We inadvertantly wrote Coming Up For Air before we wrote Nineteen Eighty Five.
While discussng the artwork for '85 we hit upon the idea of the Penguin classic range of books.
Then it hit me 'Coming up for air" was also a novel by George Orwell, the prequel to 1985 (excluding Animal Farm)
There are no quotes or references in our version of Coming up for air, but it is like the book in reverse.
In Orwells novel, George Bowling, fat, middle aged insurance salesman has enough of urban life, his nagging wife and his bratty kids ans so one day decides to head back to his choldhood town of Lower Binfield where he has fond memories of fishing and stealing apples as a kid.
When he gets there he finds his town over developed and full of posh folk in Upper Binfield who look down on the Lower Binfielders.
Our song is the reverse. We had to get out of our hometown of Portrush before it killed us, and moved to Belfast, where like George Bowling, we discovered the grass isn;t always greener (and it's harder to buy)
Slaine
lyrics
Listen up and check this
i'm gonna wreck this
sick annd tired and pissed
so someone throw up a fist
do i have to insist
you show me where to enlist?
because i've felt deaths kiss
and seen his bandaged wrists
stream of consciousness words
rewrote the rhymes that i heard
made them relevant to me
and rhymed them grinding on kerbs
my whole town was for sale
I fought Atlantic gales
like living on a sinking ship
but no ones ready to bail
Every one of us looking the answers
no ones taking the reins
tried singlething on the menu
short of searching for veins
sink deep and hit the bottom
before you know that you're there
when a day felt living straight
feels like you're coming up for air
outgrown that zone, man
knew that i had to leave
to grow something to new
it needs space to breathe
or I'd use to abuse
not refuse & infuse
grooves with fresh views
to lose is not what we chose
so take a look at yourself
you're busy ticking all the boxes
obnoxious
with your spoken word synopsis
pulling in the harbour
like a ship at the dock is
or hopping on the train
but can't tell where your stop is?
oblivious!
to how we've alreadty given this
a run for its money
yet you're the revisionist
and frivolous
with your onstage delivery
your rhymes need time
just like the Bushmills Distillery
credits
from Nineteen Eighty Five,
track released September 18, 2011
Music: Andy Shields, Niall Kennedy, Simon Crowe, Alun Evans
Lyrics: Slaine Browne & Andrew Dunbar
Guitar: Andy Shields
Bass: Simon Crowe
Decks: Alun Evans
supported by 4 fans who also own “Coming Up For Air”
One of the best albums i ever heard on my entire life. It's a shame it's not on spotify but it's one of my best investment of the year. Love you all! edpilgrim
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An album that revisits sonic textures of yesteryear, mixing live instrumentation and sampling to include jazz, fusion, rock and soul. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 19, 2017