25 Apr 2008
Stick the Apple Mac in the car park
Give Us Bubblewrap is a good thrash with a couple of wry moments, largely about being in an old people’s home. The manufacturers of Bubblewrap even have a website where you can play with the stuff, by the way.
See lyrics to Give Us Bubblewrap
47 Letters Sent:
bug
I think it’s “Megalomaniacal, loaded for bear”
As in: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/loaded+for+bear
Still can’t quite get the line before though…
Apr 30th, 2008
chris
It always sounded like “loaded with bear” to me, which made so little sense, I didn’t put it in. “Loaded for bear” makes more sense, but I can’t hear “for”. Anyone else?
May 1st, 2008
Houtini
Agree with bug – “loaded for bear” was one of Nigel’s epithets for the disgruntled 24 hour garage guy in 2006′s Sheffield gig. Got footage to prove it!
And I think the line before is “porcine…..” (as in pig-like) possibly “porcine fiend” but can’t be sure.
May 1st, 2008
chris
OK, you guys have it!
May 1st, 2008
Martin Taylor
Hi
It could be “The poor kind Bede”
Cheers,
Martin
May 2nd, 2008
chris
Best effort yet – thanks. I’ll stick it in with a query for now.
May 2nd, 2008
Ian
Megalomaniacal, loaded for bear
makes more sense as
Megalomaniacal, loaded forebear … meaning ancestor, referring to the Venerable Bede
from dictionary.com
n. A person from whom one is descended; an ancestor.
sounds the same too. Just a thought.
May 13th, 2008
max williams
The venerable Bede was a lovely fellow by all accounts…i can’t work this bit out either but i thought it might be
“the stiff vision re the poor “
May 28th, 2008
max williams
oops, looks like putting stuff in triangle brackets means it gets cut out
i meant to say
“the stiff vision re the poor ‘something something’“
not that that adds any more info to my last post…
May 28th, 2008
max williams
Think it might be
“the stiff visionary, the porcine fiend”
that at least makes some sense to me…
Jun 3rd, 2008
max williams
although having just looked it up, porcine is pronounced “por – sine” rather than “por-kine”, and i’m sure nigel would know that. bah…
Jun 3rd, 2008
chris p
I accept I’m probably/possibly wrong here, but I’m picking up “I think your diplomats are dead over there”. Makes less sense with the chorus, but might fit the typical warlord!
Jun 11th, 2008
chris p
errrr…just listened again, I think you’ve got it right on the diplomatic front after all!!
Jun 11th, 2008
Treadmore
Pretty sure it’s “Thelwall Friday afternoon” (not Milwall) – just in case you weren’t aware, I’m talking about Thelwall of the infamous Thelwall Viaduct (M6 bridge – traffic jams); hence ref. to Brigadoon (Bridge of Doon). It’s not just the reference – it sounds like Thelwall anyway ;o)
Jun 15th, 2008
Ashley
the last line of backing vocals mentions “Hobby-Craft” – i’m sure of it!
Jul 3rd, 2008
Gareth
So much so for Brigadoon – on the basis that Brigadoon is a place where no-one can never leave (Eyam, anyone?)
Jul 8th, 2008
billybookcase
Definitely So much so for Brigadoon.
Aug 1st, 2008
billybookcase
Yes I think it’s Hobbycraft not ‘have it back’.
Aug 2nd, 2008
Neil G
Hmm, sounds like ‘blather news’, rather than ‘avenues’ to me, possibly meaning gossip, useless stuff. ‘Avenues’ doesn’t seem to make much sense. Just a thought.
Aug 10th, 2008
Matt
maybe its just me but i thought he said “the poor kind being”?
who knows lol
Aug 23rd, 2008
Jan
I would have said “the porcine being”, although news of its pronunciation as “por-sine” has me rattled, now. I definitely think Nigel is still referring to the “typical warlord” when he says “I think your diplomats should get over there and give him bubblewrap”.
Aug 29th, 2008
Jim Poole
Line 5:
Don’t they know all they’ve really got to do is
Should read :
Don’t they know THAT all they’ve really got to do is
JP
Sep 25th, 2008
Jan
Just a note: I had Poetry Please on Radio 4 chuntering in the background a week or so ago and Roger McGough was reading “Dangerous Dan McGrew”, written by Robert Service in 1907 (I think they said, anyway). I point this out because the poem describes Dan as “loaded for bear”!
Oct 4th, 2008
Petrovic
I’ve always heard it as “Millwall, Friday afternoon”…
Oct 17th, 2008
Colin
I thought it was Milwall – but wouldn’t put money on it
Oct 24th, 2008
Oisin
I always hear hover craft in that last line….
Dec 16th, 2008
Richard
I am just not convinced its Bede. It sounds like ‘bee’ to me. And Bede was never poor. Not sure if he was known as especially kind either. Anyway if it was Bede, ‘Venerable’ would have been better and I think would have fit as well.
Jan 15th, 2009
Charles Exford
I have no idea what he sings, but “bede” without a capital letter is Old English or Saxon for “priest”. All bedes were relatively poor and were supposed to be kind. The Gospel according to Google tells us that in the middle ages each Bedesman (or woman) was given a daily allowance of (say) one penny plus a weekly or monthly allotment of clothing and fuel (normally coal), for which they lived by a timetable of prayer and manual work. A Bede House was a type of almshouse run to a set of strict rules, typically run by a church.
