06-07-2005, 07:23 PM
It's the adlib that might as well be in the lyirc booklet. You could bet some newbie that Gord will say "bring out yer dead" at the end of the first verse of 'Poets' and walk away a very rich man or woman or gibby.
But where does it come from? And who really gives a shit? Good questions. The answer to the first one is kinda cool since it ties into two Hip songs.
In 1832, cholera swept through Upper and Lower Canada like an STD (whoops, they're called STI's now) through the cast and crew of 'The Simple Life.'
The papers took to calling the boats full of infected immigrants "Fever Ships" and when it became clear that cholera was spreading through the water and irrigation systems (i.e. the lakes and rivers) the epidemic became known as the "Lake Fever."
Anyway, as the death toll mounted, the hospitals in Montreal, York (Toronto) and a little sea-side village called Kingston, sent around body snatchers with carts. They'd cruise the streets, in the days before megaphones or scheduled garbage days, and yell: "Bring Out Your Dead!" This catch phrase was already chic in Europe, where plagues and beaver-skin hats were all the rage, but it made it's Canadian debut thanks to the lake fever.
Nifty.
But where does it come from? And who really gives a shit? Good questions. The answer to the first one is kinda cool since it ties into two Hip songs.
In 1832, cholera swept through Upper and Lower Canada like an STD (whoops, they're called STI's now) through the cast and crew of 'The Simple Life.'
The papers took to calling the boats full of infected immigrants "Fever Ships" and when it became clear that cholera was spreading through the water and irrigation systems (i.e. the lakes and rivers) the epidemic became known as the "Lake Fever."
Anyway, as the death toll mounted, the hospitals in Montreal, York (Toronto) and a little sea-side village called Kingston, sent around body snatchers with carts. They'd cruise the streets, in the days before megaphones or scheduled garbage days, and yell: "Bring Out Your Dead!" This catch phrase was already chic in Europe, where plagues and beaver-skin hats were all the rage, but it made it's Canadian debut thanks to the lake fever.
Nifty.
