There aint half been some clever bastards

[Adrian Brezhnev]

as Ian Dury poignantly said on the B-side of his record about how he'd like you to hit him with your rhythm stick...

Noel Coward was a charmer.. as a writer he was brahma. Velvet jackets and pyjamas, "the gay divorce" and other dramas.

There ain't half been some clever bastards (lucky bleeders, lucky bleeders). There ain't half been some clever bas-tards.

Van Gough did some eyeball pleasers- he must have been a pencil squeezer. He didn't do the Mona Lisa, that was an Italian geezer.

There ain't half been some clever bastards (lucky bleeders, lucky bleeders). There ain't half been some clever bas-tards.

Einstein can't be classed as witless- he claimed atoms were the littlest. When you did a bit of splitting-em-ness, frighten everybody shitless

There ain't half been some clever bastards. Probably got help from their mum (who had help from her mum). There ain't half been some clever bastards. Now that we've had some, let's hope that there's lots more to come.

There ain't half been some clever bastards (lucky bleeders, lucky bleeders). There ain't half been some clever bas-tards.

Okey-dokey! Oh! Segovia. Da-laa la-laa da-daa da-lee De dump di dump de dump-dump-diddle li-lee.

There ain't half been some clever bastards (lucky bleeders, lucky bleeders). There ain't half been some clever bas-tards. There ain't half been some clever bastards (lucky bleeders, lucky bleeders). There ain't half been some clever bas-tards. There ain't half been some clever bastards (lucky bleeders, lucky bleeders). There ain't half been some clever bas-tards. There ain't half been some clever..........................................bastards.

It's a funny word, Clever is- it doesn't necessarily mean intelligent or smart, I suppose it's more to do with being able to apply your talents.
But does doing so make you a bastard?

[Annie_Hall]

It depends on your definition of the word 'Bastard' I s'pose.  If you are taking it in the literal sense, then of course not!

But thank you for bringing Ian Dury to the thread (not literally, that would just be wrong) but I fuckin love the blockheads, I actually caught them on tour last year, what a privilege.  Ooops babbling

[sproggy]

Trevor was clever too.

The term 'Clever' wouldn't look out of place in a sentence containing the words 'smug' or 'smart-arse' I suppose.  But if someone comes up with a clever idea for example, it seems less derogatory.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

I think Ian Dury was one of the cleverest bastards of them all. His lyrics will outlive most of what else was set to music over the last three decades.

I could be the driver an articulated lorry, I could be a poet I wouldn't need to worry, I could be a teacher in a classroom full of scholars, I could be the sergeant in a squadron full of wallahs. What a waste, what a waste, what a waste, what a waste.

Because I chose to play the fool in a six-piece band, first-night nerves every one-night stand. I should be glad to be so inclined. What a waste! What a waste! But I don't mind.

I could be a lawyer with strategems and ruses, I could be a doctor with poultices and bruises, I could be a writer with a growing reputation, I could be the ticket man at Fulham Broadway Station, What a waste (x4)

Because I chose to play the fool in a six-piece band, first-night nerves every one-night stand. I should be glad to be so inclined. What a waste! What a waste! But I don't mind.

I could be the catalyst that sparks the revolution, I could be an inmate in a long-term institution, I could dream to wide extremes, I could do or die, I could yawn and be withdrawn and watch the world go by. What a waste (x4)

That song works on so many levels. I was about 8 when it came out and I just liked it for the music and the London accent, but then a few years later once I appreciated what he was saying, I became a lifelong fan.

[Annie_Hall]

The man was a genius, a poet and a bit of a dirty bastard by all accounts...but Emily loved him!

[Adrian Brezhnev]

The more you find out about him, the more he comes across as a genuinely nice guy who cared a lot about people and the world.

[mcbpete]

Did anyone play Deus Ex Machina back in the 80's, you played the game in sync to a tape with music/poetry/narration with (there were more people but I cant remember them) Ian Dury and John Pertwee. It was quite strange I seem to remember.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

I was too busy playing Atic Atack, Manic Miner, Horace Goes Skiing, Jet-Pac, The Hobbit, and PiMania at the time....

[Gazeuse]

I can thoroughly recommend 'Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The Life of Ian Dury' by Richard Balls.

