Take My Advice (Tongue In Cheek, as it is!): Neither a Follower nor a Reader be!

Well, that's it, mes chums - In the time that it took me to wolf down a modest (yes it was modest! You didn't even see it! How could you know? Don't say that - This tee-shirt I'm wearing shrank in the last wash, honestly! ) ...portion of Sainsbury's Sticky Toffee Pudding with Low Fat Custard (- an old family recipe to counteract stress - left to me by an ancient retainer, my Beautiful Auntie Gwennie), I had lost meself a follower... (Then there were 58...!)

(And I realise that there are two more lovelies this morning, but there weren't last night when I was scribbling this, I'm very sorry...)

I have searched everywhere, partout, irgendwo, mes amis... even under my beloved bed, where only the crumb-eating, Biscuit Elves flourish... And still this, perhaps silent, follower, this ardent disciple, nay, this foot soldier, is not to be found... (I knew I should have written down all their names into my blogroll book, then I could have e-mailed them, like a cyber-stalker-proper-like!)

I never wanted, nor intended, to blog about such a thing... I have noticed bloggeristas showing their irritation, even baring their teeth, when faced with yet another bloggero lamenting the lack or number of followers, the dearth of pithy comments on their blogs...

I swore I would never fall into that trap, but faced with this... This quasi-betrayal, this mystery... I am bereft - Was it something I said, a poignant pic I posted, un mot pas juste, something I nicked from their blog and didn't credit - Was it me blog on tattoos? Shurely shome mishtake?!

I know we are all trying to do too much - To blog too much and too often; There are too many wonderful blogs even to do justice to - So many talented writers, so little time; And yet I feel this apparent slight, or slip of finger on smooth steel laptop like a smooth silver scythe cutting through swathes of corn...


...I am soooo upset, Darjeelings, I just need to consult with my muse, et voila, there she is, before me now... in a vibrant poof of Fracas-scented mist... Can you see her?



Wait, can you hear her? Hush now, for she is singing... It is a tune you may even have heard while seated on your ol' granpappy's knee in that gnarled rocker, when you were knee high to "Ah, Grasshopper!", but you will know this little ditty nonetheless, I feel...

It is Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Pete Seeger... (or very nearly, PAUSE... Ahem!)




WHERE HAVE ALL ME FOLLOWERS GONE?

words and music by Pete Seeger
performed by Pete Seeger and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger

(Adapted for the stage manager's boot by Fhina Crawford: Aka: A Woman Of No Importance)



Where have all me followers gone?
Long time reading
Where have all me readers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all me followers gone?
Blogs have nicked them every one

When will they ever return?
When will they ever learn?



Where have all me listeners gone?
Long time listening in
Where have all me beauties gone?
(I had) a long time ago
Where have all me hearties gone?
Gone to blazes every one

When will they ever learn?
Will they ever return?



Where have all the bloggers gone?
Long time wittering on...
Where have all the buggers gone?
Long scuttled away
Where have all me lovelies gone?
Left for pastures new every one...

When will they ever return?
You know this refrain now, right - So sing along, or just mouth the words - It works for Secretaries of State, who don't know the Welsh National Anthem, apparently!



Where have me foot soldiers gone?
Long time trotting off
Where have me foot soldiers gone?
Gone far away
Where have me dahlink soldiers gone?
Gone outside Blogland every one...

La, la, la, la-la-la?
When will they ever learn?



Where have all me commenters gone?
Long time talking sense
Where have all the beggars gone?
Long time away
Where have all me followers gone?
I'll send you flowers every one


When will I ever learn?
Oh, even I'm sick of this now... And you've got your fingers in your ears, I can tell...

...When will I ever learn?



©1961 (Renewed) Fall River Music Inc
All Rights Reserved.

©2009 (Never Registered It Doesn't Really Exist!) Wild At Heart Music Corp.

I found details on Pete Seeger's visit to my other muse (''Er Indoors'), la goddess Wiki. In fact, here is one of the Temple's chalices :

"Peter "Pete" Seeger (born May 3, 1919) is an American folk singer, a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a pioneer of protest music in support of international disarmament and civil rights and, more recently, as a tireless activist for environmental causes.

As a song writer, he is best known as the author or co-author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer" and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world.

"Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962),
Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962), and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s, as did Judy Collins in 1964. Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists) that became the acknowledged anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement, soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960".

"As of 2008 Pete Seeger is still actively performing and recording.
On September 29, 2008, the 89-year-old singer-activist, long banned from commercial TV, made a rare nationwide appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, singing "Don't say it can't be done, the battle's just begun... take it from Dr. King you too can learn to sing so drop the gun...


On January 18, 2009, Seeger joined Bruce Springsteen, grandson Tao Rodríguez-Seeger, and the crowd in singing the Woody Guthrie song, "This Land Is Your Land" in the finale of Barack Obama's Inaugural concert in Washington, D.C."

"There is hope for the world." - in Pete Seeger: The Power of Song".



(p.s. I'm not really upset - I do understand... So please don't worry about daft old batty me! This was a poor excuse for a blogging piece!)