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Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno

Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
Released: 1980

Geno Lyrics

Geno! Geno! Geno! Geno! Geno! ...
Back in '68 in a sweaty club
Oh, Geno
Before Jimmy's Machine and The Rocksteady Rub
Oh-oh-oh Geno-o
On a night when flowers didn't suit my shoes
After a week of flunkin' and bunkin' school
The lowest head in the crowd that night
Just practicin' steps and keepin' outta the fights

Academic inspiration, you gave me none
But you were Michael the lover
The fighter that won
But now just look at me
I'm looking down at you
No, I'm not beinh flash
It's what I'm built to do

That man took the stage, his towel was swingin' high
Oh Geno
This man was my bombers, my Dexy's, my high
Oh-oh-oh Geno-o
The crowd they all hailed you, and chanted your name
But they never knew like we knew
Me and you were the same
And now you're all over, your song is so tame, brrrrr
You fed me, you bred me, I'll remember your name

Academic inspiration, you gave me none
You were Michael the lover
The fighter that won
But now just look at me
I'm looking down at you
No, I'm not being flash
It's what I'm built to do

Oh Geno, Woh-oh-oh Geno-o
Oh Geno, Woh-oh-oh Geno-o

Writer/s: Archer, Kevin / Rowland, Kevin
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Geno

This song is about Geno Washington, a US Soul singer the band admired. Washington was never big in his home country, but was a popular performer in the UK, where he played with Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and scored two Top 40 hits in the '60s: "Water" and "Michael."

As Dexys Midnight Runners were on the upswing, packing club shows and getting positive press, Washington's career had faded, and the once-revered singer found himself on the cabaret circuit. "Geno," which was written by Dexys lead singer Kevin Rowland and guitarist Al Archer, is a tribute to Washington and also a look at the cyclical nature of entertainment.

This was the second Dexys Midnight Runners single released in the UK (following "Dance Stance"), and it shot to #1 on the chart, becoming a crowd favorite along the way. Dexys had no distribution in America, so the song wasn't heard in the US. The band would make their splash stateside in 1983 when "Come On Eileen" topped the charts and became an MTV staple.

Dexys Midnight Runners made their mark by adding their distinctive Celtic flavor to Soul music. They championed artists like Washington and did covers of songs by Sam And Dave, Aretha Franklin and the lesser-known Zoot Money. "Soul" was part of Rowland's stage patter ("our hearts are full of soul..."), as he made it clear where their musical roots had grown.

On the band's second album, they had a hit with a cover of "Jackie Wilson Said," which was Van Morrison's tribute to another Soul singer.

There is a reference to the band's name in the line, "This man was my bombers, my dexys, my high." The "dexys" are pep pills - Dexedrine.

Rowland told The Guardian that the lyrics are all true. He recalled: "I saw Geno Washington in 68 at the Railway Hotel in Harrow. I was 15 years old and out with all the older kids – you had to be 18 to get in – short-haired, cool-looking mods-turning-into-skinhead types. Looking back, it's probably not the best gig I've ever been to, but I didn't have anything to compare it to."

The video features plenty of scenes running around alleyways and jumping over railway station ticket barriers. Al Archer told Mojo: "We did all those things. It wasn't any kind of gimmick, we did actually bunk the trains and all that."

Dexys Midnight Runners - The Celtic Soul Brothers

Dexys Midnight Runners - The Celtic Soul Brothers Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Too-Rye-Ay
Released: 1982

The Celtic Soul Brothers Lyrics

More please and thank you
Introducing The Celtic Soul Brothers and featuring the strong devoted,
Ladies and gentlemen, would you now please take your leave.
Because we've sat back looking and nearly been took,
Even been scared but now I don't care and I'm telling anyone who'll listen.
I've seen what's on show and now there's no more to know
'cause I've been there,
I've been seen there,
I've seemed it, dreamed it,
Beened it, schemed it.
Excuse me please, you're standing in my space,
So step aside, now your time's up.
Come on my friends, I would now like to propose a toast
To the strength I see that's surrounding me and those who've cared,
Oh yes, I've been scared and I'm telling anyone who'll listen
I've seen what's on show and now there's no more to know,
Oh I've been there,
I've seen there,
I've seemed it, dreamed it,
Schemed it.
You see I know this to be true,
Now would I lie to you?
And I'm not waiting for approval from you
We're coming through.
More please and thank you.
Writer/s: Paterson, James / Rowland, Kevin / Billingham, Michael
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Celtic Soul Brothers

This song was written by Dexys lead singer Kevin Rowland along with their trombone player Jim Paterson and keyboard man Micky Billingham. The song is about the band, who had Celtic roots (Ireland and Scotland), and a love for Soul music, which they made clear in songs like "Jackie Wilson Said" and "Geno" (about the American singer Geno Washington).

