It's Easter Sunday and I 'have just started rereading "The Keep" by F Paul Wilson, which I have happily dived into and one of the characters in it is called Oster which I believe is modern Dutch for Easter and I am sure my friend Bas will confirm it or correct me.
There is a lot about the origins of Easter here essentially in English-speaking countries, and in Germany, Easter takes its name from a pagan goddess from Anglo-Saxon England who was described in a book by the eighth-century English monk Bede.
Ostara (1901) by Johannes Gehrts. .Spring feasts were held to honour the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre/Ostara
"Eostre was a goddess of spring or renewal and that's why her feast is attached to the vernal equinox," according to University of Sydney Professor Carole Cusack
In Germany the festival is called Ostern, and the goddess is called Ostara.
I always find it odd that the Christian celebration of something so important to them ia avery moveable feast , while stuff like Christmas is actually fixed.
So I wasn't really going to write anything today but I think Mott The Hoople's "Roll Away The Stone" is sort of appropriate, don't you.
Heaven Knows ......I'm miserable now. Well not really , yesterday started with more snow , and though it's cold it looks nice , relaxing and almost Christmassy in our current lockdown situation, however this has transmogrified into could continuous rain that is extremely uninspiring and hence the feeling of misery.
I saw a meme yesterday that described a collection of Goths as "A Misery of Goths" which I have now decided to use as a title for this first post of a mostly miserable so far February. I couldn't find a really suitable picture but the one on the right sums up my feelings on my walks so far this month.
I hope that things will improve soon , but probably not before the weekend.
I do like that picture and you can click through to see more of their pictures, so ironic that something that is miserable results in a positive find.
I got a text this morning for a Diabetic catch up which these days is by phone and them trusting me to tell the truth, which I do. If I have problems I also get onto my doctor or the hospital , but generally I look after myself and follow guidelines, the only thing that bothers me is that generally I seem to need more sleep, that is I can't do things during the night even once a week, and often think it's great if I'm in bed at nine o' clock
Today or tomorrow I will be seeing my granddaughter Alexis and her mum , my daughter Kirsty , weather permitting , so that is a big plus.
I have also started following an author on Facebook called Lynn Miclea and she shares some very funny memes and will have to get some of her books , she's on Amazon here
I am now a permanent home worker and this gives me time to listen to a lot of music, currently listening to "The Next Day" by David Bowie and am also listening to the pile of CDs I have put up for sale on Discogs. As I've said before I often buy the CDs to support the artist or because I feel that I should have their music rather than any need for it. It's the same with films on DVDs which I am often too lazy to put in the DVD player , and when you do you get all the anti piracy videos which are pointless because you have PAID for it.
So before venturing out I will share the song that sort of originally inspired this post "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by The Smiths which really should be a Goth anthem shouldn't it? Although The Smiths are hardly your archetypal Goth band.
Today has been a very relaxing Christmas Day, and I went out for a couple of walks , and was disappointe dto see the local Spar open , but it is a shop that I would only use as a last resort during the year. I wouldn't use it today as there are few Asian owned stores that are open.
On my walking I wished people "Merry Christmas" and got smiles and "Merry Christmas" in return , which was pleasant and uplifting.
A Whatsapp call with my youngest daughter meant I could see my granddaughter Alexis Leia as well as my son in law and their dog Molly.
Christmas films have been "A Muppets Christmas Carol" and "The Man Who Invented Christmas" both closely knit with Dicken's "A Christmas Carol".
I also spent a lot of time watching videos of Pete Wylie and Ian Prowse on Youtube , composers of the two greatest songs about Liverpool ever , "Heart As Big As Liverpool" and "Does This Train Stop On Merseyside". Either follow the blog tags below or search them out on Youtube.
This week my most played song has been "Remember by Shambeko Wah! (Pete Wylie) and the most played album "This Time It's Personal" by Dr John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell, that has been this weeks biggest hit on my Instagram Channel here.
So I will go with a live take of "Spanish Harlem" by John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell , not exactly seasonal but a great frun record to end the day on.
I have also discovered another set "La Passione" which could be a Christmas present as it's another well presented set with good reviews and given my reevaluation of the first of these sets will be a worthy addition to my collection.
