STICK IN THE WHEEL - Villon Song

[@stu_j6711]

My three year old likes this. Racing around shouting "booze and blowens chop the lot"

[@AndrewHHems1969]

that made me smile lol 😁

[@lukesteel7696]

Cop the lot*

[@stu_j6711]

@@lukesteel7696 try telling that to a slightly hyper three year old....

[@barlonmrando4921]

I thank bbc6 for showing me this

[@terryperring104]

Thanks the Flash radio station

[@MinecraftJosh-hb5yz]

Thank f**k for 6music

[@pinkyman5155]

Found this, don't know who wrote it ? Suppose you screeve? or go cheap-jack? Or fake the boards? or fig a nag? Or thimble-rig? or knap a yack? Or pitch a snide? or smash a rag? Suppose you duff? or nose and lag? Or get the straight, and land your pot? How do you melt the multy swag? Booze and the blowens cop the lot. Screeve is glossed as "forge," but it can also mean "draw on the sidewalk with colored chalk." Cheap-jack refers to offering (usually cheap) merchandise for sale at an inflated price, and then granting "discounts" on it. The broads are playing cards, and faking them is cheating at cards. Figging is the same as gingering: thrusting a piece of peeled ginger root into a horse's rectum to make it raise its tail and acts nervous, so it looks "spirited" when you sell it. Thimble-rigging is the shell game, using thimbles rather than shells. To knap a yack is to steal a watch. A snide is a false coin, and a rag is a banknote-in this case, a counterfeit one. To duff is to disguise used goods as new. To nose is to spy on someone, and to lag is to turn them in to the police-that is, this is being a stool pigeon. Melting is squandering-in this case, one's ill-gotten gains; multy supposedly means "bloody," which disappoints me, as I liked the reading of "multiple" or "diverse." The blowens are whores; that is, as Villon wrote, it all goes to the taverns and the girls. Fiddle, or fence, or mace, or mack, Or moskeneer, or flash the drag; Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack; Pad with a slang, or chuck a fag; Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag; Rattle the tats, or mark the spot; You cannot bank a single stag. Booze and the blowens cop the lot. A fiddle is a dishonest way of acquiring goods (for example, delivery drivers having packages "fall off" their trucks are fiddling. Mace is another word for swindling, often involving getting credit and not paying up (for example, on gambling debts). Macking is pimping or pandering. To moskeneer is to pawn something for more than it's really worth. Flashing the drag is cross-dressing. To dead-lurk is to get into people's houses while they're at divine services; to do a crack is to break in by force. A slang is a travelling show, and chucking a fag is highway robbery. Bonnetting is shoving someone's hat down over their eyes. To mump is to beg house to house. The tats are dice, and mark the spot is putting down a marker in billiards. A stag is a shilling; but a stag apparently is also someone who buys stock offerings, not to hold them as an investment, but to resell them immediately at a profit, which might be related. Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash your flag? At penny-a-lining make your whack, Or with the mummers mug and gag? For nix, for nix the dibbs you bag! At any graft, no matter what, Your merry goblins soon stravag. Booze and the blowens cop the lot. The square could be the town square, where honest businesses hang out their signs; but being "on the square" is also being honest. But "flag" can also mean apron, so this could be a reference to Freemasonry: Masons wear aprons and talk of building "on the square and on the level." I don't think the interpretation of it as "show your ass" makes sense in the context of a turn of meaning to more or less honest work. A penny-a-liner is a writer who provides short filler pieces for newspapers; the mummers are mimes or stage actors, and to mug and gag is to make exaggerated facial expressions and to adlib dialogue. Dibbs are gambling counters or money, and goblins are sovereigns, gold coins denominated as one pound. To stravag or stravaig is to wander aimlessly. Graft suggests corruption or fraud to us, but in the slang of the time it meant a trade or just hard work in general. It's up the spout and Charley Wag With wipes and tickers and what not. Until the squeezer nips your scrag, Booze and the blowens cop the lot. To be up the spout is to be pawned, wipes are handkerchiefs, and tickers are watches; so these lines are about pawning watches and (presumably expensive) handkerchiefs. Charley Wag was the title character of one of the first penny dreadfuls, written by Charles Henry Ross, about a boy burgler; to "play the Charley Wag" was to be truant or to run away, so this line is about pawning whatever goods you have and then going away. The squeezer is the noose (the interpretation as "the stocks" isn't in the Oxford English Dictionary, and the stocks were no longer used in the late 19th century) and scrag is "neck." So "until you're hanged, you'll spend everything on liquor and whores."

[@ianabroad]

thank you.

[@skeletoncable]

Top tune, top band -- INCREDIBLE

[@crumpetclaire9690]

Just heard this on Gideon Coe best track all year and there's been some corkers. Brilliant. X

[@russ6697]

Only 6music. Brilliant!

[@patriot8769]

Heard this today on Radio 2 Folk Hour. New fan here.

[@cluffingtonwedgewood-smyth6796]

...tune!!👌👌👌👏👏...

[@ianabroad]

Wow! Now THAT really was special. The messages are as true today as it was in the 15th Century. Well done also to Zeroh for the interpretive animations. Fantastic stuff.

[@jamieorourke767]

I hope to see this lot on Jules Holland very sound

[@charlaneporter8678]

OMG wat da heal

[@peterburch6195]

heard this on R2. Tuuuune!

[@Jon80875]

Me too!

[@jacquesfournier8970]

Sorry, I was wrong, it's not really a translation ok a work by F. Villon (Ballade de bonne doctrine à ceux de mauvaise vie) but it's adapted from Villon.

[@vichoughton6696]

I was just thinking that too.

[@wayneder1]

So other worldly ..menacingly brilliant

[@jennyellwood]

Amazing! Love this!

[@lizahearn5648]

Naughty lyrics...🐈‍⬛

[@NRajah]

Wow! That's a powerful song.

[@phillush]

Thanks Marc Riley and Radio 6.

[@sandants40]

superb

[@StickInTheWheel]

Nice one :)

[@joeadhemar]

Great rhythmic synergy video!

[@TheRealArthurBrown]

Great video

[@StickInTheWheel]

Appreciated!

[@simoncrabb]

That Riley brought me here.

[@Cromper]

That there Riley?

[@jacquesfournier8970]

Great, but "Villon’s Straight Tip To All Cross Coves" is not a translation of a work by François Villon. That's a personal work of W.E. Henley, 1888, who had highlighted the French poet : "Tous aux tavernes et aux filles".

[@pinkyman5155]

Heard this on Radio 2 folk show, would like to see the lyrics, great !

[@owendixon5173]

They mention "W.E. Henley: Villon’s Straight Tip To All Cross Coves. " above, so I googled that and found - kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZvNd2eBgJmGm6c

[@pinkyman5155]

@@owendixon5173 Well done Owen, great bit of detective work there ! Thanks.

[@pinkyman5155]

I found them

[@owendixon5173]

@@pinkyman5155 Stick them up here, then! :)

[@joekane3494]

Booze and the blowens cop the lot!

[@VictoryAtSea]

this is not unsettling, at all, in the slightest

[@sausagefinger8849]

Fuckin incredible like Radio Heads Nation Anthem .

[@neilanderson8259]

Great song, reminds me of Chicken Town

[@henrikhenrikson2431]

Yeah, I can see why!

[@andyskoobz5732]

Hmm thats got to be worth seeing if they go together, biab..

[@crumpetclaire9690]

Sorry Marc Riley's show.

[@Bodaich]

Pete Fischer sent me

[@Bodaich]

Pete Fischer brought me here