“The Pubs of London”
Written and arranged by Reynold D. Philipsek 1994 copyright Zino-Reph Music (BMI)
guitars, synth, glockenspiel and vocals-Reynold
Zane Schaefer- trombone and trumpet
Lowell Larson-trombone
Steve Read-Smith-drums
Luke Kramer- bass
(from “Global Home Movie.”)
I had already spent much time in England before 1994 but by this time I had a good friend who was living and working in London as well. The late Peter Matinsen was a recording engineer who I had worked a lot with in the U. S. By the early 1990’s his work on several well known Pop records had landed him a job working for Virgin Records in France and then London.
London was our last stop on the around the world adventure. When in London, I took a telephone directory and wrote down a long list of pub names. The idea was to write a very 1960’s type British Pop song using nothing but pub names as the lyric. I wrote the list to be used in the song and then Peter, his wife, Mary and I proceeded to try and visit as many of the pubs as we could over a one week period. Very fun.
Unfortunately my friend Peter has long been gone. He found out his wife was pregnant with his first child the same week he was diagnosed with a terminal disease. Still I have very fond memories of our “pub crawl.”
Musically, with the help of Stymie Seamans (the recording engineer), I tried to employ every 1960’s pop and psychedelic recording trick in the book like backwards cymbals, heavy panning, etc. We even recorded the track on an 8 track reel to reel machine. I still like this recording very much. I count 41 pub names. We made it to about 25 of them on our pub crawl that year.
“The Pubs of London”
At the Duke of Kendal or
Duke of St. Alban’s.
Duke of Sussex, Duke of Clarence
or Duke of Wellington.
At Three Crowns, Three Stags
or Windsor Castle Inn,
in Thatched House or the The Hope.
At Thomas A “Beckett” or
The Antigallican,
The Old King’s Head or
The Narrow Boat.
At Pheasant and Firkin or
down at The Pilgrim,
Prince Albert, Prince Alfred
or at The Punch Tavern.
The Greyhound, The Green Man or
General Picton,
At Dicken’s Inn or the Sherlock Holmes,
The Royal George, Robin Hood
or The Good Samaritan,
The Sporting Life and The Sugar Loaf.
(Refrain)
And… Now that the world’s just one big town
Who’d like the buy the world a round,
So we can raise a toast,
Everybody ready?
Here we go,
From Tiananmen Square to
Old Soho,
The whole world around.
At The Shakespeare Tavern
or at The Seven Stars,
At Simon the Tanner
or at The Stampford Arms.
At Elephant and Castle or
Empress of Russia,
At Fox and Hounds or The Globe,
The Final Furlong or at
Flowers of the Forest,
The Rose and Crown or
The Royal Oak…
(Refrain Again)
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