The music phrase that dominates this song was inspired by the song "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me," which was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. That song became a hit for the British singer Sandie Shaw, but it was originally recorded by an American Soul singer named Lou Johnson, putting it squarely in Dexys' range of influences.

In our interview with Kevin Rowland , he said: "We wanted a good rhythm, so we got that. That's a great song. We often do that. We put a song on and we say, 'We want to write something as good as this.' We might use one phrase, but it's not really nicked because the chords are different, so the harmony's different. The harmony of the melody over the chord."

Too-Rye-Ay was the band's second album, but their first one released in America. In the UK, Dexys had seven Top 40 hits by the time this charted, but in the US, it was just their second single, following their massive hit "Come On Eileen," which rose up the ranks thanks to a video that made hot rotation on MTV.

"The Celtic Soul Brothers" had a video, but it lacked the storyline of "Eileen" and was ignored by MTV. It got little radio support and topped out at #86 on the Hot 100, leaving the band on one-hit-wonder turf in America.

In the UK, this was released ahead of "Come On Eileen," but made it to just #45 on the charts. This prompted a change in marketing strategy for the band, who had declined all interviews when Too-Rye-Ay was released, choosing instead to promote the album with full-page ads explaining their reticence to do press and making their case for the album.

When it came time to release "Eileen," the band once again accommodated journalists, resulting in some very contentious interviews with lead singer Kevin Rowland, who turned standoffish and insulting when questioned about his stage antics or raggedy attire. The interviews served their purpose, and "Eileen" became the biggest-selling single of 1982 in the UK. In its wake, "The Celtic Soul Brothers" was re-released, this time making #20.

Dexys Midnight Runners - Dance Stance

Dexys Midnight Runners - Dance Stance Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
Released: 1979

Dance Stance Lyrics

I'll only ask you once more
You only want to believe
This man is looking for someone to hold him down
He doesnt quite ever understand the meaning

Never heard about, cant think about
Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan,
Sean OCasey, George Bernard Shaw.
Samuel Beckett, Eugene ONeill, Edna OBrien and Lawrence Stern.

I'll only ask you once more
It must be so hard to see.
This man is waiting for someone to hold him down
He doesnt quite fully understand the meaning.

Never heard about, wont think about
Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan,
Sean OCasey, George Bernard Shaw.
Samuel Beckett, Eugene ONeill, Edna OBrien and Lawrence Stern.
Sean Kavanaugh and Sean McCann,
Benedict Keilly, Jimmy Hiney
Frank OConnor and Catherine Rhine.

Shut it You don't understand it
Shut it That's not the way I planned it
Shut your fucking mouth til you know the truth.

Writer/s: Rowland, Kevin
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Dance Stance Song Chart

The first single by Dexys Midnight Runners, "Dance Stance" makes reference to a range of Irish playwrights and writers who arose from Kevin Rowland's Irish-Catholic background. "I was sick of hearing anti-Irish prejudice all the time from really thick people and the lyrics just spilled out of me," he recalled to The Guardian. "I had this biography of Brendan Behan and on the back it said: 'Some say Behan has the potency of Oscar Wilde...' and listed all these other great writers: Sean O'Casey, George Bernard Shaw and so on."

Rowland added, "I'd heard of them – that was all – but thought: 'I'll put them in!' I don't think I was ever claiming to have actually read them. I was saying: 'If Irish people are so thick, how come they've produced all these great writers.'"

The song was originally titled "Burn It Down." The single release was changed to the less inflammatory "Dance Stance" at the suggestion of their then-manager Bernard Rhodes. When the Dexys re-recorded the song for their debut album, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, they returned to the original "Burn It Down" title.

Dexys Midnight Runners - There, There My Dear

Dexys Midnight Runners - There, There My Dear Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
Released: 1980

There, There My Dear Lyrics

Dear Robin
Hope you dont mind me writing, its just that theres more than one thing I
need to ask you. If youre so anti-fashion, why not wear flares, instead of
dressing down all the same. Its just that looking like that I can express
my dissatisfaction.

