Sunday, Bloody Sunday indeed

"I'd let you watch, I would invite you,
But the queens we use would not excite you!"

Many happy returns (yesterday) to Murray Head, who is 65 years old...

Mr Head (what a fab name to be born with if you were a queen!) was the original Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ Superstar, famously played the "man in the middle" of the love triangle of Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson in the movie Sunday Bloody Sunday, and he has had a variety of TV and movie roles over the years.

However, it if for this brilliant song from Benny & Bjorn's musical Chess that we at Dolores Delargo Towers love him most...

Murray Head - One Night In Bangkok

Bangkok, Oriental setting.
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The crème de la crème of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner.

Time flies - doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tyrolean spa had the chess boys in it.
All change - don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue.

It's Iceland - or the Philippines - or Hastings - or -
or this place!

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother

It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town

Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine!

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha

And thank God I'm only watching the game - controlling it.

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you,
But the queens we use would not excite you!

So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
parlours...

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me.



Facts about Murray Head:

• His younger brother is the "Gold Blend Man" and Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Anthony Head.
• He had a successful French-language recording career in Canada, and has had several hits in France itself.
• His photo (in a still from his film The Family Way) adorns the album cover of The Smiths' compilation album Stop Me.

Murray Head official website