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The pioneering rock’n’roll legend; singer, dancer, actress and author, Ms Tina Turner, (November 26th 1939 – May 24th 2023, born Anna Mae Bullock), has today sadly died, aged 83, following a long illness.
In the 1980s, Ms Turner launched one of the greatest comebacks in music history, with her multi-platinum album “Private Dancer”, latter which contained the hit song “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, and which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became her first and only number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100.
During her “Break Every Rule” World Tour in 1988, she set what was then, a Guinness World Record for the largest paying audience (180,000) for a solo performer.
Her acting career included the films “Tommy” (1975) and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” (1985) and in 1993, “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, a biographical film adapted from her autobiography “I, Tina: My Life Story,” was also released.
Having sold over 100 million records worldwide, Ms Turner became one of the best-selling recording artists of all time.
During her lifetime, Ms Turner received 12 Grammy Awards, (eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award).
She became the first black artist and first woman to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, which ranked her among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
In ár gcroíthe go deo.
  
Cashel Library – Bealtaine Event – “Memories and Melodies”.
Ms Maura Barrett, (Cashel Library) Reports:-
Ms Jean Farrell, [latter who wrote and presented her one-woman play “The Six Marys”], will read a number of her most popular articles. She will be accompanied by her sister, who will sing some well-known songs; each linked to these same articles.
This show will take you on a trip down memory lane and is guaranteed to evoke nostalgia, with listeners/viewers finding parts extremely humorous, while other parts will encapsulate a keen sense of sadness or indeed in some cases regret.
At this event, real life scenarios are explored during the periods 1950s and 1960s, here in Ireland; remembering those happy times when we were young and innocent, yet always full of hopes and dreams.
Note: This most enjoyable of events at Cashel Library, Friar Street, St. Francisabbey, Cashel, Co. Tipperary and entitled “Memories and Melodies”, will take place on Friday morning, May 12th, 2023 @ 11:00am.
The event is totally Free, with Refreshments Served.
Speaking on the subject of ‘Clocks’ as we did recently HERE; please listen to and enjoy yet another Irish folk song about another type of ticking ‘Clock’. Enough said.
The Auld Alarm Clock
Vocals – Irish singer, folk musician and actor, the great, late Ronnie Drew. (1934 – 2008).
Tune – “The Garden Where The Praties Grow”.
Lyric Writer – Unknown
The Auld Alarm Clock.
When first I came to London in the year of 39,
The city looked so wonderful and the girls were so divine,
But the coppers got suspicious and they soon gave me the knock.
I was charged with being the owner of an auld alarm clock.
Oh next morning, down be Marlborough Street, I caused no little stir.
The I.R.A were busy and the telephones did burr.
Said the judge, “I’m going to charge you, with the possession of this machine,
And I’m also going to charge you, with the wearing of the Green”.
And said I to him, “Your honour, if you’ll give me half a chance,
I’ll show you how me small machine can make the peelers dance.
It ticks away politely till you get an awful shock,
And it ticks away the gelignite on me auld alarm clock”.
Said the judge, “Now, listen here my man, and I’ll tell you of our plan.
For you and all your countrymen I do not give a damn.
The only time you’ll take is mine: ten years in Dartmoor dock,
And you can count it by the ticking of your auld alarm clock”.
Now this lonely Dartmoor city would put many in the jigs.
The cell, it isn’t pretty and it isn’t very big.
Sure, I’d long ago have left the place if I had only got,
Ah, me couple of sticks of ‘geliginite’ and me auld alarm clock.
END.
My Grandfather’s Clock.
Lyrics – Late American Civil War composer and songwriter Henry Clay Work (1832 – 1884).
Vocals – Late American country singer-songwriter John R. Cash. (1932 – 2003).
According to folklore this famous song ‘My Grandfather Clock’ was inspired by a clock at The George Hotel, in the village of Piercebridge, latter located in the borough of Darlington in County Durham, England.
The hotel in past times was a wayfarers’ inn and was owned and operated by two Jenkins brothers.
In the lobby of the Inn was a longcase tall weight driven pendulum clock, which kept perfect time, until one of the brothers passed away.
Following his passing the clock began to lose time at an increasing rate, despite the best efforts of a local clockmaker to repair it.
When the second brother died, the clock stopped suddenly and completely, never to work again.
