I've Been Duped
Lyrics
[Backing: I've been duped]
War at home
no real footage
just you kids
in their bedroom
war at home
watching vids
Edwardians in Colour on...(2)
Every time there's orange on TV
the graphs are saying good news to me (3)
Every time there's orange on TV
the graphs are saying good news to me
[I've been duped]
I've been duped
[I've been duped]
I've been duped
World War One
Dr Richard Hume is retiring
to south of France (4)
I'm French soldier
suffering
I have been duped
Every time there's orange on TV
the graphs are saying good news to me
Every time there's orange on TV
the graphs are saying good news to me
[I've been duped]
I've been duped
[I've been duped]
I've been duped
Been to France
Late night on
No odd groups
just gambling
I've been duped
I've been duped
I've been duped
Have you been duped?
Every time there's orange on TV
the graphs are saying good news to me
Every time there's orange on TV
the graphs are saying good news to me
[I've been duped]
I've been duped
[I've been duped]
I've been duped
Better then
The warlords on
Two hairy men
digging up Scotland (5)
Six Feet Under (6)
Stay up for
there's no boring
just people mumbling
[I've been duped]
[I've been duped, duped, duped, duped, duped]
Notes
1. Eleni Poulou handles lead vocals on this number.
2. Edwardians in Colour is the title of A BBC documentary about the banker Albert Kahn, who amassed a huge collection of early color photographs. The Edwardian era coincides with the short reign of Edward VII (1901-1910), but historians sometimes extend it to include World War I.
3. It might say "graphs." I guess the graphs shown on the news, to illustrate a statistic?
We originally had "brass." "Brass" usually refers to military officers; British army officers have not been known to wear orange, either now or during the first World War. The word may refer to Orange Irish, Protestant Loyalists associated with the Orange Order, named after William of Orange (of "Kurious, Oranj" fame). Maybe orange refers to a problem with the picture tube. Or, as Danny suggests, it could suggest prison wear (maybe in Guantanamo Bay).
Danny and Mark make a very intriguing suggestion, however. According to Mark:
Re: "orange on TV" - several years before, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring did a series of sketches about the "Curious Orange" in their show "This Morning With Richard, Not Judy". A brief extract of the song "Kurious Oranj" was played at the start of each one. Perhaps a reference to the royalties acquired therefrom? (Clutching at straws somewhat here...)
It is very possible that "brass" here means the record company "brass," or top executives, which are sometimes called "brass" on analogy with the military meaning, promising royalties that never materialize. If MES sang the line, I'd be thoroughly convinced this explains it. As it is, he may have written the line, and in any case Eleni shares in his fortunes...which brings us to another possible meaning of "brass," which, as Basmikel points out, can also refer to money.
4. I have not discovered a historical figure with this name. There was a character named Dr. RIchard Hume in the extremely obscure 2002 film Global Effect, although the movie has nothing to do with World War I. Philip Knight suggests it is the military historian RIchard Holmes. Eleni definitely says "Hume," though.
5. Dan: Eleni was interviewed by Sonja Delibasic of the The Mighty Fall facebook page, using suggestions by other TMF members. Answers posted 7 November 2020.
Eleni confirmed that the line about "hairy men digging up Scotland" was based on a history show on TV with "those long haired guys."
The identity of the long haired guys is under investigation. Dan suggests they may be the "Hairy Bikers," otherwise known as David Myers and Si King, but a likely source episode has not been found.
Eleni subsequently posted a link to the BBC show "A History of Scotland." Unfortunately, this show did not air until after the song was performed with many of the present lyrics. So, despite this coming from the horse's mouth, it has to be incorrect.
Dan avers:
"I suspect a mistake, since the lyric is 'two hairy men' and in her answer Eleni refers to 'those long haired guys.' While Neil Oliver does have long hair, there is only one of him, and 'those long haired guys' fairly clearly suggests a double act being referred to - and in a way that suggests they would be well known as such.
I suspect Eleni googled and came up with the wrong thing."
Where does this leave us? In darkness, I fear...
6. Six Feet Under was an American television program. It's also an idiom that means "dead and buried."
More Information
Comments (38)
- 1. | 28/07/2013
- 2. | 28/07/2013
"no old rooms" is "no odd groups".
"there's no borrowing" is "there's no boring", i.e. drilling a hole.
- 3. | 28/07/2013
- 4. | 29/07/2013
- 5. | 29/07/2013
- 6. | 30/07/2013
- 7. | 21/12/2013
Could it refer to Guantanamo prisoner uniforms?
- 8. | 15/02/2014
- 9. | 07/03/2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Morning_with_Richard_Not_Judy#The_Curious_Orange
Feels like too long ago to find its way into this song, though.
