Whatever. Jeez. And a few weeks before Christmas my band finally split up food. And soon after we split, I lost my girl. She was English.
Thats why I was here.
There was a silence.
Thats it? said Jess.
Thats it.
Thats pathetic. I see why you came out with all that crap about the disease now. Youd rather die than not be in a band that sounds like the Rolling Stones? Id be the opposite. Id rather die if I was. Do people still like them in Amerio one does here.
Thats Mick Jagger, isnt it, the Rolling Stones? Maureen asked. They were quite good, werent they? They did well for themselves. Mick Jaggers not sitting here eating stale Custard Creams like JJ, is he? They were new right before Christmas, said Maureen. Maybe I didnt put the lid ba the biscuit tin properly.
I was starting to think we were losing foy issues.
The Stohing… Thats kind of not important. That was just like an illustration. I just meant… songs, guitars, energy.
Hes about eighty, said Jess. He hasnt got any energy.
I saw them in , said Martin. The night England lost to Germany in the World Cup oies. A chap from Guiook a whole crowd of us, and everyone spent most of the evening listening to the radio. Anyway, he had a lot of energy then.
He was only seventy then, said Jess.
Will you shut the fuck up? Sorry, Maureen. (From now on, just presume that every time I speak I say fuck, fug or motherfucker and Sorry, Maureen, OK?) Im trying to tell you about my whole life.
No oopping you, said Jess. But youve got to make it more iing. Thats why we drift off and talk about biscuits.
OK, all right. Look, theres nothing else for me. Im qualified for nothing. I didnt graduate from high school. I just had the band, and now its gone, and I didnt make a t out of it, and Im looking at a life of flipping burgers.
Jess snorted.
Now what? Just sounds funny, hearing a Yank say "flipping" instead of… you know what.
I dont think he meant "flipping" like "flipping heck", said Martin. I think he meant flipping as in turning them over. Thats what they call it.
Oh, said Jess.
And Im worried it will kill me.
Hard work never killed anyone, said Maureen. I dont mind hard work, you know? But when we were t and rec… That was me, that was who I was, and, and I just feel empty and frustrated and, and… See, when you know yood, you think that will be enough, thatll get you there, and when it doesnt… What are you supposed to do with it all? Where do you put it, huh? Theres nowhere for it to go, and, and it was… Man, it used to eat me up evehings were going OK, because evehings were going OK, I wasnt on stage or rec like every minute of the day, and sometimes it felt like I o be, otherwise Id explode, you know? So now, now theres nowhere for it to go. We used to have this song… I have no idea why I started up on this. We used to have this song, this little like Motowny thing called "I Got Your Back", which me and Eddie wrote together, really together, which we didnt usually do, and it was like, you know, a tribute to our friendship and how far back we went and blah blah. Anyhow, it was on our first album and it was like two minutes and thirty seds long and no one really noticed it, I mean, people who actually bought the album didnt even notice it. But we started playing it live, and it kind of got longer, and Eddie worked out this sweet solo. It wasnt like a rock guitar solo; it was mo