Words for the Music 025: ROBYN HITCHCOCK

 

ROBYN HITCHCOCK

c 2017

 

 

 

 

BALLOON MAN

ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE EGYPTIANS

from the 1988 A&M Records LP Globe of Frogs

 

 

 

 

 

BALLOON MAN

I was walking up Sixth Avenue

When Balloon Man came right up to me

He was round and fat and spherical

With the biggest grin I'd ever seen

He bounced on up toward me

But before we could be introduced

He blew up very suddenly

I guess his name was probably Bruce

 

And I laughed

Like I always do

And I cried

Like I cried for you

And Balloon Man blew up

In my hand

 

He spattered me with tomatoes, hummus, 

Chick peas and some strips of skin

So I made a right on Forty-Fourth

And I washed my hands when I got in

And it rained

Like a slow divorce

And I wished

I could ride a horse

And Balloon Man blew up

In my hand

 

I was walking up Sixth Avenue

When Balloon Man blew up in my face

There were loads of them on Bryant Park

So I didn't feel out of place

There must have been a plague of them

On the TV when I came home late

They were guzzling marshmallows

And then jumping off the Empire State

 

And I laughed

Like I always do

And I cried

Like I cried for you

And Balloon Man blew up

In my hand

Balloon Man blew up

In my hand

 

 

Words and music

Robyn Hitchcock

 

© 1988 Two Crabs Music (PRS)

 

 

 

It's unfortunately easy to understand why Balloon Man failed to become a massive Top 40 hit when it was released in 1988.  For a start, it doesn't contain the word 'love' and is completely devoid of even the vaguest suggestion of sentimentality or cliché.  The weird little tale it tells has a decidedly psychedelic flavour that's made palatable to the listener by being cleverly combined with humour (which may explain why it became so popular on US college radio) and an infectiously catchy melody.  There's a marvellous cartoonishness about Hitchcock's imagery that allows him to constantly defeat the listener's expectations by inserting words and concepts — 'spherical, 'Bruce,' '…spattered me with tomatoes, hummus, chick peas and some strips of skin' — that are as odd as they are arresting.  The rollicking chorus is impossible to forget, containing one of the most strikingly original images — 'And it rained, like a slow divorce' — I have personally encountered in a contemporary pop song.  In fact, I can't think of the word 'divorce' now without automatically pairing it with the word 'rain.'  How's that for some powerful mnemonics!

 

The good news is that Robyn Hitchcock is alive and well and living in the US city of Nashville where he continues to record fascinating, thought-provoking and gorgeously melodic music of the same consistently high quality.  His latest vocal LP Shufflemania! was released in October 2022 and showed no diminishment of his considerable gift for penning a memorable tune or lyrics that continue to impress with their rigorous avoidance of everything that is shallow, trite and obvious.  Some critics insist that he deserves to be more famous than he is, but I don't know that I agree with that.  Fame veers toward the banal and Hitchcock's music has always been the antithesis of banality.  It is witty, engaging, insightful and, on occasion, deeply moving and has been since his debut LP A Can of Bees, recorded when he was a member of the Canterbury-based band The Soft Boys, was released well over forty years ago. 

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to listen to more great music by English singer/songwriter ROBYN HITCHCOCK, including tracks from his first-ever instrumental LP Life After Infinity released in May 2023:

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/@robynhitchcockweb

 

 

 

 

Special thanks to those who take the time to upload music to YouTube.  Your efforts are appreciated by music lovers everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 

 

Words for the Music 022: PHIL JUDD

 

 

Words for the Music 020: MARC BOLAN

 

Words for the Music 005: KIRSTY MacCOLL

 

Words for the Music 023: KATE BUSH

 

KATE BUSH c 1980

 

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

KATE BUSH

from the 1978 EMI LP The Kick Inside

 

 

 

 

 

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

 