The first one I didn't think I liked. The presentation pack is wonderful but thought the music was a little too sixties stylised. It consists of a book with lots of photographs and some of Chris's paintings (he is a great artist) , two ten inch vinyl albums and three vinyl replica CDs.
Yesterday , thanks to the excellent RPM supplied record player (close on two years old now) I played the first vinyl album , and while very Shadows influenced you can tell it's Chris Rea, and it sounded a lot better than I expected. I am listening to my digital copy as I type this and it is extremely listenable, and you can sort of spot the songs that the tunes have been lifter from, but that is no bad thing, it just adds another level of enjoyment to the listening, and The Shadows are always a great starting point (two of my favourites are "Apache" and "Wonderful Land" and Hank Marvin was responsible for the killer intro to Cliff Richard's best ever record , his debut single "Move It").
As this progresses it becomes more and more contemporary Chris Rea rather than Chris Rea being The Shadows.
"Santo Spirito Blues" is a book with two film DVDs , accompanying CD soundtracks and a stand alone CD bearing the title of the collection. I haven't yet watched the films but the "Bull Fighting" is extremely Spanish influenced guitar and orchestral music and very good.
The biggest surprise is the half hour "Santo Spirito" CD which sounds like "Wish You Were Here" era Pink Floyd with overlaid accordions, shockingly and unexpectedly excellent and will be on my player a lot more often. A very impressive package.
"Blue Guitars" is an absolute tour-de-force, 11 CDs each with a different blues style all composed by Chris Rea and performed by him and the band , plus a DVD and page upon page of excellent Chris Rea art pieces. When this was released it was about £30 , which is less than £3 a CD, the art book alone is probably worth that. You will pay £60 for a copy on Amazon and there may be copies on Discogs as well.
11 CDs provide about eight hours continual listening and then you have a DVD to watch and an artbook to enjoy. The amazing thing is that this was produced in under two years and I still enjouy dipping into this today.
Hopefully people will check this out, and Chris Rea is an artist who still produces impressive album packages in this digital age. Although you can download the MP3 copies , you really want the physical copies to appreciate how good they are.
I've had an idea for a short story or even a book called "Timefolder" , obviously I can't say any more as the concept is fairly nebulous and cloudy and I do need some time to flesh it out. Whether this will happen or it will just be forgotten about , I don't know , and given my previous track record it will probably just be left.
We are well into August and today's weather is as grey as ever. I have been trying to set up a subdomain to no effect (ie using the proper channels nothing actually works).
This is a very short insubstantial post and had a few things I wanted to say but like many times before everything has trained from my mind, leaving me with very little to share with you.
The thing is I think my posts average about 250 words and even though I feel there is absolutely nothing in this post this has hit that word count so it's not like my early posts which were about a sentence long, but also I suppose there is a lot of word fluff in this that is waffle to expand the post.
I have finished "The End of The F**king World" this week , which I found rather good if challenging and you do laugh but sometimes feel you shouldn't because of what has happened. You can watch for free on All 4 . I keep getting adverts to subscribe and go advert free , but I am fine if adverts are the price I pay to watch the series.
I actually pay Virgin to watch Sky and Sky carry adverts even though I am paying to watch them anyway.
For #AnimalAugust I've gone for a Christmas record from Alan White and Chris Squire when they were with Yes , "Run With The Fox" , possibly a bit trte but I've always liked it . I'm surprised it doesn't seem to be available for digital download but is on the Yesyears boxed set which is available art a reasonable price through Amazon.
I was remarking that most of the Christmas songs that get repeated plays on the radio are from the seventies, when it seemed everyone was releasing a Christmas song. Most were decent efforts though I though Kate Bush's and Queen's were not up to their usual standards.
Since then memorable Christmas records have been few and far between, although this may be just due to like of radio play, yest we had "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid and "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses, but you seldom get to hear "Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas" by The Eels or "Alan Parsons in A Winter Wonderland" by Grandaddy.
My own favourite though is "Christmas Song" by The Raveonettes (from 2011, yes I know nearly ten years old) , who if you don't know them are a sort of cross between Roxette and Jesus and Mary Chain, absolutely perfection. This is my all time favourite Christmas song...... so far.