Dear Robin
Let me explain, though youd never see in a million years. Keep quoting
Cabaret, Berlin, Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Duchamp, Beauvoir, Kerouac,
Kierkegaard, Michael Rennie. I dont believe you really like Frank Sinatra.

Dear Robin
Youre always so happy, how the hell do you get your inspiration? Youre
like a dumb patriot. If youre supposed to be so angry, why dont you fight
and let me benefit from your right? Dont you know the only way to change
things is to shoot men who arrange things, Dear Robin
I would explain but youd never see in a million years. Well, youve made
your rules, but we dont know that game, perhaps Id listen to your records
but your logics far too lame and Id only waste three valuable minutes of
my life with your insincerity.

You see Robin, Im just searching for the young soul rebels, and I cant
find them anywhere. Where have you hidden them?

Maybe you should welcome the new soul vision.
Writer/s: ROWLAND, KEVIN ANTHONY/ARCHER, KEVIN
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

There, There My Dear Song Chart

Written as an open letter to a pseudo-intellectual musician called Robin, this horn-led song acts as a dismissal of a dishonest music scene. Kevin Rowland told The Guardian: "It's an angry song. In the lyrics, I'm addressing 'Robin,' but he was the personification of a certain type of middle-class musician in NME, quoting Kerouac and Burroughs and all these authors I'd never read."

In the Searching for the Young Soul Rebels liner notes, the song title is followed by the line "P.S. Old clothes do not make a tortured artist."

After the song's closing notes, Rowland sings unaccompanied the main chorus of Lee Dorsey's 1969 R&B classic "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)."

Dexys Midnight Runners - I Love You (Listen to This)

Dexys Midnight Runners - I Love You (Listen to This) Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Don't Stand Me Down
Released: 1985

I Love You (Listen to This) Lyrics

I was thinking of a compromise
When I saw the beauty in your eyes
It heightened something in me so I'll say so
You were always near to me,
And thoughts of you will stay with me
Oh oh oh, until the day I die

You were standing next to me,
In '82 and '83,
In all that time I barely proved I love you
Well there's nothing wrong but the wrong in me
You were everything you were meant to be,
And oh oh oh oh oh oh

Now I just want to say this to you
Listen to this, listen to this,
I want to say this to you
You never know, oh oh
(Here we go)
I love you, I love you
I love you, and it's true and it's true and it's true

I love you, I love you
I love you, and it's true and it's true and it's true

Did you know that I loved you from the start
You didn't care about my words and why should you?
You didn't know that all the time I loved you so

I love you, I love you
I love you, and it's true and it's true and it's true

Writer/s: Cotton, Gene / Adams, Greg
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

I Love You (Listen to This) Song Chart

Originally titled "Listen To This" on the 1985 release of Don't Stand Me Down, the song was given its new title on the 1996 "Director's cut" reissue of the album.

Vocalist Kevin Rowland told The Guardian about the genesis of this song. "We'd been to America, doing interviews all day long, meeting the record company – and you're supposed to do a gig after that," he recalled. "It was demeaning. I was dragging the songs out live, trying to find an intensity in them that I never could, and it all seemed a bit empty really. I felt we were compromising."

"Then I fell in love. I was torn: obsessed with her but not enjoying the band," he continued. "The opening line – 'I was thinking of a compromise when I saw the beauty in your eyes' – just came out."

The Dexys performed this in September 1985 on the UK Channel 4 music show The Tube.

Dexys Midnight Runners - Nowhere Is Home

Dexys Midnight Runners - Nowhere Is Home Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: One Day I'm Going to Soar
Released: 2012

Nowhere Is Home Lyrics

Nowhere Is Home Song Chart

Dexys' lead vocalist Kevin Rowland reflects here on his working class Irish heritage. He explained to The Guardian: "It's a song about rootlessness. Irish nationalism."

"I used to think, 'I'm Irish, that's my cause,' or, 'I'm working class, that's my tribe' but that kind of identity is not enough," he added. "It's too restrictive, not the real you. It's a badge, a set of clothes. That line, 'Take your Irish stereotype and stick it up your arse,' is me talking to the Irish who embrace that stereotype. Now, I don't know what my identity is."

Rowland originally sung "Can't be myself with you" instead of "Nowhere is home to me." He said: "Sometimes you just get an idea, and a deeper meaning suggests itself. I don't regret changing it. It's better."

The song was co-written by former Sex Pistols bassist, Glen Matlock.