"You bastard! you just ruined my favourite song for me"

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As spoken by my good friend, when I played him "Leaves that are Green" by Simon and Garfunkel, which begins "I was 21 years when I wrote this song" (pause and my mate's jaw falls with a "no!" then "I'm 22 now but I won't be for long"..

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 1 March 2004 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

dammit! you ruined it for me too!

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Monday, 1 March 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

heh.

That's the thing. Everyone that knows the BB song sort of knows the S&G song, but has forgotten (or never knew) the start lines. < / sweeping generalisation >

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 1 March 2004 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

BB?

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Monday, 1 March 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Billy Bragg - A New England (made famous by Kirsty MacColl)

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Monday, 1 March 2004 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yeah. I know both these songs, but somehow I've never made the connect. I can't imagine anyone who like BB would be horrified at S&G? That's like stupid man. And not stupid good.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Monday, 1 March 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, are you folks upset because you didn't want S&G associated with Billy Bragg or vice versa? I don't understand the ire.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

No. No.

The 'idea' that Billy Bragg nicked the 2 killer lines from someone else. Oddly, I wouldn't have made the connection, except that Billy Bragg 'apologised' to Paul Simon and said so in an interview.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Folk singers ripping lines? Call Kenneth Starr!

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

The whole idea of folk is a community of people ripping eachother off.

― pete s, Monday, 1 March 2004 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Is BB F?

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah. i don't think he'd object to the label.

― pete s, Monday, 1 March 2004 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The whole idea of folk is a community of people ripping eachother off.
as opposed to all other genres of music?

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Is BB F?

Well, he's certainly a huge disciple of Folk Deity, Woody Guthrie.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I sort of meant, at the time of "A New England", he had an electric guitar and was closer to the spirit of the Clash than owt else...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

.. and Andy Kershaw would carry his amp, fetch beer, shout "Judas" in the right places....

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

'The whole idea of folk is a community of people ripping eachother off.
as opposed to all other genres of music?'

yes i realized that straight after.
but youknowhatimean in folk it's a shared tradition of songs, poems, styles that only occasionally get enlarged upon.
there are lots of parallels (well pop/rock etc. are folk music really, aren't they?), but you are *expected* to have 'original' material and a fresh style if you're a pop act, not in folk.

― pete s, Monday, 1 March 2004 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Considering almost all of BB's appearances in my part of the world have been at Folk Festivals, I've never considered him anything but.

And yeah, Pete, will the circle be unwhatever, etc.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

For some reason I thought BB got permission first and that Paul Simon was very gracious about it.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 1 March 2004 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

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