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PLAY IT LOUD
Many readers send word of this Beccy Cole tune, in which the Australian country singer responds to a critic of her support for Australian troops. Apologies for the delay in posting. Here’s Beccy performing in Iraq:
Once symbol of jealousy, today its meaning is of friendship and delight. I lay a yellow rose at your feet, Lady Cole. Bravo!
OK, OZ three for one trade. Our three Dixie
SchumksChicks, for your Beccy ColeA beautiful song.....I need to see if iTunes has it for downloading.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 10 25 at 12:10 PM • permalinkIt’s on iTunes at $A1.69.
One of the few modern songs on my iPod.Beautifully sung, great sentiment.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 10 25 at 12:53 PM • permalinkExcellent. Really, really powerful. I’m going to buy one of her CDs tomorrow to show my support.
BTW, her web site is here if anyone wanted to leave a message of support in her guestbook.
Posted by Mr Snuffalupagus on 2006 10 25 at 12:59 PM • permalinkShe’s from Glenelg, SA, I see. That’s what I like about the South!
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 10 25 at 01:16 PM • permalinkTo paraphrase Keith Jackson:
“WHOA, BECCY!!!”
She just pegged the Babe-o-Meter!
Posted by Tex Lovera on 2006 10 25 at 01:21 PM • permalinkI reached in the drawer to grab a bottle of “the detective’s friend”. Empty. I buzzed Sheila, and she came tock-tocking into the office in her stiletto heels.
“Ahoy, matey!”, she said, adding a mock salute.
“All right, Sheila, that’ll be enough of that.” A bee-sting had caused my right eye to swell shut and I was wearing a black eye-patch to cover up some of the gruesomeness. “Do you have any more calamine lotion?”
“No, but I’ll run down to the drugstore and get you some. That reminds me: wronwright called. He said something about a spear, a map and an extinct volcano in Honduras.”
“Tell him to call back in six months. I ought to be finishing up my introductory course in bee keeping round about then. Anything else?”
She gave me one of her slow, sly smiles. “There’s a young woman in the waiting room; seems agitated and says she must see you.”
I adjusted the eye-patch and set my fedora for “extra-jaunty”. “Send her in.”
A moment later, a bleached blond in tight jeans and a red blouse that looked a few strategic buttons short came flouncing into the office. She was pretty enough, in a skanky, baby-fat kind of way, but she emitted an aura of something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. My guess was stupidity.
“Oh, Mr. Payco! I’m so glad ya’ll could see me! My name is Natalie Maines – you know, of the Dixie Chicks? – and I think we might have some trouble at our concert this Sa’rday night.”
“What sort of trouble, Miss?”
She leaned over my desk; the buttons on her blouse were doing their imitation of the 300 Spartans. “Well! I think we’re the victims of the vast raht-wing conspiracy! George Bush is tryin’ to censor us, and we think mebbe he’s goin’ to try somethin’ even more drastic, like plantin’ hecklers in the audience – or mebbe even worse!”
I had been right, of course. I’d given the chain a couple of good yanks, but her bulb was definitely burnt out. I couldn’t do much for Natalie, but I saw how I could score one for George.
“Miss Maines, I think you’re on to something. If you’ll let me have three tickets, I’ll bring a couple of the boys with me to the concert, and we’ll keep a sharp look-out.”
“Oh, thank you, Mr. Payco! We’d be much obliged.” She gave me a speculative look, and ran her tongue over her lips. “Yes, very grateful, indeed. Listen, why don’t you and your men come up to my hotel room after the show? The other two Chicks will be there, and we’ll have a little private party. Here’s an extra room key.”
“Why, thank you, honey. We’ll do that very thing.”
I ushered her out, and then called Sheila into my office.
“Sheila, I have here in my hand three tickets to the Dixie Chicks concert.”
“I thought your interest in country music was limited to Bob Wills and Spade Cooley?”
“That’s true. But there’s no reason I can’t help other people broaden their cultural horizons. Here, take these tickets and give them to the three hobos who are always hanging around in the back alley. You know the guys I’m talking about? Booger Johnson, Stinky Morgan, and that wino – what’s his name? – sits in that abandoned bathtub all day, making put-put noises, pretends he’s traveling in a time machine called the ‘Tardis’. ‘Stoop’, something or other. And give them this hotel key: tell ‘em they’ve been invited for some libations and female companionship after the show.”
That really is a beautiful song. I bet it could be a hit in the states, too (although we may have to get the word out what a “digger” is).
I’ve said it (or something like it) before and I’ll say it again: you put Beccy Cole side by side with Natalie Maines, and it’s like you’re not even talking about the same civilization (put Beccy alongside of Sheehan, and it’s like you’re not even talking about the same species).
The film clip was shot at the superb Victoria Barracks in Sydney, a place well worth a visit on Thursdays when there is a free guided tour. Indicates there must have been official sanction for the song - as there should be.
