Friday 25 May 2012

The Bard of Avon meets the Fab Four

I spent all day waiting for the thunderstorm, taking the Accent Snob for walks while nervously scanning the lowering sky and wearing too much clothing for the oppressive sticky heat. The storm arrived at dinnertime, sheets of rain, flashes and claps very close together. The Accent Snob cowered in front of my knees under the desk as I worked. Finally, shivering, he wedged himself under a neighbouring chair. When the storm passed, I strolled out past torn off branches and watched the pavement beside Rideau Hall mist and steam in the considerable heat of the setting sun. Spring has hoisted her skirts and fled.

I feel too wrung out to write much, but I stumbled across this gem while looking for Yellow Submarine stuff last night, and showed it to my delighted younger daughter after dinner this evening. Shakespeare and the Beatles! Two of her favourite things ever! (Elder daughter shrugged and said she'd seen it on Tumblr ages ago.)One of the hecklers is Long John Baldry, well-known to Canadians because he eventually settled in Vancouver. (I may be mistaken, but two of the other hecklers look very much like Peter Cook and Eric Burdon.) The actor who opens "Pyramus and Thisbe" (the play-within-a-play from A Midsummer Night's Dream) is Trevor Peacock, most famous these days for playing Jim Trott in The Vicar of Dibley (the no-no-no-no-guy).

However, he has a huge and impressive CV in classic theatre, and on top of that, he's a song-writer. Probably his best known ditty is "Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" which became a big hit for Herman's Hermits in 1965:
A whole story within a wistful little song. If you're interested, compare it with the original, sung in 1963 by none other than Tom Courtney with images of a very young Julie Christie: That's enough of the sixties for now, innit? I think I'll delve a bit into the nineties tomorrow.

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