A cracking single, I must admit to taking onboard the other comments while reading this!!
I saw it as a song about alcoholism and the fear of losing his love, but also the good it may do to them both.
'The seldom seen kid' is indeed Brian Glancy, who they drink to in the first line, how you do to celebrate someones life. However this is also quite sad in itself, as alcohol has now become his escape. Possibly he is seeing Brian Glancy's escape (death) as a more permanent one?
Of course the chorus is about Glancy's grave, and how it tears him apart everytime he sees it and he 'falls' down to square one again. As after every chorus they return to 'drinking to the seldom seen kid' so in the pub (his square one).
Right, in my opinion verse one is all about the things he and his wife have done together. She bought him a compass/watch type thing, he knows he should go home (maybe even a hint from her before his drinking got so bad) but he just keeps rubbing it. Like if something itches, or is marked on like pen, you rub it to make it go away. Then the chinese cigarrete case (not tiny ciggarette case) is a present she gave him before everything started going downhill, or possibly a present from Glancy, either way it reminds him of good times or has some sentimental meaning and although he is willing to lose everything else (and admits he will) he holds this dear.
The second verse in my opinion is about his interest in other women, he talks about whorese and 'flesh by the pound' which is paying for a body to use. And then goes on to how he buys his wife roses, but she knows why he does it, and because she does it doesn't make up for it. So in a way its stabbing himself in the foot because the only time he buys her roses is when he has hired a whore, she knows this and his guilt isnt at all consoled. Pretty sure someones already mentioned this (but just in case!) aniseed is a reference to absynthe, showing his further dependence on alcohol.
Finally he says 'we'll be drinking with the seldom seen kid' this i think has a double meaning, how his wife's and his own relationship will die, like the seldom seen kid, and also how everyone else will also die. Giving it a more universal significance. Essay over.
A cracking single, I must admit to taking onboard the other comments while reading this!!
I saw it as a song about alcoholism and the fear of losing his love, but also the good it may do to them both.
'The seldom seen kid' is indeed Brian Glancy, who they drink to in the first line, how you do to celebrate someones life. However this is also quite sad in itself, as alcohol has now become his escape. Possibly he is seeing Brian Glancy's escape (death) as a more permanent one?
Of course the chorus is about Glancy's grave, and how it tears him apart everytime he sees it and he 'falls' down to square one again. As after every chorus they return to 'drinking to the seldom seen kid' so in the pub (his square one).
Right, in my opinion verse one is all about the things he and his wife have done together. She bought him a compass/watch type thing, he knows he should go home (maybe even a hint from her before his drinking got so bad) but he just keeps rubbing it. Like if something itches, or is marked on like pen, you rub it to make it go away. Then the chinese cigarrete case (not tiny ciggarette case) is a present she gave him before everything started going downhill, or possibly a present from Glancy, either way it reminds him of good times or has some sentimental meaning and although he is willing to lose everything else (and admits he will) he holds this dear.
The second verse in my opinion is about his interest in other women, he talks about whorese and 'flesh by the pound' which is paying for a body to use. And then goes on to how he buys his wife roses, but she knows why he does it, and because she does it doesn't make up for it. So in a way its stabbing himself in the foot because the only time he buys her roses is when he has hired a whore, she knows this and his guilt isnt at all consoled. Pretty sure someones already mentioned this (but just in case!) aniseed is a reference to absynthe, showing his further dependence on alcohol.
Finally he says 'we'll be drinking with the seldom seen kid' this i think has a double meaning, how his wife's and his own relationship will die, like the seldom seen kid, and also how everyone else will also die. Giving it a more universal significance. Essay over.