Out on the wiley 

Windy moors

We'd roll and fall 

In green

You had a temper 

Like my jealousy

Too hot 

Too greedy

How could you leave me

When I needed to 

Possess you

I hated you

I loved you too

Bad dreams 

In the night

They told me 

I was going to

Lose the fight

Leave behind 

My Wuthering

Wuthering

Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff

It's me

I'm Cathy

I've come home

I'm so cold

Let me

In your window

 

Heathcliff

It's me

I'm Cathy

I've come home

I'm so cold

Let me

In your window

 

Oh it gets dark

It gets lonely

On the other side

From you

I pine a lot

I find a lot

Falls through

Without you

I'm coming back love

Cruel Heathcliff

My one dream

My only master

Too long I roam

In the night

I'm coming back

To his side

To put it right

I'm coming home 

To Wuthering

Wuthering

Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff

It's me

I'm Cathy

I've come home

I'm so cold

Let me

In your window

 

Heathcliff

It's me

I'm Cathy

I've come home

I'm so cold

Let me

In your window

 

Ooh let me have it

Let me grab

Your soul away

Ooh let me have it

Let me grab 

Your soul away

You know it's me

Cathy

 

Heathcliff

It's me

I'm Cathy

I've come home

I'm so cold

Let me

In your window

 

Heathcliff

It's me

I'm Cathy

I've come home

I'm so cold

Let me

In your window

 

Heathcliff

It's me

I'm Cathy

I've come home

I'm so cold

 

 

 

 

Words and music © 1978 Kate Bush

EMI/Noble & Brite Ltd

 

 

 

 

 

While it's rare for a famous literary novel to serve as the inspiration for a contemporary pop song, Emily Brontë's 1847 Gothic romance Wuthering Heights did precisely that for the eighteen year old Kate Bush, becoming the British singer-songwriter's first substantial hit and one of the defining performances of the 1970s following its release by the EMI label on 20 January 1978.

 

What makes the song so remarkable, apart from the haunting and haunted quality of Bush's astonishing lead vocal, is the way it seems to capture the gloom-laden Gothic atmosphere of the novel in language that cleverly echoes and occasionally borrows from it.  At least three of its key lines — 'I'm so cold,' 'Let me in' and the all important hook line 'Bad dreams in the night' — are Brontë's own, underscoring the essential tragedy of the song's subject matter despite its lush arrangement and equally 'big' production style.  In fact, it would not be stretching the point to suggest that Wuthering Heights could be the most purely atmospheric pop song ever recorded, a three minute excursion to a different place and time narrated by a ghost forever haunted by her enforced separation from her cruel but nevertheless sorely-missed lover.  It manages to feel like Romantic poetry without relying on any of the traditional tropes of nineteenth century Romantic poetry to achieve its effects and remains one of the finest examples of 'sonic cinema' created by any artist anywhere.

 

Kate Bush has released many fine singles since her 1978 debut, none of which has replicated either the commercial success or the sheer emotive power of Wuthering Heights.  If the song has persuaded even one of her fans to read the original novel then that can only be a good thing, a fitting tribute to an author who was forced to publish her work under the male pseudonym 'Ellis Bell' and died before the age of thirty in almost total obscurity.   

Use the link below to visit Fish People, the website of British singer/songwriter KATE BUSH:

 

 

https://www.katebush.com/

 

 

Special thanks to everyone who takes the time to upload music to YouTube.  Your efforts are appreciated by music lovers everywhere.

 

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 

Words for the Music 017: SANDY DENNY

 

Words for the Music 011: KIRSTY MacCOLL

 

Words for the Music 009: VICTORIA WOOD

 

Words for the Music 020: MARC BOLAN

MARC BOLAN

30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977

TEENAGE DREAM

MARC BOLAN and T REX

from the 1974 EMI / T Rex Wax Co LP 

Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow

– A Creamed Cage in August  
Produced by TONY VISCONTI

TEENAGE DREAM

Whatever happened to the Teenage Dream?

Surprise surprise, the boys are home 
My guardian angel's rung down my telephone
The heat's on mister, can't you hear them scream?
Whatever happened to the Teenage Dream?

