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| Don't try to play the fool That's not my game. You know I came because I'm cool. Silver keys are in my hand. They open doors To worlds that you won't understand. Big girls should never cry. Caught red-handed's not the time to come on shy. False face against your door I'm calling back Just after dark,to steal some more. Cos I'm a little Nighttown Boy And I bet that you can't satisfy A little lonely Nighttown Boy Who might try to make you cry With the hint of romance in his eye. A little lonely Nighttown Boy. Nighttown Boy don't need no invitation He gets his lovin’ on the run. Nighttown Boy don't need no confrontation You call it kicks but he calls it fun. Never try to stare me down. You may have cash But I've got flash,I've been around. Some say we're easy meat. But Nighttown Boys Can slip and slide on graceful feet. |
| Part of the Annotated Horslips Pages Compiled by Lee Templeton, San Francisco |
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| "Just after dark, to steal some more..." |
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| First Posted: March 1, 2005 Last Revised: April 24, 2005 |
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| Recorded on: · Dancehall Sweethearts · Horslips The Best of Source tune: Bill Harte's Favorite, jig. Also known as Bill Harte's / Bill Hartes / Port Liam Uí Airt / Tom Hearte's / Sonny Brogan's (also in Major, also in A) (also as slide?) See "Did you see my man looking for me? [2]" Irish, Double Jig. D Mixolydian. Standard. AB (Breathnach): AABB (Mallinson). Breathnach (1976) notes the tune was not original with source Harte, and that it was related to “Bímid ag ól [1],” "Jackson's Humours of Panteen" and "Huish the Cat."* In fact, the melody was used as an air, and Breathnach notes that Sligo musician John Brennan used to sing “Did you see my man looking for me?" to it. The mother of Tom Barrett, from Knockbrack, Lyreacrompane, near Tralee, would sing to it this soothing song for a child: *** Bú dí bú sin, neataí nóinín, Bú dí bú sin, was every bit of her; See how she goes on the tip of her toes, Bú dí bú sin, was every bit of her, See how she dances, see how she prances, See how she dances, every bit of her; See how she goes on the tip of her toes, Bú dí bú sin, was every bit of her. (Breathnach, CRE II, 1976) *** Harte was a Dublin accordion player and a member of the Dublin Garda, or police force, and a member of the Lought Gill Quartet with Sonny Brogan, John Hawley and Sarah Gill. Sources for notated versions: accordion player Bill Harte, 1968 (Dublin, Ireland) [Breathnach]; session at the Regent Hotel, Leeds, England [Bulmer & Sharpley]. Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 39, pg. 22. Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), 1974, Vol. 1, No. 55. Mallinson (Enduring), 1995; No. 39, pg. 17. Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion, www.ibiblio.org *Will link to Huish the Cat page when built. Recordings (After Horslips): Joe Burke, Andy McGann, and Felix Dolan, A Tribute to Michael Coleman Kevin Henry, One's Own Place - A Family Tradition Various, Unsorted Recordings Influenced: I think it's fair to say too that without "Nighttown Boy", the ingredients of the "Ghostown" record (which I started writing in embryonic form in 1974) may never have achieved alchemy. A further link to "Monto" is that the Radiators borrowed part of the tune for the long guitar instrumental intro to our "Ghostown" version of "Faithful Departed", as a sort of musical scene-setter. Many listeners assumed we were playing a warped rewrite of "The Soldiers Song". Well, we weren't, but I can't say we didn't enjoy the ambiguity. Philip Chevron, www.comebackhorslips.com Guestbook, April 24, 2005 Annotated lyrics: "Nighttown Boy" "The Mabbot street entrance of nighttown, before which stretches an uncobbled transiding set with skeleton tracks, red and green will-o'-the-wisps and danger signals. Rows of flimsy houses with gaping doors. Rare lamps with faint rainbow fans. Round Rabaiotti's halted ice gondola stunted men and women squabble. They grab wafers between which are wedged lumps of coal and copper snow. Sucking, they scatter slowly. Children. The swancomb of the gondola, highreared, forges on through the murk, white and blue under a lighthouse. Whistles call and answer." James Joyce, "Circe," Ulysses Within the chapter “Circe” there are strong Homeric parallels, but to better understand them one must know the role Circe played in Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus and his men go ashore on the island of Aiaia hoping to find provisions for their ship. Odysseus sends out twenty three of his men to explore the island but only one returns. The sole crew member to return from the expedition informs Odysseus that a group of tame wolves and loins came and greeted the men of the search party and then lured the men back to a palace. When the men arrived at the palace they were served drinks that were really potions and were transformed into pigs by Circe. Circe then placed the men into sties. After hearing all of this from the crew member Odysseus sets off to rescue his men from their prison. On the way to Circe’s palace Odysseus encounters Hermes who warns him of Circe’s magical powers and tells Odysseus to eat some moly root to protect himself from them. When Odysseus arrives at Circe’s palace she offers him a potion and he takes it but is not affected by its magic because of the moly root. When Circe takes out her magic wand to complete the transformation from man to beast Odysseus draws his sword on her. Circe is so taken aback by Odysseus’s boldness that she frees all his men and returns them to their human form. Circe also opened her palace to the crew so that they may eat and relax. Odysseus and his crew stayed on for a year before leaving Circe’s island. Before the men left Circe did tell Odysseus how to safely pass the Island of the Sirens as well as Skylla and Charybdis. Joyce’s “Circe” chapter takes place in the red-light district of Dublin, or Nighttown as Joyce calls it. Bloom is on a mission to find Stephen and along the way the reader is subjected to Bloom’s many bizarre hallucinations and heavy handed sexual comments made by the prostitutes on the street. After the longest hallucination scene of the chapter (the court room) Bloom finds himself at the steps of Bella Cohen’s brothel. It is from this point on that the parallels between Joyce’s Ulysses and Homer’s Odyssey become the most apparent. Erin Davis, "Homeric Parallels in 'Circe,'" caxton.stockton.edu/ulysses/ See also the etchings of Charles Cullen in "Nighttown." Nighttown in Rock and Popular music Well if you got a wingo, take her up to ringo, Where the waxies sing o all the day, If you've had your fill of porter, And you can't go any further, Give yer man the order "Back to the Quay" And take her up to Monto, Monto, Monto, Take her up to Monto, langeroo, to you. The Dirty Duke of Gloucester, the dirty old imposter, Took his moth and lost her up the Furry Glen, He first put on his bowler, then he buttoned up his trousers, And he whistled for a growler and he said "My man", Take me up to Monto, Monto, Monto, Take me up to Monto, langeroo, to you. You see the Dublin Fusiliers, the dirty old bamboozileers, They went to get the childer one, two, three, Marchin' from the linenhall there's one for every canonball, And Vicki's going to send yis all o'er the sea, But first go up to Monto, Monto, Monto, First go up to Monto, langeroo, to you. When the Tzar of Russia and the King of Prussia, Landed in the Phoenix Park in a big balloon, They asked the Police band to play the Wearing of the Green, But the buggers in the Depot didn't know that tune, So they both went up to Monto, Monto, Monto, They both went up to Monto, langeroo, to you. The Queen she came to call on us, She wanted to see all of us, I'm glad she didn't fall on us, she's eighteen stone, Mr. me Lord Mayor, sez she, Is this all you've got to show to me? Why no, ma'am, there is more to see, Póg mo thóin, And he took her up to Monto, Monto, Monto, He took her up to Monto, langeroo, Goodnight to you. George Desmond Hodnett, "Monto" She’s a carnal joy For nighttown boys Whose five o:clock shadow begins at Midnight. Philip Chevron, "Kitty Ricketts," 1979 |