It is understood that in 1875 the songwriter, Henry Clay Work, visited the George Hotel, and having listened to the tale of the clock from various employees and locals, he composed this song ‘My Grandfathers Clock’.
We also learn from folklore that the clock appears to recognise both the good and bad events in this grandfather’s life; it rings 24 chimes when the grandfather brings his bride into his house, and near his death it rings out an alarm, which the family recognize as meaning that the old grandfather is near death, and so they gather around his bed side. After the grandfather dies, the clock suddenly stops, and never works again.
My Grandfather’s Clock
My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half, than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn, of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride,
But it stopped short, never to go again,
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering, his life seconds numbering,
It stopped, short, never to go again,
When the old man died.
My grandfather said, that of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found,
For it wasted no time and had but one desire,
At the close of each week to be wound,
And it kept in its place, not a frown upon its face,
And its hand never hung by its side,
But it stopped, short, never to go again,
When the old man died.
It rang an alarm, in the dead of the night,
An alarm that for years had been dumb,
And we knew that his spirit, was pluming for flight,
That his hour for departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side.
But it stopped, short, never to go again,
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering, his life seconds numbering,
It stopped, short, never to go again,
When the old man died.
[Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick……..]
END
The lyrics hereunder tell the story of an ageless dragon named “Puff”, and his playmate, “Jackie Paper”, latter a little boy who grows up and moves on from the imaginary adventures of childhood, leaving a rather disheartened “Puff” without a friend. The song’s story takes place by the sea in the fictional land of Honah-Lee.
Just over 60 years ago a song entitled “Puff, the Magic Dragon” (or “Puff”); written by Peter Yarrow a member of that great American folk group known as “Peter, Paul and Mary” was recorded and released in January 1963. The song was based on a poem initially written by Leonard Lipton.
Even though the song’s composer, Peter Yarrow, insisted that it was not talking about smoking marijuana, that wasn’t good enough for then United States Vice President Spiro Agnew, who deemed it to be pro-narcotics and called for the banning of the tune.
Despite the voices of the powerful and those seeking attention, speaking out against the song, it ended up being a smash hit, peaking at No 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and thus becoming one of the folk trio’s most enduring of hits.
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Peter Yarrow insisted that the song was about the hardships of growing older and had absolutely no relationship, whatsoever, to drug-taking.
After the song’s initial success, speculation suggested, in a 1964 article published in Newsweek, that the song contained veiled references to smoking marijuana. The word “Paper” as in the surname “Jackie Paper”, the dragons human friend was claimed to be a reference to rolling cigarette papers; the words “by the sea” were interpreted as “by the C” (i.e. as in cannabis), the word “mist” supposedly stood for “smoke”, the land of “Honah-Lee” stood for “hashish”, and “dragon” was interpreted as “draggin” (i.e. inhalation of smoke). The name “Puff” was supposed to be a reference to taking a “puff” on a joint.
These suppositions later was claimed to be common knowledge to everyone; in a letter sent to The New York Times in 1984.
The song was banned in Singapore and Hong Kong because authorities believed it did contain references to a drug culture. Our readers can now make up their own minds.
Puff (The Magic Dragon)
Words and Music: Peter Yarrow and the late Leonard Lipton (1940 – 2022)
Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea,
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah-Lee.
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff.
Chorus
Oh! Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea,
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah-Lee.
Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea,
And frolicked In the autumn mist in a land called Honah-Lee.
Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail;
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puffs gigantic tail.
Noble kings and princes would bow whene’er they came.
Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name.
Repeat Chorus
A dragon lives forever but not so little boys.
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys,
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more,
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
His head was bent in sorrow; green scales fell like rain.
Puff no longer went to play along that cherry lane.
Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave,
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave.
Repeat Chorus
END
Several new optional verses have since been introduced, including:-
One fine day it happened; Puff woke up from a dream.
He thought he heard a familiar voice and Jackie’s laugh it seemed.
He looked around his cavern and over by the door,
Stood a little boy with a piece of string and a smile he’d seen before.
“Hello My name is Billy, my dad told me your name.
He said I’d find you in the cave along the cherry lane”.
Puff, that mighty dragon smiled in his joy,
He’d never be alone again for this was Jackie’s boy.
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