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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
I’m not giving you photos of me.
One of those gentlemen was on the train, my last visit from Dundee to London before the lockdown. He got on at York with three others and sat diagonally from me. I thought to myself, ‘I know the face but cannot place him.’ After travelling down the line for a while his voice gave his identity away. It was Jason Donovan. Very soft spoken and seemed a nice fellow.
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I’m sure he is, Marcia.
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Funny. I’ve just turned 60, but still look fresh-faced and youthful.
I don’t know how I do it.
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Good living, DonDon!
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No way to stop time and be alive.
Some are lucky and survive well.
Other had heavy paper rounds when young.
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Mr Jagger must have delivering Encyclopaedia Britannica!
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Time, I’ve heard it said, is just God’s way of making sure EVERYTHING didn’t happen all at once.
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How considerate of him, Jake.
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The passage of time has not been kind to Kate Hoey, as picture 1 confirms.
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LOL, Iain.
I don’t think Kate was ever as pretty as Mick was in that first picture.
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You have a point there.
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Hello? I appear to be having difficulty in logging in. Just see this as a test, no content.
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There you are but you seem to be using another account!
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Tom Jones , the only one to look better now than way back then
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As soon as I get over this massive coughing fit, I am going to announce to my legions of friends and admirers that age has not withered me, nor has custom staled my infinite variety.
Danny, please tell that to the marines on my behalf, to save me the phone call. A penny saved is a penny earned!
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Absolutely, Ed.
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OK Ed! No one doubted it! 😉
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(Thors ) Þór’s Journey to Útgarð
The giants laughed as a horrible old crone entered the hall. She agreed to wrestle Þór. He threw himself at the woman, but she was stronger than she seemed. She stood firm and unshaken. Then she tried a hold or two on Þór. Catching him off-balance, she forced him to one knee.
“Enough”, cried Útgarða-Loki to Þór. “You’ve shown your true strength. There is no point in Þór’s challenging any one else in the hall.
“And it’s a marvel that you withstood Elli for so long. Elli is old age. No one can withstand old age in the end
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Blimey, Niko, that was apposite.
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Very good, Niko.
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Its my Creed
Seems to me there are two ways to face Old Age
one is to allow old age to wash over you absorb
and go with old age not fighting but accepting
your own mortality. A beautiful way I admit.
The other is to fight old age all the way
to struggle, push to wrestle if you will
to the bitter end.
Knowing all the time at the final end you will lose
and move onto eternity.
This is my way the way I have chosen
and I am at peace with.
About three years ago working out a couple
of young lads got a bit challenging.
With seated Dumbbell Press I find
difficulty getting heavy bells from
gym floor to shoulder whilst seated.
They lifted them for me.
Managed two 45Â kg bells (99 LBS).
Not bad for a fat old man I says
to general gym laughter.
They managed 50, 55 kg a good strong
weight for the Lads.
The upshot is I doubt very much I could
repeat that weight again.
Old age is winning. Slowly and surely
But I’ll keep fighting back.
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I love 💕 you Conan but you know that
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Yep, that’s the spirit, Niko.
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It’s a beautiful song, Danny. “Hier Encore”. Charles Aznavour wrote some fantastic lyrics in the Chanson tradition.
I’m not sure who wrote the English translation there but it’s very touching.
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English lyric by Herbert Kretzmer, I’ve just discovered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Kretzmer
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Tris…….I didn’t realize that it was an Aznavour song. I’ve only heard the English lyrics.
Excuse delayed reply. My WiFi went out and I lost internet connection for a few days. Bummer!
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No probs, Danny.
Munguin says he’ll dock the time from your salary… I bet you didn’t know you had a salary from Munguin, did you.
I don’t rate (or rather didn’t rate) Aznavour as a singer and I’m not sure that he was brilliant at music, but his lyrics are really penetrating… in the tradition of “chanson””
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LOL…..Munguin is a tough taskmaster. 😉
I was just a young kid when I saw Aznavour on what was surely a rerun of an old American TV variety show. Most likely it was the Ed Sullivan show which ran for a couple of decades and then has played in reruns off and on ever since on one cable channel or another.
I was less than impressed with Aznavour’s “singing”, which as I recall sounded more like talking to music. Of course at the time I knew nothing of French chanson, although I probably had an inkling that Aznavour might not be a barrel of laughs in person. 😉
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I don’t know what he was like, Danny, but he and Pet were good friends, and she really IS a barrel of laughs, full of jokes and laughter.
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So I doubt they would be mates unless he could have a good laugh too.
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Maybe it’s just the songs that are moody. 😉
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Typical of the chanson tradition.
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I remember seeing Donovan being interviewed on the BBC to promote his autobiography, “The Hurdy Gurdy Man”. The interviewer asked him, “Who is the Hurdy Gurdy Man?”. Donovan looked really surprised at this unbelievably stupid question but he calmly replied, “It’s me”. I remember wondering how someone could be so badly prepared for an interview. A few years later, I watched Andrew Marr grappled with Brexit.
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LOL. Yes, there are indeed some really ill-prepared journalists out there.
Certainly not the least of these is Andrew Marr.
Anyway, here’s Donovan singing about himself, although in good faith I dunno where the Rolly Polly Man comes into it…
Still, as the man says, he was either in India or Jamaica when he wrote it, with George Harrison maybe and there was a lot of rum and ganga involved…
“I’m not sure if I wrote that song in India or on the beach in Jamaica. I’m pretty sure it was in Jamaica, where we had very good ganja that year and somebody gave me 110-proof rum.”
https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-hurdy-gurdy-man-by-donovan/
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I also have no idea what a Rolly Polly man is. Maybe it’s a 60s drugs reference or maybe it’s some nonsense he made up when he was mashed on ganja and rum. Donovan sure knew how to live well.
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A rolly up? Maybe.
It’s kinda taken a toll on his face though, although I’m thinking that maybe Mick Jagger had an even more exciting life.
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Oh, a rolly. Maybe that’s it.
Donovan is 75! I suspect I will look a bit rough when I’m Donovan’s age but, unless I really get cracking, I won’t have had international success as a singer of memorable pop songs.
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No time like the present, Terry, my lad.
Get recording…. well, probably better write something first.
You maybe need a bit of ganga and a few bottles or rum to get you going though…
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Patrick Harvie has come up in my opinion today.
Calls on the committee members who leaked should resign for breaking Parliaments code of conduct.
It appears Slab abstained.
Onwards now to the election of a majority SNP government, to Independence and thus to Scotland becoming a normal country.
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I can’t help thinking that Dross and Her Noble Highness are looking a wee bit pathetic, and a bit isolated tonight.
Still why would Her Important Aristocraticness care. She’ll never have to be elected again in her life and she could be in politics for another 50 years.
Let’s hope in an English house of lords and NOTHING to do with us.
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Little Peggy March – 50 years apart.
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She improved with age.
It’s originally a French song “Chariot”, but it’s been recorded in many languages and versions around the world. I love that version of the sisters singing it.
Needless to say, Petula has recorded it in four languages and still sings it today in French or Canadian concerts. This really amateur video from the 60s covers the four language versions.
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You learn things on this blog that you would never learn anywhere else.
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Well, with Munguin himself being such a font of knowledge, I suppose that that is to be expected.
Actually, most of the learning comes from the contributions of Munguin’s dear readers, who are an interesting, intelligent and learned bunch of people.
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Thomas McAleese aka Dean Ford performing in 1969 and 2014. Sadly gone RIP.
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I had a great friend, an Australian who had seen service in Vietnam. This was “his” song. It certainly captured the zeitgeist of that time and place.
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