Last week, Jim (NewEpicAuthor, A Unique Title For Me) set a theme of gemstones (my selection). This week, he gives us the theme of our hometown.
The last few days I have been presenting some songs I never quite presented for Sing Lyric Sunday, but today is the real deal! I’m sorry, though, Jim, but I’m gonna take a liberty with your prompt today!
As my regular readers will know, I’m not Australian. I hail from the UK, from Liverpool. As well as being the home of soccer (see featured image), it is also the home of music. How can I possibly choose a song between The Beatles, or Gerry and the Pacemakers, or Cilla Black, or Frankie Goes To Hollwwood, or Atomic Kitten, or China Crisis, or Frankie Vaughan, or The Spinners, or The Real Thing, or Billy Fury, or The Lightning Seeds, or …
If I’m gonna go in that direction, Penny Lane is about two miles from my childhood home. Lots of what McCartney sang about was true, even years later. The barber, the bus shelter in the mniddle of the roundabout, although while there might well have been a fireman, there was no fire station that I can remember, if anything, it was mostly residential. Strawberry Fields was even closer.
But I’m gonna take the opportunity today to go completely left-field. A band I liked from my university days (I studied in Cardiff, Wales) are the Manic Street Preachers (who were from the nearby town of Blackwood). I studied in Cardiff from 1986-9), they were formed in 1986, and so our paths were bound to cross.
By 1996-7, the Manics, however, were well-and-truly established, in the UK at least, and they released the single Australia. It was a metaphor for how much their own lives had changed, because Australia is just about as far from Blackwood as you could possibly get. Written by band members James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore, it charted at #7 in the UK.
So on the basis that (a) it is a place-name which might conceivably fit Jim’s prompt (just not for me), and (b) Jim will never, ever again come up with a prompt which fits this song title, and (c) it is a song I love, this will be my choice today.
Please give it a chance – it starts off a bit grungey but it will grow on you, I promise. Or your money back.
Dean Bradfield, Sean Moore
I don’t know if I’m tired and I don’t know if I’m ill
My cheeks are turning yellow
I think I’ll take another pill
Praying for the wave to come now
It must be for the fifteenth time
I’ve been here for much too long
This is the past that’s mine
I want to fly and run till it hurts
Sleep for a while and speak no words in Australia
I want to fly and run till it hurts
Sleep for a while and speak no words in Australia
In Australia
Praying for the wave to come now
It must be for the very last time
It’s twelve o’clock till midnight
There must be someone to blame
I want to fly and run till it hurts
Sleep for a while and speak no words in Australia
I want to fly and run till it hurts
Sleep for a while and speak no words in Australia
In Australia
Australia, in Australia
I want to fly and run till it hurts
Sleep for a while and speak no words in Australia
In Australia
In Australia
In Australia
[Addendum]
Jim tells me that the above link doesn’t play in the US, but he helpfully provides one which does play. I’m sorry, I have no way of knowing when I write the post. If anybody knows otherwise, please let me know.
Mister Bump 
I love the Manics, love this song…
…I do think Liverpool could have won this one today though. Your list of Liverpool bands reminded me off another Liverpool group “Cast”.
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I can guarantee Australia will never again fit his prompt! Yes Cast did one of my favourites from the nineties, Walk Away, was it? I almost did it for SLS a while back, but must’ve thought of something else instead. It is a “definite maybe” in future. They were up Kirkby way, weren’t they? Somewhere north?
Yes, I bet you’d like to believe that, wouldn’t you 😆
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The La’s would’ve been another good one today. La. It might be them I was thinking of, from Kirkby.
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Pete, your video did not work for me over here in the US, but I wanted to hear this song so I found one that does.
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Thanks, Jim. What would be nice is if I could spoof youtube to give me the url which will play in the most regions. Don’t get me started on how nonsense this is – not this time, but a lot of the time we’re dealing vwith tracks 60 years old!
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I’ve raised this with YouTube support. I want to know in advance that the link I post will work in the UK (and elsewhere) https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/41062873?hl=en
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I went out to youtube to hear it also. I like this. It had a “The Who” feel to it right in the beginning, then poured itself out pleasantly, just as you said it would. I like the distortion on the guitars in this.
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New one for me, and I like this a lot. Really rocking! 🙂
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Nice one Pete!
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I am glad you went into left field. New to me and I like it!!!!!!
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I’m glad you liked it. Do you still play this? I looked in my reader last night but deon’t remember seeing your post.
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I sure do. Every Sunday 😊
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I found you.
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😊
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I do like the Manic Street Preachers, I saw them live in Bruges with a superbe lightshow!
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I loved Bruges too, but too touristy. Ghent was better because it felt more authentic. We once stayed out at Blankenberge and took the rrain in, which was ideal. As we got to know Belgium better, my favourite coastal town was Nieuwport, though it was very expensive! I (we) almost went to see the Manics last summer but I would bit pay €60 each for the tickets. I would sooner listen to the cd for €15.
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Bruges is very touristy that is true. One of my best friends lives there, so I used to visit her a lot there. After the museums are closed there is really nothing to do. Ghent has a university and has more cultural influences plus an alternative scene; there is always something to do. So I follow your remark completely.
As for the coast Blankenberge would be maybe the cheapest, don’t know about that. Everything will be expensive after the corona as we won’t be able to travel abroad! Nieuwpoort is very nice. I love Oostende the most, because again of the underground scene, it’s very in the ‘outskirt’ of society. Great singers went to Oostende like Marvin Gay (to detox!) 🙂
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I am sure we stayed in Oostende once but I do not remember it. It was nice because it was so close to Calais (and the tunnel), but civilised! I did not like the Calais area. If I were going to Be or Nl I would use the tunnel just because it was quicker, but if going to Fr I got the ferry to Normandie or Bretagne.
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We’ve met people from the UK who visited Oostende a lot in the earlier days. They came by bus and participated in the Beer Festivals 🙂 among other things of course.
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Marvin GayE I lost an ‘e’ there!!
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[…] week, Jim (NewEpicAuthor, A Unique Title For Me) set a theme of our hometowns (my selection). This week, he gives us the theme of […]
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[…] week, Jim (NewEpicAuthor, A Unique Title For Me) set a theme of our hometowns (my selection). This week, he gives us the theme of […]
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