As my friends can tell you, I’m a big fan of Rudyard Kipling’s poetry and prose. (It’s strange how many military men and veterans are fans of his. He speaks to that background and mindset very strongly.) I’ve cited his poem “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” more than once in these pages with reference to our modern times and how screwed-up they are.
To my delight, a user on MeWe posted a video of that poem set to music. It’s by Doug Moreland and the Flying Armadillos, a singer and group of whom I’d never heard before. They hail from Fort Davis in West Texas. Doug describes himself as a “singer and chainsaw artist”, which is a heck of a combination if you ask me!
I think Rudyard Kipling, in all his Englishness, might find a west Texas country version of his poem more than a little strange, but I must confess, it has a certain appeal to it.
I daresay the lessons taught by the Gods of the Copybook Headings are as valid in West Texas as they are on the storied “playing fields of Eton“.
Peter
Excellent!
American Bandstand… I give it a 95.. neat song and easy to dance to.
Well one of Kipling's books was Barrack Room Ballads so the poems lend themselves to song, I would say.
Good one!
Sure does apply to today's problems.