Jan 15th, 2009
Jan
From the notes (the notes! oh, joy!) now up on the website, it would appear that Nigel IS talking about Bede wiv a capital ‘buh’. Quite what he means by the rest of the couplet, well…
Mar 24th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
That’s rather assuming the notes on the HMHB website have some sort of godlike authority, of course.
Mar 24th, 2009
Jan
Er, yeah, and this is where I cringe at my own naivete. I out myself here and now as having thought for some time that Nigel wrote them. Please don’t hurt me……
Mar 26th, 2009
dj
indeed! considering they have the “triple a dangling from my lanyard” from king of hi viz down as “amateur athletics association” rather than “access all areas”, i’ll forever be suspicious of their research abilities.
*strokes chin*
Mar 27th, 2009
Jan
Gosh, as well you might. I missed that. OK, then, so who do we think writes them? Geoff?
Mar 27th, 2009
Dave F.
Err… Gez, maybe?
If you email him, he will correct the entry.
Mar 28th, 2009
Paul
Just come back from Marrakech – saw street kids popping bubblewrap to pass the time. Universal pastime on each continent.
Paul
Jun 30th, 2009
Dagenham Dave
I agree with Matt that rather than Bede I think it’s ‘being’.
Despite the good arguments above I can only hear ‘Millwall’ in verse 2.
In the last line I don’t think it’s ‘avenues’, it sounds like something beginning with ‘flav…’,
Oct 11th, 2009
John Anderson
I also hear Millwall. Could it possibly be a reference to Millwall fans arriving ahead of Tranmere games which always used to be on Friday nights.
Oct 13th, 2009
Charlesford
Personally I can only hear “Thelwall” (and the following ideas on the imagery are a result of hearing that, rather than a cause which might make me want to hear it).
Nigel’s fond of his traffic & road references, and there’s not many places got mentioned in traffic jam news, or where NB was more likely to have got suck, more than the Thelwall viaduct in the early years of the 21st century (constant northbound lane closures for 3- 4 years, better now). Friday afternoon on that section? Purgatory.
A lot of the images in the song seem to be of old folks, not being bothered about their jigsaws & coach trips as long as they have their bubble wrap. Personally I think the “Brigadoon” you’ve got Chris should in fact be Brig o’ Doon from the Robbie Burns poem, and of course a common calling off point on old folks coach holidays to Bonnie Scotland.
Stuck in one coned-off lane at the Thelwall Viaduct, with a misty view down over the Ship Canal and the broad and noble River Weaver. Not exactly the picturesque Brig o’ Doon, but never mind if you’ve got bubble wrap.
As for “being”, I agree there’s loads of non-rhymes in this one, like “other crap”, “send it back” etc, but those are joke rhymes with “bubble wrap”, and to put in “being” to rhyme with “greed” without any element of joke seems unlike NB, IMHO. A bede is a missionary, and NB seems to likes archaic words. Anyway, all such justifications are spurious when what you hear is what you hear. Personally I only hear “Bede”.
I slowed this one down once, and heard “bede” & “Thelwall”, but that CD machine’s in another college, so I can’t check right now.
Oct 13th, 2009
Charles Exford
I meant he “got stuck”.
Though if he did “get suck” on the Thelwall Viaduct I say good luck to him.
Oct 13th, 2009
Chris The Siteowner
OK, this one’s out of the blue, but thanks to a tip-off
I have reason to believe that it is “porcine feed”, as postulated by Max earlier, and despite the pronunciation issues. I’m also going with Charles’ “Brig o’ Doon” as well, because it just seems to fit.
Oct 21st, 2009
Treadmore
Like Neil G, I don’t hear “avenues”, though I thought “blabber news” rather than “blather news” as Neil G suggests.
Do tell the reason to believe it’s “porcine feed”
Oct 23rd, 2009
Charles Exford
NB57 told me: “…bubblewrap, doublewrap, other crap, have it back, river cruise, dinner queues, Bladder News, inner tubes.”
Bladder News is apparently a freesheet of sorts, which would probably be quite popular in an old folks’ home!
“Thelwall” and “Brig o’ Doon” were also confirmed. Source
Mar 13th, 2010
uncle charlie
It’s definitely “loaded for bear” – it’s an old millitary term now used to describe anyone who is over equipped.
..and it’s also definitely “Thelwall” as in the M6 viaduct close to the M56 turn off to the Wirral. “Thelwall, Friday afternoon” …notorious for long traffic jams on a Friday afternoon.
Hope this helps.
Apr 1st, 2010
Neil G
I’m ashamed to say that I watched an awful film called ‘Without A Paddle’ last week in which one of the characters used the term ‘loaded for bear’. I’d never heard it used before outside the context of this song.
Apr 1st, 2010
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
Never mind the paddle boy did they have a canoe?
Apr 1st, 2010
chris p
From the Reservoir Dogs screenplay:
Mr White – “You really think we were set up?”
Mr Pink – “You even doubt it? … In one minute there were 17 blue boys out there. All loaded for bear, all knowing exactly what the f**k they were doing”
I’ve seen that film many times, but never made the “loaded for bear” connection until now!!
May 16th, 2010
John Burscough
Anybody think the tune in the chorus is a reverential nod to Rockpile’s ‘Trouble Boys’, as written by Billy Bremner (not that Billy Bremner) and covered by Thin Lizzy? Or ‘Trouble’ by Pink, which is The Same?
Mar 4th, 2011
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