I Remember Billy Fury and Blind Joe Death.
Billy Fury and Blind Joe Death.
I remember Billy Fury. I remember a lot of things.
When he came to Dublin in the sixties they wouldn't let him
peform. They literally brought the curtain down on him. That sort of
thing can happen in Dublin.
In the early eighties I had been living in London for about ten years
and made the mistake of returning to Dublin. I was back only an hour
or so and when I decided that I wanted to get out and go back to
London but they wouldn't let me go. Thats the literal truth.
My first Fury record was "Half way to paradise", but my very very
first record was Elvis Presley's "Lets Have a Party". I didn't buy it,
a friend gave it to me. It was a 78rpm record which unfortunatly
I dropped and broke within a few days. This was in the late fifties
or very early sixties, 'cant remember the exact date. I used to play
it on an old pickup that plugged into a valve radio.
Of course music, or rather the context of music was very
different in the late fifties. There was no MTV or for most people
no t.v. at all. In ireland there was really only one state radio station
and if you wanted to hear rock music you had to wait untill after
7;00 pm to tune into Radio Luxenburg.
The good old days?
Well, as far as music goes they were really exciting times.
As for all the rest, Dublin was a grey city run by the Catholic Church.
It still is run by them. They own the schools and if you own them
you own everything.
But there is a new God.
The entire Irish nation worship at the shrine of Bono. Don't get me
wrong, by all accounts he's a nice guy. But he IS worshiped here.
Most Irish people are just one step away from poverty and the
narrow-mindedness that goes with it. It seems that almost everyone owns
their own house which more often than not is paid for by the rent
from the less affluent who have no choice but to rent. And as soon
as its at least part paid for they then get another house. Ireland is a property
owning democracy. Historically, landlordism was the curse of the
land and was regarded as a great social evil. Now in the land of the
celtic tiger its the only morality. A morality devoid of morality.
As I said in a previous blog there are a lot of homeless people
here, you can see them in their droves every day on the streets of
Dublin.
THERE IS NO LEGAL RIGHT TO SHELTER IN IRELAND.
Both Property and God are enshrined in and protected under the
Irish Constitution. Which explains in part why all the drug pushers
invest in property. And Ireland is crawling with pushers and with
the peace process....... well the Patriots have to eat too.
I remember Clarence Frogmout Henry. A great voice. 'A great name.
There was no toilet roll in the 50's. That's one thing they tend not to
mention in the history books. When people went to the Gents/Ladies/little
rooms/crapper or whatever it was called they used newspaper. It was
quite normal for people to disappear for hours and everyone read them.
All joking aside the loo was a great educator.
I used to read The Beano.
Im pretty certain that 'Frogmouth Henry died this year. You allways hurt the
one you love. That was his big hit.
I have reached that stage in life when most of the music I
listed to is sung by Dead People.
Half the Gratefull Dead are dead.
Theresa, that was the name of my first love. I used to go to the
Regal Cinema in Ringsend with her. The Regal was less than regal.
It was what was known as a flea pit. Woden seats and a good
scratch on the way home. The guy on the door wore a dirty
uniform and hated, really hated kids. His name was Louis and he was
unpleasant to all the patrons. Theresa used to go to the regal
with her mother every night. I could never figure out why but
they spent every night there watching the same films.
I was in love with Theresa. I thought she was beautifull. It was all
very innocent.
One day I got out of bed. This was in the late seventies. I got out
of bed and did whatever I did, I can't remember, it was a long
time age, but I do remember that I went into a record store and
in the course of rooting around I came across a record by two
guys called John Fahey and Blind Joe Death. Well I thought it was
two guys. It said so on the sleeve notes. Fahey started making records
in the 50's. They were tiny print runs, perhaps twenty or thirty, I really
cannot remember, small print runs anyhow and he wrote the sleeve
notes himself. They weren't printed they were actually all done by
hand and would vary from record to record. So that the biograhpy
of, say, Joe Death would change depending on which copy you
happened to buy. The first of Fahey's records I bought had
Fahey on one side and Blind Joe on the other and after playing it
I decided that Blind Joe was a lot better than Fahey. And so did
a lot of other people. What we didn't know of course was that
Blind Joe Death was a figment of Fahey's imagination.
He died a few months ago. He was one of the greats.
Life goes on. Time passes. And there is a whole generation growing
up who have never heard of Billy Fury.
Billy died, died young. He was never a healthy boy.
The good ones always die young.
Yesterday I bought myself a little treat, a dvd of Jethro Tull.
.......... "Your too old to Rock and Roll, but your never
too young to die".........