The curfew comes at the crack of night
The sad old wino aches to dissipate the fright
The jet junk jiver speeds past in his machine
But whatever happened to the Teenage Dream?

A broken god from a musty world
Sweetly mouthed touched an onyx girl
His prison bars were very hard to clean
But whatever happened to the Teenage Dream? 
Yeah

Do it, do it, do it to me, babe
Want it to be, babe

Whatever happened to the Teenage Dream?

The Wizard of Oz and the bronzen thief
Ruled my girl with teutonic teeth
But all was lost when her mouth turned green
Whatever happened to the Teenage Dream?

Silver Surfer and the Ragged Kid
Are all sad and rusted, boy they don't have a gig
Believe me Pope Paul my toes are clean
Whatever happened to the Teenage Dream?

Black is black and white is white
Some go to Heaven and some get it light
Your barber's a groove but his wig it screams
Whatever happened to the Teenage Dream? 

Words and music by Marc Bolan

© 1974 Wizard Artists (Bahamas) Ltd

Marc Bolan, or Mark Feld as he was born in the East London borough of Hackney on 30 September 1947, allegedly saw himself not as a musician but as a poet — a perhaps surprising claim given his role as a pioneer of Glam Rock and the focal point of what, in the early 1970s, was the adoring teenage screamfest otherwise known as 'T Rextasy.' 

While it's not always easy to locate the poetic element in a classic T Rex song like Get It On or Telegram Sam, it's easier to hear what Bolan was referring to in a song like Teenage Dream with its striking mixture of Dylanesque imagery and contemporary pop culture references.  Like his friend and rival David Bowie, Bolan was a canny accumulator and re-interpreter of influences and ideas, creator of what became a trailblazing personal style which blended elements of 1950s rock 'n roll à la Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, the quintessentially British fantasy world of novelist JRR Tolkien and a Beat Poet aesthetic which valued words more for their rhythmic and sonic qualities than for their literal dictionary meanings.  Bolan's best songs generally have a tinge of the fantastic about them which, combined with his inimitable delivery and overlooked talent as a guitarist, make them as irresistibly appealing as they are, for the most part, instantly and consistently memorable.

Bolan's career was, in many respects, the product of dogged perseverance and a prodigious gift for self-invention.  It began in 1956 when, after being given a guitar for his ninth birthday by his parents, he formed his first band — a skiffle outfit called Susie and the Hula-Hoops which featured his twelve year old neighbour Helen Shapiro on lead vocals.  (Ms Shapiro would go on to have two #1 UK hits as a solo artist when she was fourteen and a guest spot in the 1962 Billy Fury film Play It Cool, afterwards touring the nation supported by a new act from Liverpool which called itself The Beatles.)  By the age of fifteen he'd been expelled from school and was working as a model for John Temple, a fashionable London menswear store which specialized in the new style known as Mod.  This resulted in young Mr Feld being featured on the cover of the September 1962 issue of Town, Britain's leading men's magazine.  Two years later he had a manager and was recording a demo called All At Once in the style of Cliff Richard, only to ditch this clean-cut persona almost immediately for a new identity as Toby Tyler, a folk singer not entirely dissimilar to everyone's new hero Bob Dylan.  

A new manager arranged for the fledgling folkie to record demo versions of Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind and a song by Dion DiMucci, former lead singer of North American doo-wop group Dion and The Belmonts, titled The Road I'm On.  Neither tune generated much excitement among record company executives, although the same was not true of a self-penned ditty titled The Wizard which impressed Decca enough for the company to offer him a recording contract in 1965.  The Wizard, credited to Marc Bolan, was released in November of that year and promptly sank without a trace. 

