Comments on: THE SIMON PARK ORCHESTRA – “Eye Level”

By: Elsie Bee

Elsie Bee — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:06:32 +0000

It is very addictive… my friend’s kids sang it at their school service last week and it’s still floating in my head!

By: Elsie Bee

Elsie Bee — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:51:22 +0000

(Eye Level Carol)

There were shepherds in the fields
Who were watching their sheep
The night was cold
But the skies were clear
An angel told them that Christ was born
And he lay in a village near

“Ring a bell, bang a drum,
Sing Happy Christmas morn
For the Lord Jesus Christ is born
Ring a bell, bang a drum,
Sing happy, happy, happy
Happy blessed morn”

Off went the shepherds
Hurrying fast
They went along the Bethlehem way
There with the baby
Was Mary and Joseph
He was lying in a manger’s hay

“Ring a bell, bang a drum,
Sing Happy Christmas morn
For the Lord Jesus Christ is born
Ring a bell, bang a drum,
Sing happy, happy, happy
Happy blessed morn”

This to the shepherds was a wonderful sight
Here on earth
was the Newborn King
High in the heavens
Was a glorious star
And they heard many angels sing

“Ring a bell, bang a drum,
Sing Happy Christmas morn
For the Lord Jesus Christ is born
Ring a bell, bang a drum,
Sing happy, happy, happy
Happy blessed morn”

By: Eekabear

Eekabear — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:56:44 +0000

I wonder if anyone can help? I have christmas lyrics in my head whenever I hear ‘Eye Level’ and I hope to god I heard them and didn’t make them up… does anyone else recognise these lyrics that go along with the main theme of Eye Level? If so, please let me know where they came from…

“Ring a bell, bang a drum,
Sing Happy Christmas Day
For the Lord Jesus Christ is born
Ring a bell, bang a drum,
Sing happy, happy blessed morn”

By: tim davidge

tim davidge — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:43:50 +0000

In his entry for The Shadows’ “Wonderful Land”, Tom pegs the number as evoking “a Sixties that ended up…not happening”. It’s a claim one might make for “Eye Level”, with reference to Europe in the Seventies. A calm, prosperous, European future beckoned. From this distance (middle-age now, mid-teens then), it evokes more the end of an era.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:28:17 +0000

Ah!

Wikipedia USELESSpedia morelike!

By: Jonathan Bogart

Jonathan Bogart — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 05:16:13 +0000

Marcello @ 99 xpost – Bit late for a correction, but Bessie Smith’s NLYWYDAO was recorded in ’29. (Wikipedia is wrong.) The song appears to have been written in ’23, which may be the source of the confusion.

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:26:14 +0000

It wouldn’t count as his theme, being from 1969, but Alexandria Good Time by Robin Gibb mentions Bonar Law – Robin being something of a history buff. Sadly for BL, it was on the flip of the exceedingly rare withdrawn version of Saved By The Bell. So instead of being tagged to a pan-European number one, no one’s ever heard the forgotten PM’s only mention in pop. Apart from the ‘lucky’ fellow who paid something daft like 500 quid for it on ebay.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:20:48 +0000

HORNE: Will you take my case?

JULIAN: Well, it depends on what it is. We’ve got a criminal practice that takes up most of our time.

HORNE: Yes, but apart from that – I need lega1 advice.

SANDY: Ooh – isn’t he bold?

By: Erithian

Erithian — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:05:57 +0000

I could be embarrassingly wrong about the Sibelius – it was a classical piece that was used as a TV current affairs theme, and it wasn’t Nantucket Sleighride!

My colleague who’s a 60s radio comedy fan tells me Bona Law was a legal practice featured in “Round the Horne”.

And another thread crashes through the 100-posts barrier!

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:59:30 +0000

“Nobody Knows You When You’re Bonar Law”

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:50:45 +0000

For Bonar Law they could have used “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out” – Bessie Smith’s recording came out in 1923.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:33:07 +0000

It would take some researching ability to come up with a suitable tune for Bonar Law – six months in 1923!

Last year’s much-delayed ITV Harold Wilson documentary used ‘The Rise & Fall of Flingel Bunt’ by The Shadows as ‘Harold’s Theme’, which worked really well.

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:09:38 +0000

i think the sibelius deserves a bit of a (!) also — exactly how active was balfour in finnish agitation for independence?

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:32:18 +0000

“Let Me Think About It,” surely?

By: Erithian

Erithian — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:37:53 +0000

That documentary ranking the 20th century PMs was repeated on BBC4 last night, and I managed to note most of the music used. In some cases I didn’t recognise it, so maybe someone who’s less of an ignoramus than me on classical music can help out – it’s on again in the wee small hours of Friday morning if you want to record it!