Fantastic lyrics. I’ve sent the link to a number of US military friends and understand it is doing the rounds on a large scale.Posted by AlphaMikeFoxtrot on 2006 10 25 at 04:06 PM • permalinkGod bless Australia! God bless the USA!
Posted by Sharon Ferguson on 2006 10 25 at 04:32 PM • permalinkIf someone hasn’t already done this, I just emailed Charles Johnson (LGF) this superb young lady Beccy Cole, her powerful song and the link from BLACKFIVE. I hope Charles posts this at LGF.
Australia, Beccy Cole’s song is at least as powerful to OZ, as Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA", was and still is, to us.
Just got Feel So Free fcrom Amazon. Not the ABC e-store! (Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul!)
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 10 25 at 05:31 PM • permalinkIt’s Feel This Free. Check the track listing, some editions don’t have Poster Girl.
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 10 25 at 05:33 PM • permalinkI know she has all her own songs, but I wish that one of the singers who go on overseas tours would learn some of the old WWII songs (I’ll be seeing you, bless ‘em all, white cliffs of Dover, etc.) and mix them in with their
repitoirerepitoirresets.There aren’t a lot of songs that I associate with supporting the war effort-some country singers have come out with new songs, but I don’t think they will have much lasting power. About the best I can think of is Toby Keith and Willie Nelson with “Whiskey for my men, Beer for my horses” which isn’t explicitly about the war, but is played a lot by GIs (well it was played by us). “Private Malone” is pretty good too.
Any others?
#32 91B30,
I recall a rather maudlin M*A*S*H episode where the Fr Mulcahy character sat down to write a rousing song for the Korean War, along the lines of “Over There”, etc. Typically, it ended somberly with no rah-rah.
I was surprised to read recently where US soldiers and sailors during the Spanish-American war sang, “There’ll be a Hot Time (In The Old Town Tonight)” (1896), as they marched in Cuba and shelled Manila.
I think sometimes, like with the Keith/Nelson song and “Hot Time”, the song doesn’t have to be explicit to capture the zeitgeist of the era. The Christmas classic, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” was a huge hit in 1943 precisely because it addressed the war without mentioning it.
Without delving into it too much, I like the Foo Fighters “Times Like These” because it reminds me of post-9/11 America.
One bizarre note: The British band Screaming Blue Messiahs put out an album in the ‘90’s called “Totally Religious”. Weirdly prescient after 9/11 with all these nutsacks running around!
D’jever notice how female country singers have MUCH better voices than most female pop singers?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 10 25 at 08:15 PM • permalink#25, AlphaMikeFoxtrot is too polite to mention it, but he linked to the song a few threads back and I listened and watched then. Not that it takes much for me, but I got all teary-eyed. It’s a great song, and God bless Beccy for writing and performing it. I’d never heard of her but she’s a good singer and I’d love to know where I can get a CD (even though she spells her name without the requisite “k”, I can overlook little things like that).
FYI, I couldn’t find “Poster Girl” on the US iTunes, and I couldn’t find a link to the Aussie site.
However, Beccy’s web site has instructions on how to download it from ABC, AU$1.69. And I’m listening to it now!! Ahhhh!
Thanks for the link, Mr Snuffalupagus!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 10 25 at 11:13 PM • permalinkNow, I’m off to order the entire CD.....yeah!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 10 25 at 11:13 PM • permalinkHow come country folk are so much more bloody sensible than city dwellers?
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 10 25 at 11:18 PM • permalinkNice sentiment and very pretty girl who’s no doubt a pearler, but lordy lord; I can’t stand Country and Western music! *ducks*
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 10 26 at 05:19 AM • permalinkGreat video, great girl . . . . brought the tiniest tear to this ex-digger’s eye.
Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 2006 10 26 at 07:47 AM • permalink#42, I certainly think “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” fits. Who can forget the ruckus caused when Peter Jennings said that it wasn’t appropriate on his 4th of July show. Huh? Anyway, he probably made Toby Keith millions by dissing him. BTW, I had one of those “You might be a redneck” moments when I was driving along with my 4 y.o. nephew who was singing along with the radio, at the tops of his lungs, , “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way...”
I have put the uniform on, never in anger and not for long, but fuck me if that is not the best and most succient ad for what “we” are trying to do there.
If we fail in Iraq then my infant son will know no peace. That is my fervent belief. My blood will again march to war, would that it not be neccesary but I fear that it will.
Posted by Just Another Bloody Lawyer on 2006 10 26 at 09:21 AM • permalinkMine too, O&I. (#48)
Where were the songbirds like Beccy in 1969?
Might have saved me a heap of punchups.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2006 10 26 at 09:37 AM • permalink45. Funny hoiw the “uncivilized” think civilization’s worth saving, isn’t it?
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 10 26 at 11:52 AM • permalink
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Really great tune.
Aussies are lucky to get Cole, Charlie Daniels came to see us.
Good singer, but not as much fun to look at.
FR has a thread with lots of other good pics.