We Will Prick Him With A Pin
I had a flu jab this morning. I genuinely didn’t feel it and, ten hours later, have had no reaction as far as I can tell.
In past years I haven’t felt any particular need to have one–you’re reliant on the vaccine manufacturers succesfully anticipating which strains of flu are going to be in circulation and some years are more accurately predicted than others. This year, with the increased focus on basic sanitation such as handwashing, surface cleaning etc., that might be even more of a task. On the other hand, going into this winter, I don’t need the flu and the NHS really does not need a widespread outbreak.
It’s been a quiet day otherwise, catching up on reading and catching up on 1970s music. And there isn’t really a lot more to say about it than that.
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Spanning Steeleye
Music: I did the ‘pick an LP at random’ thing again and two came out at once. After some havering I had two potential choices, both from Commoners Crown which is probably my favourite of Steeleye Span’s later albums. It is certainly the most bloodthirsty, and Long Lankin is one of the bloodiest.
The song survives in various forms in Scotland, England and Appalachia and is a bogeyman ballad, a precurser to Michael Myers in the Halloween films, if you like, except that Long Lankin is caught and executed for his crimes.
The ballad takes some delight in recounting the details:
There was blood all in the kitchen
There was blood all in the hall
There was blood all in the parlour
Where my lady she did fall
Now Long Lankin shall be hanged
From the gallows oh so high
And the false nurse shall be burned
In the fire close by
Maddy Prior clearly relishes delivering the lyric, as well she might.
Commoner’s Crown is also notable for an appearance by Peter Sellers, on ukulele and Goon voices (Minnie Bannister, Henry Crum and Major Bloodnock, I think). New York Girls regularly turns up in various forms, probably most notably in recent times by Bellowhead, but I have a soft spot for this version.
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