One of the great things about the internets is that you can instantly find song lyrics, even if you only recall one line of the song. In the case of The Kinks, Dedicated follower of fashion there was only one word I couldn’t make out despite hearing the song many times. The crucial line turns out to be
Everywhere the carnabetian army marches on,
Each one an dedicated follower of fashion.
It’s obvious when it’s written out that carnabetian is a reference to Carnaby Street, the fashion centre of Swinging London in the 1960s, but I don’t think I would ever have worked it out by ear.
John Quiggin 
John
I love the internets too. In another of your threads I linked to a site which debunked a claim that Indiana had legislated that pi = 3. I originally found that site when looking for song lyrics, or rather, the meaning thereof:
In the song “Hotel California,” what does “colitas” mean?
I’ve never been able to find the lyrics to a song called “The Marxist Party”, whose first lines were something like:
“You can bring Lenin, you can bring Mao,
But Don’t! Bring! Trotsky!”
Does anyone know it?
I know the song, which is, as I recall, a bit tasteless.
The opening lines are, IIRC
“You can bring Mao and Lin Piao
But Don’t! Bring! Trotsky!�
Google doesn’t find anything like this, though
Peter,
The full lyric is:
You can bring Mao and Lin Piao
But don’t bring Trotsky
You can bring Ho and Uncle Joe
But don’t bring Trotsky
Trotsky’s a real cool smarty
****ed up the Communist Party
You can bring Kim and Kosygin
But ice-pick Trotsky.
It *is* tasteless, and I’m not quite sure what the political point of it was. I always preferred the following mordant anarchist ditty:
If you knew Trotsky like I know Trotsky
Oh oh oh what a guy
He loves to shoot pheasants – or is that peasants?
Oh oh, let’s shoot another Makhno
If you ever meet him you’d better agree
Or else he’ll shoot you as a counter-revolutionary
If you knew Trotsky like I know Trotsky
Oh oh what a guy
If you knew Trotsky like I know Trotsky
Oh oh oh what a guy
He’ll give you forced labour and tell you it’s a favour
Oh oh, let’s run another Kronstadt show
And don’t ever ask him how he won the Civil War
Or he’ll take ten workers and line them up against the wall
If you knew Trotsky like I know Trotsky
Oh oh what a guy
There’s now a Mambo on Carnaby Street. Mixed national pride and disturbed feelings…
I rarely use it for song lyrics but I sometimes remember a phrase in a speech and google for that.
We are now spoilt by technology. The days of endless searches in musty libraries are shortening (though I doubt they can ever really end)…
i don’t use the internet for song lyrics or for phrases in speeches, i just use it for essays when i can’t be bothered writing my own!
😉
Undergraduate,
You and I probably hit the same sites a lot of the time – in my case, I hit them when I’m checking the references on my students’ assignments!
I’ve heard a story about someone finding papers on the internet in Spanish, which the student then translates into English before submitting the paper as their own work. Such is the nature of the ‘world wide web’…
Not sure how the anti-plagiarists get past this one.
Carnabysian?
Thanks, Paul.
I visited Trotsky’s last house in Mexico City in 1998. The people selling tickets at the entrance were also selling recent posters from the late USSR –eg, commemerating the 70th anniversay of the 1917 revolution. They did not see any irony in this.
There was a song in the movie “The Blue Iguana” way back in the 80’s that was sung by a girl in the club. Part of the refrain had “ooh what a guy” in it. Does anyone know where the song can be gotten, or even just the lyrics?
I would like to know who is the writer or the artist that plays “The Marxist Party” song? Where can I find it?
Dave, Google reveals a song of this title by the Hi-Fashions, a girl group.
Rodrigo, I doubt that this song was ever recorded, and I expect the writer is “Anon”