… And saving the best til last:
John Arlott. What a raconteur, what a brilliant man. He possessed like no other sporting commentator the ability to take us into his intimate circle as if we were all quaffing a port at his club or maybe a dinner party he was hosting. He conveyed in honey tones a sense of when England was grand, cricket was erudite and radio was the prime instrument of mass media, an era when cricket was not about coloured clothes, dumb player tweets and bookies’ odds but national pride. He painted verbal watercolours of a quieter life, village greens, reflection. The song is one of my very favourites, probably top 5 I’ve written. Why? Not just because it speaks of the great Arlott, it sums up what I have always found to be the great dilemma, whether to choose the art of art over the art of living. Simplicity, mundane existence, contentment has a lot going for it and the lives of ordinary folk are as important as those of any tortured artist. Perhaps its lineage is from the great poem Elegy Written in a Country Chuchyard which I read at school and made a lasting impression, certainly it encapsulates my whole attempt to create art out of the banal, the sweet, the inconsequential. Can’t you just hear Arlott reciting these very lines
The thoughtless World to majesty may bow
Exalt the brave, & idolize Success
But more to Innocence their Safety owe
Than Power & Genius e’er conspired to bless
Regardless, I think John Arlott a great cricket song and the BBC should play it during test matches! We will be doing it in the 2013 gigs.
JOHN ARLOTT MAKES ME CHUCKLE
John Arlott makes me chuckle
With his stories of the forties from the Oval
And her soft hand makes me giggle
As it tickles from the buckle to the navel
And I don’t know how a song can come from this
Bruce Springsteen wouldn’t have me as his main protagonist
I’m far too ordinary
I work a steady job
I’m a journo into Pernod I vote Labor
I’ve got a quarter acre block
A small to average cock
And a fence that I went halves in with my neighbour
Still I sometimes feel I’m on the wrong side of a timewarp
My feet beat their retreat down footpaths never touched a sidewalk
I’m a no one in my loungeroom
But I’m sure I’d be a someone in New York
She always makes me tingle
When she scratches certain patches down my spine
And I bite her ear and kiss it
And a wicket falls while Frindle’s marking time
It’s a simple life I lead
And I feel guilty that I lead it
I’d search for more excitement
But I’m not sure that I need it
I’ve an ex-wife and a sex life
That it took me years to find
And there’s just no greater pleasure
Than John Arlott on the tele
And her etching little numbers in my spine.
So this is my dilemma
On the one hand I’m a man with great potential
On the other I’m a lover
Much more potent
Than some glamorous credential
Still I sometimes feel I’m on the wrong side of a timewarp
My feet beat their retreat down footpaths never touched a sidewalk
I’m a no one in my loungeroom
But I’m sure I’d be a someone in New York
Always one of my favourites Dave. Enjoying your thoughts and background to your songs
“It’s a simple life I lead & I feel guilty that I lead it
I’d search for more excitement But I’m not sure that I need it”
these lines sum up the life here in tamworth for me & mine, so since 1992 the fritze has a sense of contentment, correct weight is the most accessable of albums for the general populace, a introduction to the first two albums & a step toward ‘planet’ .
looking forward to the bonus track re-releases & caravan club, would like to be in WA but the air fare is the hurdle…..
general fritze,
Hoping to hear lots of classics at the Charles such as Car Park, Old Stock Road, Joey Black and maybe even UK Euchred.
Along with John Arlott.
Euchred and Arlott will be in – not sure about the others but there will be plenty of classics and a few rare ones, look forward to seeing you there!!
I consider John Arlott right up their with Dave Warner’s best work! I also believe Dave is first and foremost a brilliant Australian poet! Don’t get me wrong,he can rock with the best! But when you read his lyrics it’s sheer poetry!
Hi Dave Is Buried in my own backyard on the set list on Saturday night. Great song, looking forward to the night.
Cheers Kev
No Buried I’m afraid but we’re doing around 25 titles and a few arcane ones from early suburbs days that dropped off the list and I missed – anyway hope you love it lots of classics too
I’ve got a quarter acre block
A small to average cock
And a fence that I went halves in with my neighbour
Probably the most succint 3 lines of lyrics ever written about life in Oz.
Agreed – three lines, just three lines but they would only apply to Australia. Dave Warner is our Bob Dylan
Much appreciated Victor