George Best; don't die like me!

There he is – up there; George Best – or Georgie. He was an Irishman from Belfast, capital of the so called Northern Ireland. 

He played for Manchester United in the great years with Dennis Law, Bobby Charlton, Brian Kidd etc – and I saw them play.

He was called the fifth Beatle – el Beatle; there was a song 'Georgie the Belfast Boy' and he was the first modern celebrity footballer.

Georgie was one of the best players ever to pull on a pair of football boots; he was ahead of his time and played like a lot like players do these days where we see players being trapped in a corner with three others surrounding them then whoosh!!! they beat the three players and glide passed them with the ball.

They get a lot of this from Best and from Johan Cryuff – he of the Cryuff turn.

You can see kids practising this in the parks – the Cryuff Turn and the Best Dribble. Both very exciting things to watch.

But Georgie was shy; in fact he was chronically shy.

One time he appeared in a talk show on the BBC hosted by fellow Irishman Terry Wogan.

Georgie turned up drunk; but what did they expect from someone so shy so chronically shy – maybe even cynically shy?

If he was walking down the street and saw a bus queue on his side of the road he would cross over – a lot of footballers are shy: Bobby Charlton for one – but not as bad as Georgie.

A lot of research has gone in to the chronically shy theory a typical sufferer will retreat to their room – like the pop singer Morrissey. He painted his windows black to keep any light out and have the blinds fully drawn. He didn't really communicate with anybody; he was shy.

I saw him once in the car park of The Farmers' Market/The Grove in Los Angeles; he was with a woman and walked with his head down, very tall and the woman was quite short. Don't ask me how I know but the woman would be working for him or related by blood.

Another typical sufferer was one of the boys who massacred his school pals at Columbine School. I don't really know what his name was – something Dickensian like Claybole or Claybold or something like that.

These days the cynically shy have companions in their little rooms and it is the world wide web where they can get information from as to how they can rule or even destroy the world.

Dickensian wanted to kill his teacher and he found a fellow traveller with another obscure name and they were one of first of the many American school massacres.

Kids never change; they can be seen in their rooms, by themselves.

Since the eighties we have known about Aspergers Syndrome and all the other discoveries that our parents never knew: Tourettes, Dyslexia you name it but the Jesuits always claimed that we never change after the age of seven – and we don't.

I met a friend from school when I was in Edinburgh in 2010 (Hi Les) and he hadn't changed. He was still the same fella from school; he had a lot of different experiences since that age, of course, and grown up, but we got on the same as we did all those years ago.

If you are a selfish child you will be a selfish grown up, if you were a bully you are probably being bullied; scared of the dark? You'll be scared of the dark. Not necessarily the dark but some kind of unknown darkness.

A lot of us have seen the 7 UP series – do you remember the kid who didn't like his greens? I always thought he would end up as a mass murderer and when you see him as a 55 year old he is in Australia happily married but . . . there is still something about him that's kind of dangerous; something in the eyes.

But that child, that little Georgie Best didn't have a room to go to so he played with a ball, practiced and practised* which got rid of his shyness for a while till be had to meet people and that's why he had an early death.

He took to the drink, had a liver transplant, had an infection from the drugs he had to take after the transplant – couldn't give up the booze; died early.

The message he left for his fans and friends was Don't Die Like Me! 

I believe there is to be a documentary film about him which is being premiered pretty soon; maybe then we'll learn more about shyness.

*which do you like better? the British or the American spelling?

Georgie The Belfast Boy

Lyric

When I saw you, you looked like a diamond
As you played in the dust and the grime
Just a boy from the country of Ireland
And I knew I could make you shine
Coz you move like a downtown dancer
With your hair hung down like a mane
And your feet play tricks like a juggler
As you weave to the sound of your name

Georgie, Georgie, they call you the Belfast Boy
Georgie, Georgie, they call you the Belfast Boy Georgie, Georgie, keep your feet on the ground
Georgie, Georgie, when you listen to the sound
Georgie, Georgie, put a light on your name

Yeah, yeah, yeah, play the game
Play the game, boy, play the game

Just play the way the ball bounces
And bounce the way the ball plays
Coz you won't have long in the limelight
No you won't have many days
When you live and you play for United
With your life and your blood and your soul
You run and you kick and you fight it
And you learn every way to the goal

Georgie, Georgie, they call you the Belfast Boy
Georgie, Georgie, they call you the Belfast Joy
And they say Georgie, Georgie, keep your feet on the ground
Georgie, Georgie, when you listen to the sound
Georgie, Georgie, put a light on your name

Yeah, yeah, yeah, play the game
Play the game, boy, play the game
Play the game, yeah, play the game
Whoa play the game, man, play the game
Yeah play the game, now, play the game
Play the game, yeah, play the game

Read more: Don Fardon - Belfast Boy Lyrics | MetroLyric 

Morrissey.