- 10. | 28/06/2014
- 11. | 28/06/2014
- 12. | 02/11/2017
- 13. | 11/11/2017
- 14. | 13/04/2018
- 15. | 16/06/2018
- 16. | 28/03/2019
"the graphs are staying good news to me" throughout -
2nd verse;
"Dr Richard
Whom is retiring
to south of France"
3rd verse
"Bitter thoughts late night on
No odd [or art] groups
Just gambling"
A lament that progs like late show, whistle test etc which gave platforms to odd groups, like, umm, the Fall, are gone replaced by all-night phone-in casino shows
- 17. | 22/04/2019
- 18. | 09/06/2019
- 19. | 09/06/2019
- 20. | 10/06/2019
- 21. | 29/06/2019
- 22. | 30/10/2020
- 23. | 08/11/2020
Eleni confirmed that the line about "hairy men digging up Scotland" was based on a history show on TV with "those long haired guys".
Presumably the "long haired guys" are the "Hairy Bikers" - David Myers and Si King.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairy_Bikers
They specialise in a kind of gastronomical travelogue format - visiting places, looking into their culture and history and food traditions, and then cooking a "signature dish", kind of thing.
But if so, I'm not sure which programme it would have been yet. There could be other hairy TV presenters (though probably it is the bikers).
- 24. | 08/11/2020
A possibility.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n4yx2
Some of the archaeologists on Time Team had longish hair, and their were series in the 2007/8 timeframe, but I'm not sure you'd identify that programme in they way Eleni does above.
- 25. | 10/11/2020
- 26. | 10/11/2020
- 27. | 10/11/2020
- 28. | 10/11/2020
Manchester Ritz, 1 July 2007: hairy men are mentioned.
- 29. | 10/11/2020
Trailer: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2dgbm9
At any rate, that's what it sounded like. Not sure it helps either way!
- 30. | 23/01/2021
- 31. | 02/02/2021
The link that was subsequently posted was this:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7s0kgk?fbclid=IwAR1ZWwZCPZvKwnW6XO8Fsp1ZbPJoAbmaZFPHHJwHHZ_1U4_wpAhfc6OkVbY
Which is Series 1, episode 1 of the (originally) BBC Scotland series "A History of Scotland", with Neil Oliver. I guess we might interpret the link, though, as to the series as a whole rather than a particular episode.
QED!
Except for one small problem.
Which is that the lyrics to the song were more or less settled as early as 2007. "Hairy men digging up Scotland" appears, for example, in the lyrics at the Manchester Ritz gig on 1 July 2007, which is the earliest I've got as reported in comment #28.
But "A History of Scotland" was first shown on BBC Scotland in November 2008 (it was subsequently repeated more widely), which, the attentive reader will realise is after the lyrics had already been settled. Well after.
Therefore, the documentary series cannot in fact be the source of the lyric. Either Eleni is pulling our collective leg, or she searched and found the wrong series (it is over a decade old), or the series was retrofitted into the interpretation of the lyric.
I suspect a mistake, since the lyric is "two hairy men" and in her answer Eleni refers to "those long haired guys". While Neil Oliver does have long hair, there is only one of him, and "those long haired guys" fairly clearly suggests a double act being referred to - and in a way that suggests they would be well known as such.
I suspect Eleni googled and came up with the wrong thing.
- 32. | 02/02/2021
With Neil Oliver appearing in the programme linked to by Eleni, perhaps it's worth looking at other series he did.
There are a few.
There's Two Men in a Trench with Neil Oliver and Tony Pollard. It ran from 2002-2004. But Tony Pollard was short haired and clean shaven.
And there's Coast, which was also presented by Neil Oliver among others including Alice Roberts and Nicholas Crane.
The third series of Coast aired in 2007, with Scottish-based episodes as follows:
Episode 1: Shetland to Orkney, broadcast 3 June 2007. [link]
Episode 5: Berwick Upon Tweed to Aberdeen, broadcast 1 July 2007 [link]
There were also Scottish-related episodes in series 2, broadcast 2006, but because of my preference for the most recent material, I thought it would be worth looking at the 2007 episodes. Again, no double acts in the presenting team - they seem to film their own pieces separately. And only Oliver is really "hairy". But it is suitably recent for the first documented performance of the song on 1 July 2007 at 8pm (so possible time to watch it before going on stage!)
No apparent literal digging up of Scotland in episode 5. There is digging in episode 1. But not by notably hairy men.
So, er, that seems to be a dead end.
- 33. | 13/02/2021
- 34. | 21/06/2021
Surely it is this chap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holmes_(military_historian)
- 35. | 19/11/2021
- 36. | 30/11/2021
- 37. | 11/04/2023
- 38. | 27/05/2023
The lyrics seem to be:
I've been deceived
There's no use denying
I was fooled by kisses
Your sweet talk and your lying
But the good book tells
We reap just what we sow
In your harvest darlin'
Will be bitter tears, I know
Oh, I've been deceived
Words cannot explain, dear
What you've done to me
The sorrow you caused me
And, Oh, this misery
Why must the honest suffer?
And the guilty go free?
I'm left alone to ponder
Perhaps someday I'll see
Oh, I've been deceived
"no old rooms" is "no odd groups".
"there's no borrowing" is "there's no boring", i.e. drilling a hole.