Working on the Babel essay at the moment and as usual it’s going in strange directions…Here’s a tiny excerpt:

‘….Strangely this [I don’t like Mondays] wasn’t the first song with murder as its theme that this particular young boy owned. The previous year he had bought Boney M’s (of Rivers of Babylon fame) very groovy song, Painter Man, the B-Side of which was a strange tale of a man that falls in love with a prostitute who is on a suicide kick and persuades him to kill her:

‘My life is empty all around

Nothing that I ever found

Would fulfil me

So for a while I’ll be with you

When I say that we’re through

You must kill me!’

This was all done to a jazzy disco beat. And they say punk was nihilistic…’

In the not too distance you can read the full thing…The Famous Five and Beelzebub also make an appearance. Of course they do.