The song place
Posted on | February 3, 2010 | 48 Comments
It is late at night. Correction, it is early morning. The Dublin sky is that mix of blue and grey, viewed with a haze of last night’s induldgence, adding a film of moving dirt to everything. Walking home up the canal. And you think about the night before.
The bars, the club, the party afterwards where the man is leading his circle in the party in the flat. He is standing on the chair, his gym built muscles in his vest prominent due to the dehydration of a night clubbing and dancing and, every so often, remembering to take a drink. Of water. He is performing.
Makin’ mad love to my girl on the heath
Tearin’ off tights with my teeth
And they, his disciples, are enraptured. He is the conductor, they the orchestra. They wave their arms with his as he intones in time with the music, a middle-aged, southside hairdresser channeling the Brixton rapper in his best Lahndaaaahn accent. And when the words finish and the drums build and it finally kicks back in they lose themselves in the music. They are pliant, they would do anything he asked them now.
You sit amused, smoking at the back of the tiny flat above the shop on the bridge which was open 24 hours and from which you got your Rizla. In the end it is too much, you slip out and this is why you find yourself walking up the canal, laughing at what you’ve just seen.
The impression, though, is indelible. Every time you hear that song that is what you see. The man on the chair, conducting, rapping and watching with a gleam in his eye as his underlings, his biddadble dogs, do as his arms tell them.
Till the end of days that is the image associated with that song. That is the song place.
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February 3rd, 2010 @ 10:32 am
Led Zeppelin – The Thong remains the thame ?
February 3rd, 2010 @ 10:41 am
The Strokes – “Running in the ocean, trying to catch her eye”
A cool girl where it didn’t work out
Bob Dylan – ” I need a dump truck baby to unload my head”
same as above
ad nauseum
February 3rd, 2010 @ 10:50 am
Can quite do without that image, maggot!
Air, All I need – driving around the side of the Phoenix Park late at night.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 10:58 am
Can quite do without that image, maggot!
Morgor’s lawyers got to you then ? He wasn’t looking at his best.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 11:00 am
The Jam London Calling always reminds me of sitting in Marley Park drinking cans
February 3rd, 2010 @ 11:09 am
Jordan remarried ? I’m devastated!
February 3rd, 2010 @ 11:27 am
“The Jam London Calling”
Are you sure?
February 3rd, 2010 @ 11:29 am
Everytime I hear, ‘Insomnia’ I think of watching them playing it live at the Shepherds Bush Empire.
Massive night.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 11:40 am
Sorry of course I meant The Alarm. Big Country.
THE CLASH. THE CLASH!
February 3rd, 2010 @ 11:42 am
Virginia Plain does it for me – Edinburgh Empire , early 70s, first concert I went to – Roxy music . Supporting act – Leo Sayer. Never forget the contrast when Roxy Music let rip!
February 3rd, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
Missing- swaying, arms locked around the skinny waist of a handsome man, cheek pressed against his back, smiling, pressed tight, in love, in the POD, off my face.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 12:02 pm
That was you FMC ? I always wondered!
February 3rd, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
Heh, more than once Maggot.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 12:16 pm
Born slippy by underworld
Same effect
February 3rd, 2010 @ 12:17 pm
Copenhagen, Pet Shop Boys going west in every bar, on every street, in the Tivoli, in the brewery, by the mermaid, everywhere. Bring that week back.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 12:25 pm
* feels very nostalgic for de memories*
February 3rd, 2010 @ 12:27 pm
Fast Cars – Summer in London, working on a sight and staying with friends in a student residence that smelled of mildew and cider.
I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues – Starving to death in the Gaeltacht due to the Ban an Ti’s inedible cooking.
Is She Really Going Out with Him – As best man, moshing in the kitchen of my best friend’s house a 3 in the morning the night before the wedding when he really should have gone to bed before midnight.
Music is like memories’ varnish – it both preserves them and gives them a nice sheen.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 1:29 pm
The Angelus – Trying to get out of the living room straight after Wanderly Wagon so I wouldn’t get nabbed to say the Angelus with the folks.
Rhinestone Cowboy – Changing room in Templeogue College swimming pool with my Dad as he laughed while I sang it.
I have crystal clear memories of my childhood obviously.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 1:43 pm
Sabres Of Paradise. Smokebelch in the Temple Of Sound. David Holmes, live, with his trumpet (not a euphemism, a real one). Just comin’ up. Lotsa smoke in the air, green strobe light flashing. Dancing on a metal floor. Friends all around me. I knew they were there but they were lost in the fog. Holding hands, breathing deep, eyes closed, gritting teeth, smiling at no one in particular. Magic.
Could’ve been a dream….. felt like a dream. Can I go back there sometime? Even for a minute?
It’s either that or singing “Cecilia” by Simon & Garfunkel when I was three.
You decide.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 1:53 pm
What a bunch of utter cunts
“Pain relief may stop ‘good death’”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0203/breaking47.htm
February 3rd, 2010 @ 2:01 pm
Here’s my advice to healthcare professionals: if I am in hospital on my deathbed and a priest or any other form of religious crank comes into the room, pull the plug immediately and let me die my “good death”.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 2:02 pm
The Catholic Church really need to shut the fuck up for a long long time.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 2:05 pm
You decide.
Simon and Garfunkel it is.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 2:36 pm
There’s a Chinese cigarette case and the rest she can keep… elbow.
Singing the woh oh oh oh oh wo oh oh verse loudly in the car, in the winter dark, with my kid and his pals, on the way to football training.