 

 JOHN'S CHILDREN

1967

Marc Bolan front left with red guitar

Bolan moved to Parlophone records in 1966, releasing Hippy Gumbo, another bluesy Dylanesque single which, like his previous Decca release, failed to chart despite the involvement of a new, well-connected manager in the form of Simon Napier-Bell.  Napier-Bell, who also managed top rock acts The Yardbirds and John's Children, arranged for Bolan to join the latter group the following year as guitarist, back-up vocalist and primary songwriter.  Desdemona, one of the singles Bolan wrote for the group (which became a minor hit in Australia), was banned by the BBC for including what the corporation deemed to be the unacceptably salacious line 'lift up your skirt and fly.'  

Desdemona also failed to chart in the UK and Bolan left the band after touring with them in Germany as the support act for The Who, only to re-emerge in 1968 as lead vocalist of the acoustic folk/hippie duo Tyrannosaurus Rex in which he was backed by multi-instrumentalist Steven Ross Porter (whose stage name Steve Peregrin Took had been borrowed from a character in JRR Tolkien's epic fantasy novel Lord of the Rings).  Their music, an unlikely blend of English mysticism and acoustic non-traditional folk, became popular enough thanks to its championing by influential BBC disc jockey John Peel to see them release three well-received if low charting LPs, all of which were produced by Tony Visconti, a US citizen who had moved to London to escape being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam.  The meeting with Visconti proved critical to Bolan's career, just as it would in 1969 for David Jones, another young ex-hippie and Dylan aficionado who had recently adopted the stage name David Bowie.  

It was Visconti who produced the first 'electric' track released by the newly named T Rex, a catchy blend of rock and roll riffing and Bolan's mystical lyrics titled Ride A White Swan which, by 1971, had risen to #2 on the UK singles chart, his highest placing so far.  But this was not to be the last appearance T Rex would make at the top of the charts.  Hot Love, released in February 1971, reached #1 as did its successor Get It On which also managed to rise to #10 on the US Billboard chart the following year.  

1972 was a watershed year that would see T Rex score five more UK hits in Jeepster, Telegram Sam, Metal Guru, Children of the Revolution and Solid Gold Easy Action.  The band were now playing sold-out shows all over Britain to crowds of screaming fans of both sexes, with many critics comparing their success to that of The Beatles and describing the seemingly unstoppable phenomenon they had become as a new form of Beatlemania they dubbed 'T Rextasy.'  Bolan's androgynous persona was the key to the band's appeal, his fondness for spangly costumes and lavish use of make-up both on and off the stage making him a pioneering figure, along with Bowie and the Bryan Ferry led band Roxy Music, in what was now being marketed as Glam Rock.

But Bolan's astonishing run of hits did not endure.  By 1973 the original line-up of T Rex had disbanded, with none of the group's subsequent singles –– including Twentieth Century Boy, which would go on to become his most frequently covered song in years to come –– rising any higher than #3 on the singles charts or generating the kind of sales generated by almost all of its previous releases.  Bolan continued to record with new line-ups under the name T Rex, consolidating an incredibly loyal fanbase which expanded considerably following his death and ensured that neither he nor his music would ever be forgotten.  While later LPs like Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow (1974), Light of Love (1975), Futuristic Dragon (1976) and Dandy in the Underworld (1977) sold nowhere near as well as earlier LPs like Electric Warrior (1971) and The Slider (1972), they demonstrated that Bolan still had a knack for crafting universally catchy pop material and undoubtedly would have continued to evolve as a songwriter had he lived.

A low-key UK comeback tour, following a period spent in North America and Europe for tax reasons, was generally well-received, as were his regular appearances on the children's television show Supersonic and his own after school 1977 Granada TV program Marc which saw him perform his classic hits interspersed with appearances by new and emerging acts including The Jam, Generation X and The Boomtown Rats.  (He had by this time begun to promote himself, somewhat misleadingly, as the 'Godfather of Punk' in an effort to attract younger fans and the attention of the ever fickle British music press.  While his work did inspire this younger generation of musicians, it was in no sense angry, political, unpolished or anti-melodic.)  What turned out to be the final episode of the show, taped on 7 September 1977, ended with him jamming on the blues with his old friend David Bowie –– a performance cut disappointingly short when Bolan accidentally stumbled off the studio's low built stage.  

