Hello and welcome to Fibbing Friday where Di of pensitivity 101 fame invites us to be outrageous, silly, cheeky, or whatever takes your fancy (as long as you keep it family friendly). Fib your socks off when answering the ten questions set below but remember, truth is not an option, whereas having fun is. Click here to join in the fun!
Below are the words for this week:
1. Doohickey A hickey that lands on your forehead instead of your neck.
2. Donnybrook The youngest of the Brooks Brothers
3. Dingleberry Small, chocolate berries that attach themselves to animals with long hair around their derriere.
4. Dingus A telephone that only rings when one is not at home.
5. Drub A term of endearment: “My precious little drub.”
6. Dreck Something or someone that is less than satisfactory.
It’s Friday Fictioneers! Click here to learn more and join in.
Connie was in the back seat of their car. She desperately searched the streets in hopes of catching someone’s eye, but there were no eyes to catch — stupid rain. Maybe the green bus. Surely someone would be on it. If only they’d have pulled up next to it.
They kept going and the neighborhoods deteriorated.
The street names weren’t familiar; the houses were rundown and defaced with gang symbols. Connie could sense the despair of the neglected dwellings.
Perhaps it was her own despair she was feeling.
If she lived through this, she swore to God she’d never hitchhike again.
Welcome to the Sunday Whirl! Create a story using the words above or as many as you can. Brenda Warren is our host, and you can join in with the wordle challenge HERE.
Chloe couldn’t believe it when she opened her gifts that Christmas morning and found Grams had sent her the Junior Alchemist set she’d asked for. Now she could learn all about casting spells and the ways of sorcery, and how to put a jinx on somebody — like those mean kids at school.
Chloe glanced over at her parents in hopes of some sort of reaction, but nothing. Her dad was engrossed in the newspaper. Her mother was half asleep clutching a sweaty mimosa glass in drunk little hand. They’d never change, Chloe decided. At the tender age of eleven-years-old, she was already jaded. Many times, Chloe wondered why they’d even bother to have a child. She felt like a boring pet who’d worn out her welcome.
Chloe collected her gifts and went upstairs to her room. She flopped on her bed and opened the Alchemy set, carefully taking out its contents. Chloe became enraptured as she read every word of the instructions.
With this kind of Alchemy set the possibilities were endless! Chloe smiled to herself. A light at the end of the tunnel.
She got up and tiptoed into the hallway where the phone was. She dialed quickly.
“Grams? It’s Chloe. I have an idea how I can come to live with you.”
This week, Jim Adams of New Epic Author / A Unique Title for Me fame, has asked us to choose a song using the words get or over. I’ve chosen Bang a Gong (Get it On) by T. Rex.
The Story
Written by T. Rex lead singer Marc Bolan, this song is all about sex, but with imagery so comically vague it would be hard for even the most prudish listeners to take offense. Bolan’s delivery is feral, and he does keep calling the girl “dirty and sweet,” but you really have to stretch to find sexual connotations in a “hubcap diamond star halo” or a “cloak full of eagles.” The biggest suggestion is in the title.
This song was written and recorded when T. Rex was touring America in 1971. The group had made inroads in their native UK with their 1970 self-titled album but were little-known in the US. Marc Bolan wanted to change that by coming up with something that would strike to the heart in America.
According to T. Rex drummer Bill Legend, he and Bolan worked out the rhythm one day in Bolan’s hotel room, and when the tour got to Los Angeles, the group reconvened with members of the team that worked on their first album: producer Tony Visconti and backup singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, who were members of The Turtles and recorded as Flo & Eddie. At Kaylan’s home in Laurel Canyon, they spent all night working up the song, and the next day, they recorded it at Wally Heider Studios in LA. When they got to the studio, they had the chorus, the rhythm, and the “you’re dirty and sweet” line, but Bolan had to come up with the other lyrics on the spot, indicating he wasn’t thinking too hard about them. Everyone agrees that cocaine was involved throughout the process.
This is a great example of “glam rock,” which was characterized by outrageous, often effeminate costumes, nonsensical lyrics, driving beats and very theatrical stage shows.
