Talk:Ivor Cutler

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[edit] Include some of his work?

Could we have one poem in full here as a sample of his work? I propose Big Jim. Guinnog 12:21, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

• Or, maybe better,

Life in a Scotch Sitting Room

Volume 2, Episode 6

by Ivor Cutler

"Scotland gets its brains from the herring," said Grandpa; and we all nodded our heads with complete incomprehension.

Sometimes, for a treat, we got playing with their heads: glutinous, bony affairs without room for brains, and a look of lust on their narrow soprano jaws. The time I lifted the lid of the midden on a winter night, and there -- a cool blue gleam -- herring heads. Other heads do not gleam in the dark, so perhaps Grandpa was right.

To make sure we ate the most intelligent herring, he fished the estuary. He planted a notice: "Literate herring, this way" below the waterline, at the corner where it met the sea. The paint for the notice was made of crushed heads. Red-eyed herring (sore from reading) would round the corner, read the notice, and sense the estuary water, bland and eye-easing. A few feet brought them within the confining friendliness of his manila net... and a purposeful end.

There was only one way to cook it: a deep batter of porridge left from breakfast was patted round, and it was fed onto the hot griddle athwart the coal fire. In seconds, a thick aroma leaned around and bent against the walls. We lay down and dribbled on the carpet. (Also, the air was fresher.)

Time passed. In exactly twenty five minutes the porridge cracked, and juice steamed through with a glad "fizz." We ate the batter first, to take the edge off our appetites, so that we could eat the herring with respect; which we did, including the bones.

After supper, assuming the herring to have worked, we were asked questions. In Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, we had to know the principle parts of verbs. In geography, the five main glove manufacturing towns in the Midlands. And in history, the development of Glasgow's sewage system.

There's nothing quite like a Scotch education. One is left with an irreparable debt. My head is full of irregular verbs still.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Guinnog (talk • contribs) 12:23, 11 March 2006.

• • Not really. As far as I know, gratuititously copying text comes up against problems with copyright violation, and that's why articles about songs don't include the lyrics. It should be fair use to quote from the poem if you're planning to analyse it. Flowerparty■ 12:51, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
    • I'm confident that as a quotation from a larger work, this would also qualify as fair use. My worry is it would overwhelm the article and/or be regarded as unrepresentative of his work. Guinnog 14:15, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Record-cover image

I converted the image to a lk to the image page, on copyright grounds. I'm not versed on this issue, but on its face the text on the image page states that the basis for fair use is to show the album. In this article, it would be disingenuous to claim that purpose: the bio wants a photo of its subject, and obviously that is why that album's image was chosen for inclusion. So the image being used says it can't be used here. Maybe what it says at the image isn't completely authoritative, but the cure for that is more info at the image, not simply using it w/o stating the justification for doing so.
--Jerzy•t 17:28, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

You're quite right. I found another quite good image on the BBC website which I replaced it with. Well done. --Guinnog 17:57, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Radio plays

The Telegraph obituary says:

"Between 1979 and 1988 he had 14 plays produced on Radio Three; most of their titles included his own name, for example Ivor Cutler & His Dad; Ivor Cutler & the Mermaid; and A Sheet Metal Worker is Approached by Ivor Cutler.

...

In 1980 he received the Pye Radio Award for Humour. In 1994 A Stuggy Pren, considered by some to be Cutler's masterpiece, was produced on Radio Three."

This isn't covered in the article yet. -- Beardo 05:54, 27 November 2006 (UTC)