Penny Lane

[CGR]

I've just read that the Beatles song Penny Lane is now considered to be 'racist'.

Utter madness. What on earth is 'racist' about this song:

In Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say, "Hello"

On the corner is a banker with a motorcar
And little children laugh at him behind his back
And the banker never wears a mac
In the pouring rain, very strange

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit, and meanwhile back
In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass
And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen
He likes to keep his fire engine clean
It's a clean machine

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
A four of fish and finger pies
In summer, meanwhile back
Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray…

[richardfinegold]

I assume by the end of the day Paul and Ringo will be kneeling somewhere begging for forgiveness.

[Count Boso]

I've just read that the Beatles song Penny Lane is now considered to be 'racist'.

The song is considered racist? There are claims (unverified apparently) that the street called Penny Lane commemorates a slaver (James Penny?), but there isn't any reason to suggest that a song named after a street is racist. I think that's an idea as likely to be propagated by racists because it's so obviously bogus.

[Count Boso]

I think that's an idea as likely to be propagated by racists because it's so obviously bogus.

What's more, after the statue of Queen Victoria was daubed with "Slag Racist Slave Owner", one of the first enraged citizens to point out that slavery was abolished before she succeeded and that the Royal Navy was active disrupting slave traders' ships, was a character named Raheem Kassam, who even by UKIP standards looks like very nasty piece of work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raheem_Kassam

How about this for a conspiracy theory: pick your target which incriminates the anti-racist movement, then debunk their claims as provably false, and hit anti-racists with a double whammy. Just a thought.

[LMcD]

I've just read that the Beatles song Penny Lane is now considered to be 'racist'.

Utter madness. What on earth is 'racist' about this song:

In Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say, "Hello"

On the corner is a banker with a motorcar
And little children laugh at him behind his back
And the banker never wears a mac
In the pouring rain, very strange

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit, and meanwhile back
In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass
And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen
He likes to keep his fire engine clean
It's a clean machine

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
A four of fish and finger pies
In summer, meanwhile back
Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray…

I'm afraid we (well, some of us) seem to be into Serious Over-Reaction Mode. Next to go will probably be the Dad's Army episode in which Philip Madoc played an inefficient German who couldn't discover Pike's name without help from Captain Mainwaring.

[Count Boso]

I'm afraid we (well, some of us) seem to be into Serious Over-Reaction Mode. Next to go will probably be the Dad's Army episode in which Philip Madoc played an inefficient German who couldn't discover Pike's name without help from Captain Mainwaring.

I've searched on 'Penny Lane lyrics racist' and can only find references to the street name being vandalised (by reason of a possible/disputed connection with a slave trader).

Could the topic starter give more details as to who is claiming the lyrics are racist?

Oh, and perhaps hazard a guess as to why his name - Penney - might have been misspelt.

[CGR]

This is where I saw it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-52992669

[Count Boso]

This is where I saw it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...yside-52992669

With respect, you posted the lyrics of the song and suggested they were being considered racist, and invited readers to say in what way*. The news story says the street name was vandalised because, as I've said, it may be commemorating a slave trader, whose name was, in fact, Penney, but maybe isn't.

*"I've just read that the Beatles song Penny Lane is now considered to be 'racist'.
Utter madness. What on earth is 'racist' about this song:"

[Jazzrook]

This is where I saw it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...yside-52992669

There's no mention in the news story that the the lyrics to 'Penny Lane' are considered racist.
It's clear that you are distorting this story to suit your own agenda.

JR

[CGR]

There's no mention in the news story that the the lyrics to 'Penny Lane' are considered racist.
It's clear that you are distorting this story to suit your own agenda.

JR

No agenda. Just puzzled and concerned.

[oddoneout]

There's no mention in the news story that the the lyrics to 'Penny Lane' are considered racist.
It's clear that you are distorting this story to suit your own agenda.

JR

Or misunderstanding what the article actually said?

[Count Boso]

I've tried to find out something about James Penney but I'm not even sure of his dates. I did find this which I post because it seems interesting (it is to me anyway):

Final Report of the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission to the Secretary of War, 1863-64 (Lincoln's presidency):

Chapter 1, Slavery

"Our race, in its gradual advance from ignorance and evil to comparative knowledge and good, has not yet, even in countries the most favoured, outlived an error fatal to true progress ... There is scarcely a page in history so replete with horrors as that which records the inception of slavery in this hemisphere."

Then historic evidence, unknown date but presumably much earlier, includes: "James Penney [sic] had made eleven voyages as captain of a slaver. He was asked, " If the blank of the bill is filled with one and a half to a ton, will it, in your opinion, tend to the abolition of the trade?" Answer, "I am clearly of the opinion that it will." [NB Not suggested that he wanted that abolition.]

[Frances_iom]

I've tried to find out something about James Penney but I'm not even sure of his dates....]

I suspect it is a case of mistaken identity - having Gore's Liverpool Directory to hand there is in 1792 a James Penny of Hope Street who was a warden of St Nicholas (the war destroyed church near Pier Head) - he doesn't appear in the main body of the directory and had gone by 1798 - often a small street is known by the builder but Penny Lane is somewhat longer - thus I suspect it or its name must date post 1800 as Penny Lane does not appear in the extensive list of Streets in either the 1792 or 1798 directories (the former being very extensive with a list of houses in each street)

[Count Boso]

I suspect it is a case of mistaken identity - having Gore's Liverpool Directory to hand there is in 1792 a James Penny of Hope Street who was a warden of St Nicholas (the war destroyed church near Pier Head) - he doesn't appear in the main body of the directory and had gone by 1798 - often a small street is known by the builder but Penny Lane is somewhat longer - thus I suspect it or its name must date post 1800 as Penny Lane does not appear in the extensive list of Streets in either the 1792 or 1798 directories (the former being very extensive with a list of houses in each street)

I gather the Liverpool researchers are on the job.

[Count Boso]

I gather the Liverpool researchers are on the job.

OOoh, Look what I've found - it's in Bristol too. (I googled "Penny Street"). I think this link works

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4770...7i16384!8i8192\


Research:

https://theprioryandthecastironshore.wordpress.com/2018/10/24/was-penny-lane-really-named-after-the-slave-merchant-james-penny/