SOME SONGS MAKE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapters 52 & 53)

The Monday morning high-quality rip will return in seven days, with the slot being taken up by the return of The Affectionate Punch. The world of DIY home recordings is now offering a new EP, and as far as I’m concerned, two of its tracks make for ‘Great Short Stories’.

Somebody Sometimes features three songs, written by TAP, but recorded several months apart with different vocalists that all, coincidentally, have the same theme, Glasgow.

She was truly glamorous
At least that’s how I’ll always remember her
She’d tease and spray her bouffant with care
Before leaving for the afternoon
Pubs closed at three back then
Officially re-opening at five
But often as not there was a lock-in
Morphing afternoon, into evening, into night …

A stagger to the bus stop
My shame for all to see
Her bouffant flat and listless
Her trousers now holed in one knee

This could be perceived as a sad story
Of a woman losing herself to drink
But this woman was nobody’s victim
She would not be belittled or diminished
Nor browbeaten by duplicitous do-gooders
None of whom would ever do any good
No priest, no neighbour, no family or friends
Alone she survived her husband’s death

Goodbye 1970s
You really could be cruel
You Sectioned those bereaved
You treated grief with ECT
But I knew someone trapped in your game
She escaped
She won
She remained glamorous to the end

mp3: The Affectionate Punch – Glamorous To The End

Just another Friday night
Or so it seemed
We met at the Variety as usual
We were all suitably preened
Each of us with absent partners
But then again what did that matter
We can all look but we can’t touch
We’re always blurring real and imagined worlds

Too many drinks far too fast
But that’s the machismo we honour
I have to be home by eleven
Because I’ve commitments tomorrow

And like clockwork we stumble
Into the familiar Sleazy’s
Where we watch impudent pups with ageless guitars
Laughing and throwing their youth right in our faces

It’s doubles now
And they’re followed by doubles for chasers
Hours fly by, as they always do
It’s amid zombie-phone distractions
And nostalgic conversations

I remember someone being sick
Was that me? I’m not sure?
The again, what’s a Friday night
Without sick on your shoes?

I call it a night
And I make my excuses
Hey guys, I’ve got a train to catch
Remember guys, I promised …
What happened?
I don’t understand?
How did I get here?

My face pressed against the concrete
My view is a sea of shoes
In close-up, there’s a cigarette butt, alight and poisoning
It’s bright glow stamped out amid a rabble of voices

It’s Sauchiehall Street,
Saturday the 15th June,
4.16am
I was pronounced dead

mp3: The Affectionate Punch – Late Night Sauchiehall Street

The third track is largely an instrumental.

mp3: The Affectionate Punch – For Alice

The spoken vocal on Glamourous To The End is delivered, in the most wonderful hard-edged Glasgwegian accent, by G.

The spoken vocal on Late Night Sauchiehall Street takes a slightly different approach, leaning more on a sort of public address style of delivery.  It features yours truly.

In some ways, the posting is keeping true to what you would normally get on a Monday in that the mp3s are of a low(ish) resolution, with a higher quality free download available via Bandcamp.  All you have to do is click here.

My thanks to TAP for asking me to come back for a second contribution to his work, following my debut on the Scars EP in March 2020.

JC