'Owt else or Any Other Business

[Tripps]

Feel free to ignore this - no one really needs to know such stuff.

The contents of the crevices of my memory took me back to the Radio - Childrens Hour, probably in about the early 1950's from where I remembered that even then, the BBC was bit "woke" and there was a dramatisation concerning escaped slaves from the plantations of Jamaica who fled to some sort of freedom in the mountains. They were known as "maroons". The introductory music for this was a Jamaican folk song which started (as far as I could estimate) with the words "Some of them are yellow some are blue" Armed only with this information the quest was on.

Result.
Here's more than anyone needs to know about Jamaican history - Jamaican Maroons,

and eventually the song surrendered, and has been found to be - a childrens song about birds, called 'Chi Chi Bud Oh .' It was 'holler' not yellow, and 'bawl' not blue. Here's Ernie Smith's version

[Stanley]

Morning David! Just my sort of internet search these days and yes I remember Children's Hour well. Mabel Constanduros (LINK) Comes to mind..... why?
This is this morning's ear worm.....

[Tripps]

This sounds like an Ealing Comedy.

Bit coin crime

I heard on the Times Radio that they gave £1000 tips to taxi drivers, and there was a stampede whenever they ordered one.

I like the final touch

During the investigation, the Bitcoin accounts were frozen, however they continued to grow in value. After a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, the victims were reimbursed, but there was an additional £1m that had accumulated while the assets were on hold. Due to the law which states a victim can not be repaid more than they had lost, £500,000 of the surplus money was given to Lancashire Constabulary to fund crime-fighting initiatives in the county.

[Tripps]

Re Ode to Billie Joe.
I'd have that on my Desert island Discs lists. I don't 'get it' though I have some thoughts about it, but neither does anyone else from what I can find. As is often the case it's a mystery - make of it what you will.



Was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinnertime we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door y'all remember to wipe your feet
And then she said I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits please
There's five more acres in the lower forty I got to plow
And Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Mama said to me, Child, what's happened to your appetite?
I've been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched a single bite
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge
A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe
And brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus goin' 'round, Papa caught it and he died last spring
And now mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Bobbie Gentry
Ode to Billie Joe lyrics © Northridge Music Co., Northridge Music Company, Northridge Music

[Stanley]

My theory is that when they were seen together they were throwing an aborted foetus off the bridge and it was remorse for that act that drove Billie Joe to take his life there.
I had always assumed that it was a high bridge but the visuals in the video of the bridge showed I was mistaken......

[PanBiker]

I think that is the logical explanation for the lyrics, I have always thought the same.

[Tripps]

That's what I guessed it meant - but a bit of googling shows that Bobby Gentry, the singer songwriter never confirmed it, and did not reveal what was actually thrown from the bridge. Do we even know if they were true events, or just fiction? The bridge is a bit complex too. Seems it is a real bridge, but has burned down and been rebuilt. I guess we will never know the truth - for a truth there must be somewhere. It's impossible for there not to be.

[Stanley]

It's still a haunting song and is still a current earworm.....