Find Page One on APPLE PODCASTS or STITCHER.
(Background noise might make this episode a challenging listen.)
Episode image is a detail from the cover of The Ivankiad by Vladimir Voinovich, published in 1979 by Penguin Books; cover illustration by Michael Foreman.
Charles Adrian is joined for the 70th Second Hand Book Factory by failed mathematician and failed actuary Colin Bartlett. They talk about semi-autobiography, Duke Ellington, clouds and one of the best books of the twentieth century.
The Vera mentioned here is, of course, Vera Chok, whose most recent Page One at time of releasing this episode can be found here.
Yoruba Girl Dancing by Simi Bedford and The Ivankiad by Vladimir Voinovich are also discussed in Page One 180.
This episode has been edited to remove music that is no longer covered by licence for this podcast.
This episode features a jingle written for the podcast by the band Friends Of Friends.
A transcript of this episode is below.
Episode released: 3rd March, 2015.
Book listing:
Yoruba Girl Dancing by Simi Bedford
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Ivankiad by Vladimir Voinovich (trans. David Lapeza)
Links:
Episode transcript:
Charles Adrian
Let's... Let's start. So we're already recording hopefully. Yep, that's good. So I'm just going to do... I'm going to do my little intro and then the jingle and then it's your turn. Hello and welcome to the 94th Page One. This is the 70th Second Hand Book Factory.
Colin Bartlett
Not even a prime number! [laughs]
Charles Adrian
[laughs] Is that not? No, of course.
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] [laughing] No.
Charles Adrian
Even number. Sorry. [laughs] You... I wasn't... I wasn't planning a prime number, Colin. We should have... Would the next one have been a prime number?
Colin Bartlett
No, it's five.
Charles Adrian
But the 71st would have been prime, wouldn't it?
Colin Bartlett
Yes.
Charles Adrian
Okay.
Colin Bartlett
And the 73rd.
Charles Adrian
And the 73rd. So the 97th and 73rd would have been a better choice.
Colin Bartlett
Yes. 97 might even be a prime, actually. Yes, might well be a prime.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Oh, that would have... We should have held on.
Colin Bartlett
But anyway. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
[laughing] We should have held on three more. Sorry about that. As it is...
Colin Bartlett
It's twice a prime.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] As it is [laughing] it's the 94th Page One and the 70th Second Hand Book Factory. I'm Charles Adrian and here, sitting next to me today, my guest is Colin Bartlett.
Jingle
You're listening to Page One, the book podcast.
Charles Adrian
Hello, Colin.
Colin Bartlett
Hello... Adrian [laughs]
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] So [laughs] thank you very much for joining me here. We're at the... We've been discussing what this is called. So this is the South Bank Centre, essentially. We're outside the Royal Festival Hall but inside the South Bank Centre. Is that right?
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] Yes. [laughs] Very precise.
Charles Adrian
Very precise. And...
Colin Bartlett
You should have been a mathematician. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Well, I might have been a mathematician. I took maths A-level, if that's close enough.
Colin Bartlett
Mmm, it's better than most. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
[laughs] How would you describe yourself?
Colin Bartlett
Okay, well, we discussed that already.
Charles Adrian
Yes.
Colin Bartlett
I'm going for failed mathematician and failed actuary. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Okay. Why failed mathematician?
Colin Bartlett
I have a degree in mathematics but I'm not a mathematician.
Charles Adrian
And you consider that to be a failure?
Colin Bartlett
I think I could have quite liked to have been a mathematician.
Charles Adrian
Okay, okay. I see.
Colin Bartlett
Or a psychologist.
Charles Adrian
Ah. You think that's... [laughing] Is that nearby?
Colin Bartlett
[laughs] Yes and no.
Charles Adrian
Okay.
Colin Bartlett
I'm not... If you ask me why ‘yes and no’ I [laughing] don't think I can give you a reason at the moment.
Charles Adrian
[laughs] Oh well, we'll leave it there then. That will be... That [indistinct]... enigmatic...
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] A bit of mystery's good.
Charles Adrian
... [laughing] enigmatic response.
Colin Bartlett
[laughing] Yes.
Charles Adrian
Very nice. Okay. Very... No, lovely. I am... I mean, I am fascinated by maths. I love listening to... There are a few In Our Time podcasts involving mathematicians and Ian Stewart, for example, he's a massive favourite of...
