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Unread 04-23-2017, 12:46 AM
Mark McDonnell Mark McDonnell is offline
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Join Date: May 2016
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 4,420
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Far too numerous to mention and many good ones already (Tony -- Waits' lyrics are extraordinary and I think got even better than that Chandleresque Beat pastiche, good as it is. And I love Paul Simon's 'National guitar' too)

I listened to The Smiths again recently and my 80s adolescence came roaring back. Nothing beats the song 'Rusholme Ruffians', a tale of the danger and romance of travelling fairgrounds, for taking me back to those days of terror and wonder. Sample lyrics:

The last night of the fair
By the big wheel generator
A boy is stabbed
And his money is grabbed
And the air hangs heavy like a dulling wine...

The last night of the fair
From a seat on a whirling waltzer
Her skirt ascends for a watching eye
It's a hideous trait (on her mother's side)

Then someone falls in love
And someone's beaten up
And the senses being dulled are mine...

This is the last night of the fair
And the grease in the hair
Of a speedway operator
Is all a tremulous heart requires
A schoolgirl is denied
She said : "How quickly would I die
If I jumped from the top of the parachutes ?"


All set to a '(Marie's the Name) Of his Latest Flame' rockabilly beat.

Note: For US people, 'Rusholme' is a working class inner-city area of Manchester and 'waltzer', 'speedway' and 'parachutes' are fairground rides.
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