leonardcohenforum.com

Hi Byron,

I thought your description of the Cavern was poetic. I've never met anyone who was on the scene at that time. Many clubs would fit a similar description with one very fab difference.

Thanks for a very intimate account of a very important time of our lives. Give or take a year or two. Three maybe.

Linda.

Dear Byron,
That Linda-Lakeside, she's right you know! The material's all there, so knock it together by yourself!
The Scottish painter, Jack Vettriano (who, like me, comes from Fife) chose Leonard's "I'm Your Man" as one of his desert island discs. In fact, it's worth checking out his list of eight: a very strong Canadian influence there!
If you reply, as I hope, please remind forum members of the BBC link.
Liverpool for the Champions' League! (not Chealski!)
Yer Andrew.

Werk in Progress. Alright, are kid?

Can't wait! S'awright.

Linda.

"You dancin' ?"

Not very well, I'm afraid.

Linda.

Your reply has to be, "You askin'?"

It's scouse.

The time honoured way of asking a Liverpool maiden to get up to dance.

You dancin'?
You askin'?
I'm askin!
Alright, I'm dancin!
Then you both stroll onto the dance floor and fling yerselves round like whirling dervishes.
Then you ask the maiden if she'd like a drink.
If she says "yes," you've clicked!

And all done in the best possible taste, as Kenny Everret used to say.

Imagine the voice of John Lennon doing the askin'
Then imagine the voice of Cilla Black replying. If you haven't heard of her, you're very lucky.

Hi Byron,

It's been so long since my dervish has been whirled, I plain forgot the correct answer to such a question.

Aaah. Cilla Black? Hmmm. I think I remember her. Maybe it was Petula Clark? I'll reserve judgement until I'm sure.

Pip pip,
Linda.

Buy a girl a drink, sailor?

Scouse?

Liverpool is a city with a massive Irish history. Many travelled to Liverpool to continue on to America, but stayed instead.
They brought Irish Stew into the city's cullinery choices. It became known as scouse. Blind scouse has no meat in it. Poverty was the reason for this. The large pans of scouse were kept warming for days on end and added to whenever vegetables could be found/used/bought/stolen etc. The people of Liverpool became known as scousers. The language they speak is known as scouse.
In the UK we are known as scousers. It's easier to say than liverpudlians.
One running joke about scousers is that they have a penchant for car wheels. Other people's car wheels.
What do you call a scouser in a suit? A: the defendant.
Scousers have a reputation for being as light fingered as gypsies.
But they are also the warmest and funniest people in the country. There's no hypocracy, no cant, no artifice, no hidden agendas, but what you see is what you get.
The city has a long history of abject poverty, yet when it comes to national appeals for charities, Liverpool always gives more than anywhere else. 'The widows mite' could have been written about Liverpool people. The less they have, the more they give. They know what poverty is. And of course.............

A little story: the Maclaren F1 motorcar racing team were looking for a new pit crew. The test that the entrants had to perform was to change all 4 wheels of the racing car in the fastest possible time.
The scousers did it in 5 seconds. Amazed by this, the team boss went over to congratulate them. They got the job.
Later that day, the team boss decided it was time to go home. When he got to his own car, all the wheels had vanished. He grabbed for his mobile phone to call the police.......the phone had vanished as well.

Dear Byron,
In reply to the question "are you dancing?", the classic Glaswegian answer is "Naw, it's just the way I'm standing".
These are quotes from a song I'll sing to you, next time we meet.
Andrew.

Hello there, Byron,

Liverpool is, indeed, a city with much history. Now, I ask myself, does scouse rhyme with 'moose' or 'mouse'. No, my ignorance knows no bounds! I'm going with 'mouse'.

I see that you, over there, share the same A+B=C (with reference to jokes) as we do here. The joke is the same, the unwilling participants aren't. Frankly, just about anything is easier to say than Liverpudlians. Unless, of course, it's Glaswegian. With Andrew's remark, it's all coming back to me. If someone said "are you dancin?", all my nervous tics would kick in at the same time, and yes, sadly, Andrew's suggested reply would be fitting.

I don't know how I might've got Cilla Black and Petula mixed up. It was Dusty Springfield I was thinking of (again mentioned somewhere by Andrew). Dusty and Cilla were a little earthier than Petula Clarke - Clarke was more along the lines of, oh, I dunno, almost Julie Andrews? No?
And that, is probably more than you want to know about what I know about that part of the world. So sorry.

Here's to Sunday.
Happy Easter,
Linda.

Mouse

Dear Byron,
Re "scouse": like you, I know the sound of the word, three meanings of the word (a Liverpudlian, the accent/dialect and the food), but I don't know the origin of the word.
This propelled me to investigate: my Chambers Dictionary informed me that it was colloquial, and gave a reference to lobscouse, then lobscourse, then loblolly.
This search delighted me, especially the ending of each definition...."origin obscure" or "origin unknown".
Words such as this are the stuff of poetry! You may well declare that "Poetry is Democracy", but this is an order: you must use that word in the poem you've been told to write!
Thankyou very much, very very very very much,
Andrew.
P.S. If it helps, it rhymes with house and spouse

Andrew McGeever wrote:Dear Byron,
Re "scouse": lobscourse,
Thankyou very much, very very very very much,
Andrew.

I remember now that it derives from 'lobscouse.'
Your many 'thanks' gives me a 'Scaffold' to built upon.
Roger McGough and Mike McGear (McCartney) are still going strong.