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] He was my tutor. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Oh, you are so lucky. I read one of his books. He's wonderful. He's great on In Our Time.
Colin Bartlett
[affirmative] Mmm.
Charles Adrian
Anyway. Moving on. So we share an interest, at least. What's the book that you've brought that you like?
Colin Bartlett
It's called Yoruba Girl Dancing by Simi Bedford.
Charles Adrian
Okay?
Colin Bartlett
Which is subtitled on the front The poignant story of a childhood in exile. [muffled] It's actually very funny as well.
Charles Adrian
It's actually...?
Colin Bartlett
Very funny.
Charles Adrian
Okay,
Colin Bartlett
So I wondered about giving you an introduction to it but I think I'll just try reading the first...
Charles Adrian
Yeah. Yeah.
Colin Bartlett
... page and two lines. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Yes. Yes. We've [laughing] already established that Colin's going to cheat.
Colin Bartlett
Bend [laughs]
Charles Adrian
So we've lai... we've done a, kind of, pre... What... It's what they do, the politicians do, don't they, before a debate. They laid [sic] out...
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] Yes, agreed the ground rules.
Charles Adrian
We agreed the ground rules. There's going to be a certain amount of rule-bending. That's fine. That's fine.
Colin Bartlett
Okay. So.
– Chapter 1 –
‘Africans can talk oh!’ Aunt Rose often said.
She was right, in our house we spoke four languages, and two of them were English, loudly from morning till night, so it was a mystery to us, the foster children and me, that Grandma and Grandpa never spoke to each other at all. It was a mystery to me [sic] that I didn't wake up dead every morning, because unless I was cross with her, I slept with Grandma in her big brass bed. There were twelve pillows on it, six on either side, and if I hadn't slept practically standing up, spread-eagled against them with my head angled back over the top one for air, I would have suffocated for sure under the covers.
Grandma was asleep; I liked to look at her in the morning when she was sleeping, because then her eyes were tight shut. When they were open they were black and shiny like pebbles under water and knew what you were thinking. Her face was smooth and peaceful. I stroked her white hair, soft as duck down, back from her forehead and tugged at her plait but she didn't wake up; so I left her and ran next door to my nurse Patience and she dressed me. I was ready and waiting in my grandmother's sitting room for James when he arrived to escort me up to breakfast on the top floor. James was Grandpa's steward.
‘Well, madam, I see you ready,’ he said, knocking on Grandma's bedroom door, which was in the right-hand corner of the sitting room.
‘Can we go now?’ I was impatient to leave this morning, I had a choice piece of news.
‘Yes, yes, we dey go now,’ he replied, laughing down at me.
‘Do I look pretty?’
‘You are fine, fine,’ he said, as always.
Charles Adrian
Oh lovely. So where... Where are the Yoruba...?
Colin Bartlett
Nigeria.
Charles Adrian
Okay. So this is set in Nigeria?
Colin Bartlett
The first forty or so pages are set in Nigeria. The rest is set in England.
Charles Adrian
Okay,
Colin Bartlett
She... I understand this is semi-autobiographical and the character in the book—who is called Yemi [sic]—is sent at the age of 6 to a boarding school in England—from Nigeria—and she doesn't see her parents until she's about 16 or 17.
Charles Adrian
Wow. Wow. That's... Right.
Colin Bartlett
This is where the poignant bit comes in.
Charles Adrian
Yes. Yeah. That just... It blows me away that that happens to people. That must be... Yeah. Okay. Okay. And so she's telling—in a way—her story.
Colin Bartlett
Yeah. About, sort of, coping with prejudice. People who aren't prejudice, people who are prejudiced.
Charles Adrian
Okay.
Colin Bartlett
Boys—when she's in the sixth form.
Charles Adrian
Uh huh. Yes.
Colin Bartlett
And there's... You know, there's... I could almost pick... I did actually try this on the train up here, and you could almost open a page at random and find something nice on it. Which is also true of Timothy Mo's Sour Sweet.
Charles Adrian
[interested] Uh huh?
Colin Bartlett
If you haven't read that.
Charles Adrian
I haven't, no.
Colin Bartlett
Okay. Anyway. So. I actually heard this being read on the Radio 4 Book at Bedtime.
Charles Adrian
Oh, did you? Yeah.
Colin Bartlett
Okay. And liked it so much that I bought it.