It's 5:30 am on 21/12 , I've had 9 hours rest if not sleep, and have had back pains and was semi dreaming that I had a email and spreadsheet strapped to my back and that was causing the pain. I know that makes no sense whatsoever and kept thinking of I could close it the pain world go away. The pain has gone and so has the email / spreadsheet. I was trying to think why that was in my mind but there is no reason for it.
I am still very hot (the heating isn't on) but think I am improving, though I think today will be another day in bed just resting and recovering.
I do have Christmas cards to send and thanks to Amazon have got all my Christmas presents.
One good thing about this illness is that it helps with weight loss, which in my situation is a good thing.
Given I am stil not 100% (not even 50%) we will go with The Pogues "Sick Bed of Cuchulainn" , the opening song from "Rum, Sodomy and The Lash" ,which is rather more energetic than I feel at the moment.
I'm back in Newcastle and back to work and sort of sad that I'm not still in Settle, but finances don't currently allow me to be on permanent holiday, I am not impressed with the so called "Christmas Village" that has been rammed into Newcastle centre, to me it's just blocking where I can walk and messing up the road system but it does make me more determined to shop locally, especially in The Grainger Market.
Apart from catching up at work I will need to send my Christmas cards this week and must sound curmudgeonly as I see this and Christmas decorations as a chore. I am fine with people celebrating Christmas , went round to my neighbours for impromptu drinks and socialising and love things like that, Christmas can do a lot of good but I do hate the adverts saying that to really celebrate Christmas you need to spend a fortune on Amazon. No you need to socialise , talk to people and have fun.
I am old enough not to need presents and in some ways would like to put a fiver limit of people who want to buy me things.
For some reason the song "Temporary Secretary" by Paul McCartney has been going through my head, love the repeated sequencer motif that runs through it, and this has nothing really to do with this most but maybe it is a Monday Morning record.
The title is because I saw the time and it's the title of a dystopian Who song from "The Who By Numbers", so obviously that will lead this post. 905 was written and sung by John Entwistle who in my opinion was one of the greatest rock bassists, almost up there with the Motown bassists.
Since Christmas the number of hits per post have gone up slightly although I don't know if I have just been dropped by robots. I find it quite amusing that one of the main refering sites is an esoteric "webcam" site if you know what I mean. I haven't a clue why that should be apart from the same of this blog can be read as Seven Day Sin rather than the Seven Days In which is the initial "mission statement" of the blog which was to record travel, but is now just a diary with an emphasis on music, travel , tech and media.
This year I don't expect to post as much but I do intend to hit 2K posts so that means I need to still do 2 posts every three days.
There is still snow and ice on the ground and it is cold but the sun is shining brightly, and that is always uplifting.
So this is just an inconsequential and short Friday morning post as we speed into the weekend.
Weatherwise this must be one of the greyest Christmases I have ever seen. Christmas has been fine but the weather has not been too cold and seriously is just plain grey. The good news is that since the Winter Solstice we are getting more daylight, as I noticed leaving a desolate workplace at around four of the clock today.
That always makes me think of F Paul Wilson's "Nightworld" the finale of The Adversary series which kicked off with "The Keep". The shortening of the days doesn't stop when it should and hence the title of the book. Check it out, well check out the whole series, there are six excellent book and "The Keep" was turned in to a half decent film by Michael Mann.
I've been listening to a lot of Jethro Tull recently and decided to put a couple of albums on my phone, but managed to just load up the "Aqualung" out takes, but I have since rectified that. Basically the out takes didn't include "Locomotive Breath" which I included in a recent post when it was used as an opener to "Fargo". So a few Tull albums and my complete Janelle Monae and Jordan Reyne collection have been installed for my listening pleasure.
So who do I choose to share with you, maybe Jordan Reyne who's new album "Bardo" is just out but I will choose the piece that stunned me when I first saw her many moons ago at Think Tank, the hypnotically beautiful and disturbing "Shadow Line".
I was going to write a Christmas Day Free post yesterday but in the end couldn't be bothered. This morning I realised that I had no games on my PC although I had back up disk images of Quake, Hexen and Doom but the inherent laziness of finding putting a disk in the drive kicked in as well as trying to get the daamned things to run on Windows 10.