One of my greatest regrets is not going to an Ian Dury And The Blockheads gig...The then drummer had a spare ticket and I could've gone and met the old geezer and everything, but I had something else on and thought there'll be another time...Sadly there wasn't.

His lyrics were brilliant...Snappy and funny, but often with a little nugget that'd twang the old heartstrings.

[butnut]

I don't want to be rude, but what is this thread about? If it's just Dury then shouldn't it be in SE?

[Adrian Brezhnev]

No, it's about the fact that there aint half been some clever bastards.

Like Einstein, Hawking, Picasso, Morris, Mozart, Aristotle, God....

[dot]

Loads of people hate me, so I'd say yes, it makes people call you a bastard.

[Annie_Hall]

yeah...God aint all that!

*gasp* Blasphemer!

[Adrian Brezhnev]

dot.... are you God?

[TotalNightmare]

the next time someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!!!!

sorry

[dot]

No my child, I am not god, but I am close and I don't mean old.

[Jemble Fred]

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that's a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

Bigger than Jesus in fact....

[Gazeuse]

I don't want to be rude, but what is this thread about? If it's just Dury then shouldn't it be in SE?

Oops...I saw 'Ian Dury' and went off on one!!!

[Adrian Brezhnev]

That's OK.... I just thought that Mr. Dury put the point across more eloquently than I could.

Now, Leonardo Da Vinci. He was a clever bastard, wasn't he?

[pillockandtwat]

Leonardo DaVinci, now you're talking. He da man. The others weren't far behind him or just as good (Michelangelo was probably better). God, I love the Italian Renaissance. These days the word genius is a superlative, but back then it was a functional term.

Basically the renaissance was a numbers game, take the best, take the best from the best, take the prodigies from the best of the best, from the prodigies comes genius.

And it's not like the Italian city states of the renaissance provided state education, that's the strange thing. Kind of throws my instinctive thoughtless socialism out of the window.

[butnut]

This has got me thinking a little though. Have their been any undisputed geniuses who haven't been all that bright? I mean Mozart was clearly a genius, and had an incredibile musical intelligence (and memory) but I do wonder how bright he really was was sometimes. Karoline Pichler, a member of the intelligentsia in Vienna, described both Mozart and Haydn as:

persons who displayed in their contacts with others absolutely no other extraordinary intellectual capacity and almost no kind ofintellectual training, of scientific or higher education... Silly jokes and in the case of Mozart an irresponsible way of life, were all that they displayed to their fellow men.

Which might be a bit harsh.  (EDIT - they both sound like they'd have made great Verbwhores though!)

Both were still reasonably well read people I think. But can anyone else think of other people like this? Some of those painters must have been a bit thick I'd wager.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

Mozart was a genius, in terms of his ability to compose from a very young age, in ways that were unheard of at the time- and he had an extraordinary memory with the way that he could hear a piece of music once and then write it all down.

But whether he was clever, all round, is another matter. He made a bit of a mess of his life, by all accounts.

[God]

No my child, I am not god, but I am close and I don't mean old.

Well I am old. Been around since the yea- ach, never mind.

[dot]

Still on for friday big man?

[Dusty Gozongas]

Worst thread ever. How do you people look yerself in the face in the morning/afternoon/evening/on a yacht/train/iPod of your choice?

[dot]

It's as good as any of the other shite on here. What do you want?

[Gazeuse]

I've just been finding out about a feller called Neal Hefti. He wrote the music for films like The Odd Couple and Barefoot In The Park. He also wrote the original Batman theme.

He was a leading figure in the bebop movement and recorded with Count Basie and Woody Herman amongst others as trumpeter/aranger/composer, as well as arranging for Frank Sinatra.

I think that he's a clever bastard.

[SurferGhost]

Without having any detailed knowledge of the man and his works, on a similar erm, note I'd like to add Duke Ellington...He Changed The Face Of Jazz and that, mind-expanding stuff for it's time, the little I've heard. Still, I  think not having much detailed knowledge of someone but still being aware of their importance is quite possibly the best criteria for inclusion in this thread...

Worst thread ever

Heh, you clearly aren't paying enough attention then...