Salisbury: Men of Harlech, played by a Boer War-style military band
Balfour: Karelia Suite – Sibelius
Campbell-Bannerman: didn’t recognise it at all!
Asquith: ditto
Lloyd George: ditto
Bonar Law: ditto
Baldwin: Rhapsody in Blue – Gershwin
MacDonald: Song of the Dawn – Paul Whiteman
Chamberlain: God Bless You Mr Chamberlain (can’t identify the singer – an unironic music-hall tribute from the time of the Munich agreement)
Churchill: Jupiter, from the Planets Suite – Holst
Attlee: see Campbell-Bannerman
Eden: ?? – a sax-based instrumental, like a less demented Lord Rockingham’s XI
Macmillan: Theme from “A Summer Place” – Percy Faith
Douglas-Home: You Really Got Me – The Kinks
Wilson: Reflections Of My Life – Marmalade
Heath: ?? – a piano piece played by Heath himself.
Callaghan: Let’s Stick Together – Roxy Music
Thatcher: She’s Got Balls – AC/DC (!!)
Major: Things Can Only Get Better – D:Ream (!)
Blair: Roll With It (and Supersonic) – Oasis

They didn’t cover Brown, since it’s too soon to rank him and they were concentrating on the 20th century anyway, but after the events of last weekend I had Roy Orbison’s “Running Scared” going through my head…

By: Waldo

Waldo — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:00:08 +0000

That’s “unquenchable tragedy” I think, Billy, my boy…

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:57:56 +0000

If any Popular readers are feeling rich at the moment and are fired with unquenchable curiosity about the show, I see that Network release an 11 DVD box set – ‘The Complete Van Der Valk’ (“features all 5 series plus specials”) – next month. It retails at £99.99.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:07:25 +0000

Number three for two weeks, firstly behind Donny and Wizzard, and secondly behind Wizzard and the rudely gatecrashing Sweet.

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:08:40 +0000

Also worthy of mention – in the charts at the same time as this and missing out narrowly on at least a number 2 slot the debut of one David Essex with the mighty dubtastic ‘Rock On’ which IIRC featured on the soundtrack LP of ‘That’ll Be The Day’ without actually featuring in the excellent film of the same name.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:08:47 +0000

Alec of course was the last member of the House of Lords to become Prime Minister, as after Macmillan resigned, he sent for by Brenda whilst still The Earl of Home. He had to win a by-election in Kinross and West Perthshire subsequent to entering Number Ten, an astonishing fact. What if he had lost?

He was also the only PM to play first class cricket and was also PM here when Kennedy got stoked. Years later, “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in” had an item suggesting that Elvis Presley could have been the assassin – “The King of Rock and Roll on the Grassy Knoll”!

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:53:17 +0000

I’ll have to hear that documentary, not least to hear what song each PM gets.

Alec Douglas Home spoke at my school in 1986, and I can remember being quite impressed – he seemed quite sensible and fair-minded. My 13 year old self wasn’t chosen to ask a question, which probably just as well (would have asked him what he thought of his representation by satirists). One pupil asked him if he thought that Hitler (who Home had met in the thirties) had had a bad press, which gives you an impression of just how right-wing public schoolboys were in the eighties!

Soon afterwards, Harold Wilson gave a talk and was obviously completely senile, which was just depressing. The look of devoted suffering on Mary Wilson’s face I don’t think I will ever forget.

By: Erithian

Erithian — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:42:22 +0000

No, they remembered everyone including Bonar Law. Who can forget the Beatles’ press conference in the US when they were asked if they had a message for the Prime Minister, and Lennon said “Hello, Alec”?

By: Waldo

Waldo — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:25:44 +0000

Prime Ministers – I bet you they forgot Sir Alec Douglas Home. Everybody does.

I read Pearson’s substantial biography on this most unexpected of Premiers and Home himself recounted a tale about travelling back up to Berwick (and from there on to his estate in Coldstream) by rail and talking to an elderly lady, who remembered Alec as Heath’s Foreign Secretary. They spoke pleasantly until the lady alighted at Newcastle. As she got off she smiled at Home and said:

“It’s been lovely to talk to you. It’s a shame you were never Prime Minister.”

“Well actually I was,” smiled back Home. “But only for a short while!”

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:13:16 +0000

I think that was another record which topped every chart except the official one, but yes it’s the same thing – Percy Faith (yay Canada!), even though I associate him more directly with the theme tune to The Virginian since it was on every Friday at 6:45 in my youth.

By: Erithian

Erithian — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:00:05 +0000

On another tangent, there was a discussion programme on BBC 4 last Saturday with Andrew Marr and a panel ranging from Andrew Roberts to Polly Toynbee ranking the 20th century Prime Ministers. Each PM was covered in a short profile featuring incidental music, the most notable of which was the Theme from “A Summer Place” for Macmillan, again the cosiness of the “never had it so good” era but this time with the dramatic irony of knowing what was around the corner for him and us.