 DAVID BOWIE and MARC BOLAN

Performing live on the final episode of Marc

7 September 1977 

By the time the final episode of Marc aired on 28 September, Bolan had been dead for twelve days, killed instantly when the Mini 1275GT driven by his girlfriend, North American soul singer Gloria Jones, struck a fence post in southwest London before slamming into a tree.  (Gloria Jones, the mother of Bolan's only child Rolan, recorded the original 1965 version of Tainted Love which went on to become a #1 hit in 1981 for UK synth-pop duo Soft Cell.)  But his legacy didn't perish with him, thanks largely to the fact that many of his songs were covered by artists ranging from Siouxsie and the Banshees to Guns 'n Roses and Def Leppard to pop supergroup The Power Station, whose 1985 revival of Get It On reached #6 on the US Billboard pop chart, four places higher than Bolan's original version had managed to climb at the height of his fame thirteen years earlier.  Even ex-Smiths frontman Morrissey saw fit to pay tribute to him, regularly performing an affecting live version of the Bolan tune Cosmic Dancer during his 1991 Kill Uncle tour.  

Bolan's music has also featured in many motion pictures, resulting in healthy sales for the various compilation LPs that have been released on a semi-regular basis since his death.  He remains an unignorable presence in British popular music, an artist whose mercurial skill as a songwriter was often outshone by his flamboyance as a performer and his brief but hard-earned period of legitimate superstardom.  While his music may sound simple, it is not simplistic and neither are his lyrics which were very much ahead of their time in terms of combining disparate and, at first glance, potentially antithetical elements to create images that were totally unique, particularly in the many affecting ballads he composed.  Even today Bolan remains that rarest of all recording artists –– an unabashed and unapologetic pop star whose songs have proven to be the opposite of disposable.


 

Use the link below to watch more clips featuring the music of MARC BOLAN and his band T REX on YouTube, including the fascinating 2007 BBC documentary Marc Bolan: The Final Word narrated by his contemporary SUZI QUATRO:

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=marc+bolan

 

 

Special thanks to everyone who takes the time to upload music to YouTube.  Your efforts are appreciated by music lovers everywhere.

 

 

You might also enjoy:
 

Watch That Man REMEMBERING DAVID BOWIE
 

Some Books About… MODS!
 

Rockers and Mods 001: GENE VINCENT

 

§

Words for the Music 017: SANDY DENNY

SANDY DENNY

6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978

WHO KNOWS WHERE THE TIME GOES?

SANDY DENNY

John Peel Session – BBC Radio

11 September 1973

WHO KNOWS WHERE THE TIME GOES?

Across the evening sky 

All the birds are leaving

But how they can know 

It's time for them to go

Before the winter fire 

I shall still be dreaming

I do not count the time

For who knows where the time goes?

Who knows where the time goes?

Sad deserted shore 

Your fickle friends are leaving

Ah but then you know 

It's time for them to go

But I shall still be here 

I have no thought of leaving

I have no thought of time

For who knows where the time goes?

Who knows where the time goes?

And I am not alone 

While my love is near me

And I know it shall be so 

Until it's time to go

So come the storms of winter 

And then the birds in spring again

I do not fear the time

For who knows how my love grows?

And who knows where the time goes?

Words and music by Sandy Denny

© 1967 Sony/ATV & Universal Music Publishing

Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny, who was born in the London suburb of Merton Park on 6 January 1947, was another supremely gifted human being who proved unable to curb her appetite for wilful self-destruction.  Her 1978 death, several weeks after falling down a flight of stairs in the Cornwall holiday home belonging to her parents, was the culmination of years of protracted drug and alcohol abuse and came as a profound if not entirely unexpected shock to her friends and former bandmates in The Strawbs, Fairport Convention and Fotheringay.  As Dave Swarbrick, one of those former bandmates, recalled: '…Looking back I think she was suffering from some kind of post-natal problem.  I very much regret that it wasn't picked up by me.  She was drinking and taking coke and smoking dope.  She wasn't happy in her marriage; it wasn't going anywhere but down.  I think suspicion ate her.  I feel as if she left mid-sentence and I mourn her leaving almost daily.'