Charles Adrian
Right.
Colin Bartlett
And liked it so much that maybe about a year later I bought about thirty or forty copies at one time to give to people. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Oh goodness.
Colin Bartlett
And I've still got about five of them left somewhere.
Colin and Charles Adrian
[laughter]
Charles Adrian
Wow, okay. So this is a... Okay. Very... It sounds beautiful. It sounds very...
Colin Bartlett
That's not untypical. I was... One of the reasons... I was... This isn't actually the book I first chose. I did say to you I was going to [choose two] books that I thought would be one of the... two of the greatest books of the 20th century. This isn't one of them.
Charles Adrian
Oh, okay. Fine. Fine. But this had a better first page.
Colin Bartlett
Yeah.
Charles Adrian
Yeah. I understand. I understand. It does... It has a lovely first page. I love the image of her in bed with her grandmother, [laughs] surprised every morning that she hasn't been killed in the night. I think that's gorgeous.
Colin Bartlett
When you read... Sort of... Had I been allowed to read the next two pages you would have found out why her grandmother and grandfather [laughing] never talked to each other.
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Okay. Right. Very nice. Oh, thank you very much, Colin. That's lovely. Now I'm going to play a track now. So this is... We've gone halves on the music for this podcast and you've chosen a track which I'm going to play later. And the track I'm going to play now was picked more or less at random. It was suggested by the book that I'm giving to you. It's... But I think you might like it. It's by Duke Ellington—or, at least, it's on a CD called The Essential Duke Ellington. I'm not sure he's playing. I don't think he's playing on this track. Which also ties in with something else we were talking about, which I will... we'll talk more about in a moment. But this is Clouds in My Heart.
Colin Bartlett
Okay.
Charles Adrian
And this is... So this is... It's Duke Ellington but it's actually an awful lot of other people.
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] I should add that I don't listen to as much Ellington as I ought.
Charles Adrian
I'm not sure you should feel pressured [laughing] to listen to Duke Ellington.
Colin Bartlett
I say that because I know he's regarded by some people as a great composer. Period. And I have read things by people whose judgement I respect. For example, Alex Ross.
Charles Adrian
Okay.
Colin Bartlett
The Rest is Noise.
Charles Adrian
Uh huh.
Colin Bartlett
And...
Charles Adrian
Oh, I should probably read that.
Colin Bartlett
I think you should.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Yeah, that's come into my consciousness a few times.
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] I could have brought that. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Okay, Anyway.
Colin Bartlett
And also some things Ellington said I think are wonderful.
Charles Adrian
Okay.
Colin Bartlett
Again, I'm not so sure about his private life but...
Charles Adrian
I don't know anything about his private life. I don't have that much music by him.
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] That's a question mark. I mean, there are other people I could tell you whose private life [makes disapproving noise].
Charles Adrian
Yes, I don't know anything about him. I have a couple of CDs of his. I have this... This is a collection of stuff that he wrote, presumably, and must have...
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] Billy Strayhorn?
Charles Adrian
What's that?
Colin Bartlett
Billy Strayhorn?
Charles Adrian
No, that name doesn't ring any bells.
Colin Bartlett
He joined Ellington some time after Ellington started and he wrote... composed a lot of the arrangements and composed a lot of the music. So, if it's by Ellington, it might actually be by Strayhorn.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Ah did he? Okay. It might be actually by Strayhorn. Okay. But I assume... So I assume this is by his band or... it's by a group of people... his group of people. Certainly... I'm pretty sure the clarinettist—Barney Bigard—I think he plays on the other CD I have, which is the Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington CD, which I think... It's one of my favourite jazz CDs ever. And I think he plays wonderfully. And I think... I mean I'm disappointed that Duke doesn't play on this because I think he plays the piano beautifully as well.
Colin Bartlett
He doesn't... Well, one thing I liked about him and the way Count Basie plays—and some other players—is that they don't do a lot.
Charles Adrian
No, exactly. Isn't it wonderful? It's just perfect. It's just... Absolutely. I agree with you. Anyway. So he's not playing at all [laughing] on this.
Colin Bartlett
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
He totally takes himself out.
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] Are you sure about that?
Charles Adrian
I don't... I don't hear him. And this is... this is Clouds in My Heart.
