One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

[eyesroll]

The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

THE AMERICAN:

One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother

COMPANY:

It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city

THE AMERICAN:

I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town --

COMPANY:

Tea, girls, warm, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite

THE AMERICAN:

Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

COMPANY:

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

THE AMERICAN:

Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha

Scene from the music video
And thank God I'm only watching the game -- controlling it --

I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you

So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage
parlours --

COMPANY:

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

:argh:

[WCGreen]

1. I loved that song when it first came out.....

Had no idea it was from a musical

[salvorhardin]

2. BEST MUSICAL EVAR!

Chess.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002GLR

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (from ABBA) did the music and Tim Rice did the lyrics.

[ret5hd]

3. and what musical is that?

for those of us not in the know.

[supernova]

4. Chess

Chess isn't that well known as musicals go, but that song sure has stuck around. :D

[hyphenate]

7. Trivia for those who are curious

Murray Head, who played the chess player in the music videos, is actually the brother of Anthony Stewart Head, who most of us know fondly as Giles on Buffy the Vampire Killer and a whole bunch of commercials for coffee. :)

[WCGreen]

8. Murray Head was also on the orignal

recording of Jesus Christ Superstar...

Kin gHerod, I think

[hyphenate]

5. At first it wasn't a musical, per se

They had written the music for a concept album called Chess. The music came long before the actual script. It went to Broadway and London well after the album had been out, but didn't last. The whole idea of s musical based on a chess tournament I guess was a bit on the boring side.

[ET Awful]

6. What do you expect from a musical that was written by members of ABBA

:evilgrin:

[salvorhardin]

9. It's a cold war love story

using two world chess tournaments as the setting. The libretto is perhaps the best work Tim Rice has ever done and the music is much more diverse than the usual three melody Andrew Lloyd Weber thing. On the whole, one of the best musicals of the 1980s.