Sbagliando s'impera

Qualche anno fa (caspita, ho controllato ed era il 1997!) è stata popolarissima una canzoncina allegra intitolata Tubthumping, contenuta in un album intitolato Tubthumper di un collettivo anarcho-rock (nientepopodimeno), i Chumbawamba.

wikipedia.org

Anche se non conoscevate i dettagli, probabilmente riconoscerete la canzoncina.

I miei figli l’adoravano e abbiamo il disco.

Piccolo problema: fino a oggi non sapevo che cosa tub-thumper significasse e non ho mai avuta una curiosità sufficiente da vincere la mia pigrizia e andare a vedere il lemma su un vocabolario. Tub è la vasca da bagno, mi dicevo, to thump significa battere con i pugni, quindi – non mi vergogno a dirlo – nella mia mente c’era l’immagine di una ragazza nella vasca da bagno, Alice Nutter o Jude Abbott, che canta “pissing the night away“, battendo il ritmo sui bordi.

Niente di tutto questo. Oggi ho imparato il significato della parola tub-thumping e mi è caduto il velo dagli occhi.

Secondo l’OED, tub-thumping – nome e aggettivo – fa riferimento all’espressione e al sostegno aggressivi e rumorosi di un’opinione o di un punto di vista.

Cito dalla rubrica Word of the Day del Merriam-Webster del 21 marzo 2012:

Tub-thumpers are a noisy (and sometimes amusing) lot. The earliest ones were preachers or public speakers with a predisposition for pounding their fists on the pulpit or lectern — perhaps to wake up their listeners! Back in the 17th century, the word “tub” was sometimes used as a synonym of “pulpit”; John Dryden, for example, used the word thus in 1680 when he wrote, “Jack Presbyter shall here erect his throne, Knock out a tub with preaching once a day.” “Tub-thumper” has been naming loud, impassioned speakers since at least 1662, when it was used by a writer named Hugh Foulis to describe “a sort of people … antick in their Devotions….”

Certo che il testo della canzoncina non aiutava a capire il significato del titolo!

We’ll be singing
When we’re winning
We’ll be singing

I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down

Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away

He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him of the better times:

“Oh Danny Boy, Danny Boy, Danny Boy…”

I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down

Pissing the night away
Pissing the night away

He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
He sings the songs that remind him of the good times
He sings the songs that remind him of the better times:

“Don’t cry for me, next door neighbour…”

I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
I get knocked down but I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down

We’ll be singing
When we’re winning
We’ll be singing