Music
[Clouds in My Heart by Barney Bigard & His Jazzopators with Duke Ellington]
Charles Adrian
Right, so that was Clouds in My Heart by Duke Ellington. And just as soon as I said ‘I don't think he plays on this record’ I press play and there he is playing the introduction. What happened, I think... I mean we were talking about the psychology of this. Probably what happened was that actually I was playing this this morning... It's not a track that I've heard very... well, listened to very much. I must have listened to it years ago. I think I must have just missed those first [laughing] few bars and then... and then started listening and then spent a lot of the track thinking, ‘Why is there no piano on this?’
Colin Bartlett
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
Anyway. So, you did hear a bit of Duke—doing exactly what we said [laughing] he does, incidentally.
Colin Bartlett
[laughing] Not much.
Charles Adrian
Which is not much but he does it very well. So, now, what... So...
Colin Bartlett
It's worth pointing out we're not being dismissive. We really are admiring that [indistinct]...
Charles Adrian
We genuinely like... genuinely like him.
Colin Bartlett
Not doing much.
Charles Adrian
Not doing much but doing just enough. Just the right amount. So, now, what I meant by ‘What we were talking about’... We... So, a few weeks ago we met and you mentioned the idea of books that... whose titles don't reveal anything about the book or that actively...
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] That's right. And the reverse, which are books [sic] which are absolutely in a strange way about the book.
Charles Adrian
Exactly. Exactly. And so I thought... So that track, obviously, it doesn't work as an example because Duke Ellington is on it,but this is... the book I've chosen is Cloud Atlas, which disappointed me hugely because I am actually a big fan of clouds. And obviously it's a novel and it's not about clouds at all. I thought it would at some point be about [laughing] clouds...
Colin Bartlett
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
I thought there would be some cloud stuff going on in here. But I did look up this morning what David Mitchell has to say about the title and I... I can only say look it up yourself, it doesn't make any sense to me. It's to do with shifting souls and human personalities and the fact that all the characters are the same character in different lives. I don't... Anyway.
Colin Bartlett
I could give a vague interpretation of that, which is that clouds... If you think about the spectrum of clouds...
Charles Adrian
Yes,
Colin Bartlett
... certain types of clouds are quite distinct from each other.
Charles Adrian
Yes.
Colin Bartlett
Having said that, there must be some sort of graduation so you can't actually see the join between them.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] [slowly] Right. Ah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] Whether he's getting at that I don't know.
Charles Adrian
Yeah, yeah, but that's quite a good explanation. Yes. If we were in an A-level English class I would give you a lot of marks for that theory.
Colin Bartlett
[laughs] Well, it's more than I got for English literature at O-level, which I think was an O.
Charles Adrian
[laughs] O? Oh. Well, that's... So even more of a failed [laughing] English student than a mathematician, Colin. You could have added that to your...
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] [laughing] Yes absolutely. Yes. Correct.
Charles Adrian
So. [laughs] Anyway. But I think it shows up the paucity of the marking system rather than any problem with your brain because, as I say, I would give you full marks for that. I'm going to read you the first page. It says:
Thursday, 7th November ~
Beyond the Indian hamlet, upon a forlorn strand, I happened on a trail of recent footprints. Through rotting kelp, sea cocoanuts & bamboo, the tracks led me to their maker, a White man, his trowzers & Pea-jacket rolled up, sporting a kempt beard & an outsized Beaver, shovelling & sifting the cindery sand with a tea-spoon so intently that he noticed me only after I had hailed him from ten yards away. Thus it was, I made the acquaintance of Dr Henry Goose, surgeon to the London nobility. His nationality was no surprise. If there be any eyrie so desolate, or isle so remote that one may there resort unchallenged by an Englishman, ’tis not down on any map I ever saw.
Had the doctor misplaced anything on that dismal shore? Could I render assistance? Dr Goose shook his head, knotted loose his ’kerchief & displayed its contents with clear pride. ‘Teeth, sir, are the enamelled grails of the quest in hand. In days gone by this Arcadian strand was a cannibals' banqueting hall, yes, where the strong engorged themselves on the weak. The teeth, they spat out, as you or I would expel cherry stones. But these base molars, sir, shall be transmuted to gold & how? An artisan of Piccadilly who fashions denture-sets for the nobility pays handsomely for human gnashers. Do you know the price a quarter pound will earn, sir?’
I confessed I did not.
