Golden Syrup
Lyles Lion Logo
Years ago, when I was a lad, my mum used to make us all porridge for breakfast in winter. On the top, I’d spiral a big dollop of Lyle’s Golden Syrup and then, while eating the porridge, I’d read the tin.
Yes! There was a different flapjack recipe every time!
But also, as a constant reference point, next to a prostrate, flies-ridden lion, were the words;
‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness’
- which puzzled me immensely as a child.
Guardian
Perhaps Paul Lester in yesterday’s Guardian Online was thinking the same about Joy Division! In an article about a new band called ‘Detachments’, is a phrase (remarkably similar to one he made last June), which said;
…it was a way out of the crawling chaos for Joy Division after their singer’s suicide; a design for a new life.
Factory Slips
I see a Freudian slip going on here, or a desperate bit of journalese as a way to stick all the old Factory Records acts together. Either way, it gives me another chance to point this out!
It also gives me a chance to mirror, the Lyles Golden Syrup phrase and Lester’s continuing co-joining of Crawling Chaos & Joy Division in the same sentence. I wonder if Paul Lester had syrup on his porridge? Hmmm. Out of the strong came forth…
I’m leaning towards Freud. Because as you know, Freud said;
there are no slips!
Further Reading:
- Prev. Guardian Article from June: The Northwestern (No 562)
- Guardian Article from 10 Nov 2009: Detachments (No 666)
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November 11, 2009 at 11:00 pm
The "lion and the bees" trademark
Abram Lyle had strong religious beliefs, which is why the Lyle's Golden Syrup trademark depicts a quotation from the Bible. In the Old Testament (Book of Judges 14:14) Samson was travelling to the land of the Philistines in search of a wife. During the journey he killed a lion, and on his return past the same spot he noticed that a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass. Samson later turned this into a riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness".
November 11, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Yay secretive @sim.
I know everything you've iterated – it's all on the Lyle's link I provided, but thanks for clarifying it for folks that can't be bothered to click!.
If you're confused about the beginning (and not the point of this jolly little missive by myself which should be obvious), the point of the beginning is that I was a child, and they looked liked flies buzzing round a corpse – still do, actually!
Lyle made a play on it to get his motto. The bible makes a different sort of play in it's allegorical story.
For myself, I've always remembered and liked the motto as a curious amalgam of good and bad – after all, I spent long enough looking at it through all those long winter breakfasts.