Lindisfarne feat. Gazza: Fog on the Tyne (Revisited)
It's like lycanthropy.
Once every four years, I change. I incorporate more red
and white into my wardrobe, I become argumentative, I'm prone to fits of
pouting and I spent entirely too much of my time enraged and yelling at the
television.
However, this change isn't spurred by the full moon. No.
It's the World Cup that does funny things to me.
I was born in England and spent my childhood there where
amidst reading, writing and maths, I also learned several other life lessons -
the importance of properly dunking one's biscuit into one's tea and that in
this life, football matters. A lot.
I came of age during the height of Gazzamania - the 1990
World Cup - when the legend of Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne was elevated to mythic
proportions. His grinning visage was emblazoned on everything from candy
wrappers to clothing and you couldn't escape headlines screaming out about
England's favorite son.
Even pop music wasn't safe as in 1990, he got together
with pop-folk act Lindisfarme to re-record Fog on the Tyne.
Gazza's version is a novelty hit in every sense of the
word. It was catchy, it featured stilted "rapping" from a man who
truly had no business being anywhere near a recording studio and every 30
seconds or so, the song urged the listener to, "Come on!"
In short, it's a perfect, silly World Cup song that
sticks in your ear and celebrates that Geordie Boy we as a nation pinned
our hopes on - the great Gazza.
Unfortunately, his career and personal life spiraled
downwards and in recent years, Gascoigne has battled publicly with alcohol
addiction.
But regardless of what the future holds for Paul
Gascoigne, the fog on the Tyne will always be all his.