011
John Burscough
Hence ‘Goose’ in Top Gun, presumably.
3 October 2011
Gareth in Canada
Sounds like ‘gutteral’ to me. It makes a lot more sense, given the ‘ they didn’t let me into Oxbridge, after they asked me to speak’ message. Bit of a class rant on their part.
10 December 2011
MIKE IN COV
goose rule +1, class rant +1.
I agree with Tonto’s suggestion about goose rule – I think it may be an urban myth, but so what. A birdstrike would leave blood&feathers on the quad.
I think the May Ball gig was fairly soon after the first album. I remember reading or hearing that they were bemused by the experience. I can’t remember which college, but think it was one of the snootier ones.
I agree with 3rd Rate’s remark somewhere that quads are Oxford, courts Cambridge, and The Backs specifically Cambridge. I don’t think any Cambridge college has a working belltower, but hey, it’s not like he was writing about The Wirral.
@Chigley, top spot on the typically catchy Guthrie tune, didn’t know it; and a couple of good pics of the writing on his guitar.
An appropriate nod to Dylan in the title, considering his regard for WG.
11 July 2012
Blood on Chapel Court
I can think of at least 2 Cambridge colleges with working belltowers, and another one with a belltower that was designed as such by Sir Giles Gilbert O’ Sullivan but which has never had any bells put in it in case they disturbed the poor scholars. Who said the belltower has to be working anyway? So there are at least three. The song is most likely set in Cambridge and written by someone who didn’t realise they aren’t called ‘quads’ there. But that just makes it better because it’s a rant from the point of view of an outsider, written by even more of an outsider. Very Lindsay Anderson.
In response to a shout from the public at the recent Oxford gig – not sure if it was an unrequited request for Blood on the Quad, but I think it might have been – Nigel responded with a wry smile that “they don’t do punting on the Backs here, do they? You’ve got to be careful what you say round here.”
11 July 2012
Chris The Siteowner
I’m told by someone who claims to have been there that it was Churchill College, Cambridge …not one of the snootier ones.
11 July 2012
ACIDIC REGULATOR
@Blood, re the arguments in your first paragraph: same hymn sheet.
I think John’s has a functionless belltower. Which colleges have working ones? Could it be Jesus and Sidney? (Joke, mean-spiritedly designed to fly over people’s heads. They both have a Chapel Court. Tell me the answer anyway.)
Do you think your “in case they disturbed the poor scholars” could be replaced by “because we’d rather spend the money on feasts”?
Showing my hand, Emma 67-73.
You’ve also answered a question that’s been nagging me for years: can anything other than love be unrequited.
11 July 2012
John Burscough
@MiC Good call on the Dylan reference in the title: hadn’t thought of that, though Blood On The Tracks is my favourite Bobby album (I always thought he should have followed it up with a sequel called Jam On The Brakes). It links up nicely with the Woody Guthrie tune.
12 July 2012
Blood on Chapel Court
You’ve got 2 out of the 3 that I thought of. The other one (on my I’m sure incomplete list) is not your classic notion of a belltower, more your neoclassical miniature effort – however it does stick up from the chapel in question, is called the chapel tower, and does contain working bells which chime very atmospherically. It would also make a lovely spot to snipe mercilessly at all and sundry in the court below, featuring a nice open parapet upon which to rest the gun-barrel. I’d take a flask though.
12 July 2012
MIKE IN COV
@Blood. More of a cupola I’d say … and is there enough cover for four people when those below start shooting back?
@ChrisTSO. Ah yes, the Madingley Road Tech. As you say, not snooty at all.
16 July 2012
John Burscough
Look, I’m sorry but it’s “Clash rant”.
Sten guns in Knightsbridge, guns and ammunition, I’d stay and be a tourist but I can’t take the gunplay, robbing people with a six-gun, fooling with your guns, fear in the gun-sights, they have no food but the boy have gun, the more guns I got the better, machine gun and pitchfork at breast, so we danced with a rifle to the rhythm of the gun, never need a gun says Tai Chi, just this once for jumping the gun, guns tattoo a roll on the drums, no-one ever pointed a gun at a policeman, to see the guns dying at sunset.
‘Guns of Brixton’, ‘Tommy Gun’ and (most tellingly) ‘Guns on the Roof’.
In any case, he sings “Clash rant”.
8 February 2013