the new emotional blackmailer's handbook: 02/01/2020

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

a hard rain's gonna fall ... cover versions rarely improve a song ... brian ferry's is an honourable exception

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5al0HmR4to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG2ekQ19adI&list=RDhG2ekQ19adI&start_radio=1

A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded with hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well-hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Audiam, Inc

seine nets at tenby

having seen this picture in tenby museum, i was curious to know if there was a history of seine net fishing along the shore in tenby

i've just found this newspaper article from 1885 setting out a petition from the local fisherman against the licensing fee

they alleged the cost of the license was greater than their income from the fish they had caught

https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3709720/3709724/21/walter%20lewis%20llangadog

this is the first time i've used the library of wales' newspaper archive ... it is very well done

Monday, February 24, 2020

william nicholson grinding an axe to good effect ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Nicholson_(artist)

This painting by British artist Sir William Nicholson depicts five Canadian generals and one major of the First World War standing unposed in front of a mural of the bombed Ypres Cathedral and Cloth Hall. This unfinished painting originally commissioned by Lord Beaverbrook was quickly forgotten, only to be rediscovered in the vaults of the Canadian War Museum and later hailed as Nicholson's finest work. Nicholson captured the officers in the moments before they sat for an official portrait. Unconventional for the officers' less than heroic stance, it has been argued that Nicholson may have viewed his subjects with a measure of cynicism, possibly influenced by the death of his own son in the First World War. A group portrait of Generals Richard Turner, Alexander McRae, Harold McDonald, Gilbert Foster and Percival Thacker and Major Furry Montague. In style and mood, the composition owes much to the portraits of Malcolm Arbuthnot, who had photographed William Nicholson's children in uniform a year earlier, in poses similar to those of the generals.