My Gen X Playlist: Coney Island – Liam Neeson

Instead of watching national news, I’ve continued putting my head deeper in the sand. That leaves more time to go down YouTube rabbit holes.

The latest was a guy and his girlfriend escaping the high housing prices in San Diego. His solution? Buy a small undeveloped island and build their house there instead. The kicker is he’s building it from scratch by chopping down trees. First, mad props for doing something like this. He is totally out of his element and studies YouTube videos to learn how to build things. The progress is a little impressive.

Second, the island only cost him $40,000. Yes, that’s a lot of money in general, but I thought it was relatively cheap for an entire island. It was off the coast of some European country, I don’t remember which one.

And lastly, if he can pull it off, what a story to tell. Unfortunately, I lost the YouTube channel so I’ll never know how it eventually turns out. It doesn’t really matter, though. I squeezed enough out of the episodes I saw.

Buy an undeveloped island, chop down trees, build a house from scratch. Crazy.

Long ago, I bought a CD of Van Morrison cover songs – No Prima Donna. I was surprised to hear the unmistakable voice of Liam Neeson. No, he doesn’t sing. It’s more like reciting lyrics of a song. Or so I thought. I never sought out the original version until now. Turns out it’s spoken word set to music. Yeah, I know I probably should prefer the Van Morrison version, but I don’t. There is something about Neeson’s voice that fits. Here’s his cover of Coney Island.

I always wondered why Morrison would write a song about childhood memories in New York. Yep, I’m not very bright…

The singer revisits his youthful trips with his mother to the seaside at Coney Island, in County Down, Northern Ireland. . . The narrative vividly pictures a bright autumn day of birdwatching, stopping for Sunday papers, and for “a couple of jars of mussels and some potted herrings in case we get famished before dinner.”

Wikipedia

Coney Island
Coming down from Downpatrick
Stopping off at St. John's Point
Out all day birdwatching
And the craic was good
Stopped off at Strangford Lough
Early in the morning
Drove through Shrigley taking pictures
And on to Killyleagh
Stopped off for Sunday papers at the Lecale District,
Just before Coney Island
On and on, over the hill to Ardglass
In the jam jar, autumn sunshine, magnificent
And all shining through
Stop off at Ardglass for a couple of jars of
Mussels and some potted herrings in case
We get famished before dinner
On and on, over the hill and the craic is good
Heading towards Coney Island
I look at the side of your face as the sunlight comes
Streaming through the window in the autumn sunshine
And all the time going to Coney Island I'm thinking,
Wouldn't it be great if it was like this all the time.