The Rough Wooing
The Mossy Bog
A Rock Opera to be Performed On Lake Nokomis
Also, part of larger film to be filmed and screened
A once proud people, the Scotch Irish, slayer of dragons, defenders of liberty, tradition, glory and justice, sail to a new world and settle in the hills of Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia. Through the centuries, they help to build the modern world, but then lose their way among the vagaries and entrapments of neoliberal economics, smartphones and the browning of America, and become the bedrock of the Trump nation.
They somehow must find their redemption by returning to their roots, eschewing their technological enslavement and finding common cause with others. And strangely, they are guided and ultimately saved by the Phillipino national anthem.
Performed on various boats and platforms on Lake Nokomis.
Story told through songs performed by choirs/bands including updated sea shanties, coal mining songs et. Al.text from The complaint of Scotland etc.
Libretto / Music
11-30-2016
Intro: the Scottish people:
We suffer chronic familiarity with the ravages of fire and sword
Being plundered by both clergy and knave
We have felt the unsounded bottom of misery
Liberty and Deliverance we crave
Tormentors have carried on their depredations with impunity
The young king James, with hard hand, decides to act
The greedy and shameless barons, the savage Highland clans
Were led away in shackles and the hold upon us it wascrack’d
But young James was a knave and big pimpin was his game
9 illegitimate kids, 3 of them while he was a lad
As he lay dying at Falkland Palace his infant girl was born
King Henry saw an opportunity to be the girl’s new Dad
We Scots had a quandary, and this we did debate
To make war upon our aid enemeis of Ingland
or strike a new deal and have a go
at a shared future, us and them cominglin’
We’re one with our English brethren in language, manners, and display
Why not to be one with them in love and God and law
End the war forever, and get in on the free trade action
Truth is beauty, money is freedom, and good livin’ is for all.
“it came wi a lass, it’ll gang wi a lass”
After war and more war, finally the king did Send his tapestries and a rocky union was formed. Soon Cromwell came and sent the Scots to Ireland, and there they did prosper for a time until famine struck and things got dicey. Then they set off for the New World to settle in Appalachia and other regions to build a Nova Scotia in the lands of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Delaware and other now displaced tribes.
On our ship we dodge and dip
Give it all you got
We stay up late and cogitate
Reflective practitioners we’re not
You gotta be rough, you gotta have swagger
There’s a reason that we wear a fucking dagger
In the new world they build towns and cities, farm fields and create the American middle class.
axis, barbarian, buffoon, cabinet, crackling, decadence, excrement, heroic, humid, imbecile, moo, parallel, robust, suffocation, superb, timid and water-lily.
Scold’s Bridle: used to punish nags, shrews, vixens, hags, fussbudgets and hawkers
Sea Shanties
Went away to the secret harbor in me trusty boat
Had a picnic with the captain’s daughter, or so she wrote
Said hello to a little old lady in a pea green coat
She scowled at me and kept on walking or so she wrote
Hey boys put your paddle in the water
Hey girls put your paddle in the water
Hey gender neutrals put your paddle in the water
Hey trans people put your paddle in the water
There’s something scary coming over that hill
Row your ship to the middle of the lake
Don’t stop to take a potty break
Row your ship to the middle of the lake
There’s something scary coming over that hill
Pack your yogurt and your yoga mat
Your yurt your yoyo and a Stetson hat
Bring your youngsters to Jehosephat
There’s something scary coming over that hill
Jingle Jangle I’m entangled
Raise your arms up slow
Wavy gravy, who can save me?
The answer’s down below
Jump down turn around
There’s something there that’s rotten
Jump down turnaround
Pull the veil away
Jump down turn around
Experience forgotten
Jump down turn around
Make A Brand New Day
Finale:
The raft on which the tribe is sailing crashes into a rock as everyone stares at their phones. The coxswain tries to rally everyone and get their attention but to no avail. They hit the rock and all fall over dead. The coxswain then sings the final denoument.
Oh what songs can we sing as one
When there’s no more work to be done?
We used to sing to keep our pace
But now we’re lost in cyberspace
What can we sing as one?
The Rough Wooing
Run away from Goggle and return to your roots.
Shields and walls protect yet divide.
Harry Potter parents killed.
Scold’s Bridle: Used to punish nags, shrews, vixens, hags, fussbudgets and hawkers
Shanties:
Sally Brown Roll Away
Down to Cuba
Haul up your anchor
Folk Songs:
Jack of Diamonds
Black Dog
Gypsy Davy
Screwball
Bagpipes
Folklore
Philipino War
Madoc
Like pantisocrats on the Susquehana
We’re making a new life
Living together in harmony
THE MOSSY BOG 