the security men

 

Sitting at an outdoor cafe (no passport required) in the town of Naas.

Two characterful middle aged security men, in seeming paradoxical contrast with each other, one thin, one burly, one bald, one silver haired, one verbose, one laconic, from the Dunnes Stores shopping centre are at an adjoining table.

They are talking about music.

"There's no great singers anymore."

"You're right there Mick."

"Bob Dylan  was a great singer. George Harrison said Bob Dylan was probably the greatest song writer who ever lived."

"George Harrison was good."

"There's nothing around like him now. There's nothing like the Righteous Brothers. Remember them? Unchained Melody. Those guys were the business. There's no Tom Pettys now. Nothing like him. There's no Joe Dolans. Joe Dolan kept singing right up till the end. Did you know that? Joe Dolan could still sing as well as he ever did the day he died. The modern guys can't do it at all."

"Yeah, Joe Dolan was great."

"You know something? Jimi Hendrix was asked was he the greatest guitarist in the world. He said: I don't know, ask Rory Gallagher."

"Oh Rory Gallagher was a genius."

"He could do anything with that guitar. He was married to it. You'd see him carrying it everywhere. He was practicing on it fifteen hours a day. You know Rory Gallagher was actually asked to join the Rolling Stones before they got Ron Wood. He turned them down. Rory Gallagher was his own man. He wouldn't stand for Mick Jagger ordering him around. I remember Rory Gallagher used to drink an awful lot after his gigs. I did security for him a few times. He'd be drinking whiskey straight. I knew he was sick before he died. His face was all swelled up. I just knew."

Listening in to their conversation I was struck not for the first time by the queer ludicrousness that gilds the lily like vicissitudes of my existence.

I was tempted to chip in: "Jethro Tull once heard my sister playing the tin whistle and he said: That's it, there, that's what I've spent my life trying for."

But I held my whisht.