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Song Parodies -> "Peterloo"

Original Song Title:

"Waterloo"

 (MP3)
Original Performer:

ABBA

Parody Song Title:

"Peterloo"

Parody Written by:

Edward Genereux

The Lyrics

This parody, my 66th song on amIRight but first spoof of ABBA, is another history lesson in song. This time, I am tackling British history--specifically, an incident on 16 August 1819 in Manchester. That incident was the Peterloo Massacre, which was the by-product of a demonstration for at least universal manhood suffrage in Great Britain. Fifteen protesters were slain and hundreds were wounded by cavalry called in to disperse the activists. The name is a portmanteau of St. Peter's Field, where the massacre took place, and the battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon had been defeated in 1815 and from which the OS takes its name.
Once at St. Peter's Field in Manchester Town in England,
A gathering there was to get the vote to ev'ry Englishman.
The cavalry regiments came;
What followed next was quite a shame.

Refrain.
Peterloo! five and ten martyred for their beliefs.
Peterloo, just like Tiananmen, gives me grief.
Peterloo made the survivors just want to sue.
Peterloo! cops were just like LA '92(1).
Peterloo! even then, it was just nothing new.

At least 400 injured by the horsemen's sabres
That day, the ides(2) of August 1819 of Lord Yeshua(3).
The Six Acts(4) passed, torture ensued;
The workers no more had their food.

(Refrain)

But thirteen yeas after, joy at last;
The Great Reform(5) finally passed.

(Last three lines of refrain)
Footnotes: (1) Los Angeles race riots of 1992, touched off by the police batttery of Rodney King. (2)Middle of a month; in this case, the 16th day. (3) Hebrew name for Jesus. (4)Laws passed as part of an effort to suppress radicalism. (5) Act of Parliament that reapportioned seats in the House of Commons in 1832.

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Voting Results

 
Pacing: 4.5
How Funny: 3.0
Overall Rating: 5.0

Total Votes: 2

Voting Breakdown

The following represent how many people voted for each category.

    Pacing How Funny Overall Rating
 1   0
 1
 0
 
 2   0
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 0
 
 3   0
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 4   1
 0
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 5   1
 1
 2
 

User Comments

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Tommy Turtle - July 21, 2010 - Report this comment
Imaginative concept and portmanteau (I admit -- I expected something completely different, about a "peter" and a "loo", lol), but it seems that about half the song is missing. Rather than say "refrain", consider that an opportunity to tell more of the story, or, in the case of a funny parody, to give us more laughs.

Here was the Fiddlegirl-Tommy Turtle spin on the same OS, celebrating ABBA's induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame:
http://www.amiright.com/parody/70s/abba203.shtml

Just to show using the entire OS. ... If you're at all interested in ABBA or parodies of their OSs, we did a total of five tributes to them that week. You can go to our joint page,
http://www.amiright.com/parody/authors/fiddlegirlandtommyturtle.shtml
and search "ABBA", or just click "Performer", which will sort the songs by original performer -- ABBA will be grouped right there near the top. .. Or not. ;-)

Abstaining from voting, as perhaps you might flesh out the rest of the song rather than being docked points for omission. Interesting exposition of an incident surely unknown to any of my fellow Yanks. Cheers!
Patrick - July 22, 2010 - Report this comment
Like Tommy, I've heard of the Peterloo Massacre. Can't have those commoners getting uppity, you know.

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