Getting into the Irish poet Phil Lynott. I always knew I would. I think I need to start covering ‘Whiskey in a Jar’. He had what Van Morrison called the Hurrrrah in his voice, that real singers have.
You either have it or you don’t. A singer should make you turn your head and turn up a song. You should pulled towards their voice by some uncharted and charismatic law of gravity.
Now if you got something to say.
That’s gravitas.
That’s that hurrah. Otis had the Hurrrah. If you got it you can make better technical singers seem irrelevant. You can just sing one note and you can tell if they got it.
Eric Burdon had it. Mavis Staples defined it. Pops didn’t but he had this cool thing like Curtis Mayfield or Paul Simon, that was another thing. That cool quiet thing. While it can drowned out, it pulls you in so beautifully. A more fragile beauty. But you by better be saying something once we pull in to hear that whisper.
Few can do both the whisper of the kitten, and that lion roar. Van could at his peak with that panty drop falsetto and his G-L-O-R-I-A.
I am interested to see what Phil could do. His black Irish rap / talking blues thing was what let us know the boys are back in town. But what are these string of hits people speak of that made them have one hit across The Atlantic of our reconstructed minds of an FM era, my generation only knows the echo of?
What was he saying?
Everyone I mentioned had something to say that was even more powerful and beautiful than any voice could conjure alone.
Only the bards of the 20th Century ever pressed record. They cut tremendous records. They sold a million of beers.
It’s the poetry we have on magnetic tape that informed us of their heartbreaking beauty of meaning. Of how they really embodied a moment. It’s what we will have left of all their ghosts.
The bones of literature. The flesh of live performance. Remembering the beautiful corpse on phonograph.
Poetry never belonged on paper. That is where the words were flash frozen.
The reason those tragic holograms of Tupac, of Roy Orbison, will have any meaning at all is because of how these poets once vibrated the air we still breath today. How they saw the world under the same sun, or stood over it on the horizon, for a singer’s empire is the night.
The hurrah. You have it have, you had it, or you don’t.
In my lifetime lived poets who sang the blues. Who sang with such conviction you have to believe, even when you see their characters are lying through their teeth.
The Boys Are Back in Town – Thin Lizzy
Produced by John Alcock
Album JailbreakGuess who just got back today?
Them wild-eyed boys that’d been away
Haven’t changed, had much to say
But man, I still think them cats are crazy
They were askin’ if you were around
How you was, where you could be found
Told them you were livin’ downtown
Drivin’ all the old men crazyThe boys are back in town
(the boys are back in town)
I said The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town
(the boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town
(the boys are back in town)You know that chick that used to dance a lot
Every night, she’d be on the floor, shakin’ what she’s got
Man, when I tell ya she was cool, she was red hot
I mean she was steamin’
And that time over at Johnny’s place
Well, this chick got up and she
Slapped Johnny’s face
Man, we just fell about the place
If that chick don’t wanna know, forget her
The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town
I said The boys are back in town
The boys are back in townThe boys are back in town
The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town{Instrumental}
Spread the word around guess who’s back in town
You spread the word aroundFriday night they’ll be dressed to kill
Down at Dino’s bar and grill
The drink will flow, and blood will spill
And if the boys wanna fight you
Better let ’em
That jukebox in the corner
Blasting out my favorite song
The nights are gettin’ warmer
It won’t be long
Won’t be long ’til summer comes
Now that the boys are here againThe boys are back in town
(the boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town
(the boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town
(the boys are back in town)
Spread the word aroundThe boys are back in town
(the boys are back in town)
The boys are back, the boys are back
The boys are back in town again
They’re hangin’ down at Dino’s
The boys are back in town again!This article is a trip after watching the documentary:
Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. In the spring of 2018 he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
