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Ned Ludd and Queen Mab

from Radical Songs for Rough Times by Dan Hanrahan

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about

This song is inspired by the excellent pamphlet of the same name by radical historian Peter Linebaugh. "Ned Ludd & Queen Mab: Machine Breaking, Romanticism, and the Several Commons of 1811–12," (PM Press, 2012). The ending refrain, sung in call-and-response with the lovely horn arrangement, is adapted from Michael Alexander's translation of gnomic verses from Old English, (The Wanderer: Elegies, Epics, Riddles. Translated and edited by Michael Alexander. Penguin Books, 2013).

lyrics

ned ludd & queen mab

ned ludd & queen mab a comet flares above it’s 1811
and down in the mud with a hammer & a glove
they’re breaking up the frames and troubling the heavens
and they’re hearing ned ludd in the flickering rain
yeah they’re hearing ned ludd in the whispering rain

queen mab & ned ludd
the queen she flies above and down within the meadows
she bewitches she who stands by the factory wall
she bewitches she who stands by the willow by the pond

ned ludd & queen mab
a weaver’s not a weaver
if he’s weaving on a factory frame
queen mab & ned ludd
they’re roving ‘round the midlands
in the the forests and the valleys in the fog


in the nottingham woods in the carolina pines
in the caves of your mind on the california coastline
we’re hearing ned ludd by the flickering flame
yeah we’re hearing ned ludd by the whispering flame

on the antlers of an elk on the hooves of a goat
in the amber of your brain in the shaking up of a shadow
we’re seeing queen mab through the flickering flame
yeah we’re seeing queen mab through the whispering flame

earth shall breed
and frost shall freeze
water a shield make
fire eat wood
ice shall bridge
one shall break frost’s fetters
free the grain from the wonder lock

credits

from Radical Songs for Rough Times, released September 15, 2020

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Dan Hanrahan Chicago, Illinois

Musician and writer Dan Hanrahan has a long history in out-there folk circles. He specializes in surrealist ballads laced with glam and Brecht. Hanrahan has shared the stage with Gordon Gano and received plaudits from Eugene Chadbourne and Shimmy Disc’s Kramer and has opened shows for They Might Be Giants and Throwing Muses. ... more

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