EVOLUTION

I was weaned on country music

Rock-n-roll and poverty

Irish style.

Son, the priest said,

Put that guitar away

And get that hair cut right

And don’t play

‘I Can Get No Satisfaction’

Tonight.

 

It’s a sin to call yourselves

The Red Devils, he said,

And in his shadows

I could see mother nodding her head.

So we became The Royal Dukes,

Zig-zagging across Munster

And played ‘Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown’

Instead.

 

This will not do, he roared,

Rattling his pulpit,

The youth of my parish,

Harbingers of the Devil’s music,

What is wrong with Frank Ifield?

Dead music, Father, I told him

And offered to debate it

But he wouldn’t listen.

So I emigrated.

THE ANIMALS.