There is an ancient old New Zealand party song called Ten Guitars. Originally sung by Englebert Humperdinck, the song was adopted by party guitarists New Zealand-wide in the sixties. It’s true! I found it on the internet.
When I was a classroom teacher I used to loath Ten Guitars. I hated it so much that I refused to play it on my guitar. The problem was, for me anyway, that the teacher next door loved it. To her it was an anthem. I think they sang it every day. My kids would hear it and sidle towards the window or the open door just to listen to that blasted song.
The first verse of Ten Guitars goes like this,
I have a band of men and all they do is play for me
They come from miles around to hear them play a melody
Beneath the stars my ten guitars will play a song for you
And if you’re with the one you love this is what you do…
Blogging is a bit like that. Once you have gained a bit of a readership, people come back to read what you have to say. I have introduced a few people to blogging recently and while it may not be for everyone, they are coming back to listen to the melody. In fact better than that, they are pulling out their own guitars and having a go with their own tunes.
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I grew up with uncles that used to play the ten guitars all the time, and yes you are right it is like the (non-official) New Zealand Athem. That was how we described the song to a fello English class mate while doing a music paper for summer school. During the paper we all learnt how to play the guitar and guess what our song was that we presented to our class – The Ten Guitars.
Yes – a definite athem ….. confirmed last night in the Tote (NZ iconic pub) when the Australian 1-man band guitar player had no idea about the much requested song …. just checked with a number of Brits here at work who also have no idea
10 guitars is a legend of a song!
Good site i enjoyed your article!
Those are good BBQ chips man!