Like Lou Reed's "Growing up in Public" I never got sent a promo of Patrik's LP but my brother did buy one so I got to listen to it, especially when he went out.
Just as I said Lou in 1980 defined my life, Patrik did in 1979.
I didn't need a safety pin in my heart but I loved the song. I love little fishes swimming in a rising tide. I totally got "Ugly as You", I really didnt want to grow up that UGLY! I wanted my folks to have another 10 people living in our house and ironically, 40 years on, even less people live in it. Where I thought it was disgusting that people had spare rooms or sofas while there were homeless people on the streets, nowadays, we have spare flats, second and third homes and there's homeless villages created every time a motorway creates an underpass..
But I digress, this is about the poet Patrik. He inspired me to write short songs, sometimes really short. "why did our dreams fall oh so flat, all of the life we showed in those early days" is a straight rip off from Patrik. "All the years of trying" is also the title to a very good documentary on Patrik. He write that song pretty early on, having already worked out that the business was indeed a business. IT was not about art, it was about selling art, and the sales force would determine what art sold. Marketing was everything, and they wanted the public only to have a couple of winners.
I know how many people saw the Clash at La Sorbonne, in Edinburgh, the night they didnt get to play, I was there. The whole of Edinburgh saw them busking outside the St James' centre, but I wasn't there!
I was there at Holyrood on stage in the drama theatre while Mike played guitar and I sang, or should I say barfed out in an Edinburgh twang, "When I get famous" another classic Patrik song.
"Little Fishes" still just bite me on the feet. Its a bonding song as we'd say nowadays. We're all in this together, you and me, we're like, little fishes in a rising tide, small fry!
So much comedy, tragedy and delivered with frank authority, pathos and fuck you its great.
Those of you suffering withdrawal from football can comfort yourself in "No fun Football" anymore!
Groubby Stories doesn't waste your time so if there is a track you dont appreicate, dont worry, it'' be gone and the next is on its way.
I sang Suicidal Wreck for many years until my girlfriend talked to me about her brother Alan committing suicide at 24. I shut up and never had that thought again. It was a great song but all I remember now is "I'm a suicidal wreck, self destruct in my head, I'm in pain, why cant they see, they're not the ones, who feel, the pain, in my brain...." or at least that's how i remember Fionna Norris' lyrics.
Before "People who died" was written, Patrik wrote "all my friends are dead now", a precursor to many a rap and clearly influencing songs like "down in the tube station" and countless other songs like Jim Carroll's. Its really hard and brutal. Knife crime was all the rage in the 70's too, it was also very brutal and sad. Hopefully if theres one thing the virus has helped is keeping knives in their drawers.
To me, Patrik's style wasn't really to over complicate the lyrics. There it is pal, take it or leave it. I took it big style and here I am 40+ years on reliving it. I never got to review Patrik in Deadbeat, but I have now, job done, that's what Fanzines are for, talking up the good stuff.
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