Sunday, November 13, 2016

The Bicycle Giver

[NOTE: This post has been in my drafts tab for months. I no longer know how many or why I didn't publish it at the time. It has been left as is, aside from some little notes where appropriate. SPOILER: This post has nothing to do with bicycles or thieves of aforementioned non-existent bicycles]

I rarely have free time these days, what with shift work and important personal commitments. Though it's far from ideal, I generally don't mind. It's just life and I do enjoy mine when I can.


Leisurely pursuits are something which have suffered in this struggle. Writing about the League of Ireland doubles as a leisurely pursuit1, but it does consume time (not that I mind once I have it to spare). Finding time to read is a bit of a nightmare. I don't watch nearly as many movies as I used to. Listening to music just doesn't happen any more either, and it is this which I've decided to post about.

On Saturday night2, I found myself in the bizarre situation of having time to myself. For various reasons, I was home alone, all of my statistical work finished. My post-match interview with Kevin Doherty was written and filed3 and I suddenly had nothing to do. I'd dusted off the Windows Media Player while I was working and some old songs I'd forgotten about sprung up.

One of them was Trust Fund Girl by The Bicycle Thief. I remembered, then, the story of how I'd gotten into them in the first place, and it revolves around an old friend of mine, one of the best: Gary White.


Gary is the spiffing looking gent with the glasses on the right. On the left is the lovely Brian O'Reilly, better known these days as Bry. These two have come a long way since this was recorded. Source: Balcony TV YouTube channel.

Years ago, when we were 13 or so, Gary got me into music. I grew up in a largely music free household, which maybe sounds bizarre out of context given that a number of people I know inherited their musical taste – during that "awful"4 time before the internet – as a direct consequence of their parental influence (whether it was similar or deliberately different). Both of my parents are deaf5, so there wasn't so much as a CD in my house when I was growing up.

As a result, I'd no real interest in music, though I did pick up Now 44 for Blue Da Ba Dee and the legendary Supercharged compilation album (initially for Alive by P.O.D. because it had been used on a WWF show for a promo video of The Rock being class). I was a young boy, so you can take your judgement and shove it straight up your candy ass.



Watch this and tell me you don't want to try some of The Rock's strudel. Source: takerpunk YouTube channel.

Anyway, outside of those two CDs, I had no interest in music. I was too busy playing football and whatnot. I can't remember how it came about, but Gary eventually managed to convince me to buy the Red Hot Chili Peppers album By The Way. My mind was blown. After that, I had little problem with taking Gary's recommendations as gospel. And this is how The Bicycle Thief came into my life. 


My family didn't have a computer, but Gary's did. One day, he played this song for me: Cereal Song. It was about addiction and I was addicted to it. At first, we thought it was written by legendary Chilis guitarist John Frusciante given his bad history with drugs. I remember a couple of years later, when I got a PSP6, it could store and playback songs so I asked Gary to put Cereal Song on it. He put the artist in as Frusciante because that was still what we thought.

It wasn't until much later that Gary discovered that the song was actually by a band called The Bicycle Thief and that it was from their album, You Come & Go Like a Pop Song. We also figured out that while Frusciante guest appeared on the electric guitar for Cereal Song, he himself wasn't officially a bike thief, not in this musical context anyway. 

He could well have nicked a few while he was off his trolley during the 90s, for all I know. I'm sure he didn't, though...fairly sure.


Even this random video of Cereal Song has been posted with an image of Frusciante. Some say Forrest wrote the song about him, which is very believable. Source: pokkis3 YouTube channel.

Anyhow, the album to us at that time 
 once Gary finally managed to track down and purchase a copy from the States  was revelatory. The whole saga of trying to find it gave it mythical status in our eyes. Perhaps in my mind it was far more drawn out than it actually was, but it definitely wasn't an Amazon.com express delivery job anyway.

I don't know what happened to the band or if they ever recorded any other material, but I did try and purchase my own copy of the album in later years only to find that...well, it was impossible to find. I couldn't locate it anywhere online where it wasn't being sold second hand for an extortionate price.

I gave up on it until Gary, many years later, decided to give it to me as a birthday present which meant a hell of a lot to me. I cannot stress enough that finding this album when he did was the equivalent of finding the proverbial needle in the haystack as far as I'm concerned.

Moral of the story? Gary White is the gift that keeps on giving. He's also whiter than white.



There we are now, a few years back. The Likely Lads. L-R: Dave, Gary, Anto and I.

P.S. He's also the man responsible for directing me to writing when I was a teenager having difficulty expressing my emotions through the majesty of ignoring them, so blame him for this post; this blog; the two blogs I had previously with little or no success; my written contributions to everything I've ever contributed to; my Journalism degree; and my grammatical prowess which may or may not exist inside my own head.



Notes
1. Unfortunately it is a pursuit which has also suffered at the hands of my limited time; it has been neglected in the months since originally writing this post.
2. I can no longer remember which Saturday exactly.
3. Having had the privilege of speaking to Kevin a few times, I'm taking a guess that the interview in question was this one.
4. Sarcastic.
5. BatFran: "My parents are DEAF!"
6. Handheld Sony Playstation, bought with money saved from working in my old secondary school, Grange Community College, one summer. I don't regret the purchase...even if the thing was mostly useless.

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