Chaos and Cacophony from a Jumped-Up Country Boy

Thursday, July 14, 2005

A Brand New Concept

For a city that has witnessed such rapid, sweeping changes in recent times, it is remarkable that no concept albums about life in Dublin have surfaced. What makes this sad reality even more surprising is that both media and perpetual hangers on are never done alerting us to the healthy band and singer-songwriter scene that makes this place such a cool place to be musically.
bollox. Sure, Damien Dempsey has had a go with his two albums, and he is certainly to be applauded. But firstly these albums deal broadly with Irish society, and are also quite vague. The essence is there, but rarely when listening to 'Seize the Day' does one find a familiar, knowing smile creeping on to one's face, the kind of smile that relates to life in a city that infuriates and intrigues as much as it delights and inspires. The Velvet Underground gave us 'Nico' which provides a deliciously sordid aural backdrop to seventies New York. The Clash documented an angry, disaffected London underground. Brel regaled us with his wonderful Parisian overtures. In the past, Dublin had the Radiators, who blessed us all with 'Ghosttown' and, to be fair, both Lizzy and the Rats also did their bit. but what about brash, chaotic, crazy confident, wanker-ridden, priest-hating, wife-swapping Dublin??
the point of all this is that, as someone who has been here for the last five crucial years, im feeling an urge to write a concept album about dear old anna livia. I will probably fail miserably. but that hasn't stopped me in the past. What i want from my two loyal readers are suggestions, themes, images, ideas.

They can be angry, like the fury of being caught on a 19a trundling up georges' st at 5.30p.m. on a wednesday evening, when the rain is cunningly creeping through the leaks in the shoddy bus, and the crushing reality thunders down upon you; the week is only half over.

They can be curious; when will the people of this good city realise that the process of complaining about the cost of living here while simutanaeously frequenting overpriced, life-sucking shitholes like the Turks Head and Q-Bar contains both the questions and the answers relating to why Dublin is so expensive.

Or they can be happy and joyous; pint bottles on the canal at the barge pub, with the sun enveloping you and the one you love, caressing you both and consolidating the mutual feeling between you both that things will only get better when you wake up beside each other the following morning; drinking wine in marlay park on an august evening, surrounded by friends as the lights above you, from carrickmines and beyond over kippure begin to flicker and wink down at you; the feeling as you stroll up parliament street after dark, surrounded by throngs of manic socialites that you are at the very CENTRE of the universe.

You get the message. Dublin; what it means to you. Come on, you know you wanna share it with Royston