While Denny's is not a story of talent completely wasted –– she made dozens of fine recordings, many of which are justifiably considered to be impeccable examples of traditional British folk and folk-rock at their best –– it is a story of talent misdirected and, to a certain degree, misunderstood by her various record companies and, more tragically, by herself.  Her career always seemed to lack a clear sense of direction, costing her the opportunity to become the household name that everyone who worked with her believed and agreed she deserved to become.

Who Knows Where The Times Goes? is perhaps her most famous original song, a haunting blend of her majestically expressive voice, a subtle modal melody and her restrained plain-spoken lyrics.  It's the apparently seamless blending of these elements which give the song its power, evoking a mood of aching wistfulness that lingers in the mind long after its final note has faded.  

For me Denny's lyrics can stand comparison with the work of great English poets like Thomas Hardy and AE Housman. There's a similar emphasis on contrasting the behaviour of the natural world with the narrator's state of mind, the passing of the seasons directly equated with the difficult to accept but nevertheless inevitable passing of time.  The imagery is as sparse as the music, demanding the listener's attention and effortlessly retaining it from beginning to end.  Very few singers are capable of achieving this using only their voice and an acoustic guitar.  Many try, but few succeed because a special kind of talent is required –– a talent Sandy Denny possessed in obvious abundance.

 

Use the link below to visit the website of British singer/songwriter SANDY DENNY (1947–1978):

 

http://www.sandydennyofficial.com/

 

Special thanks to everyone who takes the time to upload music to YouTube.  Your efforts are appreciated by music lovers everywhere.

 

You might also enjoy:

 
Words for the Music 009: VICTORIA WOOD

 
Words for the Music 005: MARGO PRICE

 
Words for the Music 003: IRIS DeMENT

 

Last updated 12 October 2021 §

Words for the Music 011: KIRSTY MacCOLL

KIRSTY MacCOLL

10 October 1959 – 18 December 2000

 

 

 IN THESE SHOES?
KIRSTY MacCOLL
Live on Later With Jools Holland, 2000

from the 2001 Instinct Records LP  

Tropical Brainstorm

 

IN THESE SHOES?

 

I once met a man with a sense of adventure
He was dressed to thrill wherever he went
He said 'Let's make love on a mountain top,
Under the stars on a big hot rock'

I said 'In these shoes?  

– I don't think so'

I said 'Honey, let's do it here'


So I'm sitting in a bar in Guadalajara
In walks a guy with a faraway look in his eyes
He said 'I've got a powerful horse outside
Climb on the back I'll take you for a ride
I know a little place we can get there for the break of day'

I said 'In these shoes?  

– No way José'

I said 'Honey, let's stay right here'


No le gusta caminar
[Doesn't like to walk]
No puede montar a caballo
[Can't ride a horse]
Como se puede ballar?
[How can you swing?]
¡Es un escandolo! 
[It's a scandal!]


Then I met an Englishman
'Oh' he said 
'Won't you walk up and down my spine?
It makes me feel strangely alive'

I said 'In these shoes?  

– I doubt you'd survive'

I said 'Honey, let's do it' 



No le gusta caminar
[Doesn't like to walk]
No puede montar a caballo
[Can't ride a horse]
Como se puede ballar?
[How can you swing?]
¡Es un escandolo! 
[It's a scandal!]



No le gusta caminar
[Doesn't like to walk]
No puede montar a caballo
[Can't ride a horse]
Como se puede ballar?
[How can you swing?]
¡Es un escandolo! 
[It's a scandal!]



