Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Dick Van Dyke Show Plays Lincolnshire Poacher

Watching the Dick Van Dyke Show this morning proved to be quite interesting. The show was about different cultures and languages. The older son in the show was playing the guitar for a younger male cast member when a lady walked in and had a couple of bags in her hand.

The song being played on the guitar by the older lad was none other than the famous "Lincolnshire Poacher".

This is the original history of the song

This is the history of the Lincolnshire Poacher in regards to it's use on shortwave / HF radio by British Intelligence.

As you can see in both versions of the history of this song, it isn't associated with anything good. Poaching however, is the least harmful of the uses of this work. Something you may want to know is that for the Dick Van Dyke show, they changed the lyrics from the original work so as not to make it recognizable.

For humor's sake, shall we assume that Dick Van Dyke was trying to say something? Send a message to someone? Maybe he knew this song's popularity and knew that it was a major hit among radio hobbyists back then even.

Strange what you notice on TV after a time engaging in the radio hobby.