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One Night in Bangkok - Song Lyrics
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A friend of mine in Australia recently commented that he thought the song One Night in Bangkok was banned in Thailand. If it is, the ban isn’t enforced, as I hear it played frequently. It is popular with most Thai people I know, who probably enjoy the catchy pop tune without having much uderstanding of the lyrics.
The lyrics are plain enough to hear, but the meaning always eluded me, so a few months ago I went on an internet search to discover the meaning of the seemingly cryptic lyrics. What I learned was enlightening.
I didn’t write the information about Murray Head or the song “One Night in Bangkok” which appears below; I copied it from a website many months ago so that I could send it to a friend of mine who asked about the meaning of the lyrics. I would like to credit the website that it was taken from, but honestly, it was so long ago that I can no longer remember or locate the source.
Murray Head
As if to prove my point that early ’80s pop music was infinitely more diverse than that of the ’90s and today, Murray Head’s “One Night in Bangkok” came from a highly unusual source for top forty songs, a musical stage show. Chess was written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, both of ABBA fame, and renown lyricist Tim Rice. It was a cold-war parable taking place over a chess board, as Russians battled the West for the world title. At one point, a match is scheduled in an unusual locale for such a cerebral game, Bangkok, which of course prompts “the American” to break into song. The song is “One Night In Bangkok,” and is performed in this case by Murray Head, “the American” in the original studio recording of the musical. Like the rest of the play, the song is pretty corny, and while I love sitting back and listening to the single I don’t know that I could stomach an additional two hours of like material. Apparently, that’s about how audiences and critics felt. The play was not extremely well received, though it was performed on both sides of the Atlantic and is still performed occasionally today. Part of the criticism may stem from the fact that it was written by half of ABBA, - a group never noted for their literary side - and serious critics went into the show with a preconceived notion that the show would be cheesey. In that respect the show did not disappoint. Still, to their credit this particular song is catchy and the lyrics are quite clever, though in my humble opinion they could have worked to achieve greater subtlety with sexual innuendos.
Song: One Night in Bangkok Lyrics
[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 BrynnerTime 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
Popularity: 4% [?]
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