Bigger than Xmas

I was browsing through "If Charlie Parker was a Gunslinger" this morning and came upon this:
http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/2013/05/before-and-after-309-shane-macgowan.html

Then I went to youtube and found this, one of the greatest songs and male/female duets of the late 20th Century:



There's several versions of this song available at youtube, including the "official video" (remember those?), which is rather movie-like, and unnecessarily explanatory, at least to eyes of 2013. While the one I've posted is a live performance, it's also a Performance, which is perhaps the truth of McGowan, who welcomed a certain Irish spirit into his body and soul so wholeheartedly that today he is a mumbling husk. Yet life is strange, like love. Kirsty McColl was much more centered, and her life seemed much more secure until the moment she was run over and killed by a speeding motor boat off Cosumel, while scuba diving with her children, in 2000. It's said she put herself in harms way saving her kids. It's said the boat was in clearly restricted waters, and driven by a wealthy Mexican tycoon who has never been charged with anything. And, on the google, it's said that McGowan is now worth some $25 million, and inveterate teevee watchers like myself can attest that one of his songs, "If I Should Fall From Grace," achieved the pinnacle of being used in an advert for something or other this past year, the story in the ad involving child hockey players and a harried mom driving them here and there in a minivan or suv of some kind. The mom could, one supposes, have been Kirsty.

In other news, Keith Richards appeared live with the Stones last night in Chicago.