Dublin Opinion

I hadn’t meant this to be one of those music for the weekend music posts - but I’ve dillydallied so long with getting it posted that here we are and it’s already Friday. It’s more of a post inspired by those shite K-Tel compilation albums from the 70s - not sure if there’ll be many other volumes.
So - in the age where Peter Hames’s ‘Ordinary Man’ sounds ultra-relevant once more, I went out looking for other artists who are going to make a killing on royalties out of this Great Depression II.

Starting out close to home - a group that a lot of us forgot about when their frontman went on to become an even bigger-mouthed Messiah than Bono - the Boomtown Rats. Thanks to Universal Music, I think - I can’t embed this one - so click on the screencap then youse’ll have to let it open in another window. A song dating from the last time the Sodgers of Destiny had an overall majority and, as if by co-incidence, the last time the country was virtually bankrupt. Geldof’s lyrics show an uncanny prescience - but then I’m sure he sensed the Sodgers ‘weren’t going to go away’. I think the sound quality on the vid isn’t great but that is indeed fairly lame whiteboy reggae you hear. As to the vid itself !!! Classic early 80s fare -
never knew that a gay sauna operated in Moran’s Hotel on Talbot St. circa 1980… them video wizard boys make it look like the Ritz, don’t they ??

Hopefully, it will be adopted as the new national anthem in time for tomorrow’s match at Croker.
On then to a man deserving of the royalties, if ever he gets any (I don’t think he wrote the song featured) - Alain Bashung. Bashung is currently in the middle of a battle with cancer, I believe. He may even have won as I’ve seen more dates for him advertised recently than had been the case. The song Ma petite entreprise ne connait pas la crise doesn’t really have much to do with economics. I’ve yet to fully fathom what exactly it’s on about - but for shallow gets of my ilk - the title is enough to get it on our recession compilation. Although it’s really the start of a fairly elaborate system of end and internal rhyming - literally it means ‘My little company doesn’t know the recession’s going on’. Bashung is one of the great voices of leftfield French music - you’ll hear a similar singing style to, say, Staples of Tindersticks - or Cohen singing Elvis in French… to wit - heard him on the radio the other day doing a great version of the former’s ‘Suzanne’ in French. Here’s the vid then (from the early 90s) :

There’s a sort of link with my last offering - I remember Cathal Coughlan on his site listed one of Bashung’s more recent albums as one of his favourite albums of the year a few years back. Both men have fairly instantly recognisable voices - so here’s Coughlan using that voice with Microdisney to evoke another aspect of Irish economic policy we’d forgotten about - the begging bowl. Apologies that’s an audio-only with ‘karaoke’ but a great track nonetheless.
Enjoy, glumly :