ATTENTION Makwuzere - The Aintree Iron Revisited

Some time ago I posted a wee thing about poet Roger McGough, and that led to an exchange of comments about the meaning of 'the Aintree Iron' referred to in the Scaffold song 'Lily the Pink'. My regular correspondent, Makwuzere, asserted that the Aintree Iron was a pub in Liverpool - but this is not the universal view. I recently came across the web-site of the TV programme QI - thoroughly recommended to all smart-arses everywhere - go here http://www.qi.com/ or if that link doesn't work then click the heading of this post. I thought I'd see if anyone there could solve the riddle - here are the relevant postings - no definitive answer for the Aintree Iron but some fascinating info about the medicinal compound, which I am quite sure makwuzere will find very efficacious :- The Aintree Iron almax 72951. Tue Jun 06, 2006 12:23 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As in 'Thank You Very Much For.......' On my weblog recently I wrote a short piece about poet Roger McGough and mentioned in passing his membership of the Scaffold and some of their hits including the above-mentioned lyric. This has resulted in many visitors coming to the blog apparently in search of enlightenment as to who or what 'the Aintree Iron' is or was. One correspondent asserted that it was the Blue Anchor pub in the Aintree area of Liverpool. Others were equally insistent on it being variously (a) a tree (b) Liverpool Football Club (c) Brian Epstein (d) a railway yard (e) an iron foundry (f) an open-air urinal ?? and (g) a horseshoe. I read somewhere (I think in the Guardian) that Mike McGear (aka McCartney) who wrote the lyric claims that it is none of the foregoing. Does anyone have the true answer? Tango 1 72959. Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:24 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is my understanding that the Aintree Iron is slang. Iron being the abbreviation from "Iron Hoof", cockney rhyming slang for poof. Aintree is a rural area of Liverpool and Aintree Iron is referring to Brian Epstein. I think there are a few sites google throws up that support this. djgordy 72964. Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:41 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the time I understood that the Aintree Iron referred to the Liverpool footballer Ian St. John, though there is nothing I can point to to back this up. Song lyrics don't have to refer to anything and it is possible that the phrase is just a piece of nonsense. After all, nobody actually asks what the medicinal compound invented by Lily the Pink was. samivel 72965. Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:56 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What was the medicinal compound invented by Lily the Pink? suze 72971. Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:08 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound (introduced 1875) was a patent medicine including a large amount of alcohol. It was supposed to treat PMT, the menopause and other feminine problems - and modern herbalists concede that, at worst, it doesn't make them worse. Indeed, it contained an ingredient called black cohosh which has been shown to have some efficacy in this area. And if it gets you drunk, well I guess you don't notice the ailment so much. Because patent medicines were exempt from the prohibition regime in the USA, they became especially popular at that time. Mike McGear and Roger McGough wrote Lily the Pink as a cleaned up version of an earlier American folk song, The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham. Among the verses they dropped were these two ... Mrs Jones she had no children And she loved them very dear So she took three bottles of Pinkham's Now she has twins every year And Peter Whelan (Peter Whelan) Was sad because he only had one nut Till he took some of Lydia's compound And now they grow in clusters 'round his butt djgordy 72972. Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:08 pm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What was the medicinal compound invented by Lily the Pink? It was an aqueous solution of dihydrous monoxide._ ________________ So the Dalai Lama smiled and said, "well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?" almax 73149. Wed Jun 07, 2006 11:04 am -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you very much