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Free Reeds?


Helen

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;) So what are these free reed organizations? Do they come to your house and release your concertinas, accordions, etc. if you are not playing melodiously? Malodorously? Or like free love in the '60s, are they orgs. to play 'tinas in an eclectic fashion? Like free verse, no rhyme or reason? :blink: B)
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Oh no... they are called free reeds because of the method by which the concertina comes into your possession. Usually a person knocks on your door, you open it and there he is, (looking a little like Chris Timson, only with a top hat) and he hands you, without a word, a Lachenal, Case, or Jones, or if you are very lucky, a Jeffries or a Wheatstone. There's the door now, must rush...

 

Chris

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you open it and there he is,  (looking a little like Chris Timson, only with a top hat)  and he hands you, without a word, a Lachenal, Case, or Jones, or if you are very lucky, a Jeffries or a Wheatstone.

I'm so sorry, I'm afraid you only get one free reed with every 4 gallons...

 

Chris

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(singing) aaand the sharks they played melodions, and the sharrrrrrks they played melodions, and the sharrrrrks they played melodions, at the dawning of the day.

 

Please, please Geoff, tell me you've rewritten the rest of it????

 

And for all the Robert Heinlein fans out there:

 

TANSTAAFR!

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;) Sooooo, Chris G.

How do you tell the difference between the free reed 'tina giveaway person and the Avon Lady? Avon Person?

And do you have to stay in your house all day in case they come? Or are there, like ya know, giveaway hours?

Are there different giveaway people for different types of instruments? :unsure:

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Please, please Geoff, tell me you've rewritten the rest of it????

 

A quick Google search suggests that the "sharks" line -- with some variations, e.g., "at the bottom of the bay" -- may be all there ever was to the parody. I'm working on something more complete, but even my computer doesn't know if I'll ever finish.

 

Seems to me I did once hear a fuller parody of "Pleasant and Delightful", but I don't think it had the sharks in it.

 

And for all the Robert Heinlein fans out there:

 

TANSTAAFR!

 

Dunno about that. I used to have a set of bagpipes where the reeds kept coming free. :)

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A quick Google search suggests that the "sharks" line -- with some variations, e.g., "at the bottom of the bay"-- may be all there ever was to the parody.

Yes, there is more

 

So a ring from off his finger she instantly drew, saying "Take this dearest Willy, and the finger goes too"

 

With encroaching age, that's all I remember now...

 

Chris

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the only P&D parody I ever heard was "Cosmic and Freaky" that was real big at Pinewoods English Week in the mid 80's.

 

"A picture of his Earth shoes she instantly drew."

 

Updated, when I perform it, to Birkenstocks, of course.

 

Anyone who wants all the dreadful new-agey lyrics to this, better email me. There's a limit to what even *I* will post on this list ;)

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Well, a quick Google search reminded me of "Cosmic and Freaky" (by Grit Laskin of Toronto?), and also of William and Washingtion, DC's Metropolitan Art Museum (by Roger Sherman?): "...he ate the nickelodeon in the lobby of the Met." There's also a Seattle parody, which hadn't heard, but at least I understand the local references, since I used to live there. And there were a few fragments and suggestions that other full parodies *might* have existed.

 

Nevertheless, prompted by Rhomylly -- who may prefer to disavow any connection whatever, -- I have now "penned" (actually typed, but that doesn't sound as artistic) the following:

 

'Twas depressing and quite frightful on a hot summer's morn

As the bums on the sidewalks lay alone and forlorn.

And the lawyers and their cronies smiled in every doorway,

Waiting for the crunch of metal, and the ambulance's bray.

 

When they'd wrapped up their cases, they said one to the other,

"We have made a pretty penny from both sister and brother.

Now let's take a nice sea cruise; we'll return in the spring,

To listen to the cars' percussion, while the ambulances sing."

 

So they boarded a cruise liner bound down for Bermuda,

To visit their colleagues, the shark and barracuda.

There with their assistance, some tourists fell into the bay,

And the sharks they played melodeons, as they snapped at their prey.

 

To the pulse of sword dance tunes these fish slashed and flayed,

Then as they gulped the last bits, fast rants and reels played.

And when their hunger it was sated, they played songs in four parts,

Then dropped the melodeons to the bottom; I say that's a good start.

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