27 Feb 2008
Undead hate all fundraising stalwarts
How can you not love a song which starts with the Keats reference “Vespers done…”? Or one which makes reference to minor Col U legend Bobby Svarc (who seemed to follow Jim Smith around a lot)? One of those songs with almost (but not quite) too many clever references for its own good, Fear My Wraith is classic mid-period Biscuit. Sorry, I’ll take my crap music hack hat off. Because that statue in Copenhagen is quite disappointing. And when your horse leads the field inside the first furlong of the National, you do think that it’s going to win, don’t you?
See lyrics of Fear My Wraith
20 Letters Sent:
Jam
Saw said statue this summer, quite disappointing.
Aug 21st, 2009
Germ
I always heard the line “Frightening the birds” as “Frightening the bairds” but maybe I’m just a bit drunk and decided to take the mickey out of the scouse accent
Sep 11th, 2010
grim
Interestingly, given the Local Pedant Density hereabouts, no-one ever pointed out that “lacksadaisical” is not a real word – there’s no ‘s’, it’s “lackadaisical” – although it is definitely sung with an ‘s’.
What is there to make of it? Is the line intended as a criticism of the mispronunciation? Is mispronouncing “lackadaisical” the intended justification for a lifetime of festive hauntings? Or is the mispronunciation an entirely understandable one on the part of NB? In which case merely using the L-word is worthy of inclusion on the haunt-reasons list?
Truly the burning issue of our times.
Mar 3rd, 2011
Ricardo
Is that the Goodyear airship I can see?
Mar 3rd, 2011
Exo
Mrs. Exford will testify that the second greatest time I had in 2010 was when during ESPN’s coverage of the Ebbsfleet v. AFCW replay, I correctly predicted that Chris Waddle was “going to say ‘lacksadaisical’ in a minute.”
Stan Collymore uses it almost as frequently but Mrs. Exford rightly tries to keep his charnel out of our house.
Mar 3rd, 2011
Kevan
Very minor nitpick, but it’s very audibly “the coolest shade” rather than “the cool and shade”.
Apr 9th, 2011
Fredorrarci
Another vote for “coolest shade”.
Apr 11th, 2011
Chris the Siteowner
Not a minor nitpick at all! But one which I have trouble agreeing with. But one more vote for the change, and in it goes.
Apr 12th, 2011
dagenham dave
I hear “coolest shade” as well.
Apr 12th, 2011
Chris The Siteowner
Let it never be said we don’t heed the voice of the masses. While we’re at it, I’ve never been comfortable with that apostrophe in “do’s”. Is it a greengrocer’s apostrophe? Or is it actually permissible to plant one where a plural form (“dos”) just looks plain wrong?
Apr 12th, 2011
John Anderson
I’ve always heard it as “coolant shade” but I’m not sure that makes sense.
Apr 12th, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
Stuck in a timewarp as I frequently am, I notice that we never really answered Grim’s question about “lacksadaisical”. To me it’s always been about the subject’s mispronunciation of the word rather than its actual use. See also – pantomine, cerstificate, statellite, acrost …
Sep 3rd, 2011
Third Rate Les
Yes, it’s clearly a dig at people who mispronounce words. My boss says “lacksadaisical” and thanks to HMHB it now makes me smile rather than grind my teeth. There’s no “s”. Well, there’s one.
It’s also a slightly clumsy and ugly word (why not just say “lazy” or “careless”? I suppose it’s a bit of a mixture of both) but that’s not what he’s getting at here.
One I notice a lot is pronouncing the word “mnemonic” as “pneumonic”. And Morrissey’s pronunciation of “plagiarise” in Cemetery Gates still gets on my wick every time.
Sep 3rd, 2011
Vendor of Quack Nostrums
The mispronunciation of lackadaisical which most makes me want to twist my own brain out is ‘lapsadaisical’. Cringe! I used to be lazy and disinterested but, due to a lack of effort, find I no longer am.
Whilst referencing Mozza’s dodgy pronunciation, it is perhaps also worth mentioning that he didn’t earn his gold star for spelling either on The Queen Is Dead, having called the song ‘Cemetry Gates’ rather than ‘Cemetery Gates. Perhaps if he’d paid more attention at school rather than giving up education as a bad mistake.
Sep 3rd, 2011
Charles Exford
And there was me thinking Ricardo had answered the query with considerable aplomb.
Sep 3rd, 2011
Gregg Z
Fine banter, this. I’ve always wondered why The Smiths track is misspelt “Cemetry Gates”– thought it was a literary reference beyond my ken. The worst transgression I’ve noticed of late is the dropping of the second “s” in the word ‘asterisk” (“asterik”?!?). It’s almost pandemic on these American shores (keeping in mind, the land that brought you Dubya’s “nucular” and the most horrifying Americanism of all, the word “awesome”. God, I can barely type that fucking word).
So, yeah, the word “asterisk” is being truncated as we speak. It’s enough to make you reach for the Book of Revelation(s)..
Sep 3rd, 2011
Norbert D
Still not as bad as people saying “Asterix” when they mean “asterisk”. Mental image of the letter F followed by three little Gauls with swords drawn…
Sep 3rd, 2011
TWO FAT FEET
Good call Nobby, can’t believe I missed that one …
Sep 3rd, 2011
Third Rate Les
Wow – in all this time I’ve never noticed that Cemetry Gates thing.
Another one he does is pronouncing Wunderkind “wonder kind”, but I suppose it’s possible that’s deliberate. As Viz once memorably put it: “Morrissey: Genius or Tw*t?” I went to see him last month and I still can’t make up my mind.
Sep 3rd, 2011
Neil G
I think Tw*t. I listened to his Desert Island Discs and was struck by his idiosyncratic pronunciation of ‘any’ as ‘anny’. Listen from 16 mins – “Annybody who had anny interest in film and literature …”, “It’s very difficult in pop music to find annybody, anny musician who has annything to say…”. Definite tw*t. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p068y
He did choose The Black Angel Death Song by the Velvet Underground, so perhaps there is hope for him.
No, there isn’t any hope – he speaks of W Haitch Auden. Unforgivable
Sep 4th, 2011
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