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‘We’ve Lost More Than We’ll Ever Know’

In Three Corners of the Commonwealth, Popular Musicians Demonstrate Rejection of Modernity

In South Africa, England, and Quebec, popular musicians have expressed regret over the rejection of their traditional cultures by the destructive onward march of modernity. The hugely popular song ‘De La Rey’, sung in Afrikaans by Bok van Blerk I have already explored in greater depth in an article for Norumbega, but ‘Roots’ by England’s Show of Hands and ‘Dégénération’ by Québécois group Mes Aïeux are worthy of notice.

‘Roots’, as one would expect from the title, decries the severing of the English people from their lyrical musical tradition and lifestyle, being replaced by “Indian, Asian, Afro-Celt”, while the song’s refrain evokes images of a people adrift: “Haul away boys let them go/ Out in the wind and the rain and snow/ We’ve lost more than we’ll ever know/ On the rocky shores of England”. In one verse, the song taps into a particular pet peeve of mine, the complete invasion of pubs by the dreaded television screen:

And the Minister says his vision of hell
Is three folk singers in a pub near Wells
Well I’ve got a vision of urban sprawl
Pubs where no one ever sings at all
And everyone is staring at a TV screen
Overpaid soccer stars, prancing teens
Australian soap, American rap
Estuary English, Baseball cap

There is no greater killer of good conversation than the massive influx of television screens into the pubs. Just the other evening I was down in our regular in Bronxville and from my vantage point alone I could see three television screens. The bright technicolor projection of baseball, soccer, football, and rugby into an otherwise dark space is too great a distraction for the eye. Bad enough sitting in a booth, it is even worse having dinner at the bar when you do not at least have the advantage of sitting opposite your drinking companion. How much more of a good time it would be without those dazzling displays, and without the obnoxiously loud music, either piped in from the jukebox or else some third-rate band singing third-rate cover songs of third-rate rock groups. Bleccch! It is those moments when one yearns to be ensconced by the fire in the Russell on the Scores in St Andrews, either accompanied solely by a book and a solid pint, or engaged in the usual joviality with the after-Rosary crowd.

The Québécois song, meanwhile, laments the decline of the family from large in size and from tied to the earth to solitary and confined in the city. The name of the band — Mes Aïeux — means “My Ancestors” and ‘Dégénération’ is a play on words, meaning ‘degeneration’ but also soundling like ‘des generations’ — ‘of the generations’. The song opens:

Ton arrière-arrière-grand-père, il a défriché la terre
Ton arrière-grand-père, il a labouré la terre
Et pi ton grand-père a rentabilisé la terre
pis ton père, il l’a vendu pour devenir fonctionnaire

Et pi toé mon p’tit gars, tu sais pu c’que tu vas faire
Dans ton p’tit trois et d’mi ben trop cher, frète en hiver
Il te vient des envies de dev’nir propriétaire
Et tu rêves la nuit d’avoir ton petit lopin d’terre

Your great-great grandfather cleared the earth
Your great-grandfather laboured on the earth
Your grandfather turned a profit from the earth
Then your father sold the earth to become a bureaucrat

Now you, my little man, you don’t know what to do
In your little 3 room apartment – too expensive and cold in the winter
You want something to call your own
And you dream at night of having your own little piece of earth.

The next verse goes on about the maternal line of the family: the great-great grandmother “had fourteen kids”, the next generation “had about as many”, the next “had three, that was enough for her” but “Your mom didn’t want any, you were an accident”.

Et pi toé ma p’tite fille, tu changes de partenaires tout l’temps
Quand tu fais des conn’ries, tu t’en sauves en avortant
Mais y’a des matins, tu te réveilles en pleurant
Quand tu rêves la nuit d’une grande table entourées d’enfants

Now you, my little lady, change partners all the time
When you make a mistake you escape by aborting
But there are mornings you awake crying
When you dream in the night of a large table surrounded by little ones.

The song is one of the most popular downloads on iTunes Canada, and the band’s most recent album has gone double-platinum.

Music videos of ‘De La Rey’, ‘Roots’, and ‘Dégénération’ after the jump.

Sources Fides et Ardor: Sign of Hope – Mes Aïeux | Fides et Ardor: The People Speak (or sing…)

Previously: Breaking the Mold in Quebec | The Men Who Saved Quebec | Hitchcock in Quebec


‘De La Rey’, by Bok van Blerk (in Afrikaans, with English subtitles).

‘Roots’, by Show of Hands (in English).

‘Dégénération’, by Mes Aïeux (in Québécois French, with English subtitles).

Published at 8:58 pm on Thursday 21 June 2007. Categories: Canada Great Britain Quebec South Africa Tags: , , , , , .
Comments

C. S. Lewis’ prescient vision of the N.I.C.E. taking over and “sanitizing” England in That Hideous Strength is shown to be spot on. May all the “St-Anne’s-on-the-Hill” rebels, musicians, and worshipers keep faith, hope, and charity well and alive.

— Athos 22 Jun 2007 8:24 am

degeneration is a great song. I’m glad it’s being noticed outside of Quebec

— Simon 22 Jun 2007 11:11 am

A pub which installs televisions ceases to be a pub. ‘Tis then a bar, which is a different place entirely. I once read an essay by Michael Aeschliman entitled “The Cold Grey Glow.” It describes the decline of hospitality which followed the introduction of television into a small European village. The sterile buzz and glow of the machine soon replaced the art of conversation and the cozy light of the hearth fire.

Josef Pieper even goes so far as to suggest that “the greatest menace to our capacity for contemplation is the incessant fabrication of tawdry empty stimuli which kill the receptivity of the soul”

— Lorraine 22 Jun 2007 11:48 am

Simon, surely as a Jewish Communist you must object to the terribly Catholic reactionary thoughts expressed in such a song?

— Andrew Cusack 22 Jun 2007 2:38 pm

Then again, you are probably the only Jewish Communist who’s been to a Latin Mass!

— Andrew Cusack 22 Jun 2007 2:40 pm

I’m enormously grateful for you bringing Dégénération to my attention. It’s heartbreaking, but enormously encouraging that it seems to have struck a cord with my countrymen in Quebec.

— gabriel 22 Jun 2007 9:48 pm

I think the end of Degeneration is important too. Reactionaries all to often are portrayed as dour but the celebration of partying in the last stanza is closer to the truth. As a Southern Catholic, I have always been intrigued by the Quebecois.

— Jason Reese 27 Jun 2007 12:17 pm

Great stuff!

— Charles A. Coulombe 12 Jul 2007 6:58 pm

Your description of “Roots” is a little off. The singer isn’t lamenting that English culture/music is being replaced by Afro, Celtic and Asian music/culture.

Instead, he respects the fact that those groups still have some connection to their traditional culture and can “dance all night long” to their music, and why can’t the English have something like that.

Just thought I’d point that out. They’re all great songs.

— Dan 17 Jul 2007 10:54 am

Excellent choice of music. I appreciate the sentiment, would have never discovered them! Also congratultions on a very interesting site.

— Michael Ruskin 10 Aug 2007 4:59 am

They’re ultimately two sides of the same coin, Dan.

— Nom de Guerre 20 Mar 2014 4:53 am
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