22 JULY 1966, Page 4

Old Red River

Some Chinese composers, it is reported, have written to complain of the revolutionary songs that have been ordered in praise of the Red River. They are, they say, 'machine-made, hastily written, hastily sung, soon forgotten, and soon discarded.'

They don't say nothing.

They should say something.

They're soon discarded, And that's no rum thing.

They're all machine-made.

They've got no rhyming. They've got no tune, and There ain't no timing.

They're quickly written, And mostly rotten, And them that write them Is soon forgotten.

And Old Red River, He just keeps drooling He keeps on drooling along.

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS