Click here to see the full video (Special thanks to Brother Al for the video link)
Murray Head
One Night in Bangkok
[THE AMERICAN]
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don’t know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner
Time flies — doesn’t seem a minute
Since the Tirolean 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!
[COMPANY]
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
[THE AMERICAN]
One town’s very like another
When your head’s down over your pieces, brother
[COMPANY]
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
[THE AMERICAN]
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town —
[COMPANY]
Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite
[THE AMERICAN]
Get Thai’d! You’re talking to a tourist
Whose every move’s among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine
[COMPANY]
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
[THE AMERICAN]
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 —
[COMPANY]
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
I used to love this song!
Very cool song and video. Thanks for posting it.
IN A SHOW WITH NOTHING BUT YUL BRENNER???
How boring.
Actually, it’s “a show with EVERYTHING BUT Yul Brynner.” I don’t get the reference myself…he was in the musical “The King and I”. Don’t know what this has to do with chess. I can tell you this though…this song (and the musical) is what really got me seriously interested in chess in the first place. Glad you folks enjoyed it.
He was a western movie actor. He played virtuous cowboys.
Yul Brynner was a strait shooter.
Unlike chess where is pays to be a cry-baby or a crazy hairy anti-semite.
What coincidence. 🙂 I came across that video myself – independently of you and Al – and wrote an entry in my blog.
http://spritkopf.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/one-night-in-bangkok/
(For those of you not familiar with the german language: it is about that I didn’t like the music 20 years ago but have now grown to it. And of course the fact the displayed game was the scholar’s mate.)