Ciggy Tar Lust (And The Sliders From Bars)
- 1 May 07, 12:18 PM
No more smoking in Irish bars ¨C isn΅―t that cool? As a seasoned music watcher, I΅―ve served a lot of time in licensed premises, and the sour funk of cigarette fumes has always been an unwanted souvenir of a night out. I΅―ll not miss it.
It makes me wonder though, how many impressionable kids have been suckered into smoking by rock and roll. All those images of David Bowie, puffing like a lab dog, looking unfairly graceful behind a fog of poisonous gases on the cover of the ΅®Young Americans΅― album. The ritual of smoking was even celebrated at the start of his song ΅®Rock And Roll Suicide΅―. Brian Ferry also wrote lyrics in honour of the weed: ΅®Virginia Plain΅― and ΅®Do The Strand΅―, while Ronnie Wood kept a fag butt perpetually screwed into his face for over four decades.
Courtney Love didn΅―t even let pregnancy put her off the habit, although Vanity Fair famously airbrushed the ciggy from a photo of the artiste shortly before giving birth. It sure wasn΅―t pretty. And Richey Edwards from the Manic Street Preachers dispensed with the use of an ashtray and simply extinguished the cigarettes on his forearm.
The practice has prematurely killed off the likes of George Harrison, but still there is little dissent from musicians. They act like rebels but in truth, they΅―re in league with a nasty industry.
However, there have been a few intelligent songs on the issue. The Who delivered ΅®Little Billy΅―, all about an overweight kid who defies peer pressure and doesn΅―t take up the nicotine shtick. The other kids all grow into middle age as the writer Pete Townsend notes: ΅°their smoking games are reality now / and cancer's seed is sown΅±. And so Little Billy outlives them all, no longer the uncool figure. Definitely no sucker.
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