“Don’t call me Scarface!”
We all have our favourite lyrics. I just love Neville Staple’s “Don’t call me Scarface!” line from Gangsters by The Specials. The whole song is a masterpiece.
Can’t fight corruption with con tricks
They use the law to commit crime
I dread to think what the future’ll bring
When we’re living in gangster times
(Don’t call me Scarface!)
The Specials
“Say hello to my little friend,” screams Al Pacino, before blowing up home invaders with his grenade launcher in the movie Scarface. The film’s soundtrack was composed by Giorgio Moroder who co-wrote Together In Electric Dreams with Phil Oakey of the Human League.
I only knew you for a while
I never saw your smile
‘Til it was time to go
Time to go away (time to go away)
Philip Oakey, Giorgio Moroder
The song tells us that love can endure even when the opportunity to properly share in the love is lost.
Sometimes its hard to recognise
Love comes as a surprise
And its too late
Its just too late to stay
Too late to stay
Philip Oakey, Giorgio Moroder
Together In Electric Dreams is a simple, catchy wee track, recorded in only ten minutes, yet it’s poignant. Oakey talks about the Human League taking a year to record singles and failing to achieve the chart success he enjoyed with Moroder and Electric Dreams.
Talking of lost love, here come the Wölves.
You’re an animal
You never loved no one
You’re an animal
Changed our relationship to complicated
I must admit I felt a little jaded
Talking cheap and acting shady
I found your tweets and your Facebook, baby
Wölves
Animal by the Wölves is now a modern classic; heartbreak and trauma, expressed through the medium of social media. From Keats and Yates to Wölves, love lost is love lost. The desolation remains the same. What is it with me and lost love, I wonder? Let’s not dwell on it.
Here’s a picture from the Wölves’ video for Animal.
What is it with Jason and baring his chest, I wonder? Let’s not dwell on it. I’m sure the girls like it.
Here’s an altogether more lovable snap from the same video shoot.
Mariam’s accordion playing being cut from the final video edit is shocking.
Actually I promised Mariam I’d put that picture up in Tappie Toories but that’s now another tale of lost love.
I can’t face the heartbreak of reopening Tappies for a fourth time only to face who knows what restrictions and potentially a fourth closure due to Covid-19, and a third wave or whatever.
Instead, take yer chances at Tesco with unlimited alcohol sales fuelling drunken, unregulated everything. Other super-spreaders and superstores are available.
We’ve had pubs only open until 6pm but prohibited from selling any drink, under any circumstances. We’ve had an 8pm curfew but only if you sell a substantial meal, and a 10pm curfew with hundreds or thousands huddled together in the dank streets at exactly the same time with no taxis available. We’ve had lock-up, lock-down, you know, anything but a sensible, sober, regulated and socially distanced lock-in.
That reminds me.
Serbia 1-1 Scotland (4-5 on penalties).
Oooohh! Yes sir, I can boogie
But I need a certain song
I can boogie, boogie woogie all night long
Yes sir, I can boogie
If you stay, you can’t go wrong
I can boogie, boogie woogie all night long
Soja Rolf / Dostal Frank
The Baccara disco classic Yes Sir, I Can Boogie was just as good as the Scottish conga line singing the name of penalty-saving goalie David Marshall to Whigfield’s Saturday Night.
Scotland have qualified for the European Championship finals 2020, our first major tournament since 1998. That’s 22 years! Or 23 as it’s being played at least one year late, maybe more. The first major finals I properly remember was 1978…
We’re on the march with Ally’s Army
We’re going to the Argentine
And we’ll really shake them up
When we win the World Cup
‘Cause Scotland are the greatest football team
Samuel Dennison
Ally’s Tartan Army by Andy Cameron contains one of the best lyrics ever. Here it comes…
When we reach the Argentine we’re really gonna show
The world a brand of football that they could never know
We’re representing Britain; we’ve got to do or die
For England cannae dae it ’cause they didnae qualify!
Samuel Dennison
Talking of England, I now work for NHS England and, on a serious note, it has reinforced my view that doing everything we could to keep people safe in Tappies was absolutely the right thing to do. I hope our parliaments, supermarkets, schools, universities, etc., can, in time – hopefully a very short time – do likewise.
Lyrically, it doesn’t get much better or funnier than Ally’s Tartan Army with; “England cannae dae it ’cause they didnae qualify!”
Although, never shy of a challenge, TwinsTown have given it a go. Former member Ronnie Dalrymple sings on Double Trouble…
My name is Ronnie and I play the drums
I’ve got eight fingers and I’ve got twa thumbs
So, lock up your daughters, sisters and mums!
TwinsTown
You really have to see it. Find Ronnie and TwinsTown in the Double Trouble video here: Double Trouble
Stay alive!
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