Large Fierce Mammal

If you live in my neck of the woods, a lot of you lost electric power Christmas afternoon, and some will still be waiting for it until some time tonight. If you lack more “natural” means of heating your dwelling, things have gotten a bit cold, and the usual mid-season burnout has turned into quite the opposite.

For our part, things here at the LFM Fort have remained quite comfortable for all five Human and equivalent number of Canine denizens, and while we can do little to alter the course of what Nature hath wrought upon some of you in Her fury this season, we can at least offer up a couple of uplifting ditties for those who might want to tap some feeling back into frozen toes while thawing pipes after the power finally comes back up.

As I’ve previously written, my late Father once fronted a country and western band called “Slim Major and his Ranch Boys”. Throughout his abbreviated life — a mere 59 years — he continued to play and sing, and his voice bore a striking resemblance to Hank Snow, particularly when he sang one of Hank’s songs.

At many a Winter kitchen party at the household of Whynacht the Elder, he’d sing this one. Set in the depression days when railroad bums were men unemployed and down on their luck, hopping boxcars and dodging railroad police in search of what sustenance and meagre labour might be found in the next town, Hobo Bill’s Last Ride speaks for itself.

Next is a beautiful piece by Mark Knopfler. The Ragpicker’s Dream tells a story from what may be the same era but could have happened last week, of two characters, Rail-King and Scarecrow, fleeing northern regions at Winter’s onset in a boxcar of a train bound for warmer climes.

Untethered in time, The Ragpicker’s Dream flows freely from present to past rememberings of happier times, and back through an ill gotten repast to a brutal meeting with destiny. Lyrics follow the video for those bent on further study.

The Ragpicker’s Dream

Mark Knopfler

When Jack Frost came for Christmas
With a brass monkey date
The rail-king and the scarecrow
Hopped a Florida freight
And they blew on their paper cups
And stared through the steam
Then they drank half a bottle
Of Ragpicker’s dream where

The whiskey keeps following
Cold pitchers of beer
Me and my associate
Like the clientele here get
The onions and the ‘taters
Rib-eyes on the grill
Toothpicks and luckies
And a coffee refill as

The rail-king lay rocking
He was leaving the ground
Then he was flying like Santa Claus
Over the town where
He came to the window
Of a house by a stream
It was a family christmas
In the Ragpicker’s dream there

Were kids at the table
All aglow in the light
Music in the wintertime
Sure carries at night there
Was turkey and gravy
Pie and ice-cream
And gifts for each and everyone
In the Ragpicker’s dream where

The red-eye keeps tumbling
In our glasses of beer
Me and my associate
Like the service in here there’s
A ten for your trouble
You have beautiful hair
Make the last one two doubles
It’s a cold one out there where

The scarecrow and the rail-king
Have started to dance
But a nightstick and a billy-club
Won’t give peace a chance here
I think they went that-aways
Your song and dance team
Heading home for the holidays
With the Ragpicker’s dream on

His knees like a fighter
The rail-riding king
Like a sack of potatoes
Like a bull in the ring where
The scarecrow falls over
With a tear in the seam
Home for the rover
In the Ragpicker’s dream where

The red-eye keeps tumbling
Like tears in our beer
Me and my associate
Like the ambiance here where
They cornered two castaways
In a white flashlight beam
Merry Christmas and happy days
In the Ragpicker’s dream