"you're A Better Man Than I, Gunga Din"

[AndiFlatland]

I wonder if anybody remembers this, and can tell me where it originated. I think it was back in the 70s, that Kenny Everett - perhaps - kept running a mad sound clip that ran for about 2 or 3 minutes. It was basically just sounds of utter chaos and galloping horses, with outbreaks of heavy gunfire, which kept subsiding, then breaking out again. I don't think there was anything else to it, no dialogue or anything - until the chaos and gunfire finally died down. In the final seconds of silence, an American voice just came in and said "You're a better man than I, Gunga Din". I know there was 1939 movie called Gunga Din, which I'd rather not sit through to see if it's in that, which I somehow doubt, as it always sounded to me like something that some US shock jock had done for a laugh. Anybody got any memory of this?

[Mamyalynne]

http://www.bartleby.com/103/48.html

[sandyRoe]

It's from a poem by Kipling

[Mamyalynne]

The last line indeed....

[boxtops]

As in....

"Tho' I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”

[bookbinder]

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176155

[Baldric]

///something that some US shock jock had done for a laugh///

I'm assuming the OPer is a generation or two behind me at 62 and wondering if it's wise to leave things in the custody of those so ill-informed,
For information Kipling did more than make "exceedingly good cakes!"

[Peter Pedant]

o Baldric - dont be so ...... old

No one under 30 knows that a trooper in the Falklands was a Baldrik and an officer a Rupert. I asked a police cadet - little thing - probably would not be able to get her finger around a trigger - did her colleagues call her Private Benjamin ? and I got blank looks from both her and the colleagues.

Boy to Mother ; Do you like Kipling ?
Mother: I dont know you naughty boy - I've never kippled.

I thought andiF had a good stab at a possible answer.

[AndiFlatland]

So it's rather looking like nobody else remembers the thing that my memory is telling me that Kenny Everett used to keep playing on the radio in the 70s?

In the meantime, since I first posted the question, I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and got a response of recognition that I wasn't expecting: she said that it was one of those things which kids back then kept trotting out as a kind of standard humorous riposte, i.e. Kid 1: 'You're not going out in this weather, are you?' Kid 2: 'It's alright, it's not too bad, it'll be OK'. Kid 1: 'Well, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din'. But I don't recall ever hearing that said by any of my school mates (although by the mid-70s, I was well past school age!)
But I'm still certain that Kenny Everett used to keep dropping this into his radio shows every so often, and ending up in gales of laughter.

[Wharton]

Do you like Kipling? :-)

[emmie]

i thought it was from a Kipling poem

[emmie]

i do remember it as a kid,

[Mamyalynne]

I think we established that from post1 Em - seems Andi is more concerned with the Kenny Everett connection. I misunderstood them completely as they asked where it originated.

[emmie]

i do remember it as described, it would be used by adult and child alike,
i have no idea why now.

[emmie]

perhaps this has already been linked,

http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s08e07_the_red_fort

[emmie]

it was more the Goons i reckon that Kenny Everett.

[Peter Pedant]

.

Andi - Kenny's refrain wasnt

Gunga Din Gunga Din
You're a man
full of sin ? was it ?

Sort of Boney M but nobler

I think you are planting false memories in my mind ....

anyway I am sure the character Cupid Stunt neva said that
" O Michael ! You're a better man than I Gunga Din, but its all done....."

[AndiFlatland]

@ methyl... YES!!! That's IT!!! That's IT!!! I knew it wasn't just my deteriorating memory playing tricks on me. Now it's coming back to me. Kenny DID play this on his Capital Radio and Radio 1 shows, and I used to crease up every time. I had a vague feeling it might have been one of the tracks on his World's Worst Record Show LP, but the track listing I found said not.

The one detail I forgot was the bugler - strange, really, as that's the funniest bit, and it's the whole point of the track.

Well, it's been posted on YouTube - - and I've also found a copy on e-Bay for no great price, so that'll be arriving soon.

So thanks so much, methyl, for taking the trouble to search on this for me (and thanks to the other respondents who did at least try to offer some clues). Without knowing the title, which is The Last Blast Of The Blasted Bugler, I may never have found it just by searching under the title of this post. Another great little gem of a disc for my collection! I never knew it was an actual record.

[guilliebrougues]

The poem from which it originated is called "IF" by Rudyard Kipling and when you read the poem you will realise what is meant by "you're a Better Man Than I , Gunga Din"

[jeffa]

If and Gunga Din are two different poems. Both by Kipling, though, I'll give you that!