John Holbo jumps off yesterday's discussion of the life and times of Senator Theodore Bilbo to consider "The Man's" influence on SF and fantasy literature.
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Bilbo and Science Fiction
24 Nov 2007 11:08 am
Comments (5)
By the way, the Pete Seeger song does contain the lyrics "Another thing I'm sure will be news to you/ The first Mr. Bilbo was a foreigner too". Which raises the interesting question: where exactly did the Bilbo's come from? What sort of name is Bilbo anyways? It doesn't seem very anglo-saxon to me.
I always thought it was an anglicism for Bilbao, once a city renowed for its manufacturing of swords. In the 15th or 16th century, a short sword was often called a bilbo.
(Christ, I hope I'm not pulling all of this out of my ass. I was fairly confident at one point that I had put it together, but now I'm forgetting my sources.)
I found the original Pete Seeger lyrics. They can be read here:
http://www.peteseeger.net/listenbilbo.htm
The song is from 1946.
Bilbo is a Hobbit name, from the Shire.
Comments closed December 08, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
There is also Pete Seeger's great folk song "Listen, Mr. Bilbo"; I can't find the lyrics for that online but here are the lyrics for the Peter, Paul and Mary 1960s update, "Listen, Mr. Bigot" (which are virtually the same except Bilbo becomes Bigot):
Chorus:
Listen, Mr. Bigot, listen to me, I'll give you a lesson in history
Listen while I tell you that the foreigners you hate
Are the very same people made America great.
Oh listen Mr. Bigot, uh-huh...listen Mr. Bigot
In 1492, just to see what he could see
Columbus, who was an Italian set out across the sea
He said ";Isabella, baby, the world is round
And the USA's just awaitin' to be found.";
(Chorus)
Oh listen Mr. Bigot, (well, some of my best friends are)
Listen Mr. Bigot (oh, they like to live with their own kind)
Well when the King of England started pushin' Yanks around
They had a little trouble up in Boston town
But a brave, black, Crispus Attucks was the man
The first one to fall when the fightin' began.
(Chorus)
Oh listen Mr. Bigot,
(They can't help it. It's their cultural point of view)
Listen Mr. Bigot (They all look alike to me!)
Now Bigot, you're taking one hell of a chance
Your good friends the Duponts, came over from France
Another thing I'm sure will be news to you
The first Mr. Bigot was a foreigner too.
(Chorus)
You don't like blacks, you don't like jews
Well if there's anyone you do like, it sure is news
You don't like Poles, Hispanics too
Anyway they serve you up, we don't like you
(Chorus)
Oh listen Mr. Bigot,
(Well there we were on the beach, just trying to get some sun
And up comes a busload of them, well first they got these boxes that play this music, I mean it's
not even in English.
Then they take out these stoves or hibachi's or something
The smoke was dreadful, the smell was even worse.
I wouldn't let my daughter marry one, ya know?)
Listen Mr. Bigot
Posted by Jeet Heer | November 24, 2007 11:43 AM