The Song

WERELDPREMIERE VAN DE SONG

Vrijdag 22 februari j.l. was een bijzondere dag. Radio 227 had de wereldpremière van de song over de Olga Patricia wat de feitelijke naam van de Laissez Faire is.

Het lied werd geschreven door Ex Swinging Radio England DJ Rick Randall en gezongen door collega Keith “Keefers” Hampshire op muziek van Gordon Lightfoot. De vraag (welke dus volgens bovenstaand stukje opgelost is) was waar de Olga Patricia eigenlijk gebleven was nadat het dienst had gedaan als zendschip voor SRE, Britain Radio, Radio Dolfijn, Radio 227 en Radio 355.

Where the Heck is the Olga Patricia?

There once was a ship that was destined to be
A famous, mysterious ship of the sea
It sailed from a port in the south(ern) US
To take part in a plan to invade, can you guess?

A storm the first night sent a sound and a fright
Through the hull with a crash and a shudder
When the mast it did fall with antennae and all
As the ship rocked about on her rudder

So the trip took a turn as the world would then learn
And made stops for repairs in a hurry
First the Azores and then to Lisbon to mend
As the boss paid the bills with a worry

Portugal, it was nice and the crew once or twice
Toured the town and drank down with the best
It took two weeks, or three, to get back out to sea
And head north — was it east, south or west?

The day finally came when the wind and the rain
In the North Sea were met by those bad boys
There were Yanks, and some Blokes, and a Aussie with jokes
Would would soon fill the air with their noise

Radio Caroline, and well, yet another – Big “L”
That were just off the Felixstowe sea shore
When the “Boss Jocks” arrived with their fast talk and jive
They would soon play their music, and “much more”

This ship it was true, with not one sound, but two
But not destined to be there for too long
For on land was a fight, about what’s wrong and what’s right
And the law would soon silence their sea-song

With the Maritime Act it would simply be fact
That the days we remember are past us
The American sound that was heard in London town
Would die out, though the memory would last us

Here we gather again to look back with a grin
To a time that we faintly remember
A tale that was born with the sound of a horn
On a ship that is vaguely familiar

So here’s to the lady we loved and we knew
Was her name…Bonnie, or Jenny?
Oh yeah, I recall, it was Olga, ya’ll
A friend who is gone with our memory

For now nowhere we see is our old friend at sea
There are stories we just can not follow
They weave plots with no clues, like a clown with no shoes
CIA…Laissez Faire…all sound hollow

What happened when the fun, it was all said and done
And the boat and her crew they did sever
Did she sail off in fright to mysterious night
Or sink to the bottom forever?

There is no end that we know to this story, and so
The truth may never to told her
How the real story ends, or if destiny bends
Around Olga as we all grow older

Let’s call out the Air Force, the Navy, and then
Let’s call out the Army militia
We’ve all got to know, before we all go
Where the Heck, is the Olga Patricia

(c)Richard Crandall(Rick Randall) 2006. Recorded by Keith ”Keefers” Hampshire 2006. Based on ”The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot, (c) Reprise Records 1976.