No le gusta caminar
[Doesn't like to walk]
No puede montar a caballo
[Can't ride a horse]
Como se puede ballar?
[How can you swing?]
¡Es un escandolo! 
[It's a scandal!]

 

 

Words and music 

K MacColl and P Glenister

© 2001 Ocean Songs/Chrysalis Music Publishing/

Warner Chappell Music Ltd

 

 

As someone who wasted a large part of his youth attempting to write catchy and literate pop songs I can only marvel at the talent and dexterity of the late and much lamented British songstress Kirsty MacColl.  While In These Shoes? may not rank as one of her of most iconic tunes, it demonstrates everything that made her such a beloved recording artist following her rise to prominence during the mid 1980s –– passion, wit and a flawless delivery combined with a devastating sense of humour.  (Her father was folksinger Ewan MacColl, whose compositions include The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Dirty Old Town, so it's probably reasonable to assume that adding words to melodies to create memorable, well-crafted songs was a gift she was born with.)

The hook of In These Shoes? is not, as it generally is in the majority of Western pop songs, the chorus which, in this case, surprises and then delights the listener by being delivered in Spanish.  Instead, the hook is the title itself, repeated three times with different tag lines which manage to be simultaneously provocative and hilarious.  This, the listener is warned, is not a woman to be trifled with.  This is a serious fashionista who knows men want her but will never compromise her 'look' to satisfy their expectations.     

Sadly, MacColl's life was cut short on 18 December 2000 when she was killed by a speedboat while scuba diving with her sons off the Mexican island of Cozumel.  The boat, owned by a supermarket tycoon named Guillermo González Nova, had illegally entered a restricted diving zone, travelling directly toward her at speed estimated by several witnesses to be in the vicinity of 18 knots per hour despite Nova's subsequent claim that it was only travelling at a speed of 1 knot per hour.  After saving the lives of her teenaged sons by pushing them out of the path of the boat, MacColl was sliced in half by its propeller, killing her instantly.  

Although Nova was the only one of the 6 people aboard the powerful 31 foot cruiser who was legally licensed to drive it, responsibility for the accident was shifted to Cen Yam, his 28 year old deckhand who eventually received a 34 month sentence for culpable homicide, not one day of which he served after paying a fine equivalent to the sum of £67.  Nova continued to insist that it was Yam and not himself who was in control of the boat when MacColl was killed –– a claim hotly disputed by the singer's mother Jean who waged a campaign, which was ultimately unsuccessful and ended in 2009 after she was advised that nothing more could be gained by pursuing it, to make him admit his guilt and issue an apology to the family.  (It is important to note that Jean MacColl did not ask Nova for financial compensation, only for the admission of wrongdoing plus the apology.)

What made MacColl's death particularly tragic was that it was not the inevitable rock star death caused by a surfeit of drugs and alcohol, triggered by some form of well-publicized and/or untreated personality disorder.  Hers was an unnecessary and entirely preventable death caused by a corrupt billionaire scumbag who bribed and lied his way out of having to pay the penalty for his grossly negligent behaviour, proving yet again that there's one law for the wealthy of this world and another law for the rest of us. 

Thankfully, we have the many recordings Kirsty MacColl made both as a solo artist and as an in-demand backing singer to keep her memory very much alive.  

Viva Kirsty!
 

 

Use the link below to visit Freeworld, the KIRSTY MacCOLL website, where you can read more about her music, her life and her enduring creative legacy:

 

 

http://www.kirstymaccoll.com/

 

 

 

The biographies Sun on the Water: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Kirsty MacColl by JEAN MacCOLL and Kirsty MacColl: The One and Only by KAREN O'BRIEN were published in 2008 and 2013. 

 

 

Special thanks to everyone who takes the time to upload music to YouTube.  Your efforts are appreciated by music lovers everywhere.

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 

 
Words for the Music 009: VICTORIA WOOD

 

 
Words for the Music 007: RICKIE LEE JONES

 

 
Words for the Music 008: LORENZ HART

 

 

Last updated 14 October 2021 §