In the UK, this hit #1 on July 24, 1971, giving T. Rex their second chart-topper there, following “Hot Love.” The band’s American record company, Reprise, dragged their feet on the song and didn’t release it until January 1972. It went to #10 in March but ended up being the group’s only significant hit Stateside. In the UK, they had two more #1s – “Telegram Sam” and “Metal Guru” – and a total of 11 Top 10s.Producer Tony Visconti blames T. Rex’s one-hit-wonder status Stateside on Bolan himself. “When he came over, he would play ‘Get It On’ with a 20-minute guitar solo, like he was Jimi Hendrix,” he told The Guardian. “The kids wanted to hear basic rock’n’roll. His attendance at shows dropped immediately.
Saxophones were played by Ian McDonald of King Crimson. Producer Visconti later recalled: “He played all the saxes, one baritone and two altos. I kept the baritone separate but bounced the altos to one track. I bounced the backup vocals to two tracks, making an interesting stereo image.”[13]Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (formerly The Turtles) provided backup vocals.[14][15] During a December 1971 Top of the Pops performance, Elton John mimed playing a piano on the song.[16][17]
Bolan never learned to drive,[45][46] fearing he would die before reaching 30 years old.[47][48] Despite this fear, cars or automotive components are at least mentioned in, if not the subject of, many of his songs. He also owned a number of vehicles, including a white 1960s Rolls-Royce that was loaned by his management to the band Hawkwind on the night of his death.[49][50]
On 16 September 1977, Bolan was a passenger in a Mini 1275GT driven by Gloria Jones as they headed home from Morton’s Club Restaurant in Berkeley Square, London. Both had been drinking alcohol, and after crossing a small humpback bridge near Gipsy Lane on Queens Ride, Barnes, South West London, the car struck a fence post and then a tree.[51][52][53] Bolan died at the scene. Jones was critically injured.[51][53]
The car crash site has become a shrine to his memory, where fans leave tributes beside the tree. In 2013, the shrine was featured on the BBC Four series Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain’s Holiest Places.[54] The site, Marc Bolan’s Rock Shrine, is owned and maintained by the T. Rex Action Group.[55]
His funeral service was held on 20 September 1977 at the Golders Green Crematorium in North London. Bolan’s ashes were later buried under a rose bush. Bolan’s funeral was attended by David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Tony Visconti, Steve Harley and Boy George among other musicians.[56][57] Bolan had arranged a discretionary trust to safeguard his money. A small, separate Jersey-based trust fund has allowed his son to receive some income. However, the bulk of Bolan’s fortune, variously estimated at between £20 and £30 million (approx. $38 – $57 million), remains in trust.[58]
The Lyrics
Well you're dirty and sweet Clad in black, don't look back and I love you You're dirty and sweet, oh yeah Well you're slim and you're weak You've got the teeth of the Hydra upon you You're dirty sweet, and you're my girl
[Chorus] Get it on, bang a gong, get it on Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Well you're built like a car You've got a hubcap diamond star halo You're built like a car, oh yeah Well you're an untamed youth That's the truth with your cloak full of eagles You're dirty sweet, and you're my girl
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Well you're windy and wild You've got the blues in your shoes and your stockings You're windy and wild, oh yeah Well you're built like a car You've got a hubcap diamond star halo You're dirty sweet, and you're my girl
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Well you're dirty and sweet
Clad in black, don't look back and I love you
You're dirty and sweet, oh yeah
Well you dance when you walk
So let's dance, take a chance, understand me
You're dirty, sweet, and you're my girl
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on (ow)
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on (ow - get it on)
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on (a-a-a-a-a) Get it on, bang a gong, get it on (a-a-a-a-a-a) Get it on, bang a gong, get it on Get it on, bang a gong, get it on Take me!
Prior to Wilhelmina Williams’ passing, she’d given her daughter, Pandora, an heirloom sewing box. She cautioned her never to open it, for according to legend, doing so would unleash a global, butt-ugly fashion trend.
Pandora gave a rat’s ass for neither fashion, nor butt-ugliness.
Hence, when mom assumed room temperature, Pandora opened the sewing box. Out tumbled a mangled thimble and polyester leisure suits attacked the world.
Ergo, the Ogre 