ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK

The 80s
I love 80s. The movies (ET, Empire Strikes Back, The Untouchables, Poltergeist etc), the TV shows (Mac Gyver, V, A Team, Airwolf, Knight Rider etc) and so this night i naturally immersed myself with 80s songs, Belinda Carlisle, Peabo Bryson, WHAM, Duran Duran, Madonna etc. Then suddenly i remembered about this funny song titled 'One Night in Bangkok' by Murray Head.

I typed the titled, clicked to play it and was pleasantly surprise when i heard and saw the video clips...it just full of chess!

Wow! Since i first and last time heard this song was light years ago before i know how to play chess, never thought there exist in this world a song in which in lyric as well as in the video clip...contain chess theme, and not just that, this song also topped the charts in many countries!

The Song



The Lyric
[THE AMERICAN]
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner

Time flies -- doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change -- don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue

It's Iceland -- or the Philippines -- or Hastings -- or --
or this place!

[COMPANY]
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

[THE AMERICAN]
One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother

[COMPANY]
It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

[THE AMERICAN]
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town --

[COMPANY]
Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

[THE AMERICAN]
Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

[COMPANY]
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

[THE AMERICAN]
Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha

And thank God I'm only watching the game -- controlling it --

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you

So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
parlours --

[COMPANY]
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

The Best Part
I especially likes the lyric "One town's very like another When your head's down over your pieces, brother"

Remind me about my past posting of National Closed "... After all once the game started, you no longer care about your surrounding"

4 Steps Checkmate
Watch the video clips from 2.22 till 2.37, white player used the primitive 4 steps checkmate...and black player fell to it!... :)

After that scene, singer sang "Siam's gonna be the witness to the ultimate test of cerebral fitness"

Well, you don't used 4 steps checkmate as a " ultimate test of cerebral fitness" :)

The Puzzle
Frankly, even after hearing this song for so many times tonight, still did not really understand it...Why chess in Bangkok? Why "The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner"? I just don't get it...(though i suspect this song is just laden with double meanings word). I don't know...

Ahh but I guess work of art, like this song, like classic painting, like Ferrari is meant to be enjoyed...not meant to be understand.

Laaeo phohp gan mai (Thai words for See You Later)