For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim is marking the US National Beach Day – which is today – by asking us to play a song that celebrates sandy beaches, as he tells us in his post, National Beach Day. In its current incarnation the day has been around since 2014, and is intended not just as a day to enjoy the beach but also as a way of reminding people of the importance of preserving beaches for others to enjoy. I found a couple of references to it being celebrated here, mostly commercial ones, so it doesn’t appear to have taken off on any wide scale in the UK – yet.

It’s a good choice for a theme, though, and I’m playing a song which describes someone’s enjoyment of his beach lifestyle from the perspective of a friend he has left thousands of miles away. This is my first offering for SLS for three weeks so I’m breaking myself in gently with just one tune today. And this is it:

The late, great Kirsty MacColl with a lovely little song called He’s On The Beach, the lyrics for which can be found, as ever, at genius.com.

The song was written by Kirsty with Gavin Povey, an English pianist who has had a long career of his own. It was released as a non-album single in June 1985, and was inspired by a friend of Kirsty’s named Terry, who emigrated to Australia and sent postcards to her. Speaking of the song, she told Record Mirror in 1985, “A bit of sunshine would do the single a lot of good. It’s a summer single and I’m sure people will rush out and buy it if the clouds cleared. The single has no hidden depths, it’s just about a bloke out in Australia enjoying himself.”

Sadly for her, those clouds must have stayed around as it only reached #109 in the UK Singles Chart, and didn’t make the listings at all when it was re-released the following year. It was well received by critics, got a fair bit of radio airplay and the video was played a lot on the Music Box tv channel, but somehow it just didn’t take off. It wasn’t on a studio album at the time, but was included on a fabulous compilation album of her best songs, Galore, which was released in March 1995 and made #6 on the UK Albums chart. I bought the CD at the time and played it to bits – highly recommended. It then featured on several later compilations, in both studio and live versions. 

Kirsty enjoyed a fair amount of chart success in the UK and in parts of Europe, but next to nothing in the US. I’m guessing that if American readers have heard of her at all it is from her performance with The Pogues on the classic single Fairytale Of New York, but as even that has had no chart impact over there I’m not hopeful! She was born in October 1959 in Croydon, Surrey and was the daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl and dancer Jean Newlove. As well as her own career she frequently sang on records produced or engineered by her then-husband, Steve Lillywhite, including tracks for The Rolling Stones on the Dirty Work album, Robert Plant, Simple Minds, Talking Heads and Big Country, among others. North American readers may recall the big hit by Tracey Ullman, They Don’t Know, which was written by Kirsty, who sang backing vocals for it – including some of the high notes that Tracey couldn’t reach!

In 2000, after she took part in a radio programme for the BBC in Cuba, Kirsty took a holiday in Cozumel, Mexico, with her sons and her boyfriend, musician James Knight. On 18 December 2000, she and her sons went diving at the Chankanaab reef, in a designated diving area where watercraft were restricted from entering. With the group was a local veteran divemaster, Iván Díaz. As they were surfacing from a dive, a powerboat moving at high speed entered the restricted area. Kirsty saw the boat coming before her sons did. Louis, aged 13 at the time, was not in its path, but Jamie, then aged 15, was. She was able to push him out of the way (he sustained minor head and rib injuries), but she was struck by the powerboat, which ran over her. She suffered severe chest and head injuries and died instantly, at the age of just 41. Maybe not the best advert for National Beach Day, but a reminder of the need to take care in natural environments.

Kirsty’s was a sad loss to her family and to her many fans, of whom I am one. If you liked this song do seek out more of what she did – her wry humour and good tunes are trademarks of her songwriting.

That’s me for today. As always I offer my thanks to Jim for running the show, and look forward to seeing what others are playing for the theme. I won’t be going anywhere near a beach, but hope to be taken there by the music of others. Enjoy your Sunday, and I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes 🎶