So a quick Google search and I find that a whole Quake collection is available on Steam for £8.49. It was really a no brainer. I just saw that I mistakenly spelt Google as Goofle. Isn't Goofle just a great word.
I also realised I hadn't played a game on this computer since I got it over a year ago, so booted up Quake in Nightmare mode and got killed almost immediately , I then retried in normal mode and the machine froze when I was half way through Level 1, but I'm not too bothered, I think it will sort itself out. I also got Civilization III for 74p.
I decided to listen to some of my favourite Punk compilation 1-2-3-4, five disks of brilliance and the first compilation that The Clash allowed themselves to be included on. I was playing from my network set up and then got sidetracked and was playing Marcel King's "Reach For Love" from the Factory Records box about six times. It really is one of the best records ever, and is Shaun Ryder's favourite Factory single.
I posted on Facebook that at the moment it's my favourite record ever, so obviously it has to be the Boxing Day song although I am up to "Anarchy In The UK" on the 1-2-3-4 album and every song on that box could probably feature in my posts.
I wasn't going to write anything today but I am having the most relaxed Christmas Day for a long time. Last night we watched Christmas films, "Scrooged", "Muppets Christmas Carol" and "Die Hard"
I had missed the sheer amount of Christmas References in "Die Hard" closing with "Let It Snow" sequing into Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" , the motif of which plays throughout the film, I suppose a reference to the German baddies, but "Ode To Joy" from Beethoven's 9th Symphony is one of the most uplifting pieces of music ever, although as I write this I'm listening to the beautiful "Once I Awakened" by Kevin Ayers from possibly his finest album "Confessions of Doctor Dream", I'd love to share both pieces with you and maybe I will.
Today I have hardly left the house, just to feed my neighbours' tropical fish, and that's a sort of coincidence because I think Kevin Ayers played with Gong who had a song called "Tropical Fish" on "Camembert Electrique". See that's me going off on a total tangent again, but that's the way we generally discover new things, which is usually a good thing.
Well I found a brilliant Flashmob take on "Ode To Joy" and it's wonderful to see the joy in everyone's faces when this is playing, the children loving it, who said classical music can't be cool, fun and joyous. It's possibly one of the most joyously brilliant things I've seen. Watch it, you'll love it.
Now go on, there's plenty of Christmas to enjoy, go and share the joy, smile and have fun.
After two weeks an order from Aldi has turned up, taken in my my neighbour, causing musch annoyance for Aldi Customer Service as Yodel and then Parcel Force refused to follow basic instructions either because they can't be bothered or they like coming out to not be able to deliver to our house, but all is good now. It amazes me that these delivery companies, with all the useful technology available, cannot sort out a time to do just a single delivery. Basically most people are likely to be in before 8AM and after 6PM so if your deliver times were based between 6 and 8 and then 6 and 10 you could give the drivers a shorter working day and reduce the number of times you have to return for failed deliveries.
This weekend I also finally got to catch up with my great friend Mike O'Brien at Mog on the Tyne the Cat Cafe in which he is involved and found out about all the issues getting it off the ground despite Council kerfuffling and of course talking about , music and lots of other stuff. There's some video and pics on my instagram feed here.
The night was over to The Doll at The Black Bull to see the impressive Moron-o-Phonics supporting Penetration, but for the first time ever I left a gig before the band I had gone to see came on. The room was packed , and the sound was good but where I was there were several big blokes very much worse for wear from the drink. While there were no problems as such, the amount of falling over and spilt drinks gave me cause for concern so I thought it better to leave. Still I caught the complete Moron-o-Phonics and that was worth the price of admission, and I caught a minute of them here.
So it's Christmas Eve and for the first time this month I actually walked into work, and managed so photographs. The weather is mild so that makes it easier, and I listened to the Cosmic Rough Riders and Thousand Yard Stare on the way in , and December's 340K target which looked in doubt earlier in the month, will definitely be hit.
Michael Moorcock's "Swords of Corum" is extremely entertaining, and far better than the Hawkmoon / Runestaff books that I finished previously although it is still light Science Fantasy but in my opinion rather good.
The sun is shining, and that is always positive, and that just made me think of "Sunchyme" by Dario G which is an incredibly uplifting piece for this Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas everyone.