‘Nor shall I enlighten you, sir, for ’tis a professional secret!’ He tapped his nose. ‘Mr Ewing, are you acquainted with Marchioness Grace of Mayfair? No? The better for you, for she is a corpse in petticoats. Five years have passed since this harridan besmirched my name, yes, with imputations that resulted in my...’
I follow my rules to the letter.
Colin Bartlett
[laughs] Fair enough.
Charles Adrian
That is the end of the page. So I don't know what you will think of... Have you read it? I didn't ask you.
Colin Bartlett
No. Well, the answer is I haven't and I've a vague feeling that it's a book I've been, sort of, deliberately avoiding.
Charles Adrian
Well, here it is. It's coming to your...
Colin Bartlett
[laughs]
Charles Adrian
I'm not going to say too much about it. It wasn't... It's not my favourite book in the world and I think... but I think there's interesting stuff in it. I think he's not a bad writer. I think...
Colin Bartlett
Well, I was wondering whether I should have been deliberately avoiding it. If I have been deliberately avoiding it.
Charles Adrian
You're probably avoiding it because it got so much attention and I'm not sure it deserves the amount of attention it got.
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] No, that... I don't think that's necessarily what [indisctinct]. That might have been a very minor factor as I would try to fight against that. In other words, I try...
Charles Adrian
[laughs] You try to... Yeah. Okay.
Colin Bartlett
For example, I like... I think... I like Greig's piano concerto. I've decided that actually it's okay to like Greig's piano concerto.
Colin Bartlett
[laughs] Right. Right.
Colin Bartlett
No, I think I actually... I might have read some reviews. I'm thinking... Well maybe not [indistinct]. I mean, it sounds to me as though it's set in the 19th century or earlier.
Charles Adrian
It's set between the 19th century and the... I don't know, the 23rd century or something—or the 25th century or the... It's a book of interlocking narratives and it's... that's its strength and it's undoing in a sense, in that it's—and I think that certainly what some of the critics said—it's well-written but it doesn't live up to the promise of its...
Colin Bartlett
Ah. Okay.
Charles Adrian
... concept, perhaps.
Colin Bartlett
The book that I had initially thought of bringing but didn't because I didn't think the first page was as...
Charles Adrian
Yes.
Colin Bartlett
... jumping off the page has interlocking narratives.
Charles Adrian
Oh, okay. Yes.
Colin Bartlett
But it's Czech.
Charles Adrian
[interested] Uh huh. Well, what is the book that you have brought?
Colin Bartlett
The War with the New... Oh, sorry.
sound
[a book being put on the table]
Charles Adrian
[reading title] The...
Colin Bartlett
Ivankiad.
Charles Adrian
…Ivankiad. I've never heard of it,
Colin Bartlett
Do you like the sound of it by the title?
Colin Bartlett
It's a wonderful word. I do like... And I like a picture as well.
Colin Bartlett
Okay. But I will say a little bit about this before I read the—and it will be the first page of the first chapter rather than the foreword. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Yes, that's absolutely allowed. That's within the rules. You're not even bending...
Colin Bartlett
The anti-hero of the book is one Sergei Ivanovich [sic]—Ivan—and the story is about how... It's probably about three quarter percent embellished truth with some fantasy elements thrown in.
Charles Adrian
I see.
Colin Bartlett
And it's basically about how Vladimir Voinovich—the writer—eventually managed to move from his one-room apartment into a two-room apartment in the block of flats in Moscow he was living in.
Colin and Charles Adrian
[laughter]
Charles Adrian
It sounds delightful.
Colin Bartlett
And when I said to you at the... [in] East London that I thought it was one of the greatest books of the 20th century I really did mean that.
Charles Adrian
Yeah. Right.
Colin Bartlett
Because I think it tells you about the way about [sic] things work except he, sort of, shows... I mean, you know the thing ‘show not tell’?
Charles Adrian
Yes.
Colin Bartlett
It's absolutely show not tell.
Charles Adrian
Right. Right. Right. Read the first page.
Colin Bartlett
Right. And I have to remember to speak... Instead of an acronym, which nobody's going to understand, I'm going to transla...
Charles Adrian
Okay.
Colin Bartlett
... give a translation of them. So the title of the first chapter is Communist Ivanko.
