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Description
Rebsie: vocals, duelling basses, 12-string electro-acoustic guitar
William: electric lead guitar
Words and music by Rebsie (mostly)
A song about a leafblower ... the scourge of English middle-class suburbia.
My next-door-neighbour has a garden powertools fetish. He likes to parade up and down with an array of turbo-powered macho gadgets which make horticultural jobs a whole lot noisier, if possibly slightly quicker. Unfortunately he sometimes does this when I'm recording, and that tends to make me rather cross.
Lawnmowers I can understand, but what is the point of leafblowers? Their function is just to move debris from one place to another ... into the street or into someone else's garden ... while stirring up dust and crap into the air and making the most godawful whining noise. They're environmentally unfriendly and serve no purpose other than to turn your problem into somebody else's problem.
This song evolved out of a MacJams chat conversation I had with Stevel and Eltopo, and I have them to thank for putting me up to it. Eltopo came up with the line "Autumn days when the grass is jewelled and the neighbour's hung from the chestnut tree" ... which I thought was so good it had to be used in a song. Thanks 'topo!
My trusty collaborator Mandolinquent provided the lovely leafbloweresque lead guitar.
And no, you haven't heard Revolving Doris quite like this before!
But even folk musicians like to rock out sometimes.
William: electric lead guitar
Words and music by Rebsie (mostly)
A song about a leafblower ... the scourge of English middle-class suburbia.
My next-door-neighbour has a garden powertools fetish. He likes to parade up and down with an array of turbo-powered macho gadgets which make horticultural jobs a whole lot noisier, if possibly slightly quicker. Unfortunately he sometimes does this when I'm recording, and that tends to make me rather cross.
Lawnmowers I can understand, but what is the point of leafblowers? Their function is just to move debris from one place to another ... into the street or into someone else's garden ... while stirring up dust and crap into the air and making the most godawful whining noise. They're environmentally unfriendly and serve no purpose other than to turn your problem into somebody else's problem.
This song evolved out of a MacJams chat conversation I had with Stevel and Eltopo, and I have them to thank for putting me up to it. Eltopo came up with the line "Autumn days when the grass is jewelled and the neighbour's hung from the chestnut tree" ... which I thought was so good it had to be used in a song. Thanks 'topo!
My trusty collaborator Mandolinquent provided the lovely leafbloweresque lead guitar.
And no, you haven't heard Revolving Doris quite like this before!
But even folk musicians like to rock out sometimes.
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Lyrics
First day of autumn when the trees are turning gold
The man next door goes out to blow some leaves
(Leafblower) Early in the autumn when the leaves begin to fall
(Leafblower) My neighbour gets his blower out and drives me up the wall
(Leafblower) Humming and a-whining as the leaves fly through the air
(Leafblower) Spoiling my recordings till I'm going bloody spare
Can't use a rake like everybody else
Pointless powertools give him his kicks
Likes to piss the neighbours off by making loads of noise
Wasting electricity to get his fix
(Leafblower) Blowing to the left hand side and blowing to the right
(Leafblower) Blowing back the other way to shove them out of sight
(Leafblower) Blowing up the garden path and blowing down the street
(Leafblower) Leaves are splatted on my car and get stuck on my feet
First day of autumn when the trees are turning gold
Visions fly like leaves in front of me
Autumn days when the grass is jewelled
And the neighbour's hung from the chestnut tree
(Leafblower) Blowing under privet hedge and over flower bed
(Leafblower) I want to grab a garden spade and whack him round the head
(Leafblower) Blowing on the patio and blowing on the grass
(Leafblower) I'd like to take that blower thing and shove it up his arse
The man next door goes out to blow some leaves
(Leafblower) Early in the autumn when the leaves begin to fall
(Leafblower) My neighbour gets his blower out and drives me up the wall
(Leafblower) Humming and a-whining as the leaves fly through the air
(Leafblower) Spoiling my recordings till I'm going bloody spare
Can't use a rake like everybody else
Pointless powertools give him his kicks
Likes to piss the neighbours off by making loads of noise
Wasting electricity to get his fix
(Leafblower) Blowing to the left hand side and blowing to the right
(Leafblower) Blowing back the other way to shove them out of sight
(Leafblower) Blowing up the garden path and blowing down the street
(Leafblower) Leaves are splatted on my car and get stuck on my feet
First day of autumn when the trees are turning gold
Visions fly like leaves in front of me
Autumn days when the grass is jewelled
And the neighbour's hung from the chestnut tree
(Leafblower) Blowing under privet hedge and over flower bed
(Leafblower) I want to grab a garden spade and whack him round the head
(Leafblower) Blowing on the patio and blowing on the grass
(Leafblower) I'd like to take that blower thing and shove it up his arse
ledebutant
I'm laughing too hard to make an intelligent comment. I love the
juxtaposition between Rebsie's sweet, sweet voice and the threats of
violent murder.
I heard a rumor about collaborators having songs appear on both
pages, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Is the technology still
in development? I think I saw Simon chatting with Revolving Doris
about it last week...or I may be off the rails again. Whatever it is, I don't
plan to go anywhere near a leafblower.