Morrissey.

I'm a bit late this week with my post because I've been getting my Christmas song ready for release on iTunes and other sites on the Internet and that's a bit complicated. I-Tunes use MP3 which is quite a poor quality and that is quite simple. I just send the song electronically to my distributor and they take if from there. They have all the art work etc and, as a matter of interest here it is and it's called Every Day is Christmas Day - http://tinyurl.com/old9xu3

The complication happens with the hard copy which cannot be sent over the Internet and I have to send it as a hard copy to another company on the west coast (USA) by snail mail. The reason for this is that it is 266 MB which is huge. The MP3 is only 5.54 MB so you can see the reduction in quality. The hard copy version also has another track which is a love song called, appropriately enough, I Love You.

Oh here's the love song - http://tinyurl.com/nss6l3n

You may have to copy and paste.

They are only on Amazon.com and not Amazon.co.uk as yet; that's a pisser isn't it?

Now what has this got to do with Morrissey, I hear you ask – well absolutely nothing; I'm just chatting. By the way John Lennon said that the word 'just' is a complete waste of time and I tend to agree with him; I just used it – oh there I go again!

But there he is up there; Morrissey – I don't know a lot about him but what I have heard is not too positive, in fact most of what I have heard has been fairly negative. But I have heard him sing, I have heard some of his records and songs and I really like what I hear; he was in a group called The Smiths and what I've heard from The Smiths I quite like too.

They seem to record songs which have a different rhythm from the musical backing, a technique which I have always liked.

I can't quite figure out how The Smiths, in their hay day, passed me by; I was a great fan of rock and pop music right up till the late nineties so what happened? I even liked some hip hop and rap but then suddenly . . . I went off it. Looking back the songs, CDs, records (whatever the current vernacular is) that I liked weren't hits; they fell by the wayside.

What I plan to do now is get some Morrissey and The Smiths tracks and maybe enjoy them but recently Morrissey has written an autobiography and it is published by Penguin Classics.

I am not a great fan of pop autobiographies or sports ones; in fact I think sportsmen and women are the most boring self obsessed people there are. One only has to look at Andy Murray smashing yet another racquet to realise this; I think I blame the sporting commentators for the way they describe the actions of some of the sporting super stars.

There used to be a shot-putter in Britain called Geoff Capes – who was a copper would you believe – and a commentator called David Coleman would build him up to be some kind of funny tough guy 'Geoff Capes has knocked over one of the East Germans in the tunnel; good old Geoff!'

But let me get back to Morrissey before I go completely off the subject; his autobiography has been published by Penguin Classics!! Yes they're my italics! Penguin Classics are usually reserved for Classic books, such as Shakespeare, Jane Austin and the like so how can a new book – a new title or whatever – be deemed to be a classic when it had yet to be published?

The reason, apparently, is that Morrissey wanted it that way. Isn't that some kind of blackmail from the reclusive, cult of a pop star?

I saw him one day in Los Angeles. Where? At the Farmers' Market, of course; a place I have written about on more than one occasion: there is a tiny street that separates the two parking lots that serve the Farmers' Market and the bloody 'eye sore' called The Grove (I don't even have to describe it do I, for you to picture what it might be like – yes Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap, The Apple Store), and the parking lot the furthest away from The Farmers' is the one I used to use.

On the side, next to a bank, is the post office and out of there, one day, emerged Morrissey. He was with a small woman who might be described as on the plump side – that's nothing against her as I like plump women (well sometimes – it depends on what they want me to do). Because she was so small he looked very tall.

He looked very serious as if he had been over charged for a stamp at the post office but now I know he must have been thinking what to put into his classic. They got in to a mini and drove away and I went about my business not realising I had been in close contact with a cult!!

Now when I say I don't particularly like pop autobiographies or sporting ones I did like the Bob Dylan book Chronicles; I loved the way it was written and I am looking forward to volumes two and three. In it he tells of his friendship with the pop singer of the sixties, Bobby Vee, who was always one of my favourites – anybody who sounds a bit like Buddy Holly was in my record collection which is why I liked The Beatles.

Come to think of it when Bob Dylan picked up his GRAMMY he mentioned Buddy Holly. He said he saw Buddy Holly in Duluth when he was about 16 years old and he was three feet away from Buddy and he said 'he looked at me.' And he said that look inspired him when he was making his GRAMMY winning album.

So you never know; Morrissey's book might be good; who knows? I haven't read it yet but I know it has received 'mixed' reviews. One of the critics on a radio review show last week said he wasn't going to give it a 'mixed' review – he said it was the worst book he had ever read!!! He obviously hasn't read any of mine!!!!