Hokey Pokey (Part 2)

"The Egypt Room" - This charming little grotesquerie is the kind of seedy portraiture that Thompson would come to excel at. The scene is a quasi-exotic nightclub full of romantic dreamers and a "princess" who dances with a majestically alluring style. Of course, it’s actually a seedy little strip club, probably with some Egyptian motif in its shabby decor.

The song is mockingly mysterious and brooding, led by faux-Egyptian modalities played on electric guitar and accordion. You can just imagine the "princess" undergoing her undulations in in a pathetic parody of Oriental ritual.

Richard sings with an air of both desire and sarcasm. As pitiful as this portrait is, it’s impossible not to be empathetic to the denizens of this bizarre little bazaar, as it seems that this is the only enchantment that life has left to them.

There are wonderful, brief descriptions of characters here (Hobnail Kelly and the Beefcake Kid, the "man in the cane with Italian shoes"), but it’s clearly the dancer who is the center of activity and attraction. How does she view herself? Do her erotic writhings that cause such excitement in the customers give her a sense of self, of identity? And if all this this tawdry make believe is unseemly, Thompson leaves his judgement totally ambivalent in the gorgeous repeated refrain of "Don’t be late." If this is the promise of a kind of paradise for some, well what of it?

I hope he’s not just being a bald-faced mocker here. If Thompson’s point is, as so often, the difficulty of authentic human feelings and relationships, we can find that for sure down at the Egypt Room. I hope he’s not pretending that these low-end delusionalists are any more sad than anything you would find in a more refined setting. And judging from the rest of his output, he’s not.

The song sounds fabulous, though - the music mocks the cheesy pretensions of exoticism, while adding a genuine sense of wondrous allure. Priceless.

"Never Again" - This is an absolutely beautiful, simple acoustic ballad, in the traditional British style, sung with great sadness, focus and control by Linda. The lyrics seem to suggest a kind of wistful questioning for the abiding of love and joy. The answer is connected to the final verse, which looks at the conditions of old age:

Old man how you tarry, old man how you weep,
The trinkets you carry and the garlands you keep.
For the salt tears of lovers and the whispers of friends
Come never, O never, O never again.

This bittersweet peon to ephemerality is short and sounds heartbreakingly real. It closes the first side of the album with a sombre, restless note.

"Georgie on a Spree" - Side two opens in high spirits again, as Linda sings this exuberant little confection with girlish glee. In a kind of cross between a music hall number and country & western song, the narrator tells of her seemingly perfect relationship with the well-to-do, well-heeled "Georgie." The kind of extravagant time that Georgie provides is certainly enough to turn any young lady’s addled head:

When Georgie’s on a spree
All the girls are jealous of me.
‘Cause I’m the one he spends his money on,
We spend it, one, two three.
Driving in his Chevrolet,
I’m perfect company.
He’s the king and I’m his queen
When Georgie’s on a spree.

This is a nice counter-balance to "The Egypt Room," where we have lovely imagery of the rich and facile. With the warning of "Never Again" still echoing in our heads, we watch this girl carelessly entranced by being used by this rich boy. Of course, it’s good - and it’s good enough for her. We simply know that such things have no stability or permanence, and cannot last. Georgie leaves her, but promises to return. Of course he won’t - why would he? We experience the song as the prelude to a long adulthood of loneliness and disappointment.
Yet at the same time, who would deny her this fun? And which one of us wouldn’t welcome it for ourselves, in one form or another?

"Old Man Inside a Young Man" - It’s Richard’s turn again, and here we get the flip side of "Georgie on a Spree." This ponderous lament by one Billy could very well come from "Georgie" after a couple of spree-filled years. It speaks of the cultural imperative for youth to grab everything all at once. Now, with all pleasure spent, the young man is bored and tired to death of life:

I’m an old man inside a young man,
You’ve got to take it while you can.
I’m just an old man inside a young man,
Take a heart and break it while you can.

This motto has brought about his early rot. Using up life, using women, using sensations - never establishing meaningful relations or endeavors, he has, in essence, used himself up:

There’s not one thing on earth
That I’m not through with.
What can I do with
The rest of my life?

And he fears the rest of his life may be short. His wealth has brought to him a sense of paranoia that he’s being followed by would-be killers who are after his "fancy clothes." So he deigns this empty life to a close, but is always on the run, always on the escape from himself.

Oddly, the "old man" of Billy’s vision brings nothing with him of the wisdom of age. For wisdom requires waiting, persistence and sacrifice. His view of age is, therefore distorted. He is a casualty of easy success and the cultural imperative to grab. He is a walking ghost, and he fades away down the street as the song fades out.

Musically, and in its movement, this song is once again reminiscent of Harvest-era Neil Young, but with Thompson’s unique British tonalities. The song moves in slow, ominous steps, and Richard delivers a short but blistering electric guitar solo to underscore the sense of epic tragedy that this song both suggests and parodies.

Unquestionably, this is one of the best songs on an album that is rapidly filling with colorful, memorable and deeply felt moments.