24 November 2002

Chris deBurgh

Chris deBurgh - Spanish Train

The battle between the Lord and Satan is rarely depicted as friendly and even more rarely discussed is the Lord losing. From Job to Charlie McDaniel the Lord and His servants win- which is why Chris deBurgh is such a novelty. An almost traditional ballad, it describes a poker game between Satan and God, Satan cheats rather effectively and the earnest efforts of the Divine are limited- He loses souls from Gods cheating, which makes the purpose of the song strange- have a bunch of Satanists hired an obscure Anglo folk singer; is it proof that the axiom that the devil has all the good stories accurate or is it just a grand old high romantic tale ?


in FT /New York London Paris Munich • • 354 views

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