The Anglo-Saxons
Lyrics
They used to paint their bodies blue
A couple of them might be distantly related to you
According to Caesar, they shaved their entire bodies
Except for the upper lip and the head
Yeah the Anglo-Saxons
Yeah the Anglo-Saxons
A sub-literate bunch of guys
Though some sources say otherwise
Yeah the Anglo-Saxons
Yeah they were men on a mission
Preserving their poetry by an oral tradition
Yeah oral tradition was all you'd get
Until Saint Augustine brought them the alphabet
Yeah the Anglo-Saxons
Yeah the Anglo-Saxons
Yeah in 1065 they were ragin'
But 1066 brought the Norman Invasion
Yeah the Anglo-Saxons
Go!
Banter
- I'm gonna play you one of the stupidest songs in the Mountain Goats catalog. [plays song] The reason this song is dumb is that Caesar was actually specifically talking about the Picts. There were three - in case you want to know, the Angles, the Picts, and the Jutes were the three tribes. The Picts were the ones who, for reasons entirely obscure to history, but not to me, painted their bodies blue. Their bodies were all covered in blue paint when the Romans got there. You know why? Because they thought they looked cool, that's why. They say, oh, it was a ritual, they painted themselves to evoke - no! they looked at each other and went "oh, you got blue paint, you look pretty good, should I put some on?" "yeah, you should do that, you should put some on right now." "ok, we have more, let's do that". That's why they did that. But the part about shaving the whole body except for the mustache and the hair - this is a fashion choice that, I really wish we had cameras then for that. This is a look that has - I don't think there is any Pictish kink out there. (2022-05-21 The Sylvee)
Live Performances
Footnotes