To study life you don't have to go on creative junkets and waste public funds. Study life where you live, it's more productive, and cheaper, too. For example, just look around our courtyard. Look at the kind of people there are – what types, what fates! Probably you can also find interesting people at [large-scale construction projects] but not to such a degree as here.
Our building isn't really anything special, but you can't say it's ordinary either. The engineers of the human soul live here, the members of the Moscow Writers' Housing Cooperative. There are quite a number of people in this world who have never seen a single living writer in their entire lives. But we've got more than a hundred of them. The well-known, the little-known, the totally unknown, rich, poor, talented, original, undistinguished, left, right, middle, and uncommitted. They've known each other for decades. In days gone by they used to eat each other; now they live peacefully under one roof, both those who did the eating, and those who were eaten – but only partially.
See that old man hurrying across the courtyard with his bobbing gait, pathetic, feeble, thin as a dandelion? True, the fluff has already blown off this dandelion – the little head nods on a thin neck stem. You're sorry for the old man? They say he was once the Procurator General of the Ukraine and had four stars on his collar. Not everyone who met up with the dandelion in that glorious time lived long enough to be able to feel sorry for him. And the one who is now supporting the dandelion by the elbow? He used to wear ties, not neckties, mind you, but the kind that go around one's shoulders, which were used to lead him anywhere the dandelion (not yet blown bare) wanted him to go.
Charles Adrian
I don't think I understand that last sentence.
Colin Bartlett
Okay...
Charles Adrian
Does that mean he had a lead on?
Colin Bartlett
Yes. Or at least a metaphorical one.
Charles Adrian
Right! I see. I see. [laughs] Yes.
Colin Bartlett
So, you know... So this, sort of, master servant relationship has...
Charles Adrian
It's Pozzo and Lucky!
Colin Bartlett
It's still... Yes, exac... Yes.
Charles Adrian
Well, that's lovely. Oh, well, that... No, that sounds really... I think I'm going to enjoy that.
Colin Bartlett
I would kill you if you didn't.
Colin and Charles Adrian
[laughter]
Colin Bartlett
Which would be very appropriate, given the subject of the book actually.
Charles Adrian
[laughing] Okay. I shall...
Colin Bartlett
There is actually about two pages which I'd love to hear Vera reading.
Charles Adrian
Uh huh.
Colin Bartlett
Which is based on the character she played in The World of Extreme Happiness.
Charles Adrian
Oh, right. Okay.
Colin Bartlett
And I'll leave you to see if you can work out which that is.
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Okay. I'll see if I can find that and then if I do I will commission her to do that on your behalf. Now, we're going to close with a track that you've chosen. This is beautiful. I love... I've never heard of... This is Maxine Sullivan. [I've] never heard of Maxine Sullivan before.
Colin Bartlett
I heard it on Jazz Record Requests, sort of, one... I mean, about four or five years ago and immediately... it immediately struck me. [I said to myself], ‘That's really good’.
Charles Adrian
It's a gorgeous track. And I listened to some of the others that are on YouTube and they don't strike me in the same way that this does.
Colin Bartlett
No, that's right. That's right. I think this is—not quite an outlier but...
Charles Adrian
[agreeing] Mmm. It really has something. It really has something. So this is If I Had a Ribbon Bow— which is also... I mean, I never heard anyone else sing this either. I don't know this.
Colin Bartlett
[speaking over] Fairport Convention did it and I've listened to their version and I think it's...
Charles Adrian
[speaking over] Okay. I don't know them.
Colin Bartlett
I think it's much worse. I mean, I really think it's... In some places I think it's terrible. [laughs]
Charles Adrian
Okay. Right.
Colin Bartlett
I will send you... because I've got two and I'd be interested to know which you prefer because... I mean, I know which one I prefer—I think—but...
Charles Adrian
This is the... This is a version I found on iTunes. There were several versions but this is the three-minute version.
Colin Bartlett
Okay. Right. Yes, that was the one that I linked to. Yes.
Charles Adrian
And I... It was the one you... Yes, exactly, it was the one you linked to and I love it. I think it's beautiful. So, yeah, we're going to play out on this. Thank you very much, Colin. This has been wonderful.
Colin Bartlett
Thank you.
Charles Adrian
And this is If I Had a Ribbon Bow sung by Maxine Sullivan.
Music
[If I Had a Ribbon Bow by Maxine Sullivan]
[Initial transcription by https://otter.ai]