Playing with Tom, Dick, and Harry

A picture of the three gents, courtesy of Tim.
How he got Tom Jones (centre), Dick Whittington (left)
and Harry Enfield (right) in the same room, I haven't a clue...

So, Dear Friends, you see, it's true: Contrast Podcast is the voice of the common person. For this week it was turned over, thanks to Dearest Nats, to Every Tom, Dick, or Harry. Each of these fine gentlefolk is well represented in the mix of contributions, and it seems there is also a smattering of smutty double entendres concerning Richard - ooer, missus!! So, as ever, I counsel you to download the podcast directly here, or via this RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ContrastPodcast

Now, come meet the nice boys:

(00:00) Harry Belafonte and The Smothers Brothers - Every man should be free
Tim from The face of today
(03:17) Harry Nilsson - You’re breakin’ my heart
Natalie from Mini-Obs
(07:08) Little Richard - Nuki suki
Murf from False45th
(13:00) Mickey Avalon - My dick
SAS Radio
(16:11) Faces - Pool Hall Richard
Steve from Domino Rally
(21:18) Sham 69 - Hurry up Harry
FiL from Pogoagogo
(24:47) Thomas Mapfumo - Ndanzwa Ngoma Kurira
ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away
(28:52) Thomas Truax - Escape from the Orphanage
Crash from Pretending life is like a song
(33:12) Buffalo Tom - Treehouse
Ross from Just gimme indie rock
(37:38) Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Billericay Dickie
Chris from Phosphorous.net
(41:38) subNatural - Omnipresence
Cindy from Adzuki Bean Stash
(47:22) The Dicks - Dicks hate the police
Bob from Gimme Tinnitus
(49:41) RATM - The ghost of Tom Joad
Waffles from Waffles Radio
(55:26) The Muffs - I’m a dick
Linda from Speed of Dark
(57:25) The Dickies - Gigantor
Tom from Better in the dark
(01:00:29) Placebo - Peeping Tom
Alex from Totally true tales from Texas
(01:06:06) Phil Ochs - Here’s to the state of Richard Nixon
Charles from Heartache with hard work


So, I bet some of you are wondering where the phrase "Every Tom, Dick, or Harry" comes from. Apparently pairs of common male names were frequently used in Elizabethan times to refer to the great unwashed. The first recorded instance of this practice dates to 1555 and Sir David Lindesay's Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour. Indeed, at the end of the 16th century even Willy Shakespeare had jumped onto ye olde bandwaggone, referring in Henry IV, Part 2 to "Tom, Dicke, and Francis." The famous triumvirate was most likely first brought together in The Farmer's Almanac of 1815, which tells us 'So he hired Tom, Dick and Harry, and at it they went.' Ooer missus, yet again.

I had a bit of a tough time choosing a song this week, but in the end elected to stay away from Dick, as most of the choonz bearing his name were rude and I've not yet recovered from CP's X-Rated episode. So here's what you might have had:

Gorillaz - Dirty Harry (buy here)
Getcha some light funk, some kiddiez singing, and a cartoon band. Um, yeah...

Thompson Twins - Lies (buy here)
My word! Timewarp! Everybody, flop your fringe about and dance lika a dementedly happy eighties chicken!!!

Oh, alright, you dirty people. Just to stop you salivating, here's one of the naughty tunes. Actually, it's not a Dicky one, but it is still very sordid and not at all suitable for children:

Momus - Harry K-Tel (buy here or e-here)
Harry is a dirrty, dirrty man...

Next week's meme is "My Personal Theme Tune." So get thinking, get recording, and go here to find out how to take part.