In a classic share-house moment I am sitting in my old man dressing gown, in the sun, on the kitchen floor, drinking wine and cackling at the world, while burlesquely hungover from last night. My housemates are 'keeping up appearances' and putting on a feast for a visiting relatives, after having received our (rather unjust) eviction notice via an email this morning. We of course will contest this as the grounds are ridiculous in the least....
But whne I am having such a moment, I think of 'He died with a felafel in his hand' the seminal work on Australian share-house culture. The song that comes to mind ('this is sydney, you gotta lighten up Fyodor..') is Golden Brown by the Stranglers.
Basically an ode to heroin, this song is way cool with it's neo-baroque use of harpsichord and epic time signature changes.
So let us cut to the chase, since I may not last much longer:
Pay Attention to:
-The cool time signature changes - 3/4 - 3/4 4/4 wooo
-The lovely guitar solo
- The lyrics, simple yet evocative. Never overt, they can be read as an espousal of heroin, or just as a sort of obscure dialogue on nothing
Why you should be listening to this right now:
Life sucks. Then you die. If you are lucky you will get to live in a share house in between. This is the soundtrack to share-house living, fun yet obscure. Arcane yet approachable. Any more babble from me and you may stop listening..!
This goes well with:
Centrelink 'on hold' music, Nick Cave and 4am. White wine and fish-fingers. Badly played guitar at 4 in the arvo.
Here is the youtube link
Ciao chickadees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7R7q1lSZfs
Owen, all I could do was laugh! I love this song, love that book, love the subsequent movie and agree with everything you said. Definitely one of my favourite songs even though i haven't listened to it in along while, thanks for reconnecting me. Sorry you're being evicted XX
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