A Different View
Musical poets mangle words to make it all fit
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Music fans of a certain vintage only have to hear the first few notes of Toto’s classic smoothie, Africa, to be swept back to some glitter balled disco and the slow set that would determine if this was to be a night to remember or forget.
But once the nostalgia or the nightmare has settled, you might try to work out what the hell it’s all about – because, apart from the fact that Toto want to bless the rains down in Africa (and who wouldn’t) it’s as clear as a post-match interview with Giovanni Trappatoni.
“The wild dogs cry out in the night/As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company” – that’s fine….African dogs crying out because they want to be on their own.
But then our hero needs something that rhymes with ‘solitary company’ – this “I know that I must do what’s right/As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.”
And a generation of young men who wouldn’t know the Serengeti from the Seven Dwarfs bellowed Toto’s pretentious poetry into the inner ear of some poor unfortunate teenage girl who was doing her damnedest to wrestle her way out of his vice-like grip.
A couple of decades on you wonder just what Toto were thinking – particularly in an era when the height of lyrical sophistication involves being up all night to get lucky.
Did the boys swallow an atlas at an impressionable age? Or were they too simply trying to impress the opposite sex with their knowledge base that saw the Serengeti as an obvious follow up to ‘solitary company’?
The initial idea for the song came from the perspective of “… a white boy trying to write a song on Africa, but since he’s never been there, he can only tell what he’s seen on TV or remembers in the past.”
But clearly he’s a man of the world – albeit from the confines of his own bedroom – and was anxious to include more geographical references than you’d find on the weather forecast.
Of course it’s unfair to single out Toto for what is, after all, one of the anthems of our youth – and it’s better than the ‘I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier’ doggerel passed off by the Killers.
As someone wittier than I once said, the obvious follow-on to that is ‘I’ve got ham but I’m not a hamster’.
But the golden era of pretentious lyrics was back in the glory days of bands like Procol Harum and the utterly impenetrable Whiter Shade of Pale or Al Stewart and the Year of the Cat.
A fandango is a Spanish dance and one presumes a light version of it means you’re not heavy on your feet – but how do you skip one? Would it be by turning cartwheels across the floor? And that’s clearly bound to make you seasick, even if the crowd are calling out for more.
The Year of the Cat is about a chance encounter with a nubile young woman who tells you that she came in the Year of the Cat, which is a revelation on so many levels.
Neil Diamond struck up a conversation with a piece of furniture for his entry: “”I am!” I said/To no one there/And no one heard at all/Not even the chair.” It should have surprised him more of course if the chair had answered him back.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve just had a bang on the head or you are unfortunately suffering from dementia.
Because, otherwise, the phrase ‘do you know who I am’ only serves to make things a whole lot worse.
Normally, the phrase is unleashed towards late night door staff on a wave of alcohol – and never once in the history of time has it produced the result the utterer had intended.
The doorman may well know who you are which is often the very reason you’re not getting into the place in the first instance – or if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t be unduly influenced when he does, unless you’re a famous movie star or his long-lost cousin.
‘Do you know where I am?’ might often be closer to the phrase you’re looking for, because that would serve you well when you’re looking for a taxi.
‘Do you know who I am?’ is a threatening phrase that in truth wouldn’t frighten the cat. But if you’re anxious to dig the hole a few shovels deeper, you should follow up with ‘I’d like to speak to your manager.’
Managers can be elusive at the best of times, but they’re normally rarer than hen’s teeth when it comes to the small hours of the morning – and even if they’re there, they are most likely watching proceedings on CCTV…just so they know who you are, in case you yourself can’t remember.
‘I’d like to speak to your manager’ suggests that you and he or she are from the one social sphere which is several strata north of the one occupied by door staff.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of course, because we’ve now mastered the art of just sending cannon fodder to be blown out in the semi-final.
No, this was just two of us – myself and our eldest – who were lucky enough to be at Anfield for the Reds’ recent win over Brentford, where positioned in the seat right in front of us were four happy lads from Finland.
One of them, we now know, was Käärijä, the singer of the catchiest song at Eurovision, Cha Cha Cha.
But just a week before 7,000 people sung his catchphrase at the Eurovision Arena, he and two his mates – accompanied by an older bloke who had to be either his dad or from the national broadcaster – sat anonymously in the same corner of the lower level of Anfield’s Main Stand.
He was utterly unknown to us as well of course, and the only thing that saw him stand out was his green nail varnish. Live and let live, of course, but it still ensures that you make an impression even if it looks like you were just very late for St Patrick’s Day.
Käärijä may well be Liverpool’s greatest Scandinavian fan, although the bar for that is set fairly high, given that they invade the city in greater numbers every two weeks than the Vikings did just once during the first millennium.
Equally, he may not be a football fan at all – although, as the rest of the week proved, he sure loves a crowd.
Positioned as we were in the corner of the Main Stand, the next section to us, around the corner in the Anfield Road Stand – currently adding a top layer – was occupied by the visiting Brentford supporters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as people came out from under their Covid shell and appear to have left their cash behind them.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation found that – despite the cost-of-living increases – the Irish public made three million contactless payments a day, worth an average of €53 million in the final quarter of 2022.
Given that there are 3.8 million people in Ireland over the age of 18, that means that almost every single one of us tapped the card every day last year.
And again, on the presumption that there are a few who still prefer peeling a fifty off a wad of notes, the true figure may be even higher, as we eschew actual money every time we go into a restaurant, bar or shop.
Then comes the monthly morning of reckoning when you open your statement – electronic of course because, like paper money, banks don’t deal in paper statements anymore either – and your guilty secrets unfurl like a rap sheet before your very eyes.
Five taps of a Friday night in the local, followed by a five-ounce burger meal on the way home.
And just why did you need a family-pack of crisps when a small bag would have done? Was all that beer and wine really for a party, or a night in just for one?
Cash provided plenty of dark corners to ignore your profligacy, but there are no hiding places in the contactless world.
Worse still, until that morning of reckoning arrives, you’ve no clue how much you’ve spent, and handing over the card doesn’t hurt half as much as parting with hard cash.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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