Daily Reckless


THE BARREN TREE
(excerpt from A Drunk Man Looks At A Thistle, read by Hugh MacDiarmid. Music by Misty's Big Adventure . Mixed by The Plagiarist)

The barren tree, dry leafs and cracklin thorns,
This is the mind o humanity,
- The empty intellect that left to groow
'll let nocht ither be.

Lo! it has choked the sunlicht's gowden grain,
And strangled wyne the white haist o the mune.
Thocht that maks the food o nocht but Thocht
Is reshlin grey abune....

O fitly frae oor cancerous soil
May this heraldic horror rise !
The Presbeterian thistle flourishes,
And its ain roses crucifies....

No Edinburgh Castle or the fields
O Bannockburn or Flodden
Are dernin wi the miskent soul
Scotland sae lang has hod'n.

It hauds nae pew in ony kirk,
The soul christ cam to save;
Nae R.S.A.'s hae pentit it,
F.S.A.'s fund its grave.

Is it alive or deid? i show
My hert - wha will can see.
The secret clyre in Scotland's life
Has burst and reams through me,

A whummlin sea in which is heard
The chink o nameless banes;
A grisly thistle dirlin shrill
Abune the broken stanes.

Westminster Abbey nor the Fleet,
Nor England's Constitution, but
In aa the michty city there,
You mind ae fleggit slut,

As Tolstoi o Lucerne alane
Minded ae beggar minstrel seen !
the woundit side draws aa the warld.
Barbarians hae lizards' een.

Glesca's a gless whaur Magadalene's
Discovered in a million crimes.
Christ comes again - wheesht, whatna bairn
In backlands cries betimes?

Hard faces prate o their success,
And pickle-makers awn the hills.
There is nae life in aa the land
But this infernal Thistle kills....

Nae mair I see
As aince I saw
Mysel in the thistle
Harth and haw!

Nel suo profondo vidi che s'interna,
Legato con amore in un volume,
[or else by Hate fu' art the better Love]
Ciò che per l'universo si squaderna;

Sustanzia ed accidenti, e lor costume,
Quasi conflati inime per tal modo,
[The michty thistle in wh's boonds I rove]
Che ciò ch'io dico è un semplice lume.

And kent and was creation
In aa its coontless forms,
Or glitterin in raw sunlicht,
Or dark wi hurryin storms.

But what's the voice
That sings in me noo?
- Ae hauf o me tellin
The tither it's fou !

It's the voice o the Sooth
That's held owre lang
My Viking North
Wi its siren sang....

 

(from the album A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, part2)


Previously

My Beautiful Ninja
Her Lips Were Made to Kiss Megaphones
Where I Live
666 Great Junction Street
Joss
Hard Shoulder
Merciless Eyebrows
Sanity is not Statistical
Gie's Yer Jaiket
Middle-Management
I Fought the War (And the War Won)
Dead Cowboy
Carolyn Yes
Chris's House
Hungover and Out
Match Steward
Inscrutable Coupon
The Day We Went To See They Might Be Giants
Michael Cade
Orang Utan
Jesus Hates Me
The Leith Police Dismisseth Us
The Butcher
Zoo Suits
Beyoncé is my Fiancée
That's George Galloway, Son
Of Mince and Men
(Do the) Leith Walk
Bute House Sycophants
Wetherspoons Nights
The Rainbow Song
The Bar is High
WTFAYBOA
Pink Floyd Are Shit
Lost in Franz Ferdinand
Zoinks! A Tenner
Central Belt Blues
Dead Funny
God in a Box
There Was A Rock Critic
Rowche Rumble
Bingo Master's Breakout
Touch Sensitive
Kurt Cobana
Delete As Applicable
When Not To Talk
Panto
Radio Reckless
300 Words
Ad Lib
Don't Involve Yourself
The Sound of Music Falling Apart
Itchy Feet
Rainy Friday
Kill Together
The Plagiarist
It's a Long Way Back to Beethoven
Who Takes The Blame
Please Pass The Milk
I Hear The Wind Blow
When It Wants
Mysterious Whisper
The Guy Who Hit Me In The Eye
New Friend
Heimlich Manoeuvres in the Dark
The Frosty Snowman
Hey! Student
Cindy Tells Edinburgh Man
The Littlest Rebel
Living Too Late
Jawbone and the Air Rifle
Do Not Drink The Tennents
Everything Is Catching On Fire
Rock JD
I Don't Understand You
Darkened Corridors
King of the Swingers
Fuck This Shit
Wherever's the Fuckin' Taxi, Cunt?
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
Heaven
Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)
Listening To The Higsons
Bannockburning
Stipetoe In The Rain
Daz For Dania
Mouldy Old D'Oh
Lady McCartney
Tangled Up In Blue
99% of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd
There She Goes
Lashed Christmas
O.C. Clause
Nae Luck Everybody
Parly and Happy
Scary Burd
Love Thy Violence
Elected
The First Minister's Dressing Gown
Damaged Red Goods
Thick Cunt
Davie O'Hara
Strange Behaviour
Are You Being Served The Wright Stuff?
I'm Free Range
Aw Fuck, The Police!
Abba Got Back
Walking To Rehab
The Day My Pad Went 9 to 5
Funktionality
And Then?
Funeral Flesh
Accidental Lives
Philosophy
Alex Salmond

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Saviour Breath
Big John Smeaton
No More Smeaton
Campbell's Sauce
Noah Fucking Clue

Where Seagulls Dare
Night, Thriller and Death
Wendy Alexander
I'm The Manse
Sic Transit Gloria Scotiae
You Absolute Cunt
The Thistle's Characteristics (Part 1)


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