top of the world, ma...

white heat ?

When I was growing up, I was criminally obsessed with the films of James Francis Cagney, Jr: Public Enemy No.1. Repeats of repeats of repeats on Sunday TV. Old people with false teeth smiling at me over a whiskey. You know the score. For every Edmond O' Brien there has to be some f@cker prepared to light the fuse.

In the seventies' it was James Caan. These days, it's James Caan't.

My father's aunt could name every last one of the Bowery Boys, I swear...

A spinster who worked all her life in a shoe factory less than 200 yards from her house, she spent most of her free time in church. I know. She would save up for the summer months and take coach holidays to Italy and France to immerse herself in a Passion Play.

Big romance without the guilt. Consummation without torn pantyhose. Intact.
She outlived both my father and his brothers.

There is much to be said for living a pure life. And as much to be said against.

"Ha! He'll never get to heaven, now!"

I watched a John Wayne movie last night. It reminded me why I liked James Cagney.

Written by Isham Jones and Gus Kahn.
Arranged by Gordon Jenkins.
Recorded March - May 1959, Studio A, Hollywood.

▼ FRANCIS ALBERT SINATRA: THE ONE I LOVE (BELONGS TO SOMEBODY ELSE) from "No One Cares" LP (Capitol) 1959 (US)