[Valin]

the band of the Royal Marines played not ''Land Of Home And Glory'' or ''Rule, Britannia'' but a Cockney novelty pop song, ''Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be,'' as a jaunty reflection on the vicissitudes of fate.

LIL: I used to lead a lovely life of sin, dough! I charged a ton
Now it's become an undercover game;
Who want to read a postcard in a window, "Massaging Done?"
Somehow the business doesn't seem the same

It's a very different scene
Well, you know what I mean...

There's toffs wiv toffee noses, and
Poofs in coffee 'ouses and
Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
There's short time low priced mysteries
Wivout proper histories
Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
There used to be class
Doing the town
Buying a bit o' vice.
And that's when a brass
Couldn't go down
Under the union price,
Not likely!

FRED: Once in golden days of yore
Ponces killed a lazy whore
Fings ain't wpt they used t'be.

Cops from universities
Dropsy wot a cuse it is,
Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
There used to be schools,
Fahsands of bounds
Passing across the baize.
There used tobe tools
Flashing around
Oh for the bad old days
Remember

LIL: How we used to pull for 'em
I've got news for Wolfenden
Fings ain't wot they used t'be.

FRED: Did their lot they used ter

LIL \
| Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
FRED /

[grey_whiskers]

BTW, isn't it true that when Cornwallis surrendered
at Yorktown, the band played
"The World Turned Upside Down" ?

Perspiring minds who weren't there want to know.

[jocon307]

LOL, thanks for posting those lyrics. Of course a lot of them are beyond my comprehension, but I think I get the general idea. It's quite an amusing tidbit. Steyn totally rules.

[Caoilfhionn]

What amazes me is--with the playing off that song, they're playing up his Irish heritage as if it's real and legitimate. John Kerry's a Czech Jew. Because, like other Jews in the late 1800's, his grandfather (Fritz Kohn) suffered greatly from the anti-Semitism that prevailed in Europe at the time he abandoned his Jewish heritage and converted to Roman Catholicism.

Then, in 1897, his grandfather, Fritz, decided to shed the Jewish-sounding name of Kohn. He chose a new name by dropping a pencil on a map. The pencil landed on Ireland's County Kerry. In 1901, Fritz's name was then changed officially from Fritz Kohn to Frederick Kerry.

Looks like flip flopping runs in the family, lol.....