Another made up word, although it may be real. Sometimes Google is a positive. Turns out there are bands, artists , twitter users with that name but no definition, but a name wouldn't have a definition.
I heard some lyrics to a "Christmas" song on 6Music this morning which were essentially:
"I Hate This Time of Year
It's Dark and it's Cold
And I Feel I'm Getting Old.."
To me that doesn't exactly give me positive vibes, quite the opposite. I don't think it'll be on my Christmas playlist. The song is "Home Alone, Too" by The Staves and can be listened to here (a radio session).
I decided to watch the final episodes of "Electric Dreams" Channel4's series based on Philip K Dicks' short stories, and"The Father Figure" played like and excellent Stephen King story, "Autofac" featured the wonderful Janelle Monae (her "Dirty Computer" is my album of 2018) in a post apocalyptic Amazon scenario which featured, for me, a brilliant twist. I am currently watching "Safe and Sound", with the chilling exchange:
This weekend I have been tired, lethargic and apathetic. This post will be short because even writing this is a pain. It's strange in this mood everything that fails becomes a major failure.
One example is the Moonpig small card option not working like it has for previous years and that means I'll probably have to hand write Christmas cards. While that in itself is not a major problem, suddenly you have to look up everyone's address, and that becomes a tiresome task.
I've been feeling tired and headachey, also I am re reading "The Swords of Corum" by Michael Moorcock and there is a particularly traumatic event which I knew was coming but didn't want to read, but it is extremely necessary to the plot and now I have got past that. So maybe in some small way that has affected me.
On a more positive note my friend Ellen Mellor has published a new book "Ghostkin", and the Amazon reviews are excellent, follow the link below to find out more, and then you can buy it. I haven't got it yet but I'm a slow reader but will get round to it., then there are a few more on the list to be read.
I know tomorrow I will feel better (I hope), and I will despatch my Christmas cards. I must be feeling a little more positive as I've actually managed to write this, although I will be in bed as soon as I publish this.
So what music should I share with you, I'm going to go with "Veteran of The Psychic Wars" by Blue Oyster Cult which was co written with Moorcock because that about sums up my current state of being.
I was out tonight and someone had a very bright LED security light above their front door. It's amazing how quickly ubiquitous LED's have become especially at Christmas. I do have two at the rear of my house and they're solar powered so don't have any wiring and are excellent if you have to nip out in the dark but sometimes a bit annoying when the wind gets up.
My whole house is LED lit and it saves a hell of a lot of money. Basically incandescent lights are heaters that give off light, although some LED's now are incredibly bright while not consuming that much power. We have one at the front door that's on permanently and you can touch it with your hand and just feel the cold glass of the bulb.
Again when I was out the streets are brightly lit with Christmas decorative light, you don't need street lights to light your way. Some are lovely and some are tacky but all drive the darkness away.
I'm sharing a live take on one of my favourite Kraftwerk songs "Neon Lights" which sort of encapsulates the feeling although we have LED rather than neon.
It's Friday night so enjoy your weekend, the penultimate one before Christmas.
Although the snow is slightly melting it almost feels like Christmas. Then you realise that you have work on Monday, all the shops are open, and there are no presents to open and no Christmas Trees in peoples' windows.
The sky is still grey and featureless. Footpaths are still walkable and today I manage 8.5K steps so I'm only 17K steps down for March which , in theory, I could make up in a day.
The snow is meant to be gone my Monday but it's not showing any signs of retreating at the moment, well maybe it's getting a little warmer and there is a little melting , but this is not the "Killer Winter Weather" forecast by the Daily Express a couple of days back, though I just look at their front page for a laugh these days as ist's either Armageddon weather or some Jeremy Corbyn fake news.
Of course this gives me another excuse to share The Raveonettes "Christmas Song" with you which as you know by now is my favourite Christmas Song ever. Dobbies even used it for a Christmas advert of theirs which is where I first heard it.
Anyway enjoy your SAturday night and we will see what tomorrow brings.
Today is the date of the Epiphany or revelation of Jesus to the Magi according to the Bible , which has gone through so many rewrites we can't be sure any of the original text is still in there and the first one was probably compiled about half a millenium after the supposed event.
