Music Like Dirt

This is sad. I had a great fondness for Desmond – I liked the quavery, on the edge tone his voice had. And the frequent indecipherability of the lyrics was obviously a great thing. I considered it an act of generosity that he encouraged his listeners to interpret the songs as freely as they wished. My own interpretations of his lyrics always seemed to involve goats – I’m not sure if this was right, though I suspect not. One of the hard lessons that life has taught me is that it’s always better to avoid discovering the true lyrics to songs that you like. Back in those pre-internet days when being an obsessive fan demanded real effort and application, I wasted too much time lurking about in bookshops trying to track down lyrics, which when finally discovered, always seemed far more prosaic than the lines I’d been improvising.

Anyway the sudden death of Desmond, so soon after the sudden death of Gene (both of whom played their last gigs in the UK) would make me worry if my biggest hit included the name of a place. Glen Campbell might escape this curse by virtue of ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ being a bigger hit than ‘Galveston’ or ‘Wichita Lineman’ – but he should probably see a doctor just in case, and definitely avoid touring the UK in the near future. Anyone else we should be looking out for?