Might be an oh missing there.
No drugs though. That was at Lizzy in the Savoy cinema 100 years ago – pre the pretty Amercian hair straightened dude.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
Getting moaned at in god knows how many bars in Glasgow for putting Homburg on the jukebox for the sixth time.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 3:02 pm
‘Whatever’ by Oasis – lying on the grass in the fields surrounding West Belfast stoned out and drinking Old English cider with my mates in the summer of 1996. Great times.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 3:07 pm
Captain Pugwash music as a goal celebration in this wonderful Jamie Milligan goal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUfEF2u3gqY
February 3rd, 2010 @ 3:12 pm
The catholic church likes money. And children. Preferably money sticking out of childrens holes. They are one bunch of seriously fucked up creeps who for some bizarre reason find a large swathe of the population of this shithole of a country visiting their creepy houses every sunday.
They need to be run out of the country, the schools, the constititution (Why is there an imaginary being written into the constitution?), anyway, back to the topic
The Fall playing at The POD, due in stage at 9, they turned up at 3 a.m. after a bit of a riot; boogying to the bar with a really nice girl at 4 a.m. while “Industrial Estate” is been barked out by Mark E Smith. That didn’t work out either. blugh. I’t's not me it’s you; it’s not you it’s me; it’s not, ah bollix.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 3:14 pm
I just remembered. I danced like a lunatic to Insomnia in the Kitchen nightclub after taking my first E. I must have gone for three hours up there.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 3:37 pm
Fill3up will be raging he’s missing this one.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
I met bono once in the kitchen HM; it was a moment I wished I was able, like a friend of mine can, to puke on demand all over his horrible little boots.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 3:48 pm
I met him once in Odessa club. He bummed a smoke off me. He was with that Guggi fuck and Edge. His eyes were like piss holes in the snow. They had been in court that day suing the life out some woman for stealing some of their clothes. Bono is an utter cunt.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 4:05 pm
Guggi, Gavin Friday, Simon Carmody, etc, etc – it’s like he’s a king followed by his court jesters. Similar to that thing Ronan Keating, Bono is a triumph of self-belief over talent.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 5:02 pm
Dj Shadow – Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain
I remember that halloween house party at the crumlim end of the SCR – Just beside some pub,I played for about 11hrs,firat time i’d played decks inforn of anyone.. that song was played about 5 times over the night,people asking for it or handing me the record…
February 3rd, 2010 @ 5:04 pm
hardcore filler has arrived…lock up your family and valuables!
February 3rd, 2010 @ 5:37 pm
DJ Tiesto – Adagio for strings. Always reminds me of staying out all night and never feeling tired
Goldfrapp – Ooh La La. Mr Christy
Eminem – Lose Yourself. Really really nervous just before interview for dream job. Sitting in a cafe across the road waiting for appointed time. Talking myself out of doing the interview so I could pretend to myself the only reason I didn’t get the job was because I didn’t go through with it. This song came on. At the end I went in and outperformed myself and got the job.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 5:40 pm
You made bail then Fill ?
February 3rd, 2010 @ 6:50 pm
Missy Elliot – Get your freak on. It brings me back to a club on one of the Canary islands about 12 years ago, a mate and I being the only white people in place – completely off of our tits and not giving a shit!
Good Times!
February 3rd, 2010 @ 7:11 pm
I danced like a lunatic to Insomnia in the Kitchen nightclub after taking my first E.
Would this confession be admissible in court ?
February 3rd, 2010 @ 7:54 pm
Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana with the place going so mental, they had to turn it off half way through the song. Place was still wrecked.
Am I showing my age?
February 3rd, 2010 @ 8:00 pm
el cuno Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana with the place going so mental, they had to turn it off half way through the song. Place was still wrecked.
Am I showing my age?
Nevermind el cuno.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 8:22 pm
Ah, that would be my age too.
February 3rd, 2010 @ 8:26 pm
speaking of age
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7u7aEeQ6Yc
February 3rd, 2010 @ 9:02 pm
Freshers ball, UCD 1991. The Saw Doctors singing ‘I used ta love her’, Me dizzy from drink , the sweet scent of mad dog 2020 on her breath, and the roll of fat on her hips in my hand trying to dodge the drips of sweaty condensation falling from the marquee roof.Haven’t looked back since…
February 3rd, 2010 @ 9:42 pm
Did I mention I feel I’m getting old, too? I don’t remember lest time when I danced or sang crazily anywhere or anything.
Somebody save me!
February 3rd, 2010 @ 11:18 pm
Blur – country house, nightclub in waterford, 1995. Tequilia £1 a shot, we thought it was very funny to knock the lemon out of lads hands just as they were drinking the shot. I remember a friend puking over a balcony on to the dance floor below, tequilia puke everywhere
February 4th, 2010 @ 10:33 am
Peadar. You were right. It was very funny to the lemon out their hands. Only girls need lemon with a tequila shot.
February 4th, 2010 @ 11:12 am
‘Builds like a skyscraper’ lady singer on stage belting it out, nightclub Windsor, 2 E’s to the good, almighty rush, bouncy bouncy, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Some shit hole on Thomas Street, first time I heard ‘Yeke Yeke’, smoking consulates, two E’s to the good. Almighty rush, sweat everywhere, big box small box hands, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
(Jaysus, no wonder I was so skinny back then, can’t believe the one banana I ate between Sunday and Wednesday really DID replace everything.)