It's also the date of the twefth nigh (isn't twelfth an odd looking and sounding word) t of Christmas so decorations and Christmas Trees should be deconstructed and put away or thrown out to bring life back to normal.
Today we have so far seen rain and hail and the sky is still very grey and it's total SAD weather.
I do apologise for the lack of content in my posts, as I've not seen or done anything worth writing about apart from walking, but I haven't been able to take any photographs for instagram , if you follow the link you see the last few have not been that good, but I am still walking and still exploring my record collection. To take decent photographs you do need decent light to take the and the curent weather is definitely not conducive to that, but hopefully I should be back on track within the next week. One has to stay p[ostive and as I am looking out of the window there is a little bit of unclouded sky, almost blue.
I found this great Saturday Night Live clip which is appropriate for the occasion, so I will leave you to pack up your decorations and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
As you know a lot of my writing and posting is influenced by the books I am reading. Recently all the books have been factual or biography, but I an glad to be reading a hefty slab of fiction that Fiona got me for my birthday (two months back). It's La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust Vol 1) by Philip Pullman, it seems to be a prequel to the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, and half way through is absolutely brilliant , though I am sure it will never be made into an American financed film, give it's portrayal of religious authority and the Church. I'm currently watching SSGB and can see certain parallels between the two, with group manipulation and spy rings.
The intro from the book flap reads:
"Philip Pullman returns to the world of His Dark Materials with this magnificent first volume of The Book of Dust." "Eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta, live with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them; a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua . . "
So that should give you a taste for it
It's the day after the coldest night of the year so I am not sure if I will walk all the way into work, though I only need to do 2K steps to hit my month's targer which is good.#.
As we have a little snow and it's the fifth day of Christmas I am going to play my favourite Christmas song ever "The Christmas Song" by The Raveonettes. It's Friday the last one of the year , enjoy your weekend , I hope it;s a long one and a great one for you all.
As a kid Christmas Day started for us at 1 minute past midnight on Christmas Eve, by that time Santa had left some small presents at the bottom of our bed, though we couldn't go down until much later, like when it was light but there were things to eat and play with and by that time mum and dad had gone to bed and didn't complain about us having lights on at night.
I remember when I was living in Southport (and working at Littlewoods in Liverpool) the train line ran back and forth from Southport to Liverpool Central Station. My friend Jim had been out for a few drinks and left for home at 2 pm as they had visitors coming at 5 (it was a half hour journey). He fell asleep. ..... When he woke he was disorientated and then realised he was back in Central Station, so thought he would just just wait for the train to head back to Southport. He waited, and waited, and waited and then a uniformed train person came down the carriage and Jim asked what time the train was leaving. The guy looked surprised and said "It isn't mate, the trains stopped running half an hour ago" . Jim looked at his watch, it was 11:30pm , he was twenty miles from home on Christmas Eve, five and half hours late for his guest, and this was way way before mobil phones. I never found out what the aftermath was..
Roll forward a bit further and Juliet and Kirsty have graduated from Duplo to Lego and I have been out for Christmas drinks so am not exactly the mot coherent and focussed and then remember I have two Lego Constructions to put together one was definitely a castle and the other maybe a Space Station. This was a very daunting task, but I did manage to complete it, but the lesson was don't drink and do Lego.
Today as I am so old I tend to wake up at odd times and today was no exception, but I thought well I can do a blog post and then go back to bed, there's no pressure , and the obly thing I need to do is check on my neighbour's fish. It's dtill dark and windy out (as it should be at 5:30 am on Christmas Morning) and there are no signs of a White Christmas (although it did rain a bit yesterday evening).
So these are a few tales of how Christmas has been for me previously, and I hope your Christmas turns out to be absolutely perfect.
My #SuddenlyItsChristmas moment is going to be the greatest Christmas song of all time "A Fairy Tale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, despite the latest outrage about the lyrics (see here), it's about two flawed people who are maybe not the Christmas paragons of virtue you might expect. I would never use those words as insults and sure all MY gay friends love the song , sing ALL the words and don't take offence because it's a self contained story, and to be quite honest it's probably nothing more than a convenient rhyme in the song (and often poetry does rhyme)
