Tag Archives: Bob Marley
Sean’s music 31 … The Beatles
We buried Sean a year ago today, and sang ‘Redemption Song’ with Bob Marley as the coffin was going into the ground, and some of us were throwing red roses on it. In the days before that – the time of Sean’s wake – we played the same CDs over and over in the room where his body lay, as hundreds of visitors came to pay their respects.
One of these was a CD that Clio had hurriedly compiled, of songs that meant a lot to Sean and to her. I don’t know where it went – perhaps it’s around the house somewhere, or Clio has it. There was a lot of Marley on it, but some other stuff as well, including two Beatles tracks – ‘Something’ and ‘Come Together’. I can well imagine Sean belting out ‘Come Together’ at the top of his voice while having a drink with his friends. It’s a track that suited his exuberance. Continue reading
Filed under Memories, Music, Uncategorized
Hey Sean
Song no. 12 … this one is a bit different. Please click here to listen: Hey Sean
HEY SEAN
Hey Sean – are you going out tonight?
Don’t know yet – if somebody calls me then I might
Hey Sean – have you heard the Arsenal score?
Not since half-time – go on then, tell me more
Hey Sean – will you go and light the fire?
I’ll cook dinner and your mum might bake a pie
Later on there’s a movie that could be good
If you’re staying in and we’re feeling in the mood
Hey Sean – now Arsenal have gone behind
Yes, it’s typical – they’re too soft, but never mind
Let’s go out on the lawn and kick the ball
Take it easy, and try not to damage my wall Continue reading
Come Back and See Me
Here is a very rough-and-ready version of a song I have just written for Sean. You can hear it if you click on the title.
I’ve been thinking about you
Since you first went away
Imagining that you
Might come back for a day
Would you come back and see me
And show me your smile?
We’ll play by the rules and
You’ll stay for a while
There’s no need for talking
If there’s nothing to say
We won’t have tomorrow
We just have today
We’ll both pretend that
You’re still alive
We’ll get in the car and
We’ll go for a drive
So put on some music
You can choose
I don’t care what it is, we
Have nothing to lose Continue reading
Sean’s music 7 … Bob Marley and the Wailers
In the past couple of years, Sean started to listen to a lot of reggae music; Bob Marley (and the Wailers) became the last and greatest musical love of his life. He found plenty of early and obscure stuff online; much of this was better, we felt, than Marley’s later, more ‘produced’ and more commercial output.
Sean admired Marley as a person … the football skills, the voice, the song-writing talent, the social conscience, the independent attitude, the single-minded pursuit of his vision. Marley is one of the all-time musical greats, and listening to the tracks Sean played was no hardship for me or his mum (she had Wailers records when she was Sean’s age, and we went to many reggae gigs when we first lived together). Continue reading
The road to God knows where ... Brendan O'Brien 