Juxtapositions, M'Dear
Oct. 1st, 2009 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunsen_hA few days ago, there was a brief discussion on the rec.music.filk newsgroup of "Madeira-ing" women at filk conventions -- that is, getting them to play the part of the young woman in a performance of Flanders and Swann's "Madeira M'Dear", as schtick. The consensus was that it's not a good idea to do this unless the woman in question agrees to it and is familiar with the song, or at least has a good idea of what's going to happen or is otherwise expected to be comfortable with the role.
It's unquestionably a clever song, with extremely elegant word play. But I've been increasingly uncomfortable with it over the years. It is, after all, a humorous song about a foul codger getting an innocent young girl drunk so he can have sex with her.
And with the recent blow-up about Roman Polanski, with many prominent entertainers spouting justifications for his having done just about exactly that... the song seems a lot less amusing at the moment.
It's unquestionably a clever song, with extremely elegant word play. But I've been increasingly uncomfortable with it over the years. It is, after all, a humorous song about a foul codger getting an innocent young girl drunk so he can have sex with her.
And with the recent blow-up about Roman Polanski, with many prominent entertainers spouting justifications for his having done just about exactly that